A/N: I don't own Merlin. That was the luck of the BBC.
Yay new chapter! I'm so happy with the response of the last update! I was so worried you'd all hate it, but it seems to have gone down ok! Apologies for any heart attacks caused at the end of 14, but I just had to do it *evil laughter*
There's going to be about 20 chapters total, I'm currently shuffling chunks of text between chapters to kind of even them out.
None of the knights, nor Arthur himself would've ever thought they'd be relieved to once again be enveloped in Merlin's chatter, even if it was still slightly nonsensical and interspersed with gaps. After around an hour of wandering through the woods, still none the wiser of where they actually were, they came across a small, rural village. It contained around ten houses, surrounded by a few outbuildings, and circled around a small dusty patch of land, clearly the village square.
Sat on a bench outside one of the houses was a middle aged woman folding laundry into a wicker basket. Arthur and the knights had clearly made enough commotion hobbling into to the village to attract her attention, as she was now headed towards them; her abandoned laundry the furthest thought from her mind. Clapping eyes on the King of Camelot, along with a quartet of knights and one severely injured manservant, she let out a small gasp.
"King Arthur?" She mouthed silently, mostly to herself in disbelief.
"Can you help us please? My friend here needs urgent care." Arthur was still supporting Merlin, and though some of the weight had been alleviated by Gwaine, his arm was beginning to take the strain and his muscles had been tensing up for the last ten minutes or so.
"I'm not that bad." Merlin protested. The woman was clearly still in awe but was trying to check how coherent Merlin was, introducing herself as Katherine. She was also firmly resisting Merlin's protests of 'don't worry' and 'I'll be OK'.
"You were dead five minutes ago, so I'm sorry if I feel you need to at least sit down for a bit." Arthur shot Merlin a glare, pointless as it was, as his head was drooped low, and he was pretty sure the warlock had his eyes closed. "Please excuse him, he's had a… difficult time recently. Can I ask where we are?"
"You're in Redferran." Arthur's bemused stare caused her to elaborate. "In the low-lying lands between Camelot and Cenred's kingdom."
"That means we're about a day's ride from the castle." Arthur breathed a sigh of relief, still not totally sure where they were, but he now had a vague idea. Arthur also realised they were around two days ride from Ealdor, a tiny part of him feeling a smug satisfaction over Gwaine.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, puzzled as to why royalty would be in their tiny village, disheveled as they were.
"It's a very long story, do you have a physician Merlin could see?"
"Petch is our resident healer, though I don't know how much he can do for you. He usually deals with people needing herbal remedies; headaches, joint pain, that kind of thing." Katherine sighed. "I wish we could be more of a help to you."
"Any help at all would be greatly appreciated, even it's only something for his pain."
"Come with me then." Katherine motioned to them and led the group to one of the houses, slightly larger than most of them, then proceeded to bang roughly on the withered door.
"Petch!" She yelled, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently.
"Can't an old man have a moment's peace?" The reply came from within the house, and despite the outburst he was clearly shuffling towards the door.
"We have visitors! Royal ones at that!" Katherine called out, her annoyance clear. "Forgive my uncle, he gets cranky sometimes. Don't let that put you off." She smiled sympathetically, rolling her eyes as the man inside was muttering under his breath.
"Don't be daft child, no one-" The door swung open, and there stood an elderly man, not dissimilar to Gaius. His face was wrinkled with the passage of time and his white hair just touched upon his shoulders, however he was very much gaunter than Gaius and sported a wispy beard, with pince-nez spectacles perched on his nose. "King Arthur?" The man clearly could not stop himself from echoing his niece.
"The boy needs your help." Katherine motioned to Merlin, who despite his bravado was weakly clutching at Gwaine. The physician's demeanour changed instantly upon the sight of him.
"Yes, yes of course, come in, come in." Petch ushered the men inside, whilst Katherine made her excuses and left. He led them through the house to a room resembling Gaius' quarters, only larger and with a few more beds for patients.
The place was empty, save for them, and Petch embarrassedly cleared a bed for Merlin, removing books and empty vials. "I don't often have patients who need the beds. Everyone lives ten foot away." He chuckled softly, before sobering. "What happened to him?"
No one was quite sure where to start their tale, or to explain what had happened to Merlin, and nearly everyone was taken by surprise when Merlin let out a low groan, followed by a list of his ailments.
"I've got multiple cuts that need disinfecting, I think my rib is displaced, the bruising is healing but it's still rather painful, there's a stab wound on my left shoulder that bled for a long time, so I reckon I've had some blood loss, and oh, my heart stopped." After recounting his wounds, Merlin rested his head back against the bed, revelling in the feeling of the cotton sheet beneath him, no more hard stone or solid earth.
"Your heart stopped?" Petch sounded equally morbidly intrigued and downright cynical, which didn't surprise them at all. It was doubtful that something as miraculous would ever happen again in their lifetimes.
"Yes, Arthur started it again. I know, I couldn't believe it myself either." Merlin let out a soft laugh.
"You managed to restart the heart? Through force upon the chest?" Petch mimed punching himself where his heart was located, to which Arthur nodded. "I've never seen it applied successfully. Congratulations, your majesty." His tone was one of pure amazement.
