Chapter 24

Gaius was sitting reading in his room whilst Merlin was standing nearby at the table, a book lying open on it in front of him. He was holding his hand out over the book, and turning its pages by magic, his eyes often gleaming gold as he stared down at the blank pages on which writing suddenly appeared again and again. His facial expressions were constantly changing as the pages of the book flicked over – showing concentration or satisfaction or contemplation, and he occasionally cast his eyes upward, as if in deep thought. Gaius finally spoke, not looking up from his book: "Merlin, are you going to tell me what you're doing, or are you going to leave me in total mystification once again?"

"I'm writing a book…."

Gaius still didn't look up, but replied with the tone of someone who had ceased to be amazed at anything that was said by Merlin, "Well, that's a new one."

"Taliesen's Almanac of Dragonlore." Merlin closed the book, and using magic flew the book up through the air to a bookshelf in the room. He then addressed Gaius: "In the extremely unlikely event that Arthur ever decides to take up reading, it's on the third shelf."

And with that, he leapt up and went to run out of the room. Gaius finally looked up. "Where are you going now?"

Merlin was grinning: "There's something I'm not going to miss!"

The tournament ring was already lined all around its edge with many of Arthur's knights and a considerable number of others by the time Merlin arrived. He went straight over to stand beside Gwen.

In the centre of the arena there were three figures, two in chain-mail, both with a sword in one hand and a helmet in the other. The other man stood between them, holding two shields, and Lancelot spoke first.

"The fight will be according to the knight's code, and….."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever – we know!" interrupted Gwaine with a grin. Arthur for his part shook his head, sighed and looked up to heaven. And as both men put their helmets on, he muttered to himself, "How on earth did I ever let myself get talked into this?" But even under the helmet, the other two could see that he smiled after saying this. Gwaine gave him another cheeky grin and winked at him. "I knew I'd wear you down in the end…."

Arthur sighed once more and shook his head again, and Lancelot then handed the two men their shields after which they touched swords in salute.

Gwaine asked, "Ready, my lord?" and the prince replied "Ready… "

And Arthur was ready – focused and ready to fight Gwaine with every bit of skill, speed and determination that he possessed. Both men dropped down into poised positions, swords at the ready, and Lancelot prepared to rapidly retreat when the fight began. But before he did, he said his final words, "May the best man win!"

And the clang of the two iron swords heralded the start of the epic battle that would be remembered and spoken of by both men for years to come.

Author's Note

Hope you enjoyed the story - thanks for sticking with it, those of you who have got this far! If you liked it, or have any suggestions for improvements or comments about shortcomings in the story, please let me know via a review - it's good to know what people think! (I have had a few points at which I've realised an extra sentence or two would have explained things better).

The next story I will convert from a script will probably be "Family and Friends", tho' as I need to get more sleep, that may wait for a while!

P.S. Trip to Pierrefonds was awesome! All looking good for series 5!