I apologize for all the little grammar/spelling mistakes in the last chapter. I did not proofread as well as I should have. Hopefully, I did a better job this time around. I also just apologize for this chapter in general.
THIRTY-FOUR: WENDIGO (253 days)
Kerenza stood at the bottom of the steps, fingering the blue material she was wearing around her neck. She watched the bustle in the courtyard, trying to dispel the feeling of unease that had settled low in her belly. She didn't know what, exactly, was making her uneasy. It just was a feeling that wouldn't leave.
She didn't like it one bit.
Most of the knights were already mounted and laughing amongst themselves, save Sir Leon, who was talking quietly to a short brunette woman. From what Kerenza had heard, the knights were taking bets on when the two of them would get married.
King Arthur was standing beside his wife, whispering his goodbyes to her. Rolan, the king's servant, was checking all the luggage.
She hadn't seen Merlin yet. She had hoped she would get a chance to talk to him before they left, but it was starting to look like that wouldn't happen. At least, not without an audience. She wouldn't be able to speak to him in private, like she would have preferred.
Arthur gave Guinevere a swift kiss before jogging to his horse and mounting. Nearby, Rolan was doing the same with his own horse. "Let's go," the king called.
"Wait, sire," Sir Leon objected. "Where's Merlin?"
Arthur looked around with a frown. His eyes stopped when they reached Merlin's horse, and the empty saddle. The Court Sorcerer's bags had already been fastened to the creature, but the Court Sorcerer himself was nowhere to be seen.
The king practically growled in frustration. "Merlin!" he shouted.
In almost the same instant, Merlin came running out of the castle. "I'm here, I'm here."
"Hurry up," Arthur commanded.
Before Merlin could mount his horse, though, Kerenza rushed forward. She had to talk to him, even if it was only for a few seconds, before he left. Even if it was in front of everyone else. "Wait," she called, pulling him into a hug. She leaned up and kissed his lips quickly but intensely. She forced a grin onto her lips. She somehow managed to sound flirty as she said, "You can't leave without a token of my affection."
Merlin rolled his eyes when she reached behind her neck to untie the neckerchief. In the background, Arthur was beginning to get impatient. They ignored him. "I'm not sure you understand how tokens are supposed to work," Merlin chided fondly. "You're supposed to give me something that belongs to you, not something that you stole from me."
"Please," she begged, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice as she held it out to him. "Make sure you wear it."
Merlin frowned and took it from her, sucking in a surprised breath the moment he touched it. His voice was softer, nearly a whisper, when he asked, "Why are there so many protection spells on it?"
"Merlin," Arthur grumbled.
"I know you can and will protect every man here," Kerenza told the sorcerer with confidence, nodding at the king and his knights. She knew how fiercely Merlin would protect them. He would put his own life at risk to keep them safe. "But who will protect you?"
"Kerenza -"
She kept her voice quiet, to keep their conversation from being overheard. "You have nothing to protect you the way that you protect them. So I'm sending some with you. I have a bad feeling, Merlin. I may not have Ma's gift of foresight, but I have learned to trust my gut. Something bad is going to happen on this trip."
Merlin gave a crooked grin, even as Arthur yelled his name again. They both ignored the king - again. "Something bad always happens on these trips, Kerenza. I'm prepared for it."
She was getting a little impatient with him. "Just wear the damn neckerchief, Merlin," she growled. She took a deep breath to keep herself from snapping at him again. She didn't want to part on bad terms, even if her worry and his lack of concern were making her irritable. "Please? For me?"
With a sigh, he tied the cloth around his own neck.
"Be safe," she begged. She couldn't bear to see him injured, or to lose him.
"I will."
"MERLIN!"
Kerenza kissed him once more, then she stepped back. She hugged her torso as he swung himself clumsily into his saddle. Within a matter of minutes, the group had ridden out of the courtyard.
A warm arm wrapped around her shoulders in comfort. Kerenza looked up. The queen was smiling sadly back at her, the same worry in her brown eyes. She was just as concerned about the men as Kerenza was. Despite that, her voice was confident when she said, "They'll come home, Kerenza. They always do."
"You can take that ridiculous thing off now," Arthur called, as he swung down from his horse. "You don't have to wear Kerenza's token the entire time. She'll never know, and it looks stupid on you."
Merlin touched the blue fabric fondly, trying not to smirk as he dismounted. He wasn't planning on taking it off. Kerenza had put some very good protection spells on it. And, as he'd told her, something bad always happened when they traveled. He was going to take all the protection he could get. He would make sure to place some protection spells of his own around their camp, too, before they went to sleep that night.
