Story Time

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In those early days after the resurrection of the Round Table, Merlin found himself taking on many roles as he helped his friends acclimate as best they could to this strange and bewildering new world. He was sage, servant, teacher and even at times their leader. (Though he admitted the last was more in the way a lone man herding cats would be said to be "in charge".)

But the strangest role, and the one that made him laugh the hardest, was one that he didn't even realize he'd taken on until several months had gone by.

He'd fallen into the habit of reading to his friends in the evenings. It had started off as a way to keep them entertained, since - without the frame of reference provided by the last 1500 years of history and culture - television and movies were mostly incomprehensible even when they understood the words and, after the debacle of their trip to a shopping center in Exeter which involved an escalator, panic, violent threats and quite a number of security personnel, public excursions were now severely cut back. But as the ritual went on, Merlin also began to see his nightly reading as an excellent opportunity to get the Table used to the language and to start to fill in some of those culture gaps.

Therefore, deciding to work his literary way from past to present, he started with the oldest book he had on hand - Martorell's Tirant Lo Blanc, a medieval romance from the late 15th century. (Actually it was Merlin's second oldest book, but he wasn't ready to deal with Le Morte d'Arthur and had had it hidden in a trunk in the attic for decades.)

For hours a night Merlin would read himself hoarse as his friends all sat gathered around him in his sitting room, usually with mugs of hot cocoa he made for them. After Tirant he worked his way through Don Quixote, various works of Shakespeare (they liked the witches and murky atmosphere of Macbeth, but booed Hamlet's whining indecisiveness), Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe (though he skipped over the more racist references to poor Friday). Every so often he would intersperse these with a selection of modern books set in the past, such as the first in O'Brian's Master and Commander series, or back-tracking a bit for a couple of Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series and several tales of Robin Hood.

He even read them the occasional fantasy novel. He didn't usually care for them himself, mostly due to the unhappy memories and/or rueful embarrassment caused by the stock archetype of the wise, old wizard (knowing full well who every one of them was based on), but he did read a couple by an author he'd grown fond of while living in Canada for awhile, and so Gavriel Kay's A Song for Arbonne and The Lions of Al-Rassan were quickly devoured by all. He even considered starting in on George R. R. Martin's epic saga, but dreaded the reception he would get if he got through them all only to have to tell his audience the series wasn't finished yet.

Come December, he began Pride and Prejudice, mostly for Gwen's sake (who'd been patient with a lot of knights, sea tales and war stories), but despite their derision, even Arthur and Gwaine were cheering for the spirited Elizabeth to get her Mr. Darcy by the end. Austen's book also gave Merlin the idea of showing the group the film adaptations of a story they were already familiar with. He borrowed the Colin Firth version from the library and was gratified to see his friends' understanding of both the story and the concept of film increase dramatically.

So, starting in on that vein, he planned A Christmas Carol for around the holidays. He finished up on Christmas Eve, stressing to them to remember the tale as Scrooge was a character everybody would expect them to recognize, and then showed them his favourite version - the one with George C. Scott and David Warner - on Christmas Day. Needless to say, he was immensely pleased when the whole experiment was a hit.

Of course, he conceded to himself, the punch bowls of hot buttered rum and mulled cider likely helped too.

In the New Year, he worked his way further into the 19th century with Rob Roy and David Copperfield and, when those proved a little too lugubrious and slow, he moved onto Sherlock Holmes, canon and pastiches. These were much more successful and Gwaine started making noises about becoming a detective, provoking a three day debate over Gwaine's lack of qualifications, silence and bodily hygiene ("Your quarry would smell you a mile off, mate," Elyan told him), and another three day debate on who would be his "Watson".

So reading time became a cherished routine, though Merlin didn't appreciate how much so until one week when he'd begged off, complaining of eye strain and a sore throat. (That wasn't truly the reason, and he thought several of them might have guessed it when he turned in to bed early three nights in a row, but he wasn't ready to tell them the real cause yet: that he'd worn himself down trying to get a sense of whatever catastrophe might have called back the Once and Future King. After all, they had their hands full trying to cope with their new lives and he had nothing yet to tell them.)

The company restrained themselves for two nights, quietly occupying themselves with chess, cards and dice games, and even reading for themselves for those who'd grown proficient at it, but by the third evening the active knights were bored, and when they woke Merlin with a game of something called "sword cricket" in the basement, he ordered them upstairs and had them gather round his bed.

And it was there, as he got three chapters into Edward Rutherford's London and suddenly looked out at the eager faces of the people sitting practically at his feet, that his jaw dropped:

Seven grown men and one grown woman couldn't get by without their bed-time story!

He started to laugh, ignoring his friends' looks of puzzlement. Explainer, guide, protector and now story-reader… By the Gods, he'd somehow fallen into the role of "Father"!

He wondered if this was how Gaius had felt back in the day, the poor man.

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Author's greetings:

Well, this wasn't the piece I expected to write today, but there it is. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it and, if you're skeptical Arthur and the others could grow so dependent on a routine, try going without your television or computer for a few days. I haven't had a tv for nearly four years and it took a sum total of two months of visiting my mother who does to get back into the habit again. I've been antsy and annoyed practically every evening since!

Anyway, a sincere thank you to all of my readers! The response has been fantastic! Cheers!