Many thanks to both Taz andGingeraffaelene for your reviews.
Interesting that you both ask about the original quest - the chapter before it is addressed.
Do you both have a share of a Seer's gift - or is it what we call it nodadays: A gut feeling?
Published Oct, 30, 2020. Happy Halloween to all readers here!
7. Visitors
The knights and their king had nothing to complain about in spite of being snowed-in in a far-away fortress during a rare could spell, where all Camelot avoided to be outdoors as much as they could.
One morning at breakfast, Merlin addressed them all.
-"Your majesty, my friends!" At this a king all but rolled his eyes, but then smiled along with all the others at the table.
-"There are going to be visitors."
Just a week ago, more than one had sighed or mentally dismissed such a line as very merlinly and not paid much attention to it; but now when they all knew about his magic, not one of them were surprised.
-"Visitors? Coming here in this dreadful cold?" said Arthur, his ears still red and hands cold after his walk back from the stable where he and Lancelot had seen to the horses and stalked their fire.
-"That must be people of a special quality!"
-"Yes, Sire," smiled Merlin, "They are very special folks, indeed." But he didn't want to say more about who they were.
-"There are four of them, and they come to bring a very special gift. They will be here at midday," was the only information even the King himself managed to prey out of his Wizard.
And so it came to be, that all the knights were standing in parade on the courtyard, while Percival wound up the portcullis and Merlin opened the small door for pedestrians in the main gate, and in came four people. They were either wearing white clothes or covered by snow, so in any case it had been very hard for Gwaine to spot them from the main tower. The only thing he had seen was a small white cloud of snow, moving down the mountainside towards the fortress.
-"Very welcome, visitors," said Leon, smiling. "We are knights of the Round table. May I present to you our primus inter pares, king Arthur of Camelot?"
At this the four newly arrived bowed and listened to the short welcome speech Arthur had prepared. He did not want it too be long, as it was so cold outside. He ended with a presentation of his own.
"And now, my friends, I cannot be prouder than to introduce to you the latest addition to my court, sir Merlin, the magic-protector of Camelot."
While Arthur smiled, and the knights beamed (even Percival, who had lowered the portcullis again and come down to join the other knights on the courtyard) none of the visitors seemed to move. At first. But then the smallest of them ran forward and jumped up into Merlin's arms, giggling and all but shrieking from joy:
-"Emrys, Emrys! Is this all really true?"
Merlin could just whisper his acknowledgments to whoever that was, and then they were all asked into the castle by the King himself.
When the door was closed behind them, Elyan saw to the visitors so they could take off their cloaks and then whisked them upstairs to two rooms the knights had prepared the same morning. Fires cracked in the hearths, warm baths were ready – and dry clothes, the right style and size thanks to Merlins foreknowledge and magic was laid out for all the different four guests.
It seemed that the preparations were enjoyed to the utmost, because it took more than two hours for the guests to arrive at the Main hall and the lunch. As a reader you already know that Merlin heated he food up when they came, so I do not have to tell you that!
The visitors ate the soup in silence, still wide- eyed and impressed. When Percival collected the bowls, the eldest of the visitors presented Arthur with an elaborate wooden box decorated with beautiful Celtic patterns.
-"With your permission, your majesty, I am Ariadne, clan leader of a small group of Druids living close to the top of the great mountain. I am here with my son Aisklepos, and my grand children Andrew and Anna."
And indeed, the slender old woman with her almost regal charisma, was joined by a middle age man with still raven black hair, one gangly teenager and a small, golden haired girl. She was the one who had greeted Merlin with the name Emrys upon their arrival.
-"And I am Arthur, and how much I appreciate your polite use of my title, I would even more like you to greet me as the man I am as long as we are here."
If Ariadne was surprised, it just flickered for a fraction of a second in her eyes. Then she bowed her head in an appreciating nod and continued:
-"We are more than happy to address you only Arthur, if that is what you like. But even more happy we are to be so magnificently received! Please receive our thanks."
At this it was Arthur's turn to nod. He did so smiling, before Aisklepos told him:
"We came to bring you this gift."
As accustomed in a royal court, one of the knights stepped forward to receive the gift in behalf of the king. At this the boy Andrew laughed and asked if that sir knight should not also try to open it?
Lancelot, who hold the box, looked at Merlin for confirmation, and when the Wizard smiled and nodded, Lancelot tried to slide the lid off the box. He did not, however, succeed.
