And here's the second and last instalment. I really hope you'll like this as well. Let me know, please!

Enjoy!

Five years later

It was bitter cold when Tom made his way to the castle. The snow lay almost three inches thick in the streets. No doubt the amount would have doubled by the time he would go home again. He shivered and tugged his cloak tighter around him. Not that it was much use. The wind seemed to blow straight through the piece of clothing. He felt like he was actually naked here.

But the cold was not the reason, not the only reason anyway, why he had hated going to his job today. True, he was scheduled to guard the dungeons today, so at least he had access to a burning fire, food and drink. And the dungeons were rather empty these last few weeks, so there wasn't much to worry about in that department either.

'Good morning, Tom,' a cheerful voice greeted.

'Is it?' he muttered darkly before he realised who he was talking to. 'Sir,' he added, a little too late.

Allan, Captain of the Guard since six months earlier, smiled indulgently. 'Come on, Tom, it can't be that bad.'

'Have you seen him?' Tom asked his superior.

Stupid question, he knew the next second. Allan was the Captain. He was bound to have seen the new recruit. And indeed. 'Why, yes of course,' the elderly guard replied with an amused twinkle in his eyes. 'Young, eager, bouncy, dutiful. He reminds me a bit of you on your first day.'

Tom grimaced at the memory. Truth be told, he had been rather naïve back then, completely unaware of the many customs and traditions that went with being a guard of Camelot. His behaviour on that eventful first day now made him blush in shame. But he'd rather not have Allan see that either, so he tried to deflect it with a joke. 'Does he have heroic tendencies as well then?' he inquired. 'Sir.'

The only flaw Tom had was that he used to forget to address his superiors with a respectful 'sir.' Fortunately for him he didn't have that much superiors these days. He had been offered Allan's old spot when the man who had it now would retire. That happy occasion was only three months away and Tom was counting the days. Not only would he have achieved a high post in only five years of service, he would also be rid of the most annoying (and stinking) guard Camelot had ever known.

But he had to survive today first and that was a job in and out of itself. Tom could see the new recruit standing on the other end of the room, driving one of his colleagues to despair by his enthusiastic behaviour. He all but bounced around the room in enthusiasm. His uniform was spotless, his boots polished until they shone and he even seemed to have given his weapon all the care as well.

'I would certainly think so,' Allan replied. He gave his protégé a fatherly pat on the shoulder. 'There's not much that can go wrong, lad. The dungeons are all but empty. I don't think you'll have much trouble.'

Tom raised his eyebrows. 'Was that what you told yourself as well on my first day, sir?'

Allan laughed and gave him a half-hearted shove in the right direction. 'Off you go, boy.'

And off he went, with the new recruit trailing after him like an eager puppy. Tom wondered if he would run and fetch if he threw a stick, but decided against it. It was his job to behave with dignity. As guard he represented the kingdom and one didn't make a mess of something as important as that.

He settled himself on one of the chairs near the entrance of the dungeons and looked around him. The new recruit, whose name was Will (the only thing he had been able to make out from the boy's ramblings), had remained standing, looking at Tom in what appeared to be bewilderment.

'What is it, boy?' Tom demanded.

'I mean no disrespect, sir, but shouldn't we be guarding the dungeons, sir?' came the reply.

Tom was tempted to moan, very much so. It was one of those again, wasn't it? This was going to be a long day. 'We are guarding the dungeons, young man,' he said in as condescending a voice as he could muster.

He only succeeded in making the lad's confusion even greater than it already was. 'But this is only the entrance, sir!'

'I am well aware,' Tom nodded, copying one of Allan's better lines.

'But shouldn't we be guarding all of the area, sir?' The boy seemed to be at a loss for words as he threw his hands up in the air.

'We are doing that,' Tom pointed out. 'This is the one and only entrance to the dungeons. Everyone who wants to get in and out needs to go past us. If we were in there, then the entrance would be unguarded and anyone would be able to walk in and out at will.'

'I see,' Will said, even when his tone indicated he didn't understand anything at all. 'So, what do we do, sir?'

'We guard the dungeons, of course.' And Tom hoped to God that was really the most exciting thing happening here today. He didn't know how well he would be able to handle such an eventful day as his first one in service had been. How Allan had ever managed to cope with him was entirely beyond him.

