As promised here is an extremely tiny chapter of Merlin goodness!

Chapter 7 … Merlin the hero!

Merlin woke up slowly to fresh air, bright light, bird song and chatter. The light told him it was mid-morning, yet he distinctly remembered it to be noon. He closed his eyes and let the memories take form. There had been a battle and there had been Sigan. He had tried to take over he's body, but Merlin wasn't having that, he had pushed at Sigan with every fiber of his being, magic or otherwise. He wanted the intruder gone, and once he was out Merlin had taken his chance and attacked the helpless spirit.

He didn't remember anything after that.

Merlin opened his eyes again and slowly sat up. They were still in the same clearing, and the knights stood or sat around the camp that they must have set up while Merlin was out of it.

"You're awake!" Merlin turned at the sound of Arthur's voice. The blonde prince walked over with a bowl of what looked like thick porridge. "Here you must be hungry." Merlin took the bowl gratefully; he was really starving.

"What happened?" he asked Arthur in between spoonfuls of food.

Arthur, who had settled down next to Merlin, looked the younger boy up and down, before he answered. "You defeated Sigan." It was a simple sentence, said matter-of-factly, but the implication of further questions was very heavy in Arthur's tone.

Merlin gulped down his food and then looked down at the bowl, suddenly not all that hungry. However his best chance was not to let Arthur know that he had anything to hide. He sighed inwardly; he hated deceiving Arthur like this.

"Why do I get the impression that you want to say something more?" he said to Arthur, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Eat your food Merlin." Merlin took a few more bites, before it seemed Arthur couldn't take it anymore. "So you have magic…" Merlin shrugged his shoulders, his mouth too full to speak. His magic wasn't a big deal to him, who had had it his whole life. "You never told me!" Arthur accused him.

"You never asked!" Merlin retorted. Then he sighed and continued, "It's not a big deal, and I just use it in my everyday tasks sometimes."

"A power like that is not 'not a big deal'." Arthur snapped. "You just defeated Sigan!"

"A power like what?" Merlin gave a little nervous chuckle. "I'm not as powerful as you're making me out to be Arthur."

"Do I have to keep repeating myself?" Arthur demanded. "You just defeated Sigan!"

"Which was more chance than anything!" Merlin insisted. "He chose to take over my body, which I wasn't going to allow, I hardly needed magic for that." Merlin cringed inwardly at the lie; that had taken a lot. "I just pushed at him with all my might. Once he was out, and in helpless spirit form, it was almost comical how easy it was to take care of him." Another lie; Merlin was glad Arthur didn't know how much power it took to burn up a soul.

Arthur stared at Merlin some more, looking unconvinced, Merlin looked back steadily. Eventually Arthur gave a sigh and seamed to physically let it go.

"You're still an idiot."

"You're still a prat."

Soon after that they packed up their camp and set off for Camelot. Their spirits was high, everyone happy that their trip wasn't completely for nothing.

The journey back to Camelot was a lot shorter, now that they didn't have to stop at every village or town that they came across. They got back in just four short days, five days ahead of schedule.

Once they neared the city, Arthur sent one of his knights ahead to inform the castle of their return. So by the time they got there everyone had came to greet them.

"Arthur!" The blonde prince ran to his mother, the moment he was off his horse. He looked like a little boy when he did that, but Merlin doubted that Arthur really cared about that. The younger prince watched on in envy; he missed his own mother really badly.

Morgana too, came to hug her brother tightly. It was the only time he had seen those two not arguing. The princess moved aside to let the king through, who gripped his son's shoulders tightly, asking how he was.

"You've had a long journey, why don't you wash up, eat something and then get some rest. You can give me a report later." Arthur bowed to his father before they all made it inside.

Before Merlin could do anything about unpacking all their stuff, Arthur called over some servants to take care of it all. He then marched Merlin, quite forcefully to Gaius' chambers.

"Gaius!" the blonde prince demanded upon entering the physician's chambers. "You need to check this one over."

"Arthur! Merlin!" the old physician exclaimed. "You're back."

"Yes," Arthur confirmed the obvious. "And you need to check Merlin over."

"What have you done my boy?" Gaius asked as he moved forwards to poke and prod at Merlin.

"Nothing!" Merlin exclaimed, confused. "I'm fine, I haven't done anything."

"Except pass out after defeating a powerful sorcerer." Sarcasm was heavy in Arthur's voice.

