Medevial knights were the upper class, and they were supposed to know music and arts besides how to fight.

I use a bit of that to make Arthur's men a litttle less cliché and hope you don't mind!

Thanks for reviews to MoparGirtl1 and Gingeraffealene!

Happy reading from the author!

Published Oct 5, A.D. 2020.

3. Second watch

When Lancelot and Percival was ending their shift, the two knights coming to succeed them up in the main tower saw both of them smile mischievously, but had no idea why. It could not really be that fun to go to bed?

Gwaine had brought a large tankard of ale up, and had feared it would be cold. But when he was woken from his nice bed, he experienced a warm castle, and even though the watch tower could not be lit, it was not cold.

-"I hope you slept well, Leon," he smiled to the fellow knight.

-"Thank you, I slept very well. I think I have not since . . ."

-"Yes?"

-"Ah, I am not sure. It was long ago. Being a knight in training, I once happened to sleep as nice as tonight. Back then it was a mystery, really."

-"Well, Leon, you can tell me about it whenever you want to do so. But speaking about something mysterious, what do you say about the beds we slept in?"

-"Very comfortable, Gwaine, luxurious, even! I wonder if we were put up in the very guest rooms of this castle?"

-"I wonder if such a far away defensive building has any real guest rooms? Should here just be a lowly garrison? But in any case I am a bit surprised myself."

-"How so?"

-"Well, here we come, in one of the chilliest autumns I remember, and this stone house should be dead cold, as no one has been here for weeks. Add to that the blizzard. But out of nothing, it seems, the stone house is warm, the food splendid, AND, this is what I find really strange, as we want to go to bed early, every bed is warm and dry. It is like there has been an army of servants with their pans with burning coal run between the bedclothes."

-"You are right!" mused Leon. I must confess, that not even in Camelot it is as nice as here during winter, in spite of the place being lived in all the time. This is really strange!"

-"But it is worse, I think!"

-"You do not mean the supplies of wine, bear and ale? That can be stored for a long time, and had been laid in here years ago."

-"True, it is not that. No, my question is: why are we even here?"

-"But you know that, Gwaine, we were sent on a quest to find a rare herb or something for an ingredient in one very much needed remedy that Camelot was unexpectedly running out of."

-"No, that is not why we are here. That is why we set out from Camelot in the first place."

-"What do you mean?"

-"What I do mean, Leon, is that we got caught in one of the worst blizzards any of us have ever experienced. But we still made it to a castle at dusk, to spend the night in warm rooms. How did we even get here?"

Leon thought this through. For a long time it seemed, while both men scanned the world outside the castle. Leon thought. As did Gwaine.

They both came to the same conclusion. In a blizzard when not a hand could be seen in front of any one, a storm that should have frozen the travelers to ice – how come they indeed arrived?

They both knew, of course. First a certain servant had insisted they did not leave the last camp. He said the valley and its cave would protect them for an upcoming bad weather. But as no sign of such could be seen on a blue, cloud free sky, Arthur just dismissed that and pressed on.

When the blizzard came, to the credit of the integrity of their servant, he was not even near to tell them that he said so. Instead he rode up beside Arthur, and if all the knights did not know better, he was actually leading the way to shelter and safety in the castle.

-"No one could have so easily led us here, and more than that, straight to the gates. Not without some non human talent."

-"If so, Gwaine, if magic was used to both warn us for an upcoming snow storm, AND lead us to the security here, that was a very good magic. Used in a very nice way!"

-"It was, and that adds to what I have seen of magic used for good, for fun even."

With Leon silent Gwaine told him the story of a quarrel in a tavern, where he was outnumbered and on his way to be beaten, when the plates form the shelves behind the counter started to fly 'by themselves' hitting Gwaine's adversaries.

In response Leon told of in secret being healed by the druids. Then he added:

-"And I know that I have been healed by magic many times since, because I can remember and compare with how it felt the first time. Only this has always been told off as my wounds healing faster than expected."

After Leon had in detail described how it felt to be magically healed, Gwaine realised that he had also experienced that. Many times, in fact, after skirmishes, battles, ambushes and attacks.

Suddenly, and at the same time, it struck them both, they saw clearly. One and only one person had been there all and everytime they should have ended up so wounded they could possibly not ever return to service. They both said it at the same time:

-"Merlin!"

The king's clumsy, funny, witty, snarky manservant had been there for them all the time, doing them a lot of services they had relied heavily on – but never really seen.

-"Isn't it strange that Merlin could keep this up for years, but none of us even got it?" Leon all but gasped as he mentally saw all the pieces of a puzzle fall to place.

-"Well, maybe we are human after all? I mean, sometimes we see more what we expect to see, than what is really there, don't we?"

Leon's humph was enough to acknowledge how right all this was!

But what now?

They had figured something out they were sure no one else knew.

How proceed to break this to the others? Should they actually do it, in the first place?

And then Merlin. He must have known all the time that was he did was illegal. Loyal, kind, brave, yes; but still to be given the capital punishment if found out. How would he feel if just told that now they knew?

And last, but not least, Arthur! Then knights had all watched him and Merlin grew close, like real friends. How would Arthur react getting to know that he in fact did not know Merlin at all?

The rest of the watch those two turned and twisted all possibilities. So went their watch, and they were sadly not sure what to do, when Arthur's merry smile show up, telling them their watch was done.

-"But guys, what is this? Why your long faces?" all but laughed Arthur to them.

-"Sorry, Sire," lied Leon, "we were just bored. "Not even a wolf seem to be out this night."

-"And we had run out of stories, tales about you to share, my Lord!"