Uther sat in Igraine's arms and gaze for a long moment, blinking, stunned.
"How, how can it be? You...passed a long time ago. Before he..."Uther looked at Arthur, and studied him, wide-eyed.
"And you...you are...so changed? A-A shadow lies on you...What has happened?" Uther studied his son, bewildered, not even noticing the others.
"That's a long story. And probably one we don't have time for." Regina was eager to speak to King Uther. Uther swirled around to look at her, and stopped short, noticing her for the first time, and looking on as if he knew her.
"One we definitely don't have time for..." Emma gasped on a sudden.
The others looked in the direction of her wan-faced stare. Emma drew nearer to Henry and put her hands protectively on his shoulders as they came. Arthur's hand went to his sword hilt. Merlin stepped in front of those who had no magic, and Regina lit a fireball.
"Who are you? State-state your business..." Regina snapped.
A man at the front of the line swept his hat off.
"We are the people of-of Camelot. We are lost in this forest, madam. And...we-we felt the spell the witch Nimueh put on us, we felt it roll through the forest here, as if the levy has broken...Afraid, we are. We come...we come in search of our king." The villager looked nervously about.
Uther stood up, and smoothed his robes.
"And what do you seek of your king?" Uther straightened up, and all at once the others noticed that he was a proud man, with a grim face.
"Well, first ways, to know him. You see...we were told, in the legends, that-that when this time came, he would rise again." The villager fretted his lip.
Merlin felt a sudden surge of power, he did not understand.
"You do not know your king by the sight of him?" Uther scoffed. Was he not cleary a king? Wearing a crown and robes.
"Pray forgive me, lord...he-well he died before I was born, and so I never saw him. It t'was the legend my Nan raised me on. And ever I were to fear the days the Witches would return, the elders told me the tale, and how I was to lead the people to him on that terrible day. The elders were wiser, you know. I recall every word they told me. How one day a rushing of dark magic like black lightning from a blue sky would take us to a place of dread, but in that place, would even now be hope. They told me the legend of King Arthur Pendragon, who sacrificed himself on Arthur's Stone, to the Gatekeeper of the Spirit World, and in so doing, sealed Albion forever." The villager smiled, a dream-like look in his eye.
Uther froze, eyes wide, tongue turned to stone. He looked at his son, who himself seemed to be a bit surprised by the idea of being encapsulated in legend. The silence was deafening for a moment, as more fearful people crept from out of the woods in the way that the magic that had rolled off of Uther upon waking had gone.
"Where are they coming from?" Emma asked Regina off to the side.
"I think the Evil King's waking up is what magicked them all here..."Regina put a hand in her hair, taken aback completely.
Silence fell, and the villager looked eagerly from face to face. Then, his eyes fell on Arthur who was standing up taller now, assuming command.
"How many are your number? Are there wounded and sick? How long have you been walking?" Arthur reached a hand to his shoulder, and suddenly, upon touch, the villager's eyes went wide and his face flashed a look of recognition that could only be attributed to magic. Merlin let a laugh of elated joy.
"My...My lord,-are you?" He smiled.
Arthur smiled in return. And there it was again, as Merlin had missed it. The love between King Arthur and his people of Camelot was strong, and now it was visible.
"Yes." Arthur smiled.
"My lord! I have waited my whole life to meet you, sire." The man fell to his feet.
Arthur looked to Merlin for a small moment, and his face showed something almost like pride, but at the same time almost like embarrassment, like a child when their grandparent gushes over an achievement. He cleared his throat then.
"To your feet, young fellow. We've got a lot to do." Arthur nodded, and the young man stood up.
"How many are your number? Are there sick and wounded? How many have not rested?" And all of a sudden, like a shepherd with a flock, Arthur was asking questions and gathering villagers to do tasks. In under five minutes, the whole troop of bedraggled people was ready to go first to Granny's for provisions, and then disperse to camps that David and Emma would help oversee.
As they went away with Emma and David, there was chatter among them that seemed to make Uther's hair stand on end, while Igraine was beaming:
"Is that really King Arthur? But he is so young?"
"Ah, that is because he was a young man when he sacrificed himself. Remember the tale from Aunt Ives? He t'would look young because he was upon death."
"I would have thought he was older by the wise way he speaks? Do you think that's because he is stepped out of the ages now?"
"Did you see it? He smiled at me. He looked right at me and he said my name. The king remembered my name, even after all this time, can you believe it? Oh but he must have died 30-40 years since we were brought here by devilry, and yet, he remembered me, a mere miller! Now you young ones see why it was that your Grandad loved King Arthur..."
And on went the chatter.
Arthur then turned to his father, and his face reflected all of the anger and sorrow and love that he had been fighting with when he had woken him up. For Uther's arrogant tone upon waking had recalled to Arthur's mind all of the problems that had led to this pass in the first place.
As for Uther, he was staring in absolute astonishment at his son, not having expected the princeling he often scolded for failing to meet his standards of future kingship to have become a beloved king of legend, and certainly not removed from his lessons and allowed to grow into legendary might outside of them.
"Father, you were under a sleeping curse by the mage Nimueh. It appears that breaking it has summoned our people across the ages for some evil scheme the Witch has planned. We will have to rally ahead of her plans. There isn't time for a lot of questions or to argue as we may even now be under her gaze." Arthur looked to Merlin.
"You recall my friend Merlin." Arthur nodded aside to Merlin.
"I recall a manservant by this name?" Uther turned to look at Merlin, and studied him curiously.
"And a manservant he was, but now he is my friend and a right hand advisor to me. He will show you and my mother to the lodgings of the woman they call Granny until I and the others have settled the people. Will you do this for me, Merlin?" Arthur smiled at his friend. Uther looked between the two men absolutely mortified that Arthur was actually asking Merlin if he was willing to follow orders from him, instead of just snapping at him to do it like he would when they were boys.
Merlin had not realized how many grudges he had held against the Evil King until he was awake and able to back talk once again. For a long time, he had been only a wistful memory, and one who, as absence made him fonder, ills had been muted. Merlin was now reveling pettily in the fact that Uther was alive to see his son assume command over him.
"I will guard the Lord and Lady Pendragon with my life, my lord. You have my word." Merlin bowed to Arthur then, dramatically, but peeping up at him to see if he would play along. Arthur curled a brow, understanding, and nodded.
"Then go, my good and faithful advisor, Merlin. T'would be no Camelot without your mighty council." Arthur's tone was now Shakespearean, and Uther's eyes bugged out of his head.
Merlin and Arthur spun away from each other at a whiplash speed so as for the others not to notice that they were both about to explode with laughter at their own inside joke. But when they saw each other again later in about five hours in their shared living space, they both fell down on the floor laughing, and laughed until they cried at the look on Uther's face.
At the moment it happened, Merlin swallowed the urge to squeal like a tea kettle with obnoxious laughter.
"Right, as the lord King Arthur commands. This way milord, milady." Merlin extended an arm for Igraine, and took measure to grab Uther by his arm and march him along like a naughty (and completely dumbfounded) school boy.