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The Perils of living in the 20th century.
As he stood in line waiting with the endless patience that only came to one who had lived a long time, Merlin hefted the basket he was holding in his hands. While he was relieved to be back in Britain after spending a long time in France fighting off the Nazis, before the Dunkirk evacuation (Merlin really did not want to think of the heartbreakingly incredible way British sailors and hobbyists who owned yachts and boats had risked their lives pitting their puny boats against the German's Luftwaffe, but he had almost been moved to tears by the way those same people had worked so hard to save him and his fellow soldiers) brought them back, but he absolutely hated the necessity for rationing.
It almost made him wish he were back in France.
For a long time, Merlin had been waiting for Arthur to return from the lake, and he had long since guessed the Once and Future King would rise again when the country was being threatened by a serious invasion. He had taken advantage of his immortality to leave the lake occasionally when transport technology had improved, and he had travelled around the world to add to his knowledge and to give himself something to do. Usually, he didn't interfere or involve himself, primarily because his immortality made it impossible for him to forge connections to people and explain to others why he wasn't ageing. But whenever a war broke out, or some disaster occurred, Merlin sometimes signed himself up in the army to see for himself if the war would be enough to bring Arthur back. He had done it during the Crusades. He had done it in the English Civil War. The American War of Independence (he had quickly regretted that one, since everything that happened there disgusted him; the way the Americans just wanted to be free, and he had done his best to help without the British army learning the truth). The Napoleonic wars had been a time when he had seriously assumed the sheer scale would be enough to bring Arthur back. But the last war, the 'Great War,' was one where he was seriously sure would bring Arthur back. But it hadn't. In the end, Merlin had merely signed up because he wanted to see how it unfolded.
The Black Death. The Spanish Armada and the threat of invasion. Those were just two moments out of many, but as they had passed and there was no sign of Arthur although he was still around in case the people around him, the people living in those days in those points of time needed his aid without their knowing it was him, but he had signed up as a soldier for more than one war to see if it was devastating enough and big enough for Arthur to return.
Merlin had a collection in his main house, of weapons and armours from different eras while he waited for Arthur to return, and for the last 70 years, he had been a soldier in the so-called 'Great War' and in the current one. Merlin was waiting for his next assignment right now, but he felt he would sense Arthur's return even if he was halfway across the world which was now being locked in a conflict with Germany again. In truth Merlin wasn't surprised by this new war, he had half expected it since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles before he'd returned to Britain in disgust after everything he had seen, endured and fought for.
The Treaty had torn Germany to pieces allowing that madman Hitler to rise to power and feed them a poisonous belief about race and how the Jews were to blame for the whole war and the Germans' loss. But Hitler was more dangerous than Kaiser Wilhelm, much more dangerous; he was fanatical, and the German dictator's attitude reminded Merlin of what he had seen of Uther and Morgana, to say nothing of Morgause. The moment he had risen to power, Merlin had considered that this could be the time where Arthur would return, simply because Hitler's madness matched Morgana's.
As he stepped forward in line, cursing his stupid decision to come this late to the shops - he had the feeling half of the things he wanted to see if he could get wouldn't be in the shops - Merlin sighed in regret at the thought of Morgana. He had learnt from Aithusa after he'd met the White Dragon again that Morgause had twisted her own half-sister, using Morgana's magic to twist the once kind, loving woman into an insane monster who justified Uther's poisonous rants about magic. And he had killed her instead of helping her.
Sadly, people like Morgana, people who were fanatical and insane about their aims and what they wanted appeared throughout history. Merlin had encountered several of them, and it was rare he didn't encounter them in positions of power or assumed power. Henry the Eighth was one of the worst examples of a madman, and Merlin soon gave up hope Arthur would return and challenge Henry to a duel.
Merlin tuned out the talk in the line of the war and of rationing and all of the rumours swirling around the place; he found it was best to ignore most of the rumours since few of them were true or had grains of truth. He had been there, on the front. He had seen the relentless march of the German army, and he had survived the bombing campaigns so far. A part of Merlin was tempted, really tempted to use the same chain lightning spell he had used to stop the Saxons at the scene of Arthur's final battle before Mordred stabbed him, but he had decided against that. Nobody knew he was here, and he wanted to keep it that way. There was no telling what Churchill would do if he knew the legendary Merlin of the Arthurian legends actually existed and he w2as living now. There were enough hazards in this century, he didn't want to add more.