Merlin couldn't catch a break. After getting up late due to battling yet another summoned beast the night before he had tripped on the stairs to Arthur's room and hurt his ankle. Then he got a list of chores from Arthur, and a list of tasks from Gaius as well. He had decided to keep quiet about his ankle because it didn't seem too bad after he had tripped.

Now he had to muck out the stables, clean Arthur's armor, get all of Arthur's laundry done as well as scrub the floor of Arthur's Chambers. And for Gaius, he had to go find some herbs in the forest that only bloom at night, deliver a short list of the medicinal drafts, and then find time to clean the leach tank.

Merlin sighed as he planned out how he would get everything done. He asked a few of the maids if they could help with the laundry and one of the stable boys had offered to help with mucking the stalls. His ankle felt stiffer as the day went on, but Merlin was stubborn and refused to concede to a sore ankle.

While Merlin was finishing the final task of getting the herbs for Gaius it was pitch black outside and he was utterly exhausted. He straightened from where he had been crouched gathering the last few bulbs. As he shook out his arms he saw the red marks on his arms from the leeches and shuddered as he recalled how clingy they had been that afternoon as he cleaned the tank. "I hate cleaning that darned tank," Merlin muttered to himself.

Merlin closed his bag and started heading back to the Castle when he heard rustling behind him. He stopped walking and took a moment to hope that it was just the wildlife. But this was Merlin's life. It was never simple wildlife. He steeled himself for another long night and crept towards the bushes. As he got closer he was able to hear a quiet murmur as someone seemed to be talking to themselves.

"-idea, but I might as well. First I need to make it into the castle, then I need to find a way to get to the king's chambers, and finally, all I need to do is cast the spell that will surely be King Arthur's undoing."

Merlin took a moment to curse the fates. Why did they not want to grant him a solid night's rest? Also, Merlin wondered to himself, why plotting sorcerers and sorceresses always scheme aloud to themselves? As he shifted closer to try to get a better view his ankle twisted under him and he fell through the bushes. He looked up to see an old woman quickly turn toward him in shock.

She squinted suspiciously as Merlin slowly stood up. "What were you doing, hiding in those bushes boy?" She raised her hands slightly to prepare to attack or defend.

Merlin bristled at being called a boy but replied anyway. "I was getting herbs for the Court Physician, but now I'm looking at someone who is trying to do harm to the king. Why would you go after Arthur and further harden his resolve against magic?" Merlin met the woman's stare straight on as they sized each other up.

Suddenly the woman's grim face broke into a smirk as she started laughing before it gradually died down and left Merlin feeling a bit confused and offended. "Oh boy you misunderstand, I don't wish to do him permanent harm. Just knock him down a few notches and deflate that ego a bit."

"Why should I believe you?" asked Merlin. The woman thought for a moment before a mischievous glint entered her eyes.

"Well, I doubt that you would, even though I am telling the truth. And I don't think that you would just let me go if I said that I changed my mind either." She took a closer look at Merlin, "But maybe this could be just as good. If I can't get to him, I'll just get his protector instead." Merlin's eyes widened as the words registered. He raised his hands to try and defend himself but was too slow as the woman yelled a spell directed at him. "Belimpenne mann eac éarcoðu ond cútægl diht minsian aglæca!"

The spell slammed into him and knocked him back a step. He felt the magic surge around him and through him, but it didn't feel malicious. His vision started to swim as the spell took effect and he saw the Old woman crouch in front of him. Merlin hadn't even felt himself fall to the ground as the magic-filled his senses.

"Do not fear Emrys, I won't attack your King. I hope you don't mind this old woman trying to get things to move along. I learned that spell from a goblin back when magic was still legal. Have fun, Emrys." With that, she left and Merlin's vision faded to black.

As Merlin slowly came back to awareness, his head was pounding and his vision was fuzzy. Something felt off. As he put his hands underneath himself to lift himself up he felt like his balance was different than it usually was. He slowly got up from the ground. "Ugh, my head. What in the world did that sorceress do to me?" As Merlin lifted a hand to rub the back of his head he felt something on the top of his head. It became weirder when he realized that whatever was on his head was connected to him because he could feel the sensation of his hand touching whatever it was.

"Oh no. no no no no- don't tell me that..." Merlin's voice died down as he slowly felt what it was. Some sort of furry ear, he lifted up his other hand. Make those two ears. Suddenly he felt something from his lower back and looked behind him to see a smooth, black, cat-tail that barely brushed the ground as it gently swayed.

