Merlin fetched Arthur from his chamber and they ate lunch, the servants this time able to join their 'masters' for this. This was made able due to the fact that already seven or eight opponents had been picked off, and so therefore no longer qualified to be able to eat with the rest. It was a rare occurrence for the servants, and though they received far less substantial meals to the rest, they were more than happy for their share.
Merlin therefore sat to the right of Arthur and Elze to the right of Everglade almost opposite. The King was absent, off attending to some duty, and so the head of the table was empty. Polite conversation was made between the knights, and the servants tended to keep quiet unless spoken to.
Elzedar was the only female at the table, and this was noticed by several of the knights who made glanced towards her. One knight in particular looked at her in a way that made the skin crawl, and so Merlin 'accidentally' knocked the little container of salt into his food with his mind.
The knight was completely perplexed, searching for what had caused the sturdy pot to collapse, but he was focused on something else and so the tension drained from Merlin's body.
After the lunch was over, the servants immediately got up to leave, allowing the rivals' time to discuss things amongst themselves.
Merlin walked outside and caught Elze by the shoulder, spinning her around to face him, "Look, I've had the most ingenious idea. Follow me?"
She shrugged and did as he said, following him across the courtyard and down the street, along to a large patch of grass behind the castle where Arthur and Merlin had practiced sword training the day before.
"Okay, so I went and spoke to my friend Gaius, who's a- who's a herbal healer. He has potions and remedies and everything, and he's who I used to work for before I got promoted," she looked at him but he continued, ploughing on, "So, he said that if Arthur wins the joust, then if you wanted, you could come and work here as his servant, helping with remedies and fetching ingredients and so forth. I know you said you like doing hard work, but it's nowhere near as bad as being a maid, and it's the closest you'll get to hard work around here, starting off anyway."
Elzedar stared at Merlin for almost two whole minutes before launching herself onto him, pulling him into a great hug.
"That would be amazing, Merlin. But how good is Arthur a jouster? Because Everglade is pretty fierce." She said; worry already forming in her voice.
"We'll be fine. He'll do well." Merlin told her, thinking already how great it would be to have another friend in Camelot, another reason to love the place.
"Either way, I could show you around later if you would like?" Merlin asked, smiling.
"Sounds great." She grinned at him, squeezing his shoulder as she headed off to see what Everglade needed for the afternoon.
Merlin walked back to go and watch the rest of that afternoons jousting, and saw Arthur take out three men. Tomorrow there would be ten men left, and then, the day after, the final two would fight. He was pretty sure it would be between Prince Arthur and someone, as however bad a practice partner he was, he knew Arthur was a good fighter and had been known to win most of the festivals and contests, especially the ones held in Camelot.
That night another banquet was held, this time in the smaller banquet hall as to accommodate just the knights. Merlin went to visit Gaius and see if anything needed doing, but the man was just seeing to a lady who had been injured by a horse, and nothing particularly needed doing.
He had been reading his book a lot recently, and so did not feel the need to sit in his room for yet another night, nose in the book.
Instead, he decided to go for a walk outside of Camelot, as he had not been outside the walls since he had first entered the kingdom.
He headed down a woody path, trees flanking him on either side. He stirred the leaves with his feet, not walking particularly fast, but not needing to. There were birds hooting in the trees, and the leaves were just starting to fall from the trees. It was still considerably light out, as it was still classed as summer, so the nights were long and light and Merlin walked comfortably through the forest with just his top on, no need of warmer attire.
He eventually reached a clearing that looked out across the valley and sat down on a large boulder to contemplate things. He realised that he should have told someone that he was leaving Camelot, in case Arthur needed anything and he wasn't there. Either way, the guards had seen him leave, so it was not as if he were missing.
As he looked out, he thought about his mother back home. He rarely thought about her, for fear of getting homesick, not that there was much to get homesick about. It was just her, and a couple of people from the village really, but apart from that it was mostly so uneventful in his little village that there was nothing of importance enough to miss.
Suddenly a shuffling came from behind him and he turned around, looking for what had caused the noise. He could not spot anything so turned back around, squinting as the glaring sunset burst through the clouds.
Merlin appreciated the simple things in life, like sunsets and views and music, but he knew that he wouldn't have had nearly as much fun if he had been born without his powers. The whole point of his life was his magic; without it he would just be like any other person, but worse, because he wasn't handsome or rich or strong or even particularly smart. He was just Merlin.
He almost jumped out of his skin as something landed on him.