A/N: Greetings to all! Thanks go out to everyone who has favorited and followed me or my story, and special gratitude is put out for those who left a review (you know who you are :)).

Anyways, I know I said I wouldn't be updating for a while, but I sat down at my laptop and there it was. I honestly have no idea where this idea came from; I swear I didn't mean for it to turn out this way. It was much lighter this time, to the point where I feel as if the whumpage on Merlin was very minimal. I'm very sorry for that, but somehow the plot bunny (pardon the pun) wouldn't go away.

That being said, I hope you enjoy this chapter anyway. It was a lot of fun to write, even if it missed the entire point of this one-shot collection. All mistakes continue to be mine alone. Namaste.

Disclaimer: Not I, sir.

5. Stables

The doors to Arthur's chambers burst open, and Merlin came in, called by his master's summons. Arthur looked up and froze in his writing. Merlin's clothes were torn and untucked, the shirt actually ripped near the collar and his scarf missing entirely.

His pants had grass-stains, and he was sporting several superficial cuts on his hands and face. Arthur noticed the beginnings of a spectacularly good bruise around Merlin's left eye. The young man was covered in dirt and grime, with what looked like hay clinging to his hair and jacket. He was aching all over, but managed to smile and said quite normally, "You wished to see me, sire?"

Arthur stayed silent for a moment longer, simply looking at the spectacle. Finally, he asked, "How exactly did you manage to give yourself a black eye?"

Earlier that day…

"Good training today, Merlin," Arthur said a bit breathlessly, pulling off his helmet. "You're improving," he said, obviously pleased. Merlin, too out of breath to verbally respond, grinned tiredly, and took Arthur's sword.

He put it away on the rack neatly, then took the other armored items Arthur handed him. Balancing them perfectly in one hand, Merlin expertly put everything back in the cupboard and smiled. Not a single piece was out of place; nothing could shift and bring it all crashing down on him as it did nearly every other day. He latched the cupboard door shut quietly and turned to Arthur, who was likewise surprised.

"Well, we've got to get upstairs and read the procedures for the knights' Induction ceremony later this evening," Arthur said, still looking mildly impressed.

"I looked over the necessary documents last night," Merlin said, gathering up the remainder of the training equipment. "I've made several notes on your writings that I think would be beneficial to include, and underscored the points I think you should focus more on."

He paused to take Arthur's gloves from him. "Also, I can take your armor now for a quick polish before the ceremony. Everything else is in order."

Merlin looked up to see a speechless Arthur standing stock-still. "What?" Merlin asked, wondering if he'd said something to offend the young prince.

"Nothing, it's just that….Well, you've never been this….efficient…..in your duties before, Merlin. I'm wondering if there's something you wanted," Arthur said, eyes narrowing slightly.

"No, no. I just thought that you'd want a little while to look over the speech once more before you had to deliver it. I knew that time would be a bit tight today, so I did a few of the chores earlier than…" Merlin trailed off as Arthur's frown deepened.

"Oh, come on, Arthur! I actually do something right for once and you still complain about it?" Merlin asked, exasperated.

"No, that's not what I'm saying. It's just odd," Arthur said, still looking at his servant strangely.

"I guess I'll go change clothes then," Arthur said slowly. "You can go find something else to do for me, Merlin. I think the main hostler, Bronnig, was sick today. The stables need tending after. I expect them mucked out by the end of the day," Arthur ordered, turning to walk back to the castle without waiting for Merlin's response.

Merlin just stared after him, an annoyed look of disbelief on his face. He had done the other chores early, even gone above and beyond his assigned workload. All he had to show for it was the knowledge that he had done it and extra duties in the stables.

Merlin snorted and walked towards the building where the horses were kept. "Prat."

The stables weren't nearly as bad as he had expected, and secretly, Merlin didn't mind the work terribly. The building was cozy, and the smells of hay, oats, leather and dust comforted him, and the quiet sounds of the horses nickering to each other were the only interruptions to his work.

The best part about working in the stables was that you could say whatever you wanted about whoever you wanted. The horses would never tell anyone what you said to them.

