Language

Sometimes, Merlin forgot what language he was supposed to speak.

It really wasn't his fault, Gaius explained wearily for the fourth time that month. Merlin's mind naturally turned towards the Old Tongue, and now that he was so engrossed in studying old spells and texts in the Old Tongue, his mind would tend to wander into that language more frequently.

Hunith laughed ruefully and told them several stories about a young Merlin, babbling away in a foreign language long before he learned the common tongue.

Merlin amused himself with sarcastic commentary on - well, nearly everything, when he was in the right mood - in the Old Tongue, taking great delight in the fact that none but Gaius and Geoffrey understood even half of what he was saying.

Sometimes, it was more serious. Sometimes, Merlin would burst in with an urgent message, realize halfway through that he had said it in the wrong language, and be forced to restart.

The upshot of it all was that Uther Pendragon was probably not just rolling, but quite nearly thrashing in his grave, Arthur thought, studiously reading what was apparently the equivalent of a primer text in the Old Tongue. His father would be beyond furious to find his son actively studying the language of magic, but at this point, Arthur had resigned himself to the fact that to understand Merlin, he would need at least a rudimentary grasp of the Old Tongue.

That was really about the extent of the odd phenomenon, except for the fact that Gwaine took to some of the stranger curses in the Old Tongue with gusto. It was disconcerting and mildly terrifying to hear the purely non-magical knight storm down a hallway, bellowing curses that had everyone half-turning in reflexive fear; Gwaine's voice was quite carrying when he put his mind to it, and the amiable rage in his voice put everyone in mind of a magical attack.

Merlin just laughed at everyone and went back to reading his book.


This is definitely one of my favorite drabbles I've written to date.

Allow me to sidetrack. You should all go read the author Ocean Mint Leaves Merlin fanfictions. Any and all of them. If you haven't read any of these before, you should know they contain some of the most beautifully realized golden age stories that have been written. Truly, truly incredible stuff.