Will looked a bit disappointed, although he did his best to hide it. He sat himself down on the other chair. He kept his back straight and his eyes kept searching the room for any disturbance of the peace, after which they locked again on the entrance to the dungeon. In the end he decided to let Will carry out his round to see if all prisoners were still in their proper places, if only to be rid of him for a few minutes. It was the kid's first day, so he figured he could go a little easy on him for once. And at least it seemed to put Will's nerves to rest when he could see for himself everything was as it should be.

Tom sighed. He couldn't explain all of Camelot's customs to Will all in one day, even if he wanted to, which he didn't. Some things one had to learn over time. The fact that guarding the dungeons was nothing short of boring nine out of ten times was one of those things.

But of course it was one of those rare days when something actually happened. It was only an hour later that two guards marched down the stairs, holding Merlin between them. The king's manservant had a resigned look on his face, mixed with irritation and weariness.

Will was already on his feet before Tom had even been able to start to give him the command to do so. 'What is this?' he demanded, conveniently forgetting that Tom was the senior guard around here, giving him the privilege to ask questions. Eager indeed!

Merlin frowned at the boy. 'Are you new here?' he wondered. 'I haven't seen your face around here before.'

Will was temporarily lost for words, shocked by the fact that a prisoner addressed him in that way, and Tom took advantage of the situation. 'What is it this time?' he asked in mock weariness.

Merlin gave him a wry grin in reply. 'It would seem that I attempted to poison the king,' he said, making Will gasp in shock.

Tom shook his head in mild despair. Honestly, you'd say that Merlin's loyalty to the king would be proven beyond all doubt by now. But then, it would seem that the guards were the only ones to ever notice all the incredible things the servant had done over the years. And sometimes the king really was blind to what happened right under his very nose.

In his early days in Camelot Tom had sometimes been very frustrated with it all. He may not have the chance to do heroic things, but Merlin was doing them on an almost daily basis. He deserved to get some credit for his efforts. But he could not go and inform the king and council of the servant's remarkable deeds. After all, the guards guarded the secrets of the castle and its inhabitants. It was an unspoken rule of their order.

He raised his eyebrows. 'Really?' he asked, before addressing his colleagues. 'What were you ordered to do?'

'We were ordered to lock him up, sir,' replied the youngest, even though he was only two years Tom's junior.

'Then that is what you must do,' Tom nodded. 'You know the way, don't you?'

The guards marched on with Merlin still sandwiched between them and Tom sat back on the chair.

Of course Will was the one that remained standing, staring after the prisoner and his guards in confusion. 'Shouldn't that be our job, sir?' he asked.

And there we go again. 'Were you ordered to escort the prisoner to a cell, Will?' You'd say that the guy would understand by now, but apparently not.

That question was met by more bewilderment. Keep this up and it would be his default setting. 'No, sir. I don't believe so, sir.'

Tom nodded. 'Right you are. Care to inform me of your orders, boy?'

'We were ordered to guard the dungeons, sir,' the lad replied obediently.

'That is true,' Tom said, starting to hope now that the new recruit wasn't as dim as he had first believed. 'We were ordered to guard the dungeons and those other guards were ordered to lock up the prisoner. It is perfectly simple.'

Will obviously disagreed, but thought it wiser not to argue. He too now sat down, even if he remained on high alert. Tom mostly ignored him. To be quite honest he had better things to do with his precious time, like eating his lunch. That was one of the advantages of standing guard in the dungeons: you didn't need to stand all the time. You could sit down and eat and drink and play a game of dice and you would still be doing your duty. Had he had guard duty with anyone else, this might have been a very pleasant day indeed.

As it was, it wasn't all that pleasant. Will tried and failed to hide his disapproval when he saw his superior dig into a nice meal, making himself at home here. This boy was rather arrogant as well as eager, Tom observed. He remained seated up right, scanning the place for danger as if he was saying that this was how a real guard of Camelot should behave. Yet for all his arrogance he also was as naïve as a new-born babe, causing Tom to almost laugh out loud.

For one glorious hour he was allowed to entertain the thought that Merlin being locked up was the most exciting thing that was happening that day. Alas, he was wrong.

He had just finished his lunch when an old man with long white hair and a white beard, dressed in long red robes, came walking out of the dungeons.

Ah, hello again, Merlin, Tom thought. He had seen the servant pull this stunt several times before and yet it remained a remarkable feat. Merlin of course was blissfully unaware that all the guards, with the exception of this new recruit, knew about all his secrets, which was probably just as well. Knowing might just end in a heart attack, taken into account how desperately he had been hiding his magic from the rest of the world.

The new recruit was already on his feet, pointing his sword at Merlin's chest. 'Who are you?' he demanded.

