A/N: Ok... So here we deviate from the Merlin plot a little - there have to be other bits inbetween the main plot markers, I'm sure you'll agree - and we get to see a little more of the new characters. I still haven't decided what a goodly number of FFVIII characters will do in the Merlin world, but I have enough to be getting on with at the minute.

I hope you enjoy this.

Raijin 3.

Raijin licked his lips, looked up at her and whispered, "I met the Dragon yesterday…"

"DRAGON?"

This didn't bode well. And here she was thinking he couldn't get into much trouble in one night, but already he was sneaking about in the castle, visiting Dragons and all sorts! Was she going to have to start locking him in at night so he couldn't get out and cause trouble?

"The dragon that's locked away under the castle, ya know." Raijin mumbled, dark eyes glancing between Fuujin and the letter. "Kadowaki-"

"QUIET!" Fuujin hissed, standing suddenly from the table, her thighs smashing into it and shooting it into Raijin's gut. He stared at her in shock and she pressed a finger to her lips, giving him a furious look. No one should ever mention that name in here! Shushing him forcefully, Fuujin went to the still-open door, checked that no one was around, before shutting and barring it. When she turned back to the room Raijin was looking at her with an expression of confusion and slight offense. She rolled her eye and said a little more gently, "NO NAMES."

"Fine then," Raijin muttered gruffly, "'The Dragon'. She said you would help me learn-"

Her hand over his mouth silenced him and she shook her head. "NO MAGIC."

"But," Raijin pulled her hand from his mouth. "The Dragon told me you'd help, ya know. Said you were wise beyond your years, ya know. That you were trust-worthy, ya know!"

Fuujin rolled her eye again and shook her head. She would be getting herself into no such trouble for some stranger. Not even if the great Kadowaki said that she would. It was much less trouble for her if Raijin just went back where he came from. Perhaps Fuujin's biggest mistake so far was confiding in Raijin's mother long ago that she had magic.

"But!"

"NO."

"My destiny-"

"INCONSEQUENTIAL."

"It could help unite the land though, ya know!"

"UNWISE."

"But it's my destiny!" He whined, giving her a look that was supposed to bring her round. She shook her head.

"ILLEGAL."

The remainder of Raijin's day was spent fetching the remaining water and thinking about his destiny, which now looked as though it was not going to happen. He wanted more than anything to go down to the dungeons and speak with Kadowaki. But that was impossible for obvious reasons, the first of which was that Fuujin was now following him everywhere, watching him like a hawk and he doubted she would let him out of her sight until the day she turned him out.

He felt miserable. He felt unwanted. He felt like a blot on the face of humanity, yet again. For much of his childhood he had been shunned by everyone barring his mother. He was excited about visiting Camelot because no one knew him here and it was a chance to begin anew, fresh. Hearing he actually had a pretty cool-sounding destiny was a bonus. But now it seemed he wasn't wanted here either. Without Fuujin's help he was useless and no one needed a useless man around when they were trying to unite the Land.

At night, he found he was locked into the backroom and didn't even bother trying to escape. If what Kadowaki said was true then Fuujin was probably more than capable of taking him out with her own magic. It was disheartening and he went to sleep miserable.

In the morning his task was to take the water back down to the well and empty all the buckets back out. Fuujin had said it being something about a test of dedication, but Raijin guessed that she didn't need him anymore so his dedication had nothing to do with the matter. He dutifully took the buckets back to the well and poured the water away. It was time consuming work and tiring and boring. So, when the sounds of shouting and wailing met his ears he was more than happy to allow himself to be distracted.

Following the sounds he came upon the inner courtyard of the castle where a large crowd had gathered. He began to push his way through the crowd and as he got closer to the centre he could see a podium complete with masked axe-bearer and a man being led by armed guards through the crowd towards it. It didn't look good. On the opposite side, an elderly woman was being restrained by several people; she was screaming to be let go and that 'her boy' was innocent.

As the man was lifted onto the podium, Raijin's blood ran cold. This was an execution! He began to sweat. He'd never witnessed anything like this before and wasn't sure he ever wanted to. A firm voice rang out over the courtyard and all looked up. On a balcony a regal looking man who could only be the King stood, Fuujin and the Prat from yesterday stood either side of him. Raijin snorted, he'd figured the guy was a prat, but he didn't know he was a royal one!

"This man has been accused of practising magic and has been found guilty!" The King announced. The crowd was silent save for the woman's cries. "And as per our laws, the sentence for this crime is death!"

