A/N: Hello people!

I always thought that Merlin was such a lonely boy, what with his friends dying around him one by one (Will, Lancelot, Arthur and all ...), that my overactive brain decided to cope by making him a new friend. One that would last a bit longer than the others ...

I have been twiddling with this for a loooong time in my head, and it finally felt close enough to completion for me to share it with you. Trust me, having a sassy Merlin prancing around in my head all day long in front of customers is distracting at best! So let's have fun with this!

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of its characters, obviously. If I did, Uther would have had a pet bunny.

The lower town market was busy today. People everywhere, going about their business, bargaining with the apothecary, eyeing the fruits with a critical expression, loitering around the blacksmith's stall. Drusilla waved a quick hello to Tom as she passed by. Gwen's dad nodded and smiled back, too busy with customers for anything more.

She loved the feeling of busy market days. Everything felt so much more alive than her own dusty and quiet little world. People of every class mixed together to shop and barter. Unlike the odious prince and his cronies over there, she thought, seeing the crowd giving Prince Arthur and his knight friends a wide berth as they walked into the square. She prayed he would not see her, or at least not pick on her today. After the morning she'd endured with her uncle's grouchiness, she had no patience left for his horsing around and his not-as-clever-as-he-thought jokes. Luckily, the prince's attention was on someone else.

"How's your knee-walking coming along?"

She tried to see who Arthur was heckling this time, but no one stood out of the crowd.

"Aw, don't run away!"

This time someone did stand out. A dark haired boy stopped and answered the prince.

"From you?"

Arthur sighed and he and his gang were walking towards the boy, looking for all the world like a pack of wolves hunting a deer.

"Thank God. I thought you were deaf as well as dumb."

The boy wasn't having it. He turned towards the prince, all defiance.

"Look, I've told you you're an ass. I just didn't realize you were a royal one ... Oh, what are you going to do? Get your daddy's men to protect you?"

Had he really just said what she thought she'd heard him say just now? He was brave. Foolish, definitely. Mad, most probably. But brave nonetheless.

Arthur was laughing, his cronies following his example dutifully.

"I could take you apart with one blow."

The boy was not scared, even though she was scared for him.

"I could take you apart with less than that."

Prince Arthur eyed the gangly boy again, trying not to laugh.

"Are you sure?"

He took off his jacket. Now Arthur was laughing in earnest and his goons were getting rowdy behind him.

The boy did not turn around and run, like Drusilla thought he should. Not matter how self-indulgent and narcissistic the prince was, he was also a skilled fighter. She hoped for the boy's sake that he was not as inexperienced as he looked.

"Here you go, Big Man."

Arthur threw him a mace, which the boy let drop on the ground with a clatter.

"Come on then. I warn you, I've been trained to kill since birth."

The arrogant sod! He had only been trained to kill since he was twelve and she knew it very well. The dark haired boy was still smiling, unimpressed, albeit keeping a safe distance between him and the prince.

"Wow. And how long have you been training to be a prat?"

Drusilla let out a giggle as she saw Arthur's face scrunch up. Had anyone ever told him off like that? Not that she remembered, at least.

"You can't adress me like that."

"I'm sorry. How long have you been training to be a prat, my lord?"

Oh. Ohhh! Drusilla was beginning to like this boy and his smart mouth quite a lot. He bowed down and smiled cheekily at the prince. Arthur smiled back, like a deranged man of course, and attacked immediately. The boy dodged amidst the growing crowd.

"Come on then, Merlin. Come on!"

Drusilla tried to follow the pair as they took their fight all around and then right into the shop stalls. The boy was on the defensive, trying not to get maimed by the over-enthusiastic prince who flailed his mace left and right at him. The dark haired boy fell down and the crowd let out a few noises of distress at his predicament.

"Haha! You're in trouble now."

Just as it seemed all was lost for the brave but foolish boy, Arthur's mace got tangled in a pair of overhanging hooks. The prince's momentum broken, he had to take his eyes off his adversary to untangle the mace. Drusilla let out a small sigh of relief. She would hate for the boy to be badly hurt for standing up to the royal bully that was Prince Arthur Pendragon. Meanwhile Arthur, having his weapon back, advanced on the boy again, no longer amused. He was so focused on him that he never looked to the ground, and hit his shin on a box lying there.

"Ow!"

Drusilla laughed, but that little misfortune only made the prince angrier. He charged the other boy again, only to trip on a rope. The boy picked up the prince's fallen mace and suddenly he was the one charging a retreating Arthur. His adversary was swinging his mace wildly, clearly even more inexperienced with weapons than she had thought at first.

"Do you want to give up?"

Well! He was a confident fellow, to say the least! Arthur eyed him with a little less disdain as he answered.

"To you?"

"Do you? Do you want to give up?"

Arthur backed up as the boy was getting closer, learning how to better swing his mace as he went. The prince stepped in a bucket and fell over. It was not like Arthur to be so clumsy. That was usually her prerogative. The boy seemed distracted from his victory by someone in the crowd and, as his back was turned - a fatal mistake if there ever was one - Arthur picked up a broom and hit him in the back with it - a definitely disloyal move. Two more hits had him on the ground, with guards picking him up roughly between them. The prince made a pacifying gesture at them.

