Chapter 4: Mace Fight at the Camelot Market
Disclaimer: Merlin and its characters do not belong to me
Once all his chores were completed, Merlin decided to continue his exploring, seeing as he never really got past the courtyard on his last excursion. This time, he managed to reach the market before running into the Prince and a group of knights. He was so caught up in the sights and sounds that he almost missed the Prince's opening parry.
"How's your knee-walking coming along?" the Prince asked in jest, turning to look after him, as the knights started chuckling and nudging each other.
Not wanting any trouble, and especially, Gaius' disapproval, Merlin decided to do the sensible thing, and keep walking, as if he didn't hear.
"Oh, don't run away!" the Prince grinned, raising his arms in exasperation.
Annoyed, Merlin stopped, considering his options, as the Prince and his cronies moved closer. Gaius was back up in his rooms, so...
"From you?" Merlin retorted.
"Thank goodness. I thought you were deaf, as well as dumb!"
"Look, I've told you you're as ass, I just didn't realise you were a royal one." Merlin explained, turning to face a bewildered Prince. "Oh, what are you going to do? Going to get your Daddy's men to protect you?" Merlin laughed, the Prince and knights joining in, most likely due to their surprise.
"I could take you apart in one blow!" the Prince declared, chuckling as he gestured towards the peasant boy, who had no obvious weaponry training.
"I could take you apart with less than that." Merlin shook his head, causing the Prince to tilt his head, considering the boy before him as if he were some puzzle to be solved.
"You sure?" he asked, giving the option to back down. In response, Merlin removed his jacket, causing Prince and knights to burst out laughing, before one of the knights passed the Prince a mace.
"Here you go, big man." The Prince grinned, tossing said mace at the peasant.
Startled, Merlin dropped it, causing their gathering audience to murmur amongst themselves. Glaring back at the Prince, Merlin bent down to retrieve it. By the time he'd straightened, Arthur was already swinging his own.
"Come on, then," Arthur started swinging it above his head, as more and more people gathered to watch. "I warn you, I've been trained to kill since birth."
"Wow. And how long've you been training to be a Prat?" Merlin retorted, not really bothering with the mace yet.
Arthur sighed, stopping his mace.
"You can't address me like that."
"Sorry." Merlin chuckled. "H-How long've you been training to be a Prat, my lord?" Merlin asked, bowing just enough to be considered mocking.
Grinning, Arthur glanced back at the knights, causing Merlin to grin sunnily, only to have to quickly duck as Arthur spun round, mace aiming straight for his head. Popping back up, Merlin stumbled backwards, barely managing to dodge the second strike.
Successfully getting some distance between them, Merlin backed into the almost-empty (at least until they arrived) Market Place, the gathered crowd still increasing – was everyone in Camelot coming to watch?
"Come on, then, Merlin!" Arthur called, his mace swinging a figure-of-eight pattern.
Beginning to get excited, Merlin darted round an empty cart, only for Arthur to climb over it, calling him to attack. In his lapse of concentration, Merlin managed to allow his mace to tangle in a hanging basket. As he struggled to release it, Arthur leapt off the cart and, once again, swung at him.
Forced to, temporarily, abandon the borrowed mace, Merlin dodged to the side. Although, watching the strike take out a propped-up pallet of bread did give him an idea.
The next few minutes were spent dodging Arthur's mace, and working his way across the Market, before the Prince cornered him in front of a vegetable stall. Merlin attempted to dodge again, only to lose his balance, and tumble over the seller's wares, landing in a heap behind the wooden table, a poor cabbage taking the mace's hit instead.
Merlin only had a moment to gather his thoughts, before realising what Arthur was going to do, and scrambling up out of the way as the Prince leapt over the stall. Backing into his target location, Merlin tripped over a pile of sacks, causing Arthur to chuckle.
"Ha ha, you're in trouble, now," Arthur grinned, intending to finish the match.
Glancing round, Merlin noticed a group of iron sickles hanging innocently behind the Prince. Before the thought had finalised, Merlin's eyes flashed, and the mace had tangled up, stopping the incoming strike, to the amusement of the crowd. As Arthur hurriedly untangled his mace, Merlin jumped up and moved deeper into the stall.