"Oh this isn't good," Merlin said as he let his hands drop and he looked to see if there was any trace of the old sorceress around him. When he couldn't find anything he looked back towards Camelot. He took note that the sun was high in the sky, meaning that he had been out through the whole morning. "This isn't good at all. I need to get to Gauis now."

Merlin snuck back into the Physician's chambers, getting around all the guards. Once he was inside the chambers he noted that Gauis must be out doing his rounds because he wasn't there. Merlin finally took a moment to let what happened to him settle in.

"I'm part cat. I shouldn't have made fun of Arthur when he got donkey ears. The fates truly must hate me if this is getting me back for letting the donkey laugh stay for a while." Merlin had tried to do the reversal spell that had cured Arthur of his donkey ears only to be disappointed as it failed to do anything for his own ears and tail.

Suddenly he remembered that the old sorceress had originally been set to do something to Arthur. "I need to check on him! If she decided to keep going she may have gotten to Arthur after she got me!" and then his predicament struck him again and he looked around for something to hide his new features.

He went to the cupboard that held all the winter clothes. After rummaging around he found a simple hat that would cover his new cat ears and hide the fact that his normal ears were gone in their stead. He shoved it on and focused on keeping his ears still so there wouldn't be any odd movements underneath the cap.

Next, he looked at his tail and grabbed it to tuck under his tunic and jacket and had to try to keep his anxiety down so it wouldn't move around too much and give him away.

Merlin nodded, satisfied with his plan to quickly check that Arthur was alright and then rush back and hopefully Gauis would be back by the time he did so. Merlin rushed out the door and didn't give a second thought to check that the only new features were the ears and tail.

The Castle corridors were quiet as Merlin rushed about trying to get to Arthur's Chambers with minimal contact with anyone else. Merlin was especially trying to avoid the Knights of the Round Table who would want to talk with him and make hiding the effects of the spell harder than it was already.

Merlin was almost to Arthur's Chambers when his new sensitive ears picked up a scurrying sound. He turned to find out what was making the noise and scanned the ground where the sound had come from. There! In the area where the wall met the floor, there was a small furry shape that seemed to be going towards the King's Chambers. Without a second thought, Merlin found himself with a dead mouse in hand.

Merlin panicked for a second as he realized the spell had done more than give him physical changes. Merlin knew he couldn't just put the mouse back and ended up just putting it in his pocket to deal with for later so he could focus on finding out if Arthur was safe or not.

Soon he found himself in front of Arthur's Chambers and cautiously opened the door. Inside he saw Arthur calmly sitting at his desk working on reports that his Knights had sent in. Merlin let out a sigh of relief that everything seemed to be alright and walked into the room. He had to make sure that there was nothing to worry about as subtle spells and curses were often much worse than obvious ones.

"Arthur?"

Arthur glanced up at Merlin briefly before turning back to the reports on his desk. "Still haven't learned to knock then Merlin? What do you need? I'm a bit busy at the moment with actual work. Something I'm sure you are unacquainted with as I have not seen you all morning." Arthur raised an eyebrow, likely expecting a reason why Merlin had failed to see to his morning duties as Arthur's Manservant.

Merlin ignored the unspoken question and felt a little of his anxiety leave him because Arthur was safe and acting as prattish as ever. "I'm not quite sure that feasts and napping on your desk counts as work sire."

Arthur scowled at the documents before him but didn't look back up at Merlin. "Very funny Merlin. Almost as funny as the list of things for you to do before the day ends. The first being sharpening my weapons followed by cleaning up the fireplace a bit." Merlin felt his grin fall as the list of duties grew. "Later you will draw me a bath and help me prepare for bed. After all that is done, you will be free to retire to your chambers, or the Tavern as that seems to be your favorite place as of late." Merlin sighed, he knew that he had been later than usual the past few days which was what Arthur was being petulant about by assigning Merlin extra chores.

"Yes, your royal prattness." Said Merlin with a sarcastic bow. Arthur finally turned back around to scold Merlin when something else caught his attention as he had a closer look at his Manservant. "Merlin what in heaven's name happened to your eyes!?"

Merlin blinked a few times in surprise before reaching a hand up to his face as if that would tell him what was wrong with his eyes. "...My eyes sire?"

