Sorry, again rather long wait, but I had some exams and university finally started :*( and I don't have as much time anymore, nevertheless I'll try to post the next one sooner. This chapter is, I think, more of a filler, but needed so hope you'll like it anyway
Beta'd by goodythreeshoes.
Thank you again for your lovely reviews! (Will reply at a later point)
Also, Season 4 started! :D yay
Enjoy!
Chapter 3
And of course Arthur didn't care in the least that it wasn't his Merlin's mistake, as soon as the other Merlin, no, Emrys, was out of earshot, he turned on the younger version and yelled indignantly- "Merlin, do something!"
"What? What am I supposed to do? It's not me."
"Yes, it is, you're...I mean he's your future, which means ultimately you're responsible, because you're the brainless twit who's not listening to orders," Arthur decreed, with his twisted, but rather understandable logic.
"That is so not fair," Merlin responded incredulously "and even if it's his... my fault you're the dollop head, who gave..will give me permission to do whatever I want. Who's the brainless twit now?" And realizing that he'd just insulted the prince in the king's presence he hastily added, "Sire."
The tense atmosphere was then broken by a hardly suppressed chuckle coming from the still present Galahad, who then proclaimed, "You two really are the same in every time."
After that statement Uther, who had watched the exchange silently, decided to make sure that after this he would replace Marvin with another servant before he gained more influence on his son. No peasant should possess the power to talk back to a king, especially not his own. And more importantly, no mentally afflicted one, but for now he rather turned his attention to more pressing matters- like questioning the knight.
"Which family are you from?"
"I doubt you'd know them," replied a surprised Galahad.
"Of course I know them; it is a king's duty to know the names of all the noble families under his jurisdiction," Uther stated indignantly.
Galahad only raised an eyebrow and said, "well, there you got the problem then, I'm not a noble."
"But you're a knight," interjected Arthur.
"Yes, Sire, I am, actually I'm one of the round …" frowning slightly, he cut himself off mid-sentence before continuing, "But you wouldn't know what that means yet, so let's just say I'm in the inner circle of your knights."
While Arthur took that news rather well, as he had already considered letting commoners join the knights ranks, Uther immediately protested with his usual arguments. Galahad however was completely unimpressed by the rant and shrugged it off, before repeating what Emrys had said.
"Things change."
Glaring, the king then asked- "then how did you become a knight?"
For a moment there was no answer as Galahad evaluated if an honest reply could possibly have any repercussions for the future, but after a few minutes he apparently decided that the information was harmless, therefore he readily explained.
"When I was younger I lived in a small border town, close to Cenred's kingdom. We were farmers, but I always dreamed of becoming a knight. So, I practiced with a stick as my sword every night. Then one day my village was attacked by a group of renegades, who forced us to provide them with food while they, basically, took over our village. One of us managed to flee and he ran all the way to the citadel to beg for help, but for many of us it arrived too late. Many men and women were slaughtered, including my parents. But then the knights came and with them the king himself, it was the most glorious thing I'd ever seen. They swooped in like it was nothing and killed or captured all of the outlaws in a matter of minutes."
Galahad stopped there and the faraway look in his eyes was enough to tell them that he was remembering that day rather vividly. As he continued, he looked up at Merlin "With them came the king's own servant, other than the occupied knights he made sure that none of us were wounded and treated the ones who were. Halfway through the king came over to check that he wasn't slacking off, and I knew that that was my chance. I ran to him and practically screamed at him to train me."
"He wasn't very impressed, he had other, more important matters to attend to than a boy's fantasies, but Merlin just looked at me and told me to pack my things. He took me in after that and made sure that I was trained by Gw…a knight. Anyway, I proved to be a natural and half a year later I had my final examination and passed, becoming a true knight of Camelot." Galahad's explanation was followed by a stunned silence before Arthur disrupted it.
"You're Merlin's ward." he stated, with quite a large amount of disbelief in his voice.
"Yeah, you could say that."
Turning to Merlin Arthur concluded "I pay you too much."
"What?" exclaimed Merlin shocked, while thinking, 'how the hell does he always come up with these ridiculous ideas?'
The prince didn't even deign to answer that, he simply turned back to the knight from the future, who was still being interrogated by Uther. The king had once again put the previously discussed matter aside though he was going to talk to his son about his lax future leadership. Magic and commoner knights- some things were going seriously wrong in the future.
"How did you reflect those spells?"
Motioning to his arm protectors, Galahad answered, "protection runes. They repel all magic which is used with the intent of harming the wearer." However, he purposely left out the part where the runes alone could only do so much and Merlin had actually used his powers. Some things were better left unsaid.
"These runes aren't really magic?" Uther inquired.
"No, not really."
"Then we could use it to help us defend against magic?" Arthur jumped in hopefully.
"Yes, and no. If you yourself found out about the runes, you could use them all you like, but I can't tell you how they work. Could change the future and all that.." Upon hearing that Uther and Arthur visibly deflated a little as they had thought that there was finally something to prevent magical attacks, only to have it snatched away at the last moment.
"Fine," Arthur snarled "and what exactly are we supposed to do now; while Merlin of all people is hunting sorcerers?"
"Oh don't worry 'bout that, I'm still here to protect you, and you can just go on and do whatever it is you do. The only difference being that I'll follow you around, discreetly of course."
Exchanging a look with his father, who appeared to be just as clueless, Arthur snorted quietly, nodded to the king and announced that he had a training to supervise before he swiftly left the hall. Merlin, still standing on his spot in the hall, merrily counted down from five.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
"MERlin!" Grinning in delight at having successfully annoyed his master the young warlock slowly followed the prat and was soon joined by Sir Galahad, who looked quite amused himself and muttered, "some things never change…"
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