A/N – Greetings my wonderful readers! I'm sorry for the events of last chapter, but all stories must have an element of tragedy.
I've been a bit ill this week (You have one job, intestine, ONE JOB) so I haven't been writing until now.
Enjoy!
"Tell me one last thing," said Harry. "Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?"
"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" - J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The air was cold, and bit with sharp teeth of ice.
Morgana awoke slowly and looked up.
"My Lady is awake! Brigg, come and bow to the Lady!" A guard jeered at her through the bars of her cell.
Not even bothering to look up, Morgana muttered a spell. Nothing happened. Looking down at her wrists and seeing the chains binding them, she screamed.
Flowers burned. Gaius followed the strange scent to Arthur's chambers and found him at his table, surrounded by bright, burning blooms.
The bright pinks combined with orange flames to create a beautiful sunset of colour.
"Sire?"
"I'm burning them, Gaius. I thought that they could be with Gwen. That's true, isn't it?" Arthur turned to Gaius with tear-filled eyes. "Beautiful things go to heaven when they die?"
Merlin was getting better by the day. He could stand now, and he had even been to visit Leon, who was also recovering well. When the knight had awoken, he had been unable to see and thought he was blind, but his sight had returned to him the next day. He hadn't seen Arthur since he came to tell him about Gwen.
Gaius had been angry with Arthur for telling him at first, but he soon calmed down when he realised that Merlin wasn't hysterical.
Well, hysterical on the outside.
A cart slowly trundled down the dust track leading away from the castle. Arthur was watching it from the parapet.
A gust of wind suddenly blew, and the white tarpaulin covering the cart suddenly billowed up. In it were the bodies of the guards lost in what had now become known as "The Battle of the Pendragons".
It was a strange name, really, seeing as Morgana spent most of it unconscious, and her guards spent most of it dead.
Apparently "The Battle of Tarrian the Guard and Ignitrus the Traitor" didn't have the same ring to it.
Merlin slowly walked along the corridor to visit Arthur. Neither the king nor the servant had left their separate chambers in days, and the kingdom had begun to worry. Merlin had been lying awake the previous night and had decided to try to convince Arthur to do something – anything.
Reaching the door, he knocked twice and then entered straight after, not leaving Arthur enough time to yell, "I'm not here!"
Arthur was spread-eagled on his bed. He looked up at Merlin.
"Oh, it's you. Good to see you walking around again."
"I was stabbed in the shoulder, not the leg, you know!" Arthur's mouth smiled, but his eyes did not.
Merlin pulled a chair to the side of the bed with his good arm, and sat down.
"I came to talk to you. You haven't been seen in public for over a dozen days. The people are starting to worry – I even heard of a rumour of your death being passed around in the outlying villages. It won't be long until the other kingdoms hear about this and formulate plans of attack. The people need a king." Merlin sighed and looked down at his clasped hands. "Please, Arthur."
"I'm sorry, Merlin, I can't. I'm not ready. Leon and Tarrian are managing well in my place."
"But Leon and Tarrian cannot rule the kingdom indefinitely! They are capable, yes, but the people need a figurehead. They need someone to look up to, someone to trust with their safety. To them, Tarrian is simply the leader of the guards and Leon is, whilst highly respected, still just a knight! I know it's hard-"
"You know nothing, Merlin, nothing, of what it is like for me."
"Sire, please, don't forget I lost my father. I know." Merlin spoke softly, not wanting to hurt Arthur - or let Arthur's words hurt him.
"I'm sorry Merlin. That was... insensitive. I just can't. Not yet." Arthur turned away from Merlin and sighed. Merlin placed a hand on his shoulder and muttered the familiar sleeping spell. It had been the only way Arthur could get restful, dreamless sleep in the past few weeks.
As Arthur's breathing slowed, Merlin stood up and sent the chair back to its original place using magic. He tried to use magic as little as possible around Arthur until he became fully comfortable with it. Whilst he was improving, Merlin still spotted a note of fear in his eyes every time he used a particularly visible spell.
He closed the door behind him and walked back down the silent corridor.
Arthur felt the warm feeling of an enchanted sleep wrap around him. It was the only time he could think of where total darkness was comforting and warm. The best way to describe it would be that it was like being in the womb again.
He never dreamed in an enchanted sleep, which was why he was surprised when he found himself riding through a sunlit forest. The light dappled onto tree trunks with ivy twined around them, and a warm breeze ruffled his hair. The horse he was riding was bright white – a true white. Most horses with white hair have black skin, so are technically grey, but a horse with white skin and white hair, like the one he was riding, was truly white.
He was also surprised that he realised he was in a dream – surely that was the point, that you didn't realise until you woke up? Arthur had also never been to this forest before. These things were all adding up on the list of Weird Things About This Dream.
"Maybe that's because it isn't just a dream?" A soft voice laughed behind him.
"Then is it real?" Arthur whispered, not daring to look at the speaker.
"I'll leave that to you to decide."
A/N – As always, review/favourites/follows/llamas are greatly appreciated!