So I wrote this chapter twice because I didn't like how the first draft turned out, it was much more serious than the first chapter of the story. This draft matches the tone of the first chapter a lot better, but the pacing isn't as good. I don't want to keep rewriting it to fix the pacing, so I'm posting it anyways.
I do think that this story will be a two shot and end here, but it is possible that I'll think of something else to add and write another chapter.
This chapter is set multiple years later, after Gwen becomes queen and Mordred becomes a knight.
The king rode next to his queen at a leisurely pace, their horses meandering their way down the well-trodden path. Merlin, Percival, Elyan, Leon, Gwaine, and Mordred followed after them as the king complained about their presence. "We didn't need the entire army to accompany us on our picnic."
Leon, as the voice of reason, responded, "It is our sworn duty to protect you both and we cannot in good faith allow you both out of the castle unprotected."
Despite Arthur's placement in front of them, the knights all knew he was scowling. Gwen laughed at her husband and their friends, "It is nice of all of you to accompany us, but I do think we need a good story to distract my husband."
Percival spoke, offering up an option. "We don't often get the chance to go out riding with you, your highness, I'm sure you have a good story or two to share with us."
"I'm sure I do, give me a moment to think of one." Gwen replied.
Gwaine grinned, clearly having thought of something. With a mischievous look towards Merlin he suggested, "I was thinking about something earlier. Your Highness, do you remember a few years ago when you told us all of Merlin's questionably legal actions? Why don't you tell us all the illegal things he's done?"
Merlin's eyes widened as he stared at Gwaine, ready to deny having done anything illegal, but Arthur spoke first. "Questionably legal?! What have you been doing, Merlin?" Arthur turned in his saddle to glare accusingly at his manservant.
"Nothing! I am a model citizen." As sincere as Merlin managed to make his words, not a single person in the group believed him, especially when Gwen began to laugh uncontrollably. "Gwen!" Merlin yelled.
Mordred snorted and spoke into Merlin's mind, the two words heavy with sarcasm. Model citizen.
Not a word out of you, your actions are just as illegal. Merlin shot back.
Gwen voiced the Mordred's thoughts aloud. "Sorry, sorry, it's just that I know the things you've done. You're a good man, Merlin, but 'model citizen' is a bit of a stretch."
Merlin gaped. "What things do you know about?"
"What things do I not know about?" Gwen shot back, raising her eyebrow as Merlin shifted guiltily in his saddle.
Elyan interjected with another accusation. "You told me that you weren't involving my sister in anything illegal."
"He shouldn't be doing anything illegal in the first place!" Arthur argued.
"I didn't involve Gwen in anything. If she did something illegal, that's on her." Merlin retorted.
"That is the queen you are referring to, Merlin." Leon reminded the manservant.
Gwaine was practically bouncing up and down with excitement at the new info about his friends. Percival and Elyan were frowning at the long haired knight's antics, but didn't prevent the conversation from continuing into a possible argument.
"Alright," Arthur said above everyone as they began to chatter over one another, "Gwen, why don't you tell us what specific illegal actions my manservant has been hiding from me?"
Merlin glared at the king as Gwen nodded and began speaking. "I was referring to that time with the snake thing in your neck, Merlin."
The group's eyes collectively widened with curiosity and Merlin quickly tried to deflect the conversation despite the relief he felt that she didn't secretly know of his magic.
"Gwen!" Merlin squeaked. "We don't need to tell that story. It's nothing, really." He waved his hand in the air to make his point, but it only served to make the others more curious.
"Snake thing?" Gwaine questioned.
Merlin put his head in his hands and groaned. "May the gods have mercy on me." He mumbled.
"Please do share with the group, Merlin. Since you've clearly been hiding this from me." Arthur said with a glare at his manservant.
Merlin looked up. "Yes, Sire, because I definitely feel inclined to tell you about potentially illegal things that I've done."
Arthur turned serious. "Merlin, have you ever endangered Camelot?"
"Of course not!" Came the automatic reply, filled with indignation. Slower and while looking directly at Arthur, Merlin vowed. "I have never willingly harmed you, or the crown, or Camelot." He tried to subtly add in the 'willingly', but it did not escape the king's notice.
