Hello, and Happy Sunday! Today I bring a new chapter. Merlin's perspective. It will be about three parts I think from this chapter. For me, they will be really important for the story. There are secrets to reveal. Enjoy it.

I'm not own from Merlin.

Merlin was glad to see Telvar again. He simply longed for his advice and his talk, which sounded like an old man advising how and what to do in life. Yes, for Merlin, Telvar was a very experienced man. Only hearing him you could easily receive recommendations and good advice when you didn't know what to do with your life.

He called him a friend, but it wasn't exactly what they were. Besides, Telvar was much older than Merlin, and it wouldn't make sense to call each other a friend (although in part Merlin didn't call Arthur a friend either, although he knew that, if he wasn't his best friend, he was one of the best; and he assumed Arthur thought the same), but there was a relationship between them as there was between him and Gaius. Yes, something like that was, Merlin thought.

In fact, he recalled that the first times he was with Gaius at Camelot he resembled Telvar. And he assumed they should be the same age, although it was true that Telvar seemed wilder and more tired as if he had lived a whole hard and unexpected life of surprises, some not as good as others, as it could be imagined.

In general, Telvar was a strong man despite his age (a rather rough and savage force, like a bear, not the strength of a muscular knight), with a face full of small scars and wrinkles that gave an older and fierce appearance, which reminded a retired gentleman who had lived his last years in a cave. He had gray-black hair, long and slightly dirty hair (like the hair of someone who had lived wildly on the mountain), and a thick beard of the same color, but without being so long.

Whenever he thought of him, Merlin came to mind the man who in his mother's tales was apparently gross and ferocious, but who inside was kind and generous. If he didn't remember badly that man was a lumberjack, just as Telvar was, or so he seemed.

Merlin had met Telvar as a friend of his mother's. According to her, Telvar could not live in Ealdor for reasons he would not understand, and which he still did not know. She still told him he wouldn't understand, as if he was still seven years old and couldn't understand where people were going after they died, although it's true that no one alive knew.

The thing is that, since then, Merlin used to go, alone or with friends (with his friend Will several times, he remembered with pity and nostalgia), to visit him a few days, from time to time, because he was far from Ealdor. There he went to his caves (he had several), where he would sit on the rock by the fire and listen to what Telvar said. Thus, he learned many things of life, such as death, love, freedom, loneliness, the passage of time, even the mystery of existence… And that's where he got the story he told last night. About life in general. How it came and went. How death was so capricious, though the most capricious was the person who saw it in action.

And so was his relationship with Telvar. Honestly, he loved to hear the man's tired, old, leisurely voice. Only with it could he fall asleep in the gaps of time and past.

Telvar was a person who wanted to understand the time and its past. And even if he didn't know, Merlin already understood the Mystery of Time perfectly, even if he could do nothing to teach it to others like Telvar they longed to know.

And there was another thing that made Telvar even more special and important to Merlin, and that was that he also possessed magic. And so, of course, he knew of his magic as well (Merlin felt a pang of guilt when he thought of Morgana). He was the only person at the time with magic he knew. Where he had felt alone and lost, he had found Telvar's arms where to throw himself, rest, and feel protected. So he had also felt with Gaius. And again he thought of Morgana. How she was. How she didn't have anyone to understand her or help her with her magic. Yes, Merlin wanted to help her and tell her she had magic. But he couldn't. He had already been warned by Gaius and the Great Dragon of what could happen.

From where Telvar lived, that changed place over time. Sometimes he was here, sometimes on the other side, and sometimes there. The point was that more or less the places were close to each other and that Merlin could know from a hunch of magic where he was. Telepathic messages could also be sent, such as druids, and that was something they used to use often.

And so, he had managed to go where he stood, with only magic, for the middle of the night.

He had been the first part of the night looking for information about the Dragonlords (he was still curious, despite knowing the basics Gaius had told him), and then had had a chat with Morgana and her nightmares, who claimed she had dreamed of him dead. At the moment, he wasn't worried about that. After all, he always ended up fixing the problems, didn't he? asked a little voice inside whenever he thought about it. But there was never an answer, for Merlin used to cast it aside before he even thought.

And, after being in Morgana's troubles, he had received a magical hunch, so he had known that Telvar was not living in the cave at the time. The problem was that, at night, Telvar was never there, and that was something Merlin was curious about and didn't understand.

And what he didn't understand afterward was, if he was no longer living in that cave, why then the campfire had been lit when they had reached the cave?

And so he knew how to find his way to the place where Telvar was and had guided his friends there. Perhaps it was not much necessary to go with him, it was true, and they had already commented on that several times, but Merlin managed to trick them into letting them know that they needed some food and heat, and his supposed friend could give them.

But for what Merlin really wanted to go there, besides because he caught them passing by to get to Ealdor, was to know things he had never known. To uncover the secrets yet to be revealed.

To know the truth.

Very important the next chapters, trust me. "You can trust me, you know you can". Well, I really hope you liked it, not only the chapter but also the whole story. In the next parts of the chapters, you will know more about Balinor and his past, as well as Telvar's past.

Thank you to: The Sorrowful Deity, for your participation and comments, that makes me want to write more, which is what I like; to weirdhead, for your ideas and imagination, that makes me have lots of things that I can do in the story and I have never imagined; to drew1998, for your comments and recommendations; to joggerwriting, for your happy and hopeful comments; and to emrysmorgan, for being there one of the first and for your participation.

Yes, today I'm grateful. It will be because it is Sunday. Well, have a nice weekend.

LegolasHV