AN: This prompt and the entire first chapter is from Hamato-Grayson. I'm not sure this is the direction they intended but...my mind works in strange ways. Sorry / not sorry! Please enjoy, and comment so I know what you think about the direction it's going. Thanks for the concept, Hamato-Grayson!

It didn't specifically say, so I'm setting this in the middle of season 4, because I want Gwen and the knights and Arthur as king. Wish I could have Lancelot too. :-(

Oh, I don't own Merlin or anything at the BBC, sadly.

CHAPTER 1: Movin' On

I stood over the cliff, the wind sweeping my hair up and behind me as I smiled wistfully at the scene in front. The castle was magnificent, with light-colored stone, smooth and winking up at me from my position. It's just like the film, but this one I knew was the real deal. I was seeing it used for its original purpose. There was a real kingdom built here; it wasn't overrun by excited fans and tourists but real peasants and knights. Servants. A king.

They were here. It had taken me an agonizingly slow number of hours full of grief and pain to realize where I was and where I had landed myself in. At first, I was too upset by my recent death, in a world where my family was living without me and having to bury me so young. The worst thing to happen to a parent was to have to bury your own children, not see them flourish, fulfill life and build their very own family. I was too distraught to listen to the faint whisper in the back of my head telling me that there was something vaguely nostalgic about where I was. My clothes from the accident were still on and I tried my best to ignore the dried blood where my fatal wounds once were. They are gone now.

It was a weird and horrible thought, knowing that my family was grieving at the same time as I, suffering my absence while I knew I was technically alive and couldn't do anything about helping them, reassuring them. That's when I remembered that I'm alive when I shouldn't be and can hear the faint sound of life, carriages, horses and a chorus of different materials made of metal and wood.

Gwaine stuttered around the streets inside of the castle, near the gates to Camelot, smiling drunkenly. I can almost hear his accent from here. It had been so long since I had seen the show, but it was clear as rain in my memories. This was really happening. The actors, their fictional characters, wearing their faces and living a real life in Camelot, where the legend of Arthur and Merlin wasn't just bedtime stories or myths and tales that were still told now in the 21st century.

But I wasn't in the 21st century any more, was I?

I wiped the dried tear stains away and let a little chuckle escape my lips. "This is insane." I dragged my hands over my face exasperatedly. My pack from my trip from my past life which is a bizarre thought, was still strapped to my back.

The memory came back to me of Merlin creating a unicorn out of smoke here and realized that's why it was so familiar. How I had remembered that from so long ago just reminded me how amazing the relationships in the show were that it made me remember such a short scene. I inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. I looked at my bloody mess of a shirt, my dirtied jeans and slightly shredded boots and shrugged.

"Maybe this is a perfect and convenient excuse for me to go see the Court Physician." I smiled and stuttered in my slow tread down the hill. "This is insane. I can't be dreaming." My conscience replied sarcastically, "Well, duh, you're not." I attached my bag to my stomach and undid the buckle, releasing a compressed brown poncho from inside to use to not alarm the guards in the front. I anxiously strode past them, forgetting to breathe when they looked at me before looking back ahead. Children ran past, playing and squealing, peasants and knight and guards off duty talked to one another in clusters, walking away from me. The different social classes showed in their clothes and postures and I tried not to overthink my own stature. Gwaine was gone by the time I was in the lower town. I followed the beautiful Pendragon flags at the center of Camelot and continued my mission to a certain, awe-inspiring warlock.