MERLIN - CONTACT
AN: Well here we are, thank goodness! So so sorry this took so long. Thanks you so much to you people still hanging on there and favouriting and following and reviewing this story, I really appreciate it. I hope this chapter was worth the wait, I really do. So lets just jump right in shall we :) Just to warn you, this chapter doesn't have bad language as such, just a load of insults. Enjoy!
BTW sorry if I have made any spelling or grammar mistakes because Word doesn't bother to tell me :)
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The bonfire had already been burning for a few minutes, and the fire licked higher than the houses. In the field surrounding it, from a safe distance, the villagers were gathering around it and one by one stepping up to throw wood into the pile.
Ealdor was decorated beautifully. Bunting striped the roofs and roads, flower wreaths hung on doors and weaved round fences. Lit torches and candles bracketed the walls and were spaced out around in the field.
Most of the households now had given their blessing to the festival and upcoming wedding. Some people asked Hunith and Merlin where their guest was with theirs.
"Quite a turn-up tonight, isn't it," a red haired man between Merlin's and Arthur's age spoke up loudly for the two women to hear amongst the crowd. He stood on the left next to Merlin with his hands behind his back and staring straight on at the fire. "We finally have our old Merlin back for this year's festival, plus a certain over-the-border member of royalty. I wonder what he could possibly hope to get out of coming. What did you do, eh Merlin? Flutter your eyelashes at him and he came running? That's a pretty dress. Not your usual choice of wardrobe..."
"Shut your mouth, Wood. Arthur insisted on coming to ensure I arrived safely and be my family's witness-"
"Arthur. On first name terms with him are ya?" Things do move fast for the freak of Escetia-"
"I'm less a freak then you, Wood, who I believe I once saw round the back of the barn with one of the Fulner sons?"
"How dare you!" the boy turned to face Merlin, trying to look intimidating. "I will not have you slander my family name with your petty accusations. You are a devil's abomination, a whore's child. That's what they have all called you behind your back. You're still the stupid, shapeless pathetic accuse for a girl you were before you left and you always will be-"
"You stop right there now, Billy Wood," Hunith turned on the boy. "You have no right to speak to my daughter like that, nor speak so disrespectfully of me or the Prince. If you don't want me reporting your behaviour to Prince Arthur, or even have to talk to your mother about why I have to ban you from my wedding, I suggest you stand way over there."
"Oh go ahead and tell who you like, Hunith. No matter what the village thinks of me, they'll always value Merlin lower than the pigs! You and Will, Merlin, you were the scraps at the bottom of the barrel. No one dared go near you both." At the mention of Will, Merlin narrowed her eyes at Billy dangerously, if looks could kill... "Elder Jacob paired heartbreaker Hadrian off with Old man Sadon's girl before you, and she has warts all over her face, and older than you! Will probably ran into the way of that arrow just so he didn't have to put up with you again, to get as far away from you as possible-"
Hunith's eyes darted nervously around as Billy went on. No one but her noticed the winds getting stronger, the bonfire flames began to bend in all directions. Creaking sounds from the barns and houses moaned like dying giants when their foundations were threatened and the animals left out in the fields scattered in agitation. Hunith didn't have to see her daughter's face to know there would be gold swirling around in her stewing-slit eyes.
"Will was an honourable man and did a hell of a lot more than you to protect the ones he loved. He died a hero. You're too quick to judge people like you judge me. You point out my flaws and bring them out of scale to hide the fact you have so many more." Merlin's voice remained measured. Low and frighteningly so. Daring Wood to keep going.
"Ha, you think I have flaws?! My parents are married, they work up at King Lot's castle. One word to him and he'll have you and that pompous dillberry of a prince thrown across the border with your heads detached. You always walked around the place like you were better than us, no wonder people hate you, you're an unsavoury tool of man who kisses the feet of the good for nothing royal maggot in hopes for a little reward. Everyone leaves you in the end. We know the sort like you from birth... I see you, Merlin. A sad, lonely bitter old woman who will die ugly, alone and unloved. If your precious Prince Arthur doesn't destroy you first-"
Merlin's magic was angry and about to blow. She just stood there shaking, hands clenched at her sides. It took all her inside strength and the presence of the entire village there staring at the scene to hold it in. It was fighting her to defend its shell, its person . It was getting so much harder by the second to resist, the pulsing in her veins and heartbeat pounding in her head. She was going to kill...
"He should just put you down now like the dog you are and save everyone from-"
A hard, rough blunt object swung from nowhere. There was a whoosh, smack, crack and thud. And then silence fell.
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Twenty.
That's got to be enough, right? Twenty?
Trying to balance every single piece of wood he had chopped in his cradled arms to deposit in one trip, Arthur made a swift yet steady pace to the bonfire, chin holding the top log in place. Oh they are going to love him, and Merlin will be so impressed... not that it mattered.
However, making it to the outside of the field, the prince heard a commotion.
He saw a boy, no, not a boy. A man. A man old enough to know better. And he was yelling, by God, he was yelling... terrible things. At Merlin!
He didn't feel his pace quicken, nor realising he'd broken into a jog. As he got closer, he looked to Merlin, and saw what was brewing instead. Her eyes shimmered with gold, and if there wasn't a fire burning to the side, the villagers would have twigged and come to a conclusion.
"...A sad, lonely bitter old woman who will die ugly, alone and unloved. If your precious Prince Arthur doesn't destroy you first!"
That's it!
The wood was thrown down angrily and forgotten on the ground, save one. Feeling the weight of it in one hand.
"He should just put you down now like the dog you are and save everyone from-"
Arthur ran straight up to the red-headed man, roughly turned him by the shoulder to face him, and along with the sound of the air being sliced...
WHACK!
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AN: Whoa this chapter was harder to write than I thought! I just want to point out just in case someone spotted it and is taken by offense, I am not a homophobe, that part just speculated that no matter whether its a good person like Merlin, in those days, boys being seen messing around with boys was a intolerable and confusing matter to except.
This chapter was a sort of bridge as it were, to separate one topic from another. First it was Merlin's new dress, then it was her trying to get her head around Arthur excepting her magic, Living the hell of bullying again, and now onto another. Try and guest from what was mentioned in this chapter what it could be. The little paths do all still lead to AberFest and Hunith's wedding though, don't you worry :)
Anyhoo, Thank you so much for reading and please do review and tell me what you thought because I really do appreciate every word. Thanks again, see you next time.