There were a few agonisingly silent moments, and then the axe came down and the man's head bounced once, twice on the podium. A spray of blood spat from his severed neck and the head was retrieved by the executioner before it could roll off the edge and onto the ground. He held it up for all to see. In the silence, a thick feeling began to well in Raijin's stomach, a lump in his throat and the urge to vomit. The elderly woman's shriek brought him out of his sickness however

"YOU!" She shrieked, eyes narrowed towards the king as she finally shook of her subduers. "You fool! You couldn't recognise magic if it hit you in the face! It was not my son who had the magic, it was me!" The King began to fidget visibly on the balcony and a few guards hove into view on the corner of the courtyard. "I am the one with the power and you… You don't even understand what you've done!"

"Seize her!" The King shouted as he spotted the guards and finally they could spring into action, but before they reached her she threw them aside with a flick of her hand.

"A son for a son!" She shouted at the King, whom by this point was half hidden behind Fuujin. The royal prat was hidden behind a knight. "You will suffer as I suffer, Cid Kramer! You will rue the day you killed my boy!"

And then, with a gust of wind, she was gone. It was silent in the courtyard for a few seconds, before a flurry of orders were shouted and soldiers began to flood the courtyard, diving into the crowd and pulling out old women at random. When they were discovered to be the wrong woman, they were tossed to the ground and the soldiers dove back into the crowds again.

Raijin decided it was high time he got out of there. Many people were fleeing the courtyard and Raijin decided to join them, not sparing the balcony or Fuujin any glances, his only intention being to get out of the way.

When Fuujin found him later he was packing his knapsack with the full intention of getting out of Camelot and back to Ealdor, where things were a lot less dangerous it would seem.

"STOP." Fuujin commanded, grabbing hold of the sack and tugging it, as though trying to remove it from Raijin's hands.

"Nope," Raijin shook his head, tugging back as he stuffed a loaf of bread wrapped in a clean handkerchief into the bag. "I'm not staying here after that, ya know! I could be next and I don't want that. I'm going home, ya know."

"DESTINY." Fuujin said sharply, giving the sack another tug, much harder this time and the material pulled through his fingers. The contents of the sack spilt onto the floor and a number of apples rolled away.

"Hey!" He complained, snatching his knapsack back and bending to retrieve his loaf. But Fuujin's fist in his shirt yanked him back up and shoved him against a wall. She was surprisingly strong for such a small woman.

"DESTINY." She repeated, single eye narrowed. "TALK."

"It doesn't matter anymore," He huffed, glaring down at her. "You said it's not your problem anymore and I'm not staying, so let me go, ya know!"

"NO. TALK."

"Why?"

"IMPORTANT."

"Oh now it's important!" He rolled his eyes, "It wasn't so important yesterday when I wanted you to help me, ya know! But now I'm leaving all of a sudden-"

She slapped him across the face and shook him by the collar. "TALK, RAIJIN."

He was gobsmacked. He'd never been hit by a woman before - well Hattie had slapped him when they were seven because he'd kissed her without permission, but she was a little girl and that didn't count – but it hurt! She was a lot stronger than she looked.

"I'll be a great and powerful Warlock and I'll help the future king to unite the land into the fabled Albion." He said dumbly and Fuujin released him, letting him slip down the wall and onto the sacking-bed.

She contemplated. The witch posed a problem. They'd not had many problems with magic recently and as such the kingdom's security had become a little lax. They could always tighten it again, but who would that help? Most of the guard didn't know what they were looking for and how much of a target was 'one old woman'? If Raijin had been in the courtyard - and she knew that he was – he would have gotten a good look at the witch and knew what he was looking for. Of course there were plenty of spells that would alter her appearance, so she could look like anyone. But if Raijin really had the magic potential Kadowaki suggested he did, then she would be no match for him. He'd be able to sense her from a mile off.

She looked at Raijin, who was watching her curiously, his knapsack and loaf clutched to his chest. It was a funny sight, such a big man clutching at a little tiny loaf like a small child, gazing up at her with big, round, dark eyes. Hard to resist really. She made a noise of agitation and rolled her eye; as much as she hated trouble, it would appear that this was a necessary evil for the safety of the King.

"FINE." She conceded, "I'LL HELP."

She had expected Raijin to rejoice, perhaps even crack a smile and thank her for sticking her neck out. But he simply shook his head and stuffed his loaf into his knapsack. "Nope," He said, "It's too dangerous, ya know. I'm going home."

"CAN'T!"

"Fuujin!"

They both looked to the door at the voice, then exchanged glances. It was an arrogant voice. The royal prat. Fuujin waved him to follow her and then stepped out of the backroom. Muttering to himself, Raijin followed.

