AN.: Surprise! Missed me? I bet not haha... Sorry for keeping you waiting. I hope you had a nice christmas, new year and somehow managed to survive january ;w; I finished my lectures and therefore am on break from university but I still have to study several hours a day. This chapter was tricky, I rewrote it several times and I'm not that satisfied but I still hope you like the course this story is setting for. Special thanks to mersan123 (as always, my friend), emrysmorgan, gaylelbf and (welcome to the story! I know you are new but I'm happy you gave this story a shot and left reviews!) as well as the guests who left reviews.
A really special thanks goes to Redrose20202: I read both your reviews and they made me the happiest author alive ^^ I couldn't shake that feeling of happiness for several days. Concerning your question about Merlin's health - You are right! I hope I fixed it with this chapter and I'll keep it in mind for the next ones I'll write. This chapter is for you~
With every step, their energy seemed to fade. Halfway back home, Merlin felt the exhaustion grab ahold of him. He had been so busy with contacting Kilgharrah and fighting off wyverns that he didn't notice how his condition worsened. Merlin had put his needs aside, had pushed down the sickness and had ignored the warning signs his body had signaled to him. Now, after the adrenalin rush was over, he felt how his limbs were aching and trembling, threatening to give out beneath his body, how bad his head was pounding and how his throat felt raw. He couldn't deny it; The flu was still taking a big toll on him. But he had to stay strong, had to keep going. He turned his head slightly to look at the knight next to him; Gwaine was holding on to him with all the strength he still had to spare. Merlin knew that his friend was in dire need of medical assistance as soon as possible. He was breathing heavily and there was a sheen of sweat on his pain-ridden face. Every step closer to their home caused Gwaine to lose his footing and his feet were dragged more and more across the uneven ground. Merlin had to shoulder almost all of his friends weight, while feeling his own strength and will to stay conscious slowly fade away. They didn't exchange any words, they both had to save their energy and were too focused on putting one foot in front of the other without stumbling and crashing to the ground.
After what felt like an eternity, they finally reached Camelot; They stopped near the tree line and leaned against a big old tree to catch their breaths. What Gwaine and Merlin saw as they observed the castle made them swallow; Everyone was in an uproar. The guards were rushing from one point to the other, people were screaming and the top of the castle walls were lit with torches. Nearby, there was a patrol of guards stationed, holding crossbows and scanned the night sky thoroughly. There was a spark of fear written across their young faces.
"Do you think they noticed the wyverns?" Gwaine asked in a hushed whisper.
"I hope they only noticed the wyverns, not the ancient, majestic and deadly dragon fighting them off." Merlin croaked back.
They wobbled closer to the entrance they had used before to leave unseen and scanned their surroundings for patrolling guards. Luckily, because of the uproar and the sightings of the threat in the sky, everyone was focusing their attention on what was going on above their heads. They slipped in and miraculously weren't seen by anyone nearby. Gwaine had serious doubts about their security by that point. Their backs pressed against a wall, they threw one last glance around before scurrying through the shadow of the night and crossed the courtyard safely. The hallways in the castle were empty. Merlin guessed that the guests had been instructed to stay in their quarters during the 'wyvern attack'. Without knocking, they entered Gaius' chambers as soon as they reached the wooden door. Inside, Gaius was sitting at the table, leaning over a set of big books with yellowed pages. He looked up as they entered and the short spark of relief on his face vanished when he saw in which condition both of them were.
"Merlin! Gwaine!" Gaius stood up, almost knocking the candle he had used to read over. The hot wax spilled over and dripped on one of the books. Gaius cursed but ignored his ruined book in favor of the clearly injured men in front of him. He walked around the table and took on his physician role immediately.
"What happened?" He asked, his concern-ridden face jumping from face to face as he helped Gwaine over to sit on the edge of the stretcher in the middle of the room. He had to take a lot of Gwaine's weight. The moment Gwaine sat down and Gaius was sure that he wouldn't topple over on his own, he had to rush over to Merlin in time to catch him and prevent him from landing face first on the hard floorboards. "Merlin!" Gaius held the barely conscious warlock with an iron grip. The slender form of his ward barely weighted anything in his arms. Gaius felt a wave of heat radiating off Merlin's damp skin. His glassy eyes were barely open. Gaius cursed under his breath and walked Merlin over to were Gwaine was sitting. The knight looked up at the approaching physician and his bleary look landed on his unmoving friend.
"Merlin?" Gwaine asked in a low voice. "Merlin!" Gwaine shouted and to Gaius' horror, he tried to get up, reaching for the warlock.