"What?!" Gaius stared at Merlin in shock. The two princes explained what had happened, to him.

"Get some rest Merlin, and freshen up," Arthur said as he moved to wards the door. "You need to be there when we report to my father."

Merlin made a face to Arthur's back. Did the prat know what trouble he'd just dropped him into? And sure enough the moment the door closed behind the prince it started.

"What were you thinking? Haven't you…" Merlin sighed, settling in for the lecture of horror, paired with the eyebrow of doom.

MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA

After some rest and food, and Gaius announcing that Merlin was absolutely fine. They went to the great hall to report to the king and queen.

Arthur began by explaining his reasons for not continuing with the search, which the king had to admit, were sound. Then he introduced Tristan and Isolde, who retold their story.

"This cannot stand!" Uther said angrily. "Send a warning massage to Cenred, if these little invasive attacks do not stop, Camelot will retaliate."

"Of course, father."

"Thank you, your majesty." Isolde bowed, as did Tristan.

"It's nothing, I will not allow my people to be attacked like this." The king said with all of his authority. "You should have reported this sooner, but no matter, we will take care of it now. See to it that they have rooms and food as long as they wish to stay here."

"Yes, father." Arthur bowed. "There is however more to report." The king raised an eyebrow.

"I do hope there is no more bad news." He said, half joking. Arthur smiled.

"No father, we do have good news to report too," Arthur indicated for Merlin to come to stand next to him, the royals looked at Merlin curiously, before looking to Arthur to explain further. "On our way back we ran into an old enemy, Sigan." There was a gasp from the women.

"Arthur! Are you alright?" His mother asked worriedly.

"I'm quite alright mother as you can see." Arthur opened his arms to show her. "I did say it was good news." He smiled cheekily at her.

"Arthur!" The king bellowed suddenly, sounding excited to those who knew him well. "You are not saying what I thing you are saying? Are you?" Arthur laughed, nodding his head.

"There was a fight," Arthur began. "As it turns out my manservant, Merlin, has some magic, and Sigan tried to take over his body…"

There was another gasp, from the side of the hall.

"Merlin! Are you alright?" That was the princess Morgana, whom for some reason didn't like to sit on her throne when Arthur wasn't on his.

"Yes my Lady." Merlin assured her.

"Yes," Arthur smiled. "Merlin is the hero of the hour, I don't exactly know how but he pushed Sigan out and reduced his soul to dust. He says it was easy when he was in spirit form." Arthur looked up at his father. "Sigan is gone for good."

Uther barked out a laugh, and got up from his throne, walking to Merlin and gripping his shoulders, similar to what he did for his own son earlier.

"There is nothing I can give you that will repay you for the peace of mind you have given me, but I will try." The king told Merlin, who was in shock, he'd never seen Uther like this. But then again he hadn't have had that much contact with him, suddenly he missed his father.

"It's quite alright your majesty." Merlin bowed.

"Now, now," Uther insisted. "You name it and it's yours. Money? Promotion? A knighthood perhaps? I get the impression you are a good fighter."

"I'm quite alright your majesty." Merlin repeated. He already had all that back at home, he didn't need it again.

"Come, don't be so modest." Uther pushed.

"Well…" he began, then continued when Uther gave his shoulder an encouraging squeeze. "I wouldn't mind being exempt from the mocking of the stables duty." The king blinked, looking surprised.

"But that's not your duty to begin with." Merlin looked to Arthur with narrowed eyes.

"It isn't?" he had thought it odd. Back in Ealdor it wasn't Will's job to mock out the stables, but Merlin had thought Camelot was just different. They had been Arthur's personal stables after all.

"Arthur! You haven't been making Merlin mock out your stables, have you?" the queen demanded. Arthur dropped his eyes in shame under his mother's disappointment. The king chuckled.

"Since that is not you duty anyway, is there anything else?" he asked Merlin.

"Could I have access to the public library, sire?"

"Yes, of course." The king agreed. "That is very simple, anything else?" Merlin looked uncomfortable for a moment.

"Could I have some days off to go to the library?" Uther laughed.

"You are easy to please Merlin." He smiled. "You can have every Sunday off." He announced.

Merlin smiled he couldn't wait to get back to reading.

End of chapter!

Hope you enjoyed! The next chapter is written on paper, I will post it as soon as I type it up…

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