The royal prat was stood at the front door, looking at the rafters, clearly expecting Fuujin to be somewhere up there. When she entered on ground level however he seemed quite surprised and when Raijin followed, the surprise turned to disappointment.

"SIRE." Fuujin greeted him and Raijin mumbled a greeting.

"My father wants to talk with you, immediately." The royal prat said and turned for the door, calling back over his shoulder, "You can bring your ward as well."

Fuujin shot Raijin a look, ordered him to be "SILENT" and then followed the royal prat out of the room.

The throne room was ginormous; long and wide with a high-ceiling that allowed for two rows of windows, one on top of the other. Dark stained oak wood panelling lined the room and the floor was gilt with a leaf pattern in shining steel, polished by people's shoes so the floor fairly glittered in the light that shone in through the painted glass windows. Court seemed to be in session when they arrived and the room was filled with people. They turned and bowed when the royal prat entered the room and cast curious glances at Raijin when he followed. It obviously wasn't a common occurrence to have a peasant in the throne room at such a delicate affair.

"Ah, Fuujin…" The King addressed her as they approached and the royal prat took a place beside the king, facing the court. Raijin stopped just behind Fuujin, intent on focussing on the conversation, but unfortunately he found himself distracted by the most alluring beauty and the conversation went along without him.

The alluring beauty was seated on the King's left hand side, on a smaller version of the throne he occupied, looking at the King as he spoke. She had delicate features, skin as pale as the moon, a delicate nose, full lips the colour of palest pink, pale blue eyes rimmed by thick dark lashes and topped by elegant eye brows. What struck him the most though was the long braid of rich golden hair that fell over her shoulder. It was a colour he had never seen before in anywhere save for great fields of barley, shimmering under the summer sun. It was beautiful and he couldn't take his eyes off it, like a golden rope that entrapped his soul and wouldn't let him go. He wasn't sure he cared if it didn't.

His name brought him back into the real world to see that the King was nodding slowly at him, eyes narrowed as he looked him up and down. "He's to be your assistant I gather."

"AFFIRMATIVE." Fuujin nodded.

"For how long?" The royal prat interceded. He had his arms crossed and was looking decidedly unimpressed.

"YEARS." Fuujin said, gaining a snort of derision from the royal prat and a toss of his head. This was clearly not the answer he was hoping for. Raijin resisted the urge to stick out his tongue.

"Well in that case make sure he doesn't get in the way of the preparations." The King said, leaning back in his throne as Fuujin nodded. "He may attend the feast as well if you find him something suitable to wear. Court dismissed."

The court bowed – Raijin a couple of counts behind the rest – and then began to file out. Raijin cast a look over his shoulder before leaving the room, only to see the royal prat sliming up to the alluring beauty, looking at Raijin with a smirk on his face that clearly said he knew what he'd been staring at throughout court. Slimy bastard. It just made Raijin dislike him more.

"Father, do you think it's wise to allow the festival to go on? Given the events of today, I don't think-"

"Until you are King," The King interrupted, picking a grape out of the bunch offered to him by a servant, "Which won't be for a long time yet, I make the rules and I see no reason to allow one old woman's grief to get in the way of an age old tradition." He popped the grape into his mouth and shook his head at his son. "There's nothing all that great to worry about."

"But, Father!" The prince paced in front of the throne, ignoring the plate of grapes that was offered to him. "She disappeared right in front of us! Plucked round out from underneath our noses on a gust of wind! She's powerful!"

"What's the matter?" The alluring beauty asked, a tone of laughter in her voice, "You're not afraid of her are you?"

The Prince sneered at her but any retort he could have made was cut off by the King. "My son, afraid of a little witch? You must be out of your mind, Quistis. No. There's nothing to be afraid of. We'll have every guard looking for her, we'll scour the land from top to bottom until she's found and then we'll torch her. She'll not be able to get into the castle in any case so if Seifer remains in here there will be no risks."

"I'm not going into hiding!" Seifer scoffed and both Quistis and the King exchanged glances. "I'm not!" He insisted as they turned sympathetic gazes on him. "It's one old woman!"

"But she looks pretty powerful…" Quistis eased as Seifer continued to shake his head. "You could get hurt…"

"I could get hurt at the dinner table, Ice Queen-"

"Oiy! That's enough." The king rose from his throne and wagged a finger at his son. "Don't call her that. How old are you?" Seifer rolled his eyes as his father pointed to the doors. "Go away and do something useful, the pair of you."

Quistis rose from her chair with a slightly haughty expression – not at all used to being told off for anything, let alone fighting with the Prince - and stalked past Seifer and out of the room. Seifer, however, was harder to get rid of.