Arthur's eyebrows shot up in alarm. "Willingly? So you've unwillingly harmed me, the crown, or Camelot?"
Merlin winced, but thankfully he didn't have to answer right away since Gwaine interrupted their banter. "Can we get back to the story? What is the snake thing?"
"Fomorrah, it was called a fomorrah." Merlin said, pressing his lips together.
Arthur gripped the reigns of his horse angrily. "Do tell, Merlin."
Merlin winced again. "Do you remember when I was injured by mercenaries and then separated from you by a rockfall and spent three days in the woods before you found me?"
Everyone who had been in Camelot at that time flinched remembering how worried they all were and how upset Arthur had been.
"Yes." The King's eyes were boring holes into Merlin, demanding he get to the point.
"Well I didn't spend three days in the woods. I spent the first two days being dragged to Morgana and chained in a hovel."
Alarm made everyone sit up straighter, except Gwen who smiled grimly, remembering the events following those few days.
"Why didn't you tell me this?" Arthur yelled.
"I'm getting to that bit, you impatient prat. Let me tell the story." Merlin snapped. "Morgana healed my wound and then took one head of this magic multi-headed snake thing, the fomorrah, and stuck it in the back of my neck." Merlin made a face of disgust as he gestured to where the scar still marred his neck.
"Essentially the fomorrah took away my free will and she ordered me to kill you. Frankly, I don't remember much of what happened after that until Gaius paralyzed the fomorrah."
Gwen spoke up with her part in the story. "Yes, I uh believe I can shed some light on the interim. Merlin tried—unsuccessfully—to kill Arthur multiple times before Gaius and I discovered why he was acting strangely."
"You tried to kill me?" Arthur sounded hurt.
"Not willingly, Arthur." Merlin emphasized his lack of choice in the matter.
"As I was saying," Gwen interrupted, "I knocked Merlin out before he could try again-"
"You knocked him out?" Gwaine asked, an impressed smile on his face.
Gwen gave an apologetic look towards the victim. "I had to. Gaius cut the fomorrah out of Merlin's neck, but we didn't know that it would grow back. So when it did and Merlin tried to kill Arthur again, we had to stop him and paralyze the fomorrah a second time."
"I then uh-" Merlin faltered. He couldn't exactly reveal that he knew where Morgana's hut was the entire time. "I had to find the mother beast so I went out in search of Morgana's hut."
"You what?!" The knights all exclaimed.
"How could you be so stupid, Merlin?!" Arthur said.
"Well I didn't find it, exactly..." Merlin defended.
Gwen chewed nervously on her lip. She had never heard this part of the story and she had never asked. Merlin had stopped the magical creature from growing back and causing him to try and kill Arthur, and that was enough for her, she didn't question how he did it. It was part of the unspoken agreement in their friendship. He had helped her without question when she betrayed Arthur and she would do the same for him when his methods were unquestionably illegal.
Merlin swallowed hard, not wanting to lie to his friends, but not wanting to tell the truth and unable to tell them the full truth. The half-truth was out of his mouth before he could think it all the way through. "I kind of found Dragoon the Great instead."
Found? Mordred asked.
Shut up.
"The sorcerer?!" Arthur yelled in outrage at the name.
"Wait I remember we met him in the woods around that time." Elyan said, skillfully distracting Arthur from his own anger. "He threatened the King's life!"
"He used us as stairs!" Percival reminded the knights that had been there.
Arthur forcibly calmed himself down to ask, "Merlin, are you telling me you found the sorcerer that killed my father and threatened me and you kept that information from me?!"
Merlin briefly dropped his head in shame but refused to back down completely. "Arthur... he didn't kill your father, Gaius proved that. All he did was try and heal him. And I don't know exactly what Dragoon said, but had you stopped him I might have killed you once the paralytic on the fomorrah wore off. And he did find and kill the fomorrah to stop me from killing you, so there's no way I could, in good conscious, turn him in."
"So you're defending and hiding a sorcerer." Elyan summed up the illegal parts nicely.
"Not hiding, he disappeared after he told me he killed the fomorrah." Merlin clarified and it wasn't technically a lie.