While dodging another strike, a wooden box slid out into the Prince's way as Merlin's Magic thrummed. Not having seen it, Arthur continued on his path, only realising his error when the wood whacked his knee.
Emboldened by his success, Merlin caused a rope to stretch across right in front of the Prince (after ducking behind a table, he wan't that stupid), only for Arthur to trip over it. Hmm, this 'training' the Prince had spoken of wasn't much, evidently.
Quickly, Merlin snatched up the dropped mace as Arthur returned to his feet.
"Do you want to give up?" Merlin demanded, managing to finally swing the mace correctly.
"Do you?" Arthur returned, backing away from the wild metal.
"Do you want to give up?" Merlin asked again, as Arthur stepped into a bucket (through no effort of Merlin's magic), and fell back onto a full sack of grain.
Grinning Merlin stepped forwards to accept victory, only to spot Gaius in the gathered crowd, the Eyebrow of Disapproval on prominent display. Due to this, he missed Arthur grabbing a broom, only realising as the wooden handle made contact with the back of his knees.
Spinning round, Merlin ended up turning into a second strike, which made its home in his stomach, swiftly followed by the broom's head crashing onto the top of his own, sending him down to the floor. All he could do was watch as Arthur twirled the broom round before sweeping some dust as him, while a couple of guardsmen stepped up, grabbing his arms, ready to take him back to the dungeon, no doubt.
"Wait." The Prince ordered, stepping closer. "Let him go. He may be an idiot, but he's a brave one." Arthur made to walk past, only to stop and eye him up. "There's something about you, Merlin, I can't quite put my finger on it." He frowned, before walking off, leaving Merlin with a disappointed Gaius, who wasted no time in grabbing the boy's arm and hauling him off back to the castle.
"How could you be so stupid?" Gaius demanded the moment they returned to his quarters, having been silent the whole walk up.
"He needed to be taught a lesson." Merlin retorted sullenly.
"Magic must be studied, mastered and used for good – not for idiotic pranks." Gaius started to lecture.
Feeling betrayed and angry, Merlin turned to face him.
"What is there to master? I could move objects like that before I could talk!"
"Then by now, you should know how to control yourself!"
"I don't want to! If I can't use magic, what have I got? I'm just a nobody," Merlin declared, his anger fading into realisation. "And I always will be. If I can't use magic, I might as well die." He finished before leaving for the small room Gaius had allocated him, memories better left alone of his younger years welling up in his mind.
Stunned, Gaius watched him go, unable to think of a comeback at that moment.
After giving Merlin time to calm down, Gaius collected his medicine bag, and headed up to check on his young charge. Said young charge was currently laying facedown on his bed. Gaius sighed.
"Merlin. Sit up, take your shirt off." He said calmly as he approached, placing his bag down on a wooden box he hadn't had the time to remove yet.
As Gaius prepared, Merlin slowly pushed himself up, obediently removing his red shirt, revealing a motley of red and purple skin from where he'd fallen, tumbled or just plain ran into various items.
"You don't know why I was born like this, do you?" he asked as Gaius started applying witch hazel water to the open wounds.
"No." Gaius replied slowly.
"I'm not a Monster, am I?" Merlin asked jokingly, hiding his fears behind humour like always.
Hearing this, Gaius paused and observed the young boy for a moment, his lips pursed in a thin line, wondering just where that idea had come from.
"Don't ever think that." He said firmly, trying to impose the seriousness with his eyes.
"Then why am I like this?" Merlin asked desperately. "Please, I need to know, why?"
"Maybe there's...someone with more knowledge than me." Gaius sighed heavily.
"If you can't tell me, no-one can." Merlin stated, staring at the wall.
Realising that Merlin didn't want to talk anymore, Gaius returned to treating his injuries.
"Take this." He ordered, pouring two tinctures together. "It will help with the pain."
Freeing a hand from his shirt, Merlin downed the small bottle in one, handing Gaius the now-empty bottle back. Clapping Merlin's arm, Gaius tidied up and headed back to his various duties as Court Physician.