"Just Arthur is fine. You're going to help Merlin, of which we are so grateful, so please, just Arthur." Arthur iterated, sounding humbler than he'd ever done before.
"Well Arthur, the sentiments still apply. You had Lady Luck on your side, that's for sure." He moved towards Merlin, looking over the wounds on his torso and his shoulder, slowly removing Arthur's makeshift bandages, the white now an unappealing shade of orangey red. "You did good cleaning these with what you had, it definitely prevented them getting any worse." Petch nodded appreciatively towards Arthur. "I can redress these and give you something to fight the infection," He placed the back of his hand against Merlin forehead, "and that fever. I think I've got some arnica for the bruising, it should help take the edge off." He then looked over Merlin's rib. "If you intend to make haste towards Camelot, I can't do anything for your rib but offer pain management. It'd be better off treated in Camelot."
"Makes sense." Merlin nodded in agreement, and Petch began the task of soaking bandages in some kind of salve at his workbench.
"You sure know your stuff, boy. You're a physician?" Merlin shook his head as Petch began to bandage his stomach and shoulder, alternating between soaked and dry cloth, and cleaning some of the smaller cuts across his chest and up his neck whilst he worked.
"I live with one. I've picked up some stuff from working with him." Merlin sighed as every muscle was protesting even the slightest movement; how he'd managed to stumble from their makeshift camp to the village, he didn't know.
"It's good knowledge to have. Everyone's going to get sick or injured at some point. I learnt from my uncle, he was the physician here until he died. I was useless with my hands, but found I had quite a good memory when I started mixing remedies with my uncle." Petch had begun to grind various herbs and liquids in a mortar, until he had a pale green concoction. "Still I suppose servicing Camelot is a lot different than caring for our humble little village." He shrugged, transporting the mixture into a wooden cup and handing it to Merlin. "For the pain and the infection. I've mixed it with water as well which should help some of your dehydration."
"It smells better than Gaius' potions." Merlin mused, before drinking it in one go. Instantly his expression changed to one of disgust, a familiar sight upon both Gaius' and Petch's patients alike after tasting one of their medicines. "Still tastes as awful as them though."
"There's onion, garlic, salts and a few ingredients you probably don't want to think about." Petch smiled apologetically, causing Merlin to chuckle. He'd once eyed the contents of Gaius' shelves and regretted it ever since. He was beginning to feel overcome with drowsiness, his eyelids growing heavy as he mumbled something incoherent before falling completely asleep.
"Merlin?" Arthur panicked, seeing Merlin draped over the table, looking quite possibly dead. "What did you do?" He pointed an accusatory finger at Petch.
"Calm yourselves, nothing more than a light sleeping draught as well as a pain remedy. Look." He gestured to Merlin, quite clearly asleep as appose to dead. "His body needs to heal and it can do that easier if he's asleep. I don't have the supplies to make a proper draught though, he'll not be out for long."
"I'm sorry-" Arthur began, but Petch waved off the comment.
"You are tired and worried for your friend, I understand why you'd jump to conclusions like that. The mind can play all sorts of tricks when under serious stress." Petch placed his hand on Arthur's shoulder, giving him an affirming nod. "Come, there's stew in the pot, and I can look over any injuries you have." He raised an eyebrow at the state of Arthur's wrists, not nearly as bad as Merlin's, but still red and painful.
"That's not necessary, I'm sure Merlin-" Arthur started, but Petch would have none of it.
"Merlin needs rest, what little I can give him, so there's nothing stopping me from treating you. I'm pretty sure you weren't going to tell me about your wrists." Petch gave him a knowing look, a look that could often be found adorning Gaius' face, making Arthur wonder if it was a trait of all physicians. "I've seen people with minor injuries when they're with someone as bad as your friend. They never want treatment, even when they need it. You'll be no good to Merlin if you get an infection."
Petch began spooning stew into bowls for Arthur and the knights, which they all took gratefully. None could remember the last hot meal they'd had. No sooner had they been given them, they finished it all, causing a chuckle from Petch.
"I'm assuming you're not holidaying in Redferran?" Petch mused as he began mixing something with which to soothe their wrists.
"No, we… were captured." Arthur sighed, embarrassed and defeated by the whole situation.
"I gathered." Petch glanced over at Merlin, his breathing slightly improved but still throaty and gasping. "What were they after?"
The men shared glances between them, unsure of how much they should share, worried about revealing Merlin's secret to anyone who could be trusted. However their decision was cut short as they heard familiar mumblings coming from the bed, and one of Petch's empty glass beakers toppled to the floor, smashing on impact.
Are you guys liking this chapter? I wanted a little diversion before Camelot, and a twist on Merlin's care, rather than have everything done by Gaius.
Also, I have a question for all my readers. I have tentatively written about half of chapter 1 for an OSAW sequel, are you guys interested in this story continuing? Or would you like to see something new? I have a number of one-shots that need finishing and also quite a few half thought out series that I could start. The sequel wouldn't be published immediately, there'd be a bit of a gap whilst I worked out a comprehensive storyline (instead of changing the plot every two minutes).
Let me know!