"No, Gwaine, I got him, don't worry." Gaius tried to assure the knight who appeared to be slightly out of his mind. Gaius couldn't believe what was happening right now. He put Merlin down on a stretcher next to Gwaine and felt his forehead. He had a fever running. It wasn't dangerously high, but high enough to justify that the boy was currently knocked out. "How had he been able to move at all?" Gaius asked himself out loud while brushing the black bangs out of Merlin's flushed face. Gwaine had moved enough while sitting on the stretcher to observe the spectacle. He was slightly swaying when he started speaking.
"What is wrong with him? Is he injured? I didn't notice it. There was no blood and he was behaving fine. Has it something to do with his magic again? He might've used it without me noticing. Maybe that's why we weren't seen just now as we entered the castle… A cloaking spell or something like that? It must've worked fine-" Gwaine slightly slurred while speaking and Gaius had the impression that the concern Gwaine felt for his friend was the only thing keeping the man upright at the moment.
After Merlin was covered with a blanket, Gaius took his medical supplies and went over to Gwaine to examine the babbling knight for injuries. He didn't have to search long, since Gaius had noticed the bloody fabric on Gwaine's back before. On further inspection, Gaius' suspicion, which he had at first glance a while ago were confirmed: The soaked-through fabric was stiff and the blood had turned brown indicating that it had dried already. Cautious, he peeled the ripped clothes off to reveal three stripes of open flesh on Gwaine's back. The wound stretched from his left shoulder to the rim of his ribcage on the right side. Gaius also stumbled upon a familiar looking piece of cloth which had been missing from a certain neck. Gaius nodded in approval at his ward's sense for emergency treating. He hoped that Merlin's action was effective and had prevented the wound from getting infected up until now. He managed to take off Gwaine's shirt completely without aggravating the flesh any further. His back looked clean and wasn't reddish at all. Gaius went on and rinsed the wound first with an alcoholic, clear solution. He flushed it out several times. If his assumption was correct, the marks on Gwaine's back corresponded with the sightings of wyverns which had rattled the whole castle in the last few hours. And if these marks were inflicted by wyvern claws, they certainly had not been clean. Satisfied with the cleaning, Gaius carefully pulled the wounds apart to determine how deep the cuts were. To his relief they weren't deep at all, hence the reason they had stopped bleeding. Nevertheless, they were extensive and had still caused Gwaine to lose a mentionable amount of blood. Gwaine had stayed calm during the rinsing and pulling apart, only hissing in pain from time to time. As he smelt the wave of alcohol, Gwaine asked if Gaius had a few sips to spare.
"This isn't suited for drinking." Gaius said in a serious manner. The knight started pouting and Gaius was relieved that Gwaine was behaving normal again. He took the moment to interrogate the knight of the round table. "How are you feeling?"
"Better. It's nice to be out of the cold and to be able to rest. How is Merlin? What is wrong with him?" Gwaine asked urgently.
"I think it's the flu. Even though Merlin tried to hide it, he still had been sick the whole time. I'm afraid it went under because of the trouble his magic had caused him." Gaius grabbed the best set of bandages he had in store and instructed Gwaine to lift his arms slightly. He wound the clean fabric around Gwaine's ribcage and over his left shoulder several times, making sure that it was tight enough. Gwaine groaned but was satisfied in the end.
"I should've noticed that Merlin wasn't feeling well enough. We should've just stayed here with you… Then all those things wouldn't have happened."
"I still don't know what happened to you two." Gaius interjected. Gwaine put a clean shirt provided by Gaius on. It was one of Merlin's shirts and Gwaine had to stifle a laugh when he put it on and felt his muscles stretch the fabric.
"Yes… We went into the forest and walked for a while. We reached a clearing and Merlin shouted something into the sky. A few moments later, there was a huge dragon! It just appeared out of nowhere!" Gwaine barked a laughter, his eyes as wide as saucers while shaking his head in a crazed manner. There was also a sense of childlike wonder in his behaviour.
"They talked and Merlin wanted to know what he had to do about his 'broken-magic-barrier'…" Gwaine was surprised that he was able to even remember anything from the conversation. He had been in a state of shock after all. Gaius had moved on to clean and bandage Gwaine's injured hand by now. He was listening carefully while doing so and nodded from time to time without disrupting Gwaine.
"The dragon had suddenly realized that the wyverns were about to arrive and told us to leave while he took off and tried to scare them off to keep us safe. I can't believe it!" Gwaine said more to himself as he recounted the events which had happened.
