As the weeks past Merlin was becoming better with a sword, not quite a knights, Arthur doubted if he would ever be one but it was better than nothing. The youngest prince even joined the knights for training, what he lacked in swordsmanship he more than made up for in dagger and knife throwing. The knights were baffled, no matter how heavy or hard to aim the knife was, Merlin would land a bulls eye every single time. Arthur would never say it allowed but having his brother training with them was good fun, it made it more enjoyable, plus if he ever felt annoyed with Merlin he would simply make him duel with on of the other knights until he begged for mock mercy.

At the moment training was over but a lot of the knights hung around the training field for some extra practice each day, Arthur was off talking to his servant to complain about why he had been dressed in broken chain mail that morning while Merlin leaned against the fence on the other side of the field, twirling the knife his father had given him.

"Sire, is it true you went ti Nimueh a few weeks ago to get the cure for Arthur?" Sir Leon asked smiling at Merlin, no doubt he would be offering extra sword lessons soon.

"Yes, I took him water from the cup of life" Merlin said honestly, no point in lying.

"We heard you traded your life for his" Sir Kale said suspiciously.

"I did, but Arthur killed Nimueh so I lived" Merlin shrugged, something about Sir Kale made him uncomfortable.

"Lucky, good thing he did, things would of been boring without you around" Leon laughed, Merlin smiled, he knew Leon meant it.

"Thing's were just fine before he showed up" Sir Kale sneered quietly, but not quietly enough.

"And things were better before you were around" Merlin snapped, he mentally slapped himself for being so stupid to that man's face.

"What did you say?" Kale sneered, fists forming.

"I said I liked it better before I knew you" Merlin said simply "I don't know what your problem with me is Kale but really your attitude could use to improvement"

Leon's jaw dropped, all the knights knew Kale had the potential to be rough, in all honesty he was a bit of a bully but nobody really stood up to him before. The man was huge he would snap Merlin in half like he was a twig!

Kale gave a yell and went to tackle Merlin, Arthur turned in time to see it, what the prince had not been expecting was for Merlin to step aside quickly and send Kale flailing into the dirt.

"What the hell is wrong with you Kale?" Arthur growled

"He insulted me!" Kale replied picking himself up.

"He's a prince, you can't just attack him!" Arthur scolded, Merlin rolled his eyes, he didn't need Arthur to stand up for him all the time.

"He isn't a real Prince" Kale muttered "Besides you were much more fun before heshowed up"

That's when Merlin placed his face, he had seen Kale before when he had first arrived in Camelot over a year ago now. Kale had been one of the knights with Arthur, throwing knives at a servant with a target. Something in Merlin clicked. Kale and Arthur had obviously been good friends before he had arrived, once Merlin and Arthur had become friends he spent less time with the knights ion his spare time and once Merlin was prince he barely spent time with anybody else. Kale was jealous Merlin had taken his friend away.

Arthur had matured in the year, he stopped being such a bully, he started treating servants and commoners with more respect. He no longer even called them commoners, he said the people. Kale had obviously stayed arrogant and hard hearted.

"I told you Kale" Arthur sighed, glad most of the knights had left "We can't just go around making life miserable for others for entertainment anymore, it's wrong, besides we are no better than anybody else"

"You are a prince and we are knights" Kale argued "They didn't invent social standings to ignore them! You can;t make a peasant a prince"

"He is more nobel then you will ever be" Arthur said defiantly, this time Kale's jaw dropped.

"Arthur, stop it" Merlin said laying a hand on Arthur's shoulder, "Kale why don't you just go home, I don't enjoy fighting, I'll stay away from you if it makes you more comfortable"

Merlin unsheathed his dagger then and turned and walked back towards the palace, twirling the knife in his hand. Kale still had a look of complete shock etched upon his face.

-Break-

Of course Kale had been on the roster for patrol with both princes the next week. Merlin groaned inwardly, he would have to feel Kale's eyes glaring at him all patrol, not pleasant. It surprised him when the knight ignored him all together, like he wasn't there, surprising but not unpleasant.

Patrol's were fairly boring Merlin had discovered in his first few weeks as a prince. Mostly the road around the forest for a few hours, maybe visit a few close villages for any news of bandits or monsters and then they rode back home. Today however Merlin could sense something, the forest was too quiet. The knight's didn't seem to mind too much but it irked Merlin. He had been about to mention something to Arthur when and arrow shot through the air and knocked Sir Leon off his horse with a thump, luckily the arrow didn't pierce his armour though it was going to need a good buffing.

"Bandits!" Somebody announced as badly dressed men with swords appeared from the tree's. Merlin quickly jumped from his horse and drew his sword. Quickly he began defending against the man in black leather who seemed more than happy to help Merlin's top held separate from the bottom. After a few minutes he was able to actually fend him off, he knew Arthur and the other knights had most likely defeated twice as many but for him it was an achievement. That's when he noticed Kale, pulling his sword from the body of a bandit, not noticing the man creeping up behind his, sword drawn.

"Kale!" Merlin bellowed, the knight looked upon at him bewildered, he still didn't turn around. Merlin had no choice he quickly grabbed his knife and hurled it, aimed with magic of course, hitting the bandit in the chest. Kale swivelled around in time to see the bandit hit the dust.

"You saved me" He gasped.

"Well he was about to turn you into a meat kebab I figured you would prefer if he didn't" Merlin replied removing his knife from the bandit. Slight guilt welled up at the fact he had just ended two lives but he had to ignore it.

"But you" Kale stuttered, Arthur laughed, clamping Merlin on the back.

"Told you Kale, nobel isn't in your blood, it's in your actions" The eldest prince smiled before giving Merlin a playful shove towards the horses. Kale was confused.

"Sire" He called out, Arthur turned around, Merlin kept walking, "I mean Prince Merlin"

Merlin turned around very quick then, Kale had never refereed to him as Prince Merlin before.

"Thank you" Kale said with a small bow, his eyes apologetic.

"No problem" Merlin smiled "Now come on, we have a patrol to finish"

"How is it you manage to make friends with everybody in existence one way or another Merlin?" Arthur sighed as they re mounted their horses.

"I'm just amazing I guess" Merlin joked, Arthur laughed. Silently agreeing.