Weary Warlock
Summary: What troubles will a warlock bereft from sleep get into?
By: Eressie
Chapter Four
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When Merlin arrived at the practice range, he saw a few of the knights there and he walked towards them. Lancelot and Percival were currently dueling but lowered their swords when Merlin reached them.
"Merlin!" Lancelot exclaimed happily, "I've barely seen you these last three days! Where have you been?" he asked and patted Merlin's shoulder.
"Working mostly," Merlin said and hiccuped, more green and purple bubbles came from his mouth. "Seeeecret things, sssshhhh." The knights stared at him. "Although I just had a break and I went to the Tavern with Gwaine just now." He said and pointed behind him. "He was a cat at first but then he was human, or wait… I am not sure which order it was. But I danced with Old Sean as well, imagine that!"
"Are you ill?" Percival asked and touched Merlin's forehead with his hand.
"Drunk, it seems," Elyan said as he and Leon walked forward.
Leon watched Merlin closely. "He does seem odd, but not typically drunk, I would say." He paused and thought for a while. "Arthur mentioned something about a potion, Merlin." He said after a while, watching the bubbles float up toward the sky. "You created one and drank it to make you not go to sleep?" Merlin nodded. "That was three days ago, have you… have you still not slept?"
Merlin grinned. "Correct."
"That cannot be good for you, Merlin." Lancelot said.
"I feel fine, Leon!"
"I'm Lancelot."
Merlin grinned. "Close enough," he said and did a double take to look at Lancelot to see that he was not lying in saying who he was.
"And actually," Elyan said, "Gwaine has been with us all day. He can not have been with you."
"Really?" Merlin said and looked around. "Prove it. He is not here now."
"He got his hand hurt; dueling Elyan earlier," Percival replied. "He is off to get it looked at by Gaius."
"Hmm, strange," Merlin said and put his hand to his chin. "I could have sworn that he was with me, he was a cat first. Or was it later? Did I mention that?"
"Merlin," Lancelot said softly, "my friend, I think you should accompany me to Gaius."
Merlin looked at him concerned. "Why? Did you hurt yourself too? Don't worry I can heal you up really quick!" he said and lifted his hands towards Lancelot. The knight took a few steps backward when he saw tiny lightning; dancing around Merlin's outstretched fingers.
"I'm fine," he said and kept his distance from the warlock since he did not trust that Merlin was in full control of his powers right now. "It's you that I am worried about."
Merlin frowned. "Why? Because I have not slept?" he said irritably. "I'm not a toddler, Lance."
The ground shook a little under their feet as Merlin became more agitated. So, Leon stepped forward. "Actually, Merlin, I think I might have a fever." Merlin looked at him and furrowed his brow. "I think you and Lancelot need to take me to Gaius," he said and touched his forehead. "I'm not sure I could make it," he said, "I'm so faint."
They all felt relieved when the ground stopped shaking. They all had faith in Merlin and his magic, but right now they were not quite sure what could happen. Especially since they knew Merlin often did magic without even thinking about it when he was stressed or tired. And tired he must be by now!
Merlin looked at Leon concerned and touched his arm. "How bad is it? Do you feel nauseous?" the healer in Merlin took over.
Leon nodded. "Yes, a little." Leon lied to try to get Merlin to Gauis.
"Let's get you to-" Merlin stopped and squinted his eyes. "get you to-to-Atchoooo!" Merlin sneezed violently and barely had time to cover his mouth.
"Ah, sorry!" Merlin said and straighten up after bending over from the sneeze. "Let's get you to Gaius." he looked down; he was confused when he felt that Leon was now sitting on the ground. He crouched down beside him. "Can you walk on your own?"
Leon was shaking. "M-Merlin what… what did you do?" he said with an unsteady voice.
Merlin frowned. "What do you mean, Leon?"
The knight looked around, wide-eyed. "W-where ARE we?"
Now Merlin looked around as well. He lifted his eyebrows when he saw that they no longer were on the practice range. "Ah." He said.
"Ah?" Leon echoed. "Is that all you can say?" he slowly rose from the ground and spun around where he stood. He was feeling a little bit ill for real this time. "What happened?!"
They now stood in a dense forest. The sun was struggling to make its way through the thick tree crowns. It was mostly pine trees but a lot of large fir trees as well. No pathways could be seen and in some places, the trees were too close together for anyone to pass through.
Merlin giggled; Leon stared at him. "We must have teleported!" the warlock exclaimed happily. "Amazing! I never made it work before!"
Leon continued to stare at the warlock. "Tele-what now?"
"Teleported!" Merlin laughed. "That's what I was going to call it anyway, or teleportation if you will."
"Meaning what exactly," he asked slowly, trying not to look scared, but failing. "That you sneeze and then you appear somewhere else entirely?"
"Well, kind of," Merlin shrugged, "The sneezing was not a part of it and the plan is also to know where you end up," he said and looked around impressed. "Teleportation means that you transfer matter or energy from one point to another without actually crossing any physical space between the two points. Like, I can just take a step from my tower to the crown room, just like that." He said with a big smile on his face and snapped his fingers.
"That," Leon said, feeling the worst shock leave him, "is actually amazing." His eyes widened and looked around again. "Although, I would very much not be the first to try this out. What if something would have gone wrong?"
"Ah, sorry!" not sounding like he was very sorry at all, since he was so amazed that he actually had transported like they had. Even though he did not mean to.
He had tried to succeed for months now but he got nowhere, literally.
"Can you, um, can you take us back?"
"Hmm, maybe." The warlock answered. "If I knew what I did? Maybe get me to sneeze again and hope that we don't end up in the sea! Or falling through the air down a cliff!" he said cheerfully and hiccupped. One purple bubble and one blue bubble appeared from his hiccup. "Hey, look at that, never done a blue one before!" Merlin chuckled.
Leon widened his eyes. "Maybe try to figure this out before doing anything hasty!"
Merlin pressed his lips together. "I could try."
"Good, good," Leon said and sat down on a fallen tree just beside them. "Any idea where we could be?"
"Hmm, and when?" Merlin mumbled.
"When?"
"Ah, did I not mention?" he smiled, "I also tinkered with time travel a little bit," he said enthusiastically. "I've had so much time to work now when I am not wasting time sleeping!"
"Time travel!" Leon shouted and stood back up.
"Yes!" Merlin laughed. "Astonishing idea!"
"Did we?!" he shouted again, "Did we time travel as well?"
Merlin shrugged and giggled again. "Who knows? Exciting if we were, right?" he patted Leon on the shoulder. "And to think you get to experience this for the first time, same as me! How splendid this is, is it not?"
Leon hid his face in his hands. "Why did you not drag Lancelot, or Gwaine into this instead? Why me? I'm not the time-traveling kind of guy…or transportation kind of person either." he muttered. "Gwaine would love this," he continued to mumble into his hands, "Lance would admire every moment of this… Arthur would… well, he would shout a lot more than me…but probably love it as well since it's Merlin..."
Merlin watched him and tilted his head. "Sorry, what was that?"
Leon took a deep breath and lowered his hands. "I said… let's walk." he sighed and gave up.
"Let's walk until we see something familiar or a sign, or… anything!" he grabbed hold of Merlin's arm and started to walk forward. Merlin opened his mouth to question it, but Leon just shook his head. "Just in case you decide to sneeze your way out of here, I don't want to be left alone."
"Wise." Merlin nodded and let Leon guide him forward. Together they walked through the forest, their arms hooked together.
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