The raven-haired servant had progressed through four stalls, had insulted Bronnig—the hostler- quite thoroughly for missing work (when Merlin knew for a fact that the man had been at the tavern until the wee hours of the morning) and was currently comparing Arthur's good sense to that of a peacock, when he heard a noise.

The horses continued munching on their oats peacefully, sensing no disturbance, yet Merlin's intuition was telling him something was wrong. Leaning his shovel against the wall of the stall, he quietly stepped into the main hall. There was no-one in the building; it remained empty. Merlin was sure he had heard a noise. He stood still for a moment, straining his hearing, and suddenly it was there again.

A small scratching noise coming from the far stall, the one closest to the pen where he had led the horses while he cleared out their individual stalls.

Merlin's heart hammered in his chest, throat tight with apprehension. He quietly took a few steps forward then froze as whatever it was hit against the side of the stall, causing the horses to look up, ears perked.

Merlin grabbed the previously abandoned shovel, and tightened his grip on it. Holding it out in front of him and wishing fervently that it was a sword, he approached the partially ajar gate to the stall. Steeling his nerves, he used the end of the shovel to push open the gate, bracing himself for an attack.

Open air greeted him. Merlin stayed frozen for a moment, sure he had heard something. Suddenly, he heard the scratching noise again near the floor, making him jump.

Looking fearfully towards the source of the noise, he saw a small rabbit, balanced up on its hind legs and scratching at the bottom of a saddlebag someone had left on the edge of the stall. Sticking out of one of the pockets were a few carrots, which the rabbit was attempting to reach.

The rabbit froze in its actions as it saw Merlin standing there, only the end of its little pink nose twitching as it tried to get Merlin's scent.

Merlin relaxed his grip on the shovel, and let his head drop briefly, feeling his nerves settle. Suddenly, he was glad no one else was in the stables. Feeling incredibly foolish, he slowly reached out and grabbed the saddlebag. Sliding it quietly off the edge, he took one of the carrots out of the pocket, and put it down gently in front of him.

The rabbit stayed where it was, and Merlin lowered himself to the ground. Trying to look as non-threatening as possible, the warlock simply crouched and looked at the rabbit. As he noted the fine details in the fur's texture, the black inquisitive eyes, and the gracefully-shaped ears, the rabbit moved slowly closer. Merlin remained stationary, not wanting to scare it off.

The small creature hopped closer still, and finally moved towards the carrot. It picked up the carrot in its front paws and started chewing on it, never taking its eyes off Merlin. The servant smiled in simple awe; this was the closest he had ever gotten to a living rabbit.

Suddenly, Merlin was aware of how dry the stables were, how dusty. His nose started to tickle, and he knew that he was going to sneeze. He tried in vain to hold it back, but it was too late.

He sneezed loudly, and the sound frightened the rabbit, which ran directly into the pen with the horses in panic.

Merlin opened his eyes and all hell broke loose.

The horses began neighing loudly and stomping, panicking because of the darting rabbit. The rabbit had disappeared somewhere in the chaos of the horse pen, leaving behind the carrot.

Merlin got on his hands and knees and attempted to find the rabbit, spying it huddled in the corner of the pen behind the kicking horses, shaking in terror. He ran over to the corner, then crawled under the boards of the pen to grab the rabbit. He reached the corner, narrowly avoiding getting kicked in the head by one of the horses, and grabbed the rabbit.

The small animal, which had seemed docile earlier, suddenly started making a high-pitched keening noise and squirming in his hand. It began biting and kicking at his hands with the claws, drawing blood. The hapless servant readjusted his grip until he was holding it by the ears. The rabbit ferociously continued attempting its attack.

Merlin stepped out of the pen and tried to calm the horses, but they bucked and neighed, wild-eyed in terror. Suddenly, one of them kicked the pen's structure, and the old board snapped. Several other panicking horses kicked out at various other places, and soon all of the horses had escaped their pen in a frenzy. Merlin covered his face from the cloud of dust as the horses ran around him. Thankfully he had closed the stables' main gate behind him, so they didn't get far. However, the sound inside the building was deafening.