"Wait. Let him go. He might be an idiot, but he's a brave one."

He gave one last' curious look to the gangly boy up close.

"There's something about you Merlin. I can't quite put my finger on it."

On that, Drusilla had to agree with the prince. There was something about that boy.

Drusilla could not wait to tell Morgana about the scene she'd witnessed in the market the day before. That young man who had gotten in a brawl with the prince and almost could have won! She hadn't had the clearest view of the whole thing, being on the outskirts of the street market when it happened, but it was sure to make the king's ward laugh loudly. The prince was turning into an annoying bully whose pettiness knew no bounds. Drusilla and Morgana often complained about it, along with Gwen.

The young lady got dressed in a hurry, shrugging on a pale blue dress with delicate vine patterns embroidered at the neck, wrists and hem. She all but ran out of her room, undoing her plait, letting her dark hair fall down her back and running her fingers through it as she went. A hurriedly placed embossed silver circlet on top of her head was all the effort she made to style it properly. A touch of beeswax balm and a bit of pinching on her cheeks did the rest.

The Great Hall was already filled with people, milling about and chatting lightly before the main entertainment began. Slowing down to a pace more suitable to a highborn lady, Drusilla let herself be introduced properly by the herald, then she dashed into the throng of nobles to find her friend.

The lady Morgana was strutting about in a revealing rust colored dress with lovely gold jewelry, smiling at everyone - everyone but the prince - and seducing the whole room. When her eyes met Drusilla's, her smile became more genuine, less enthralling than before, and she went to meet the other girl.

"Drusilla, how lovely to see you, outside of the archives and properly dressed too!"

They hugged.

"Same to you, Morgana! That dress is amazing on you! I can almost hear the men cracking their necks to stare at you from here."

Morgana pulled away from Drusilla and looked her over.

"And you, my dear, look like royalty in this gown. You might just outshine Lady Helen and her crystal voice tonight."

Both girls giggled.

"Oh by the way Morgana, have you heard of the scene in the market yesterday? Some newcomer got into a fight with prince Arthur!"

To say that the lady's interest was piqued would have been an understatement. Her eyes sparkled and she leaned forward inquisitively.

"A newcomer? I like the sound of that ... Especially if he can stand up against the royal idiot, that'll be a real breath of fresh air. Oh! Perhaps it's the same young man Gwen told me about, the one in the stocks the other day!"

"There was a young man in the stocks? Now why did I miss that?"

Before they could speak any more, king Uther came into the hall and invited everyone to take their place for the evening. Drusilla sat down next to her uncle at one of the side tables, eager for Lady Helen's performance to be over and done with. Drusilla cared little for the renowned singer, and she was starving. She had forgotten to eat at midday, too engrossed in her work - again.

"We have enjoyed twenty years of peace and prosperity. It has brought the kingdom and myself many pleasures, but few can compare with the honour of introducing Lady Helen of Mora."

Under the whole room's excited applause, Lady Helen stood at the end of the Hall, on a dais, and began to sing. Her voice was indeed charming, and in no time Drusilla found herself entranced, her mind drifting to faraway places. Her eyes were suddenly heavy, her head drooping as she was lulled to sleep by the haunting melody. She closed her eyes.

When she opened them, she was covered in cobwebs, as well as the rest of the room. Everyone was stirring, now that the siren song of Lady Helen had ended. In the middle of the hall, under a heavy iron chandelier - had it fallen? - lay an old, broken hag in Lady Helen's beautiful gown. No one had even heard the chandelier falling. What in the blazes had happened to them?

Before everyone in attendance could regain their full reflexes, the old witch threw a knife at prince Arthur, and expired.

Faster than she thought possible, someone grabbed hold of the prince's tunic and pulled him out of the way. A dark haired young man, the one from the market brawl!

Drusilla's eyes almost shot out of her head when she realised it, but no one noticed. All eyes were on the king, who had now risen and was focusing his incredulous eyes on the young peasant.

"You saved my boy's life. A debt must be repaid."

The young man fidgeted under the crowd's stares.

"Oh, well ..."

King Uther carried on.

"Don't be so modest. You shall be rewarded."

Drusilla saw the dark-haired boy shake his head negatively all the while.

"No, honestly, you don't have to, Your Highness."

But the king insisted.

"No, absolutely. This merits something quite special."

The prince's savior was slowly relenting, it seemed.

"You shall be rewarded a position in the royal household. You shall be Prince Arthur's manservant."

Arthur's objection was drowned in the loud applause that came immediately after the announcement. The prince and his new manservant eyed each other crossly. Poor sod! Dru wanted to laugh at the faces both boys pulled. They seemed equally disgusted by the turn of events.

A/N: So, this is just the first episode, as you've probably noticed, and Merlin hasn't met Drusilla yet. Wonder when that might happen?

R&R to make an author smile!