"Yes, you idiot! They almost look like a cat's!" Arthur leaned in to try and get a closer look as Merlin suddenly backed up a few steps. He needed to get back to Gaius before things got any more out of hand.

"I d-don't know sire but I'll go to Gaius to get it checked right away," said Merlin in a rush. He turned to leave the room. Before Merlin knew what he was doing, he was reaching into his pocket for the dead mouse and threw it to Arthur. The new instinct had come upon him too quickly to repress it.

Arthur caught the mouse but immediately dropped it once he saw what it was. "Merlin, why did you just toss me a dead mouse!" The look of disgust washed across his features as he looked from the dead rodent to Merlin's face.

Merlin's anxiety grew which caused his ears and tail to start twitching. "I can explain!" It came out desperately as Merlin scrambled to try and think of a logical explanation.

"Can you now? I would love to hear an explanation then." Arthur had both eyebrows raised and leaned against his desk. He gestured for Merlin to try and explain.

"I-I ... um..." While trying to string together a reasonable excuse, Merlin's anxiety got the better of his self-control. His tail came loose and started swinging behind him and the hat started to fall off as his ears tried to flick around.

Arthur looked shocked as he saw the tail moving behind Merlin. Merlin reached up to try and fix his hat. The motion drew Arthur's eyes and he saw that there was movement underneath the material. He met Merlin's eyes, demanding an explanation.

"... there was this odd herb."

Arthur looked at Merlin as he stood in front of him with his ears and tail on full display as Merlin waited for Arthur's reaction to his story.

"So, you're telling me that when you went out to get herbs for Gaius there was an odd glowing herb around the area you were in?" Arthur paused to verify with Merlin and Merlin nodded so he kept going. "And then you decided the best thing to do was to taste the glowing herb!?"

"In my defense, sire, the flower looked like an herb that is known to help aches and pains. I thought it might be a more potent form of the plant." Merlin knew the story was ridiculous, even for him, but he didn't want to mention the sorceress and potentially cause another witch hunt. He doubted that Arthur would be as drastic as his father, but he didn't want to make his views of magic worse than it already was. He would rather play the fool than let Arthur slip closer to Uther's view on magic.

"You, Merlin, are an absolute buffoon! As it stands I can't trust you to go to Gaius on your own for fear that you'll happen upon some other glowing herb along the way and sprout horns and wings!" Arthur had grown progressively more incredulous and irritated as Merlin had told the story of why he suddenly had cat features.

Merlin's ears flattened against his head and his tail stooped swishing behind him. Merlin may rather play the fool, but that didn't mean that he wasn't hurt that his friend was so willing to believe the act.

Arthur's expression softened as he took in Merlin's downtrodden body language. He let out a quiet sigh and spoke with a calmer tone. "Don't look so down Merlin, I'm sure Gaius will be able to find a way to reverse the effects." Arthur stood up from his desk and walked towards the doors. "Let's go find him"

Merlin cleared his throat as Arthur walked past him and intentionally twitched his ears and tail when Arthur looked back to show the issue with them wandering around to find Gaius. "Oh yes, walking around like that may not be such a good idea." Arthur took a moment to think before waving his hand dismissively "Hide them as you did before. It seemed to work fine getting you here, so it should be fine for a while longer." He crossed his arms as he waited for Merlin to hide his features again.

"Yes, sire because that was so easy to do." Arthur just raised an eyebrow and Merlin huffed before starting the struggle of tucking his tail under his tunic and adjusting his hat. When he was done Merlin went to start towards the door before another thing occurred to him and he turned towards Arthur. "What about my eyes?"

Arthur squinted at him, humming in thought. "I think you should be fine, so long as you keep your head down a bit and don't let people get a good look." It wasn't a foolproof plan by any means, but it was the best they could do at the moment.

With a nod, the duo set out to find the Court Physician.

I fixed up quite a few errors I hadn't noticed initially from what I had originally posted. I dislike short chapters so I will probably do long chapters like this one that just takes a bit to post. Now that I am doing this on an actual computer instead of my phone it should be easier than before (also I can check the grammar and other issues easier now as well). Sorry that it's nothing new but I hope that it reads better now. Let me know if you see any issues.

Side note: Arthur is King if you didn't notice and Mordred will show up, but he won't be evil (probably hehehe jk he won't be evil for sure)

-Citrus/Kiwi