Merlin loosened his grasp momentarily, which was when rabbit took advantage of his momentary lapse in concentration and promptly bit the base of his thumb. Merlin yelped in pain and reflexively opened his hand.

Stepping back to escape his small tormentor, Merlin backed into a nearby rake leaning against a wall, which promptly started falling. As he turned to see what he had run into, the heavy ash handle hit Merlin squarely in his left eye.

The rabbit, having scrambled from his hand, jumped back onto his torso. He felt the sharp little teeth nick him in several places, just barely graze him in others through his jacket. The claws on the back of the rabbit's feet tore his thin shirt open and gashed him.

Meanwhile, the horses continued to whinny and stomp around, creating a dust cloud and loud crashing noises as they all tried to escape the stables.

Merlin felt the rabbit climbing higher, felt the sharp teeth cut into his chin, and struggled to untie the neckerchief around his throat. Finally, the knot came undone and he quickly swept it over the top and underneath the aggressive rabbit.

Panting, he held the ends of the scarf together tightly in his fist, creating a makeshift sack. The rabbit continued its attack unabatedly, still kicking and biting viciously at the inside the sack.

Merlin shook his head in disbelief at the violently moving sack containing what surely must be the rabbit from Hell.

He looked up at the horses, still creating a commotion.

"Quiet!" he yelled, eyes glowing yellow with magic. Although the word itself wasn't magical in origin, magical force was behind it. The effect was instantaneous: the horses quieted down. The rabbit went still inside its makeshift prison, and Merlin relaxed his death-grip on the scarf.

He stood quietly for a moment, letting the ringing in his ears subside. He kept all of the animals in a magical loop of calmness, and put down the rabbit. His scarf was shredded beyond repair; there wasn't enough left even worth mending. He sighed and stuffed the remnants into his pocket. The rabbit, looking for all the world like a timidly docile creature, hopped back over to the carrot and resumed eating.

Merlin's body slowly relaxed, shaking from the after effects of adrenaline. His hand throbbed in time with his heart beat from where the rabbit had bitten him, and his upper body stung from the various cuts and bites he had received.

Taking a deep breath, Merlin began grabbing halters, slipping them over the horses' soft noses and attaching lead ropes. Leading them back to the pen took less than two minutes, and Merlin took an extra rope and quickly tied it to the ends of the pen where it had broken. Satisfied that his improvised structure would hold the horses until he had finished cleaning their stalls, he moved to grab the shovel again.

At that moment, the door to the stables creaked open, and a small face peeked in. It was a little girl, no older than six, in a plain dress of dark blue which offset her red hair.

"Pardon me," she said when she saw Merlin, doing her very best to curtsey, "but have you seen Fendrel?" she asked him earnestly.

"Who is Fendrel?" Merlin asked, bemused at the social graces the child was showing him in a horse stable.

The girl turned her earnest green eyes on him. "My pet rabbit. I was playing with him, but he ran away. I chased him for a long ways, but I've never been this far into town before and I got lost. I thought he might have come in here," she added sadly, eyes filling with tears.

"Here," Merlin said, pointing to the rabbit who was still on the floor chewing on the carrot reflectively. "Is this him?"

The girl squealed and ran to her beloved pet. Scooping him up, she hugged him close. The rabbit seemed not to mind the embrace one bit. Merlin's forehead creased in a slight frown. Unbelievable. However, the girl looked so happy that he had to smile as well.

"Thank you for finding him!" she exclaimed, bobbing a little curtsey.

"You're welcome," Merlin replied, grinning at her. "Take one of these with you," he said, pulling a carrot from the nearby saddlebag.

"Thank you, sir!" she said, doing another curtsey before running to Merlin and wrapping her arms around him in a fierce hug.

"Call me Merlin. Do you know how to get home from here?" Merlin asked the girl, kneeling to look her in the eye.

The girl but her lip and shook her head, worry clouding her features.

"Alright then, if we go to the marketplace in the center, will you be able to find it?" he asked her.