But for now, he allowed himself to enjoy the moment, to relax with his friends. "I don't know, Arthur," he said thoughtfully. "I think I might start wearing the neckerchiefs again. I've missed them. And Kerenza thinks they look good on me."
The king rolled his eyes, slumping down on a log. He muttered something about "delusional druid girls."
Merlin moved automatically toward Arthur's horse, intending to get the king's bags, only to find Rolan already doing it. He stepped back with a sigh. Somehow, he'd fallen immediately back into the routine of being a servant. Some habits were difficult to break, apparently. He didn't resent his replacement, not really. He just wasn't accustomed to not doing everything that Rolan was doing.
He wasn't going to make Rolan do all of the work, though, unlike the knights who were all too willing to sit on their fat bottoms. He was more than capable of helping with the rest of the bags. Rolan sent him a grateful smile as he did so. Together, they began setting up camp. For a while, Merlin could pretend it was like all the other trips they'd taken as a group. No one seemed to notice that he was helping Rolan. Or, if they did notice, they didn't say anything.
And then, while the sorcerer was tying up the horses for the night, Arthur instructed Rolan to begin making dinner - though Merlin had heard him nearly slip and say his name instead of his new servant's name.
After a brief, whispered conversation behind him, Merlin heard two or three people leave the camp to venture into the forest, presumably to find fresh meat for the stew, as it wasn't quite dark yet. The knights always preferred fresh meat over anything dried that they carried with them, if they could get it.
A quick glance told him that Gwaine, Elyan, and Rolan had all gone. Merlin didn't think much of it as he finished with the horses and took out the needed supplies to cook their meal. Until he heard both Arthur and Leon begin to laugh, that is. He looked at the others, to see Percival grinning and shaking his head. Mordred looked slightly confused.
Merlin sighed when he realized what they were doing - he could hear Gwaine and Elyan beginning to teach Rolan the awful, girly call. They'd probably already slathered gaia berries onto his face as well, claiming that it would mask the scent of humans and allow them to capture the critter. They had done it to him as well, shortly after Gwaine had become a knight.
Because of course it was Gwaine's idea.
It was even more ridiculous now than it had been then. But at least this time, Merlin had an idea for revenge. He sent Arthur an irritated look. "They've convinced him to capture an elbillug for the stew, haven't they?"
Mordred's frowned deepened. "An…elbillug?"
Arthur smirked, leaning forward slightly to describe the creature. "It's a sneaky little creature, about the size and shape of a rate. Except that it's covered in bluish gray feathers, and has a frill around its neck. It's very hard to catch, but it tastes delicious."
"I've never heard of this creature."
"That's because it's not real," Merlin explained. "Elbillug is gullible backwards. As you can see, the knights aren't bright enough to come up with anything more clever than that. Arthur, don't you realize how dangerous this is?"
The king scoffed. "It's a bit of harmless fun, Merlin. You fell for it, and you didn't get hurt."
Merlin would show Arthur harmless fun. "Well, at that time, we weren't camped near the nest of a wendigo," he lied, recalling a creature he'd read about in one of his magic books, a creature long since extinct. But Arthur had no way of knowing that. And, really, it wasn't even a lie. At the time, they hadn't been camped near a wendigo nest. They also weren't camped near one now.
But again, Arthur had no way of knowing that. The king had probably never even heard of a wendigo.
Mordred gave him a strange look, but chose not to say anything. If Merlin had to guess, the druid knight knew what a wendigo was - and the fact that it was extinct. He hoped Mordred wouldn't spoil his fun by informing Arthur of this fact.
"A wendigo?" Arthur asked skeptically. "Merlin, we're not idiots. You can't make up a creature of your own and expect us to actually believe you. We aren't going to chase after some imaginary animal so you can have a laugh at our expense."
Merlin shook his head vehemently. "Oh, no. The last thing we should do is try to catch it. Wendigos are extremely volatile. And unpredictable. Normally, I wouldn't be worried about us being so close to its nest, but with all the noise they're making on their elbillug hunt, they may just infuriate the wendigo."
Arthur narrowed his eyes, as if he wasn't quite sure if he should believe Merlin or not. "What does it look like?"
"Oh, it's invisible."
At that, Arthur rolled his eyes and relaxed. "How convenient, Merlin. Tell me, what makes this wendigo so dangerous, hmm?"