-"Another one," smiled the girl, named Anna, "and Lancelot handed to box to Percival, who in turn handed it to Gwaine. No knight was able to open the box, which was rewarded by stiffed giggles from the girl herself.
In the end the box had landed into Arthur's own hands, and he effortlessly slid the lid open. Inside was a beautiful flower with red and white petals. Beside it was a crystal vial full of golden liquid.
-"May we present to you the Fire flower, from which can be made the remedy to lethal wounds and maladies," said the Druid clan leader.
-"And as the process to brew the potion is long and tedious," continued her son, "Also a small vial of the potion itself."
The main hall went so silent that a falling needle could have been heard, had there been one. Now the only sound was two feet who shuffled uncomfortably.
All the knights turned to stare at the owner of the nervous feet, and exclaimed as one:
-"Merlin!"
The king however waved them off, and visibly touched uttered a stuttered reception speech.
-"But now, however, my guests, and friends, we must have some more food."
At this two knights went to the kitchen to fetch a large pan of fried fish and one filled with stewed vegetables. Two of them asked for the guests' wishes of drinks, while Arthur's and Merlin's eyes met merrily over the box with its flower and potion.
When all had their cups and plates filled, and have eaten some, Arthur told the Druids that he was sure they had a story to tell.
-"Indeed we have, Arthur," said the Druid elder, "And I believe it has to be begun by my grand daughter Anna.
Anna smiled, thanked Ariadne, but then went a slight shade of pink realising all where now looking expectantly at her. She draw her breath sharply, and then put her eyes on Merlin.
-"Two weeks ago, I had a dream, Emrys. I had to ask papa what it was about, so now I know I saw a knight in chain mail and red cape climbing the mountain, looking for a flower to bring home."
-"She is a Seer, Merlin explained, so she had a vision . . .
. . . of why we came here in the first place?" Arthur finished the sentence.
-"Yes," said Aisklepos simply, "so now we knew you were on your way. Then we understood the blizzard would come." Saying no more he nodded to his son.
-"And I was sent to get it for you, Arthur," said the gangly boy, telling proudly how he had set out to find and pick the Fire flower from the very top of the mountain. It followed an adventure where the teenager had used his Druid powers and Old magic to his utmost. He had to avoid predators, go a safe path and find the flower.
-"Or rather the flowers," he ended his story. "Because papa wanted to give of his potion, and needed a flower himself to brew more potion of for us."
Merlin had seen the faces of all listening to a breathtaking adventure story, while all food was left uneaten, and led the conversation into some small talk where the Druids could tell some more of themselves, and all present empty their plates. Arthur then invited for seconds, and seeing much food is needed when outside it is very cold, no one declined. Meanwhile, Gwaine, who had fried the fish, got many compliments for it.
-"Then three days ago," said Ariadne, when only the children and Percival tried to eat a little more, "we had a peculiar visitor. Anna saw it first, of course."
-"Yes," smiled the girl, " I had seen a hint of it in a dream, and it happened so that I was the first one to see it when it arrived to our camp."
-"It looked like a mountain leopard," said her older brother. "fur so white it can not be seen in the snow. But it was not a living thing. It was made up solely by ice crystals. But it came, and it spoke!"
-"So it did," said Ariadne. "It told us to come to meet the Once and future King. And what to bring."
Again all eyes were set on Merlin, who cringed under the stares and excused himself with having to go ready the desert.
-"So, here we are," said Aisklepos, "And even though the creature had told us not to fear and come to peaceful knights, we could never even dream of such a kind reception."
At this Anna loudly cleared her throat and rolled her eyes, which provoked a big laughter from all.
-"But we have not only come with this box as a gift. As you all know we are healers and if you are at peace with it, we would like to administer some healing gifts to you.
-"First, to you all: training hard makes muscles strong, but also shorter, making graceful and swift movements harder."
-"Some of you have old battle scars, that sometimes strain and itch. One of you have bones grown together not perfectly aligned."
-"There are bad memories from battles and squirmices, which are not healed. Having wounded and killed is hard to carry, even if done by duty."
-"One of you is prone to migraine, even if it happens seldom. One misses his father. And then we have one who likes ale, but have a liver on its way to be harmed from all the alcohol."
-"May we please have your permission to help with that?"
As no knight was at all against magic any more, Merlin found the Main hall looking very close to Gaius' chambers during an emergency when he came back with an apple pie. But the Druids knew what they were doing and it took not much time to administer the healing.
It was twelve beaming humans who happily dug into the dessert!