'What kind of a dumb question is that?' Merlin wondered. 'I am who I am and I am who I was and I am who I will always be.'

Tom just leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. He could of course step in, but maybe it was better to let Will handle this himself, give him a taste of what guarding in Camelot was really like.

So far, the boy was still trying to be the heroic guard who tried to capture a runaway prisoner, hoping to get the glory for doing so. 'What are you doing here?'

Merlin measured him up and ended that examination with a dismissive snort. 'None of your business, young man.'

Will straightened his back. 'I am a guard of Camelot. You will tell me, old man.' He had yet to put his sword away.

Tom decided to step in before things could get really nasty. 'Leave the old man alone, Will,' he told him.

Said boy stared at him, his jaw almost hitting the floor.

Tom ignored that. 'Lost again, old man?' he inquired politely.

'Yes of course,' Merlin snapped. 'As you perfectly well know.'

'I trust you know your way from here, then?'

'Of course I do,' Merlin barked at him. 'I'm not an idiot.' This claim was followed by a meaningful look in Will's direction. Tom couldn't even blame him for that, not really.

His new recruit turned to him as Merlin purposefully marched out of the dungeons, in all likeliness off to save the day, or king Arthur's life, or both. That was his job after all, as it was his job to keep Merlin's activities a secret.

'You let him escape!' came the accusing voice.

Tom sighed deeply and prepared himself for another lesson. 'I did not,' he replied.

'He came out of the dungeons, so he must have been escaping,' Will insisted. 'We should catch him!'

'Were you ordered to?' Tom countered.

The boy shot him an incredulous look. 'We have to guard the dungeons!' he exclaimed.

'Indeed,' Tom nodded. 'So, tell me, did this man attack the dungeons?'

'He didn't, but…'

The higher ranking guard didn't give him the chance to finish that sentence. 'Did he attack us?'

'No, he didn't, but…'

'Was this man a prisoner in our dungeons?' Tom went on.

It was silent for a moment as Will dragged up the memory of who exactly had been in those dungeons. When he reached his conclusion he replied with a hesitant 'I don't think so, sir.'

'Right you are,' Tom said. 'He wasn't a prisoner, so why would we chase after him, eh?'

He got to enjoy the look of sheer disbelief and confusion that now graced the boy's face before the next question was hurled at him. 'But he had to come from somewhere, didn't he, sir? I mean, he wasn't in the dungeons before and we haven't seen him get in. Shouldn't we investigate where he came from?'

This one really was insistent about what he thought was his duty. 'I ask again: did he attack the dungeon?' He tried to contain the impatience in his voice, but he had a feeling he was failing.

'No, but…'

'Did he attack us?' Tom repeated.

'No, sir, but…'

Tom leaned once again back in his chair. 'So, now we have established he did not attack us nor the dungeons and he was not a prisoner. Care to repeat what our orders were?'

'We were ordered to guard the dungeons, sir.' The expected but didn't come, but Tom could see Will was still dying to demand they do as he wished.

'Have we somehow been reluctant in that duty, boy?' Tom questioned, almost daring the kid to say yes.

'Well, that old man…' It wasn't downright defiance, but he still thought he was right.

'Was lost, Will,' Tom replied calmly. 'Don't you ever get lost?'

'Not in the dungeons I don't,' Will replied. 'Sir. I still think we should go after him.' His eyes already looked to the stairs. Tom supposed he only had to give the word and the boy would run after Merlin, like the eager puppy fetching the stick. The comparison seemed more accurate by the minute.

But his proposal was at least easily countered. 'Were you ordered to?'

'Ehm, no, sir.'

'That's right,' Tom agreed with a smug smile. 'Because if we got up to chase after an old man who wasn't even a prisoner, who would guard the dungeons then?'

And the penny finally dropped. 'No one would,' the boy realised. The shock of that, the thought of nobody being here because he wanted to be the prisoner-catching hero, that finally seemed to land the message home that this was not his job. Surely it would be something of a disappointment, like it had been to Tom when he had first found out that being a guard wasn't about catching the villains. That was the king's privilege after all.

'Indeed,' the experienced guard nodded. 'So, what will you do now, boy?'

And like he himself had done five years earlier this kid too now straightened his back and moved back to his chair with as much dignity as he could muster after Tom's rebuke. 'I guess I will just guard the dungeons, sir.'

And Tom smiled to himself. It would seem that Will wasn't as hopeless a case as he had feared. Who knows, in time he might even go far in his chosen career. Miracles never ceased, right?