It was taking all of the sorcerer's self-control not to lose his composure. "It can possess a human. It only stays inside the human for a brief moment, but that's all it takes. After the possession, the human -" Merlin broke off with an exaggerated shudder. It didn't take much magic to make it seem like some sort of invisible force had entered him. The trickiest part was hiding the glow of his eyes from the others, but judging by their looks of concern - and Mordred's look of pure amusement - told him that he'd succeeded.
"Merlin?" Arthur questioned.
Merlin blinked slowly, as if coming out of a daze. "Yes?" He purposely slurred the word as he spoke it.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes."
"What happens after a wendigo possesses a human?" He was starting to believe it. There was a slight tension to his voice now.
"Oh. The human becomes cannibalistic. It happens almost immediately. I think I read that the wendigo enjoys watching the person eat their own friends." Merlin twisted his face into a grimace. "So we should probably go stop them before they make the wendigo upset…"
That spurred Arthur into action. He scrambled to his feet. Merlin and the king rushed after the sounds of their friends. As he'd expected, Rolan was stomping around, gaia berries on his face, making weird sounds. All of this under the direction of the two knights were laughing so hard they were nearly crying.
"Enough!" Arthur commanded, in a harsh whisper. Immediately, Rolan stopped. It took Gwaine and Elyan several more seconds-they'd been laughing too hard. "This isn't the time for games. Forget about the elbillug. Merlin sa-"
"Mmm, yes," Merlin responded in a mutter, as though Arthur had said his name because he wanted his opinion. "Arthur stew sounds much better than elbillug stew."
Arthur slowly turned to him. He'd been close enough that he would have heard Merlin's comment without any problems, even though the others hadn't. "What did you say?"
Merlin frowned. He was having far too much fun with this. He couldn't wait to tell Kerenza about it. He could only imagine her disappointment that she hadn't been here to see it. "What?"
"What did you just say?"
"I didn't say anything." Arthur stared at him. Merlin stared right back. And licked his lips. "Can we go back to camp now? I'm hungry. I'm sure we can find someo- something suitable for the stew."
Arthur's eyes widened comically. He took a step away from Merlin, drawing his sword. Gwaine, Elyan, and Rolan all looked completely baffled. "All right, Merlin. How do you kill a wendigo?"
"A wendigo?" Gwaine repeated, chuckling. "Arthur, wendigos don't exist anymore. They've been extinct for decades. They were extinct before the Great Purge." Damn. Merlin had forgotten that Gwaine had traveled a lot, and actually had quite a bit of knowledge about magical creatures. And unlike Mordred, he hadn't figured out what Merlin was trying to do.
"Merlin said…" the king trailed off, noticing the glare the warlock was giving Gwaine.
"Now you've ruined all my fun, Gwaine," Merlin complained. "I really had him fooled. I think he actually thought I was going to eat him."
"MERLIN!"
This chapter. Oh my gosh. I actually finished it yesterday. I've been staring at it for about an hour, debating about posting it, or just doing a total rewrite. Obviously, I chose to post it. I'm still not sure if I should have...It got ridiculous. And it just kept getting more and more out of control. I don't know what happened! Hopefully nobody was too OOC in here.
And elbillug. Totally based off of the fictional snipes that many people hear about while camping. Snipe hunts were some of the funniest parts of my summer camps. I got a kick out of listening to the other girls search for snipes. The actual term snipe seemed too modern, though. So elbillug was born. I know, it's a stupid name. Totally lame. Oh, well. That's what it is.
To Lya200: He, he.
To Linorien: There may be some more of that coming up. I had planned to put it in this chapter, and then the chapter ran away from me.
To geekyglamour413: I, personally, adore fluff and drama more than action. I can see why the talk might seem a bit unreal. Merlin is…He's difficult. But I actually imagine him to be very open about his feelings, UNLESS revealing those feelings would also reveal his big secret (think Freya, and Balinor-he couldn't really talk about them without also talking about his magic) OR they would bring him pity (think the pranks that some of the servants did in this fic). I hope that makes sense.
To guest: How'd you like that mischief?
To dmcmeel412: Where would be the fun in that?
To Hachiko33200: Spoiler=I don't plan on breaking them up. And Merlin's immortality…That is a problem I need to solve. I would like to just ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist, in this fic. But I don't think I can get away with that. I haven't decided what I'm doing about it yet. And please don't apologize for your English! It's amazing.
To xxxLeanniexxx: There was going to be a moment of Merlin the Great and Powerful, but then it became Merlin the Pretend Cannibal? Don't ask me how.