"There's supposed to be a jousting competition in the festival, isn't there." He said, folding his arms across his chest. "How am I supposed to compete if I'm to stay inside?"

"You won't be competing." The King said easily, accepting another grape but then thinking better of it and simply taking the whole plate.

"I have to compete." Seifer said, voice hard. "I have to defend my title."

"In light of recent events, the people will understand if you don't compete." The King said, stuffing another few grapes into his mouth. "Now be off with you, practise your sword-fighting or something. I hear you've been getting rather lax at that."

Riled by the jibe at his swordsmanship, Seifer turned on his heel and stalked from the room, making sure to slam the door extra hard as he left. A few torches by the door shook in their sconces.

Quistis was walking about looking for her hand-maiden when the sound of fighting reached her through an open window. Looking out she watched as Seifer chopped the head off a scare-crow and then proceeded to beat the stuffing out of the body. She wasn't an expert, but he looked upset.

Foregoing the search for her hand-maiden, Quistis decided to go outside and try and talk Seifer down from whatever it was that was eating him. If he was left this way he was going to be acidic and abrasive all day. She stood a short distance away as he beat the poor, unfortunate scarecrow into the mud. When finally he seemed out of breath and stopped smashing the thing to bits, she approached him.

"What's the matter?"

She thought she had posed the question quite kindly, soft voice, quietly spoken, little emphasis on any of the words… But the look the Prince gave her said otherwise. The green eyes bore into her, glowering from underneath pinched eyebrows. His jaw was set hard and the shape of his shoulders said he was tense. Maybe this wasn't a good time. Maybe she should have let him cool down a bit first.

"What's the matter, Trepe? What's the matter!? Why the hell should I tell you?" He asked, straightening up to his full height and towering above her.

"I was just asking because you seem stressed-"

"I seem stressed?" He snarled, "Well you seem fucking female, am I right?"

"Goddamn it, Seifer!" She threw her hands up in the air, "I was only asking! You don't need to be so horrid!"

"Well maybe I'm in the mood to be horrid." He said bluntly, stabbing his sword – a real one and not the wooden one he should have been using for practise – into the mud-splattered corpse of the scarecrow. "Why the hell did you ask me anyway? Can't you tell this isn't a good time?"

"There's never a good time with you, is there." She snapped, folding her arms over her chest and glaring at him. So much for talking him down.

"Just fuck off."

"Don't use such horrible language."

"Fuck. Off."

"No."

His eyes narrowed, almost unperceptively and he folded his arms too. Stalemate. "What do you want?"

"Well I wanted to know what the matter was." She said, shaking her head, "But I don't think I care anymore. Be miserable for all I care. Who knows, I might have been able to help you."

"Oh fuck off," He almost looked like he would laugh. Almost. "Like you could make him change his mind."

"About what?"

"Oh, you've not heard? Funny that, I would have thought he would have announced it to the whole fucking world by now."

"What, Seifer? What would be announced?"

He shook his head and turned to walk away, grabbing hold of his sword and yanking it free of the mud, kicking the scarecrow away. "Doesn't matter. I'm sure you'll hear about it soon enough."

Quistis followed him, debating on whether or not she should reach out and touch him. He didn't often react favourably to her touch, but sometimes he didn't mind. His fire seemed to be out for the minute though – it amazed her sometimes how quickly he could change from fire-breathing beast into something vaguely human – so she grabbed for his arm, slowing him down a little so she could walk beside him. She let go as soon as she'd caught up, not wishing to test her luck.

"Hear about what?" She pushed, looking at him as they walked – over to the next scarecrow by the looks of it.

"About how crap I am at everything, apparently."

She frowned at that, "What are you talking about? You're not 'crap' at anything."

"You'd be the only one who thinks so." He said, leaving her behind as he went to 'take care of' the next scarecrow. "The King thinks my sword work is getting 'rather lax'." He attempted an imitation of his father's voice. "You're not allowed to compete in the jousting! You need to practise your sword work! You can't even defend yourself from one old woman!" The head of the scarecrow hit the floor and bounced. "Pisses me off. He never gives me any credit for what I do!"

"That's probably because he's not seen what you do." Quistis offered as Seifer kicked the head away. "I think your sword work is actually quite good."

Seifer turned to her with a sigh and sheathed his weapon. "Yeah, but what would you know about swords?"

A/N: There will likely be quite a bit more in the coming weeks because my work-load has just dropped back down to normal and I have more free time to spend on writing.

So, any thoughts? Please tell me if you liked it, I'm just testing this out to be honest, seeing whether I should make it into an epic journey or just a small myth...

Your comments would be appreciated, thanks.

-Lapin.