Hello again! Here is another prompt, which is inspired by Frozen 2. I don't know why! Musicals just make you really happy and energetic, right?! Loved the second movie a lot. Highly recommend :) Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little plot bunny, have at it!

Prompt: Arthur has dreams of memories of Merlin where he was young and still figuring out his magic, or having really symbolic dreams due to some celestial-being pushing for the golden age. Something in the real world could take place too ~ What type of mayhem could take up the knight's and Arthur's stressful lives in Camelot? Big brother Arthur stories are my favourite thing to read :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin

...

The snow somehow made his eyes glow a new shade of azure blue, brighter than when they glowed a mesmerising gold tinge, sharper than any other sorcerer who has ever been witnessed.

He watched with wonder and gratitude at the world he was born into and listened to the ground hum and almost shuffle and begin a duet with the snow that lay gracefully atop it. The earth rumbled in delight, as if it had snuggled into a blanket with soup and watched the rain pour and slip across the windows of its cottage, as the fire crackled in front.

Merlin felt a giggle build in his throat, as he felt the earth's comfort and grew ever more excited as his pleasure built alongside it. A separate, lonely snowflake fell slowly above him.

"Wow…" he felt the world agree and chuckled when the snowflake landed cheekily onto the tip of his nose, as if to pinch his cheeks in fondness. The scarf his mother had made for him slowly slipped from his small shoulder on one side and fell into the snow with a thump. He smiled. He was still growing into it, his mother said that he'd grow up quickly. He was getting older and "would be a man soon", he had responded back to her enthusiastically.

He looked behind him at his home. The stool inside was waiting for him. To observe the snow as it landed, to see the seasons change alongside his friend, Will. But not this time. Something else was calling for him. An enchanted song was flowing over the trees, the ground was warning him of a new chapter, a discovery. And it would be his discovery, no one else's. His mission.

He was ready.

He tossed the scarf onto the stool inside, his mother absent in the house as he did so. He ran to the door. His fingers latched onto the door frame, hesitating for him and feeling as if it were a friend looking at Merlin with concern and worry for his decision. His eyebrows scrunched together in guilt.

He puffed out his chest and raised his chin, "Sorry, mum." With that, he raced through the snow into the snow-caked forest with intrigue. "Into the unknown we go!"

He started to speed up to reach the top of a steep part of the forest. His heart raced and his breath grew shorter and heavier, calf muscles tense as he rushed through the enchanted woods, determined. But the hum dancing below the snow, through his feet, made him go even faster.

He picked up the pace and smiled. He lifted his arms high, "Wooooo!" He sailed through all of the trees, elated as the wind picked up alongside him and swayed the trees left to right as he darted through trees side to side. The song grew louder and more stressed as if hearing his reply to its beck and call. He swooped past the trees, the leafless trees seeming to bend, defying the cold and frost, and the snow began to lift from the ground. It spun around him, anticipating the reunion.

Merlin kept running, not paying attention to how easily his feet seemed to drift over the snow and not sink into it. The song picked up, a feminine voice grew alongside the tune and joined its celebration. The hill began to dip as he got higher and higher and higher. He laughed and ran faster towards the edge with joy, not understanding clearly why it was he was so excited to see over it, but something was there, waiting for him, needing his company.

So he leapt.

The hill suddenly dipped and he realised it was a cliff, a dangerously high one. What shocked him the most was how safe he still felt. The world felt like it's centre of gravity and equilibrium had shifted, to someone else, somehow. The world felt suddenly slower and pinned onto something. Someone was supposed to catch him at the bottom, someone he could never look back on in hesitation. Someone warm and that the magic in him sung towards.

His body slowly twisted to look back on himself, from where he had left the hum of the earth, still plummeting towards the ground below. A silhouette of a woman appeared, flowing with a never-ending cycle of snow, the world still feeling slow but as if it were intentional and good. He reached out his arms towards it as it sung its song with more finality and strength. He could hear the smile in her voice, and he smiled back in glee.

At the bottom of the cliff, another figure began to solidify and materialise into the scene. He suddenly realised his perspective had changed. He felt like he was in his own body again, and not looking through the eyes of someone he knew but didn't just yet, not here. He squinted at the glow of the low-hanging sun. The female voice still held onto her last note.

He twirled around towards the cliff. His eyes widened as he saw what he thought he was experiencing. It had felt so real, like it were him. But it wasn't. The scene was still slowed down, the figure sailing towards solid snow and the woman, whose body began to fade. He panicked and ran toward the little boy, arms outstretched, the woman beginning to fade and transform back into the snow his feet stumbled and crunched on top of. Her voice faded and slowed as it finally reached its end.

A name bellowed out of his throat without his control, "Merlin!" The boys eyes grew in trepidation, "Arthur!"

He wasn't going to make it. He shoved his shoulder forward with a rush of energy and slid across the thinner, crushed snow. In a flash, he felt a slight change to his weight, as the tiny child landed on his chest, his arms instinctively wrapping around him with a surprising amount of protectiveness to cushion his fall.

Arthur rolled onto his side at the impact but found he was too distracted by the suddenly small and young Merlin to feel the strain of catching a falling body, or to acknowledge the wind forced out of his lungs.

His breaths slowed down ever so slowly, but his heart still struggled to follow in sync with the sudden shock, choking and wheezing but still not recognising the pain of the way he caught Merlin.

His breathing began to slow, his heart still leaping from the unforeseen events. The boy's own heartbeat thrummed across Arthur's own chest in rhythm, his breath struggling as he tucked his face deeper into Arthur's shirt.