"We barely managed to escape but were attacked by three or four wyverns in the woods. Merlin tried to command them to leave us alone but it only worked limited and they still attacked us. I had to fend one off with my sword and later on, I tried to get Merlin out of the way from one wyvern but he must've grazed me instead. Gwaine shoved a thumb over his shoulder at his own back while he looked at Gaius with a displeased expression on his face. Gaius stared at Gwaine, imagining how the brave knight jumped in front of his friend, determined to save Merlin's life no matter what. A sigh escaped him while being confronted with Gwaine's lack of instinct of self-perseverance. Gwaine's only instinct was to protect others. Gaius didn't know if he should be proud or frustrated. One look at his uninjured ward turned the corners of his mouth upwards.
"Thank you Gwaine for keeping Merlin safe." Gwaine looked at Gaius with wide eyes. The knight had expected the physician to be angry for arriving with Merlin in such a bad condition. The compliment and pure kindness he was confronted with left him speechless. Gaius went over to a bowl and filled it with cold water. He grabbed a cloth and moistened it with the cool liquid. He took a chair and sat next to Merlin's stretcher and started to wipe the sweat off of Merlin's face, cooling the warm skin in the process. He proceeded to dunk the cloth in the bowl and continued wiping Merlin's skin with it.
"I assume that Merlin had accidentally called the wyverns when he had called for Kilgharrah?" Gwaine's open mouthed silence was all the answer he needed. He nodded to himself and sighed as he moved on to wipe Merlin's arms with the cold cloth. "I warned him that he wasn't in the condition to call Kilgharrah."
"Right…" Gwaine finally managed to say while he stared at Gaius with a questioning look. "Apparently, my friend is not only a sorcerer – excuse me – warlock, but also a dragonlord?" Gwaine asked remembering what Kilgharrah had called his slender friend earlier and his face contorted into an upset expression. Gaius was surprised by Gwaine's reaction and feared that it had been to much for the knight to handle. He wanted to assure the knight that Merlin was still Merlin, still no threat to Camelot, when Gwaine beat him to it and threw his hands up in the air.
"I can't believe it! How can Merlin turn more and more impressive? A dragonlord? That is the most astonishing thing I've ever heard! I don't know how he managed to keep that secret; I would've boasted with having that ability day in day out." Gwaine shook his head while beaming with respect for his friend. Gaius smiled warmly at the knight. Said knight shifted to lie more comfortably on the stretcher.
"Gaius, I meant what I asked earlier… I could really use a drink right about now." Gwaine said with a charming smile on his face. Gaius went over to his shelf and pulled out a bottle containing a golden liquid which had been hidden behind a set of especially boring looking books and poured Gwaine and himself a cup.
"You should also tell me if Kilgharrah said something which might help Merlin heal his barrier." Gaius said while sitting back down on his chair. Gwaine's joyous expression he had while sipping the honey-coloured beverage vanished, leaving a shadow of concern behind. He sat up a little more properly while staring into his cup.
"He said that only Merlin's own magic can fix the barrier. Every other kind of energy or magic could harm him. Only his own energy won't be rejected by the barrier." Gaius nodded, having anticipated to hear something like that. "He was about to tell us how he could heal himself with his magic but broke off because of the arriving wyverns." He sighed. "That had to be the worst timing I've ever witnessed."
"Conjure…" A weak voice besides them said. Gwaine and Gaius looked at Merlin who was looking at them with half lidded eyes and flushed cheeks. "He said I could conjure some sort of ingredient to fix it. Conjuring ingredients with magic infects the ingredient with a signature of the magic used. I think it should then be used to brew a potion or something like that." Merlin finished his sentence with a hearty coughing fit. Gaius poured Merlin a non-alcoholic drink to ease the certainly burning throat.
"That makes sense!" Gaius grabbed a big book from his shelf. The leathery cover presented the title 'Potions – Ingredients, brewing, healing'
"This book also offers a section with magical ingredients and a section with magical effects after ingesting the potion. I wasn't thinking straight… I assumed that since Merlin's predicament was caused by a spell, it had to be solved with a spell. I should've looked in here sooner." He bought the book over to the table and lit another candle to lighten the room up more. He suddenly paused and looked at Gwaine.
"You wouldn't mind keeping it secret that this book has magic sections? I've hidden it in plain sight and it has always looked boring enough to be written off as a normal boring book about brewing herbal teas." Gaius smiled a little sly.
"What book are you talking about?" Gwaine answered, winking at him.
Then, there was a heavy knock on the door, silencing the room.
AN.: ?