She brightened up at once, nodded empathetically. "Mama lets me go to the market to sell eggs!" she said excitedly.

"What's your name?" he asked her.

"My name is Talitha, but everyone calls me Tally," she said happily.

He stood up, and she slipped her hand easily into his. She smiled at him, and they began walking to the center.

On the way, Tally chattered about her home in the East portion of town, her mother and father, and two brothers. "They're disgusting," she told Merlin conspiratorially. "Once, they played in the mud and got it all over the house. Then, when Mama called them for dinner, they didn't wash their hands until Mama made them." She said this with such a solemn face that Merlin couldn't help but chuckle slightly.

"If you ever need anything, come to the market and find me," she said seriously. "I'm there most days with the eggs from our chickens, and I'll repay you for finding Fendrel. And for taking me home," she added helpfully.

Merlin smiled at the girl's sincerity, then said formally, "I will be honored to call on you and your house if I should ever need a favor, Talitha."

She giggled, and started humming a song. Merlin's mind snagged on it, he could vaguely recall singing something similar in Ealdor when he had been a child himself.

Reaching the marketplace, Tally released his hand and said excitedly," Over there! That's the direction I live! I can tell because of the old man who always sells his rutabagas is on the corner. They always smell bad," she told Merlin matter-of-factly.

"I thought so too," Merlin replied, a wry grin creeping at the edges of his mouth.

"I have to go home now, but thank you again! Bye, Merlin!" she said, before running off towards her home.

Merlin watched her for a moment, then remembered that he was supposed to be mucking out the stables. As he began walking back, a courier intercepted him and said that Arthur wanted to see him immediately.

"I would freshen up a bit first, if I was you," the courier said disdainfully, eyeing Merlin's disheveled appearance.

Merlin flushed slightly, but set off for his master's chambers, drawing many wary looks and surprised glances from people along the way.

Present time….

Arthur was silent for several moments, letting the story wash over him. Merlin shifted uncomfortably where he stood, suddenly mindful of the harm inflicted on his body and exhausted.

Arthur leaned forward. "You're telling me that all of this—"he gestured to Merlin's ruined clothing and various injuries, "happened because of a rabbit?"

Merlin sighed and said, "No, Arthur. I would make up a story about being terrorized by a rabbit to get out of doing chores."

"I'm not saying I don't believe you," Arthur replied. "I'm just having a little trouble with the idea of you-who practiced with me just this morning and actually managed to show some decent technique—getting conquered by a small animal." He had to fight to keep a straight face as he said the last sentence.

"I called you up here to polish my armor, but you'd better finish the stables first. Would you like me to send a few guards with you?" Arthur asked, now making fun of the young warlock.

Merlin scowled. "No, I think I can manage," he said shortly.

He left the chambers amid Arthur's laughter.

As he was leaving the castle, Merlin had an idea. Calling one of the couriers over, he asked him to take a message to a small girl living in the East portion of the town…

MERLINMERLINMERLINMERLINMERLINMERLINMERLINMERLINMERLINMERLINMERLINMERLINMERLIN

Arthur returned to his chambers after the Induction ceremony, sighing in contentment as he thought about the day's events. The new regimen of brave young men were shaping up to be some of Arthur's best knights, and he couldn't have asked for more.

He chuckled slightly to himself as he remembered Merlin's incident in the stables, he readied himself for bed.

Falling into bed, he was almost asleep when he heard a small scratching noise from his wardrobe. Immediately alert, he lit a candle and pulled his sword from his bedside.

Muscles singing with adrenaline and tension, he approached the door. Inhaling sharply, he pulled open the door and saw his clothing all shredded and ripped. None of it looked like it would come close to being mended, and he looked down in dismay.

At the bottom of the wardrobe, sat a small brown rabbit, happily tearing chunks of leather from his favorite pair of boots. As he attempted to take his boot from the despicable creature, he had to jerk his hand back at the last moment. Arthur could have sworn it growled at him.

There was only one person who would have the gall to do this. Arthur stared at the destruction of his closet in rage.

"MERLIN!"