"Merlin" Arthur muttered shakily, "Merlin, are you okay?" He shuffled onto his back with Merlin still suffocating himself into his tunic. He grabbed at Merlin's small hands and relaxed them, Merlin seeming to trust him immediately, releasing his strong grip once Arthur had gently grabbed his wrist in concern.

Arthur sat upright steadily, folding his legs to make the boy more comfortable after his little stunt, "What in the world were you doing? Not only did you jump off a cliff like an absolute idiot, but you then started wasting yourself of air as soon as you got out of one accident? Honestly, Merlin." Arthur found himself smiling beside himself at the unoriginality of Merlin, always risking his life wherever Arthur went. But why was he here? Why did he seem so nonchalant about the whole situation?

He frowned, "What's going on?" He didn't notice Merlin's silence as he looked around his surroundings in alarm, "How did I get here? And why are you like this?" He raised his voice the more he questioned the strange predicament he suddenly was in.

"Arthur"

Arthur turned back towards the little body cradled in his arms with concern and unease. Merlin's head was dipped down. "Please don't leave me alone." The boy slowly looked upward to stare unwaveringly at Arthur. Arthur's mind suddenly stopped, and froze in that second that their eyes met, his body gaining goosebumps at what he saw.

A tiny boy, with a heavy mop of raven hair, chubby, child-like cheeks, reddened from the cold, stared at him as determined as the Merlin he knew. He felt safe and secure looking at this child. Something in him clicked just right as if something had finally filled itself in properly. He was shocked, but what shocked him more so to this sudden change is what he saw swirling in those innocent orbs.

Instead of a light and bright blue that reflected similar to his own eyes, were a pair of golden irises. They shone a shade of gold Arthur had never seen before, a gold that he did not feel fear from but a comforting warmth that flowed into his own eyes. The boy's pupils were like slits instead of their usual circular shape. The innocence in those eyes made both sense and absolute absurdity to Arthur.

Which made what happened next more confusing to him. His mouth opened without his command, "Never"

Merlin's smile grew large and his large ears tweaked as he laughed at Arthur in absolute happiness. He stood from his lap and ran behind Arthur, wrapping his arms around his neck. With Merlin's chin resting on Arthur's right shoulder, the golden glow from his eyes shone ever brighter and bounced its light, making Arthur squint from its intensity.

The snow around them began to float around them, the wind that had long died after Merlin's jump picked up once again. The thrum of natural magic flowing through Merlin shared its dance to Arthur. A wonder lit his eyes. The woman grew in the snowy tornado around them. She danced and began her song again. This time, it carried an echo, even louder and stronger than before.

Arthur's eyes grew heavy. He felt a pull at his soul and body. The girl's porcelain white arms reached out to him and he did the same to reach her, his legs not moving from where he had sat with Merlin. Her voice reached a high note that carried on, along the cliff and through the branches of the trees in symphony. She grew closer and their hands touched.

He felt sick as he felt himself lifted off the ground, spinning dizzily, being sucked into a black hole, away from this strange world he'd visited and back to reality. The last thing he heard was Merlin's light giggle, somehow sensing him goofily waving goodbye to him, his eyes swirling in a bath of pure gold.

Arthur woke abruptly, his body instinctively sitting him upright in alert. His breaths were slow but heavy. His forehead was wrinkled with confusion and bewilderment at what he had just witnessed.

He looked over to his left and saw his beautiful wife sleeping soundly, somehow looking perfect and sweet as she always was even in sleep with bed-ridden hair. He silently laughed at her, thinking himself the luckiest man on the earth for having someone as considerate and generous as Guinivere.

His smile slowly vanished as the dream he had just woken suddenly from recollected itself vividly, each detail remembered. Merlin. A young Merlin. It had felt so real, so right and true. The transition was weird but he couldn't shake off the funny feeling that something about that 'dream' wasn't just that; a dream. It was a message, it had a meaning behind it.

And those eyes. Those golden eyes that had glowed from a young Merlin's eyes, the feeling of the world dancing under his feet, the innocence and the purity of the colour in his eyes. But what did it all mean? What were those hums and tunes he had heard? Was that...nature? Singing? The earth rejoicing over something?

Arthur sighed in defeat. He whispered under his breath, "What does it all mean?" He saw the Merlin he knew now, his friend's goofy grin next to the other little Merlin he just met. He shook his head in hilarity and without noticing, the word slipped out of his mouth once again as his head hit the pillow once more, "Never."

….

The snow that lay across the courtyard outside of the King's window began to shift. The snow lifted itself up with arms it didn't have before. A woman began to grow out of the heap of snow. Her eyes opened and violet irises stared out into the night at the Once and Future King's window, unaware of the new chapter he would be becoming apart of soon.

She saw Merlin, soundlessly asleep in his own bed, bags under his eyes, still reaching out for deep sleep. A humble smile grew on her lips and she began to sing softly, "Into the unknown…" Her smile grew, her teeth growing more visible, a purer white than the snow, "The Golden Age grows near King Arthur." Her hand rose higher, pointing vaguely towards Gauis' chambers, where Merlin slowly slid into the best sleep he had had in a long few years. A golden glow rose from her fingers as she whispered, "It is about time you truly met your friend, and your protector, Lord Emrys."

A guard nearby heard a crunch and the wind grew stronger, a song and tune passing his ears. He ran around the corner towards the sound and saw a hill of snow close to the horses float towards the ground again. His eyebrows pinched together, "What th-" before slipping over a slick piece of ice that had frozen over the stone. His head hit the floor and he cursed his humiliation, even if no one was around to have seen it. He swore he heard a high-pitched giggle in the wind but shook it off and continued his rounds, "Hate this blasted snow."

...

Do you like it? Did it bring forth any ideas of your own? Let me know!