"So just defending him?" Leon asked.
"Yes! He saved Arthur's life." Merlin stared Arthur in the eye, not giving in. Their staring went on for a few moments of silence before Arthur changed the subject.
"Supposing we ignore Merlin's slightly treasonous actions because his ineptitude as an assassin is likely the only reason I am still alive, what other illegal things has he been hiding from us all?" Arthur addressed the group.
Elyan turned to Mordred. "I know you haven't been in Camelot long, but you're suspiciously quiet. You know something."
The other knights turned towards the newest knight and Mordred raised his hands in surrender with an amused smile. "I can't say anything. I'm biased, one of those illegal actions was to save my life."
"How can saving someone's life be illegal?" Percival asked.
It was Arthur's turn to drop his head in shame. "Mordred came to Camelot many years ago, before most of you were knights. Under my father's orders his father was killed because he was a druid."
"I was injured but managed to hide from the guards for a short time." Mordred said.
"I found him hiding and got him into the castle and hid him again until Arthur and I could smuggle him out of the citadel." Merlin added.
"Thus saving my life." Mordred concluded.
The mood of the group had dropped slightly as they contemplated how much Camelot had changed under Arthur's rule. Gwen broke the silence. "I remember! The other illegal thing Merlin did. He released the goblin."
"He RELEASED THE GOBLIN?!" Arthur yelled as Gwaine said "He released a goblin?" in a much more excited tone of voice.
"How do you know about that?" Merlin questioned Gwen; eyes wide.
Gwen smirked. "Well I only suspected, but you've just confirmed it."
Merlin scowled. "It was an accident."
"You accidentally released a magical creature into the castle?" Leon asked, clearly not believing it to be an accident.
"Yes. I found the box he was trapped in in the library and opened it not knowing he was inside. It wasn't like it was labeled: Dangerous Magical Creature Inside."
"That monstrosity possessed Gaius and made my father bald!" Arthur was not handling the information of Merlin's various illegal activities well.
Gwaine guffawed at the idea of Uther being bald while the other knights respectfully hid their smiles.
Suddenly Merlin grinned from ear to ear and turned to the queen. He held his hands upright by his ears to mimic donkey ears and after a brief second of confusion Guinevere laughed loudly.
"What does—" Gwaine mimicked Merlin's hands, "—mean?"
"Nothing." The king replied sharply, only serving to make Merlin and Gwen laugh even harder.
"Why don't we stop here and I'll tell the story." The queen suggested, still laughing at the memory of her husband with donkey ears.
The group collectively dismounted their horses as Gwen silenced Arthur's grumbling with a fond look. "The goblin tore through the castle causing all sorts of mischief and somehow Merlin knew that it was the reason that people were acting differently. He came up with the plan to force it to stop possessing Gaius and trap it back in the box it came in."
"Alright, you still haven't explained the—" Elyan made the donkey ear gesture and Merlin broke into laughter once again as Arthur glared at him.
"I'm getting to that." Gwen chastised her brother for the interruption. "The goblin had a tendency to steal and pull pranks, and since it was a magical creature, it had the power to pull magical pranks. One of which was to make Uther bald. Another was to give Arthur donkey ears."
Merlin made the same gesture one more time as all the knights laughed at their king. Arthur scowled deeply and glared at his servant while making threats of arrest under his breath.
"And of course there's the matter of Merlin's lying." Gwen changed the subject from her husband's embarrassment.
"Lying?!" Arthur exclaimed.
"He lied to Uther all the time for you, Arthur." Gwen said.
"And he lies to you everyday now, Arthur." Gwaine said.
Arthur raised his eyebrows at his servant. "Every day?"
"You are aware, Sire, that Merlin's breakfast every day comes from your plate." Sir Leon offered up, much to Merlin's displeasure.
"You didn't need to tell him that!"
"MERLIN! You steal food from me?"
"Well, it's not for me, Sire, I just want to make sure I don't have to put any more holes in your belt." Merlin grinned.
"I'm going to throw you in the dungeon when we get back, Merlin."
"If he's in the dungeon, who's going to take care of you Princess?"
"I don't need to be taken care of. I'm the King."
The group burst out laughing once again.