Sorry it's taken so long to upload, but i had a little writers block.. and i got distracted by how Gwen now has a cloak of flappiness!!
Arthur quickly ran to his servant's side. Fear flooded him. He had always tried to deceive himself that Merlin really was just a servant, but if he were completely honest, Merlin was his friend. Arthur quickly made sure of one thing; Merlin was still alive.
Mim let go of the young boy in her arms and fidgeted with the back of Merlin's shirt. She managed to get a glimpse of where the arrow had gone and, more importantly, how it had gone in. She scanned the arrow briefly then ran over to where the assassin lay. After rummaging around briefly, she found what she went over for; an arrow. Arthur was giving her a confused look, to which she only gave a quick smile, and then proceeded to measure the arrow in her hand and the one in Merlin's back. Thankfully only a small amount of the arrow had embedded itself.
"Thomas?" Mim turned to the small boy, "I need you to run to my house and start boiling water. Can you do that for me?" The boy nodded and ran.
"Your house?" Arthur asked. Mim nodded and started to lift Merlin onto one of her shoulders.
"It's not far, just beyond those trees." Mim signalled the direction with a nod. Arthur nodded to himself and placed Merlin's other arm round his shoulder so that bot he and Mim were sharing the weight. Merlin gave an unconscious moan at the movement. Arthur and Mim made there way toward the trees.
"Will he be okay?" Arthur asked. He could feel Mim's glance on his face. This made Arthur nervous. He was a prince; the prince and here he was getting help and advice from a sorceress. Thank goodness his father wasn't witness to this.
"I hope so," was all the answer given to Arthur's question. They continued through the trees; which were thicker than Arthur had expected. Then suddenly infront of him was a dingy little cottage which looked like it was more fit for pigs than people.
"The water is on Mim!" Thomas the boy came running out to meet them. They manoeuvred their way into the little cottage; Arthur felt his jaw drop slightly. The inside was bright, clean and homely, completely different from the outside. Thomas had cleared a table and also gotten out bandages and thread.
"Put him on his side." Mim advised. Gently they rolled Merlin onto the table. Mim surveyed the arrow she had collected from the assassin. Arthur watched as she sniffed it, tried to bend it and finally lick the tip of the point. "Good news; its not poisoned." Was the conclusion drawn from the experiments.
"Is it usual for people round here to fire poisoned arrows?" Arthur asked aghast. Mim shrugged and continued to bustle about gathering a few supplies before setting to the delicate task of removing the arrow. Very gently, Mim tugged the arrow, examining where the skin bulged at the sides and cut two slits either side with a knife and carefully removed the arrow.
Arthur didn't watch the rest. He had seen enough people getting stitched up for it to have got boring. So he started to look around the room. There were two doors leading off the main room they were in. In one wall was a fire place and cooking supplies, obviously different from the other wall. There was a small window surrounded by herbs and plants growing awkwardly around shelves piled with bottles of various potions. Another wall shelved books, clearly Mim was literate. And the wal with the front door had cupboards and trunks pushed against it.
A sniff drew Arthur's attention to the boy. Thomas was shivering beside the stoked up fire silent tears falling down. A glance at Mim told him that she had not forgotten about the boy but was trying to do the best job of cleaning and stitching Merlin's wound. Arthur wandered over to the boy and sat on the chair opposite. Thomas stared at Arthur with big hazel eyes. Without a second thought, Arthur held out his arms and allowed Thomas to crawl into them, where he cried quietly taking comfort from another persons body heat.
Mim observed all this out the corner of her eye. She knew he was a good soul. Mim finished the last stitch and placed a poultice over the top to improve the healing. After quickly washing up, she silently watched the prince comforting the peasant child in his arms. Almost absentmindedly, Mim filled a clay mug with frsh milk from a jug and placed it among the fire to warm. She sighed as she sat in the chair vacated by Thomas and glanced at Arthur.
Arthur became aware of two things; Mim was not evil even though she practiced magic and her eyes were not yellow, but a swirling pool of gold. As he noticed that the gold seemed to solidify momentarily giving the appearance of flashing. Arthur began to wonder if magic always showed in the eyes. Mim gave a brief smile. Crap! She can read minds! Were the only thoughts in Arthur's mind.
"Magic does, usually, show through the eyes."
"Is it usually so obvious?" Arthur asked, genuinely curious. Not for some desire to be able to catch a sorcerer, but on how magic really worked. Mim shook her head.
"My eyes are really brown," she began, struggling to remember little details of her life, "My sister used to say it was because I was in-tune with my magic even though I didn't want to be, so the magic chose my eyes to release itself." Mim stared at the fire. "It's better that than have it explode at random points during your day. At least with the eyes it's always there and if you don't look too close my eyes look yellow." She sighed as she removed the warm milk from the embers.
"And Thomas?" Arthur asked. Mim smiled slowly to herself and glanced at the boy in Arthur's arms.
"I remember when he was born," tears sprung to her golden eyes, " I only delivered his little sister yesterday." Arthur felt a chill run through him.
"I'm sorry." Was all Arthur could say.
"Thomas? Drink this up." Mim handed the warm milk to Thomas, who sleepily drank the mug of milk. When he was finished, Mim set the mug back down and stood. "I'll take him through to sleep." In an instant Thomas was gathered in the witch's arms and carried through one of the doors leading off the main room.
A groan brought Arthur's attention back to Merlin, who was beginning to wake up.
"What happened?" was all he asked; or at least that's what Arthur presumed the groaning meant. Merlin tried to sit up but with a flinch decided against it.
"Well," Arthur started, grinning to himself, "You were a buffoon and managed to shoot yourself with an arrow! I didn't even think you could…"
"I did not!!" Merlin interrupted with a smile, "I remember the village, but where are we?"
"In my home." Mim answered returning from putting Thomas to bed. "I didn't think you'd be awake yet." She added leaning over Merlin's wound checking it. Merlin flinched, shifting uncomfortably on his stomach.
"Any chance I could sit up?" Mim nodded in reply to Merlin's request and helped him up and to the chair she recently vacated by the fire. It wasn't too high so it would aggravate his wound. Once seated, Mim bustled about getting a blanket to wrap around Merlin and a cup of mead for Arthur.
"Thank you." Arthur took the mead. "Mim? Who do you think attacked us?"
"Oh I know who attacked us!" She spat bitterly. The air seemed to fizz around her. Arthur became wary again. "It was that buffoon, Sir Kay; the prat that tried to drown me and probably was behind the burning down of Thomas' village." Mim emphasised the sir heavily with sarcasm.
"Sir Kay?" Arthur asked to be sure. "I've never heard of a Sir Kay."
"That's because he ain't one" Mim explained, "But it don't stop him parading that he is, just because his father is Sir Ector."
"Ector?" Merlin joined in the conversation, " He comes to the palace sometimes; I always thought he was a jovial sort of person."
Mim nodded thoughtfully. "He was, but recently, he's seemed different. Like he's … trying too hard to make up for something." Mim confirmed slowly.
"Well maybe I should pay a visit to this Sir Ector and check on things." Arthur suggested. Mim pierced him with a glare; but gave a nod.
"Maybe you should," Mim stood up, "I'll go with you."