Chapter 8: Interlude (Pseudo-Previously)

Water as clear as crystal, surrounded by vast patches of green, blooming with life. Ducks, fishes, deer, bunnies; all kinds of beautiful creatures can be found around it. The philosophers say that it clears your mind, and the lovers say that it lifts your spirit. It's not any lake; it's one of a kind, and it just happens to be in Camelot. However, this is only the half of the story, because that lake, special as it is, has two faces; one for the living, and other for the rest.

Those who don't breathe. Those who are but aren't. Those who see without eyes and hear without ears. There, on the other side of the lake, is where they live (or whatever you want to call it). They have a vast world, filled with impossible things, and so big that they keep finding places they didn't knew existed, and probably didn't. There is however a problem in that land; they have too much time. This, added to the fact that they were once human, leads to a likely result. They gossip, and not about just anyone; they gossip about the living.

That's the reason why this unlikely meeting was taking place.

"Hi everyone, it's nice to see you again." She waited for them to answer. "I suppose you already know it has been a busy couple of months on the other side, so we better get started. I think most of you would agree that we should start talking about this Dragoon character."

"What is there to talk about?" a man asked. "He's there to destroy Camelot!"

"Really Uther?" a third voice asked. " Still with that? Haven't you seen enough to know that's not true?"

"It's Your Highness to you, Balinor. And of course you are defending him; you and that son of yours want that as well."

In the other side of the table a woman stood up. "Uther, you know I respect you, " she said, "but if what you say it's true, why did he help my daughter and my husband? Why didn't he just let them die?"

"It's all part of his plan," Uther answered. "He obviously wants to destroy Nemeth one day and thinks that gaining Mithian and Rodor's trust will make it easier"

"Obviously…" another voice said, filled with sarcasm.

"Morgause, please, you are not helping," said the one who had started the meeting. She looked at the one talking before. "Uther, I understand you have opinions of your own, but we are not here to fight among ourselves, you need to behave."

Uther looked at her. If she talked to him like that before, he would have thrown her in jail, maybe even killed. But here things were different; she was the one who had the power. The 'Lady of the Lake' they called her. Someday he would change this, but today wasn't that day. He nodded and stayed silent.

"Alright then," Freya carried on, "I've been talking to some people and it would appear that Dragoon history checks out. He is in fact a dragonlord and he has lived a long, long time; however that's all I could find out." She looked at Balinor. "Do you happen to know anything more about him?"

Balinor shook his head. "Sorry, I heard stories about him when I was young, but I've never met him," he said.

"What about the stories then?" Freya asked.

"Well, most of them are probably myths, but basically they say he is a very powerful sorcerer, maybe the most powerful sorcerer alive, except for Merlin of course," Balinor said with a smile in his face.

Morgouse sighed. "Dragoon this, Dragoon that, can't we talk about someone more interesting?" she protested.

"Like who?" Freya asked.

"Well, Morgana of course. She has a dragon now, a dragon! And all of you just talk about some clown who can't make two sentences without telling a joke. If you fear that someone would destroy Camelot you should fear her!" she said, looking at Uther.

A young man talked this time. "I don't know, she already tried and failed twice," he said.

"And how did that fare for you Lancelot?" Morgouse asked, showing a smirk.

"Look who's talking," he quickly replied.

Freya raised her hands. "Guys, please," she said. "It's true that Morgana now has Aithusa, but she hasn't made any moves towards Camelot yet."

"She's just regaining her strength," Morgause said, "soon she would take what should be her."

"Over my dead body!" Uther yelled.

For a moment there was silence, then laughter.

"I think that's enough about Morgana, anything else?" asked Freya.

Lancelot was the one who spoke. "Personally, I'm happy Gwen found out about Merlin; it was long overdue," he said.

"True," said Freya, "which means that the people who now know about Merlin are his mother, Gaius, Dragoon, Gwen, Kilgharrah, Mordred and a few other druids. I don't know about Aithusa."

"I can't believe we didn't figure it out," said Morgause. "He's Emrys… I still don't believe it."

"You and me both," said Uther. "He must have casted a spell on me, which made oblivious of who he truly was; I'm sure of it."

Balinor smiled. "Believe me Uther," he said, "there was no spell; he just outsmarted you."

"That's not true, and now he is trying to corrupt Arthur. He is making him sleep among druids, share their food, be with them as if they were…"

"Humans?" Freya asked.

"Exactly!"

Freya raise her eyebrows which made Uther shut up.

"Arthur was the one who wanted to find the Flower of Destiny, not Merlin," she said, "and if it wasn't for Mordred both of them would probably be dead by now."

Uther didn't reply, instead he just grunted and looked away.

"So, they've got the flower, now what?" Lancelot asked.

Freya smiled. "I guess we'll have to wait and see."

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A/N: I'm alive!

So, funny story, if you read the previous chapter you'll see that I've written that I had the next chapter almost ready and I was going to submit it soon. And here I am now, a little bit over two years later, and still the chapter remains unsubmitted.

So, what happened? Well, a lot, but there were two main reasons I stopped doing this. The first one was that between some personal problems and school, I simply didn't have the time to do this right. The second reason has more to do with what we are doing here, and it was Merlin's ending. Now, I know that everyone has different taste, and there are a lot of people who liked the ending, but I'm not one of them, so I didn't feel very excited about writing stories about a show that ended like that…

Anyway, time passed and here I am again. I'm aiming for submitting one chapter every week, let's see how that goes.

Here we go again…

P.S.: Later on the story I realised that I left Will out of this. I hope he doesn't get offended. Anyway, what harm can a ghost do?