29. September. 2019

.

Prince Arthur, Merlin and some knights are out, hunting and patrolling. It's a sunny day without clouds. They are riding on a open area when lights are appearing. Something happens. The knights and Merlin stop their horses. Colourful light lines quickly appear and disappear like lightings. Blue. Purple. Orange. Green. Silver. The wind picks up. The other knights are freaked out. Merlin and Arthur look at eachother. The knights who has drawn their swords are smart enough to put them away again. The light lines now appear and stay visible for a longer moment. There is no thunder, no sound but the blowing wind. The lights flash again. The wind picks up and the other knights shield themselves or turn away. Suddenly it stops: No wind. No light lines. No sound. Silence. Some would say that it looks like it didn't happen. Then it is back. Stronger. The wind is a whirlwind. It is near the prince and his magical friend. The other knights close their eyes. Merlin and Arthur force their eyes open and shield them with their hands. There is one big thunder sound and one last light line flashing; while that happens, a figure appears around one metre above the grass. Merlin and Arthur see it.

Then it is over.

The sun is shining. There are the usual sounds. The wind isn't strong. There is a person in the grass before Merlin and Arthur Pendragon.

"What the shit was that?", one of the knights exclaims and than shuts up, when he realises what he said. The prince doesn't care; he knows what was the reason for this. He draws his sword and walks closer to the person. " Arthur, wait.", Merlin shouts and runs quickly walks after him. The person is small. Not an adult. Merlin turns the person around. It's a boy. "He's unconscious.", Merlin says to Arthur. Arthur grimaces; he really doesn't wants to bodily-kill a child but the other knights saw him too and he could be the magic user. He asks Merlin: " Did he use magic?" He wants a 'No'. Merlin answers: " He could be a victim and only was at the wrong place. Someone else could have cast the magic. He doesn't look like he could do something this big. He looks like he hasn't eaten much. Look at his clothes. Wouldn't someone with magic have better clothes. He looks like he is 12 or perhaps 13 years old."

Arthur looks at him. The child is young and shows signs that he hasn't eaten much in the last months. "He looks a bit like you, when we met.", says Arthur to MerIin. " Ha. Ha." The clothes are strange and Arthur doesn't mean that they are too big but the cut, the style. The tunic has holes, is dirty and is too big. It would be too big for Arthur. The material itself looks like it could be fine material and it is in different colours. Something that a peasant wouldn't own. A noble's cast off? That still doesn't match. Why not make it small? It would perhaps be enough for two smaller tunics. Peasants have needles, don't they? The trousers are baggy too. Most likely the same person's trousers who owned the tunic. They have rips in them and are toooooo big. He must have a good fastening or they would fall off. Their material is something which he hasn't seen before: A strange sort of dark blue. The material looks fine and robust. Some knights walk closer to them but they keep quiet. Arthur looks next to him and picks something up.

"Merlin.", Arthur says. " Yes.", MerIin answers and looks up. He says: "That's a letter! Wait, that can't be real. That wasn't real. Was it?"

Arthur looks at him and says: "The letter has your name on it. Merlin."

"What?"

Artur gives him the letter and looks around. There is another letter in the grass and next to the boy's hands is a thin stick and clothes. The way it looks good clothes. Something dark and perhaps a white tunic. It is really white. Only a female royal and Morgana have perhaps that bright white clothes. There are to many questions and Arthur can feel his head start to hurt. This isn't going well. Artur looks at Merlin who rips the letter open and reads it. After 30 seconds Arthur wants to ask what is in the letter but he doesn't because Merlin turns pale. He pats the grass and sits down. He is shaken. His eyes are big and panicked. Arthur realises: That MerIin is afraid. He wasn't this afraid when bandits attack them. Merlin is concerned like he was with Valiant and the other events when Arthur's bodily-life was in danger.

Arthur now is concerned and asks, concerned: "Merlin?"

Arthur takes one step and stands next to Merlin. He puts his hand on his friend's shoulder. Merlin looks up and asks: "Arthur?" "Yes, MerIin?", Arthur says. MerIin says: " I think. I think that he. That he is my son." Arthur looks at him, confused. Arthur: "Merlin. I don't think that you started that earlier. And even if you did, I don't think that you would have been able to get a woman pregnant at that age. Or into a bed."

Merlin looks Arthur into the eyes and says: "It's a long story. Do you remember the day that my head was hit and you said that I imagined the pretty red head woman." Arthur looks at him, then at the boy and signs. Arthur: "We should move. I don't want to be caught in the magic spell. We take the boy with us." Merlin laughs and grabs the clothes and with them the polished stick. He packs them in his horse, while Arthur lifts the boy up. When he pauses a knight asks: "My Noble?"

Arthur: " It's fine. The one who used magic is gone but you five should search the area. Stop in 15 minutes. Meet us at the river." He says quietly to Merlin: "He is too light."

The price, Merlin, the boy, Knight Leon and two other knights ride away.

They arrive at the river and set up camp. The prince sends the two knights to hunt and to find wood. He sends Leon to the river, after he puts the boy on the ground.

"MerIin. Leon will give us privacy but that won't last for long. So. Start talking."

Merlin sits down next to Arthur and asks: "Do you remember that hunting trip?"

Arthur: "Yes. You were missing for two hours and your head was bleeding strongly when I found you. You were talking about having traveled somewhere and being healed but your head wasn't."

Merlin: "Yes. But it looks like it really happened. When the bandits attacked my head and my ribs was injured. I somehow laded on the ground and touched something shiny. The next thing that I know is that I'm in a bed, bandaged. A pretty woman was there. She told me that she found me injured after I was magically transported near the park were she was. She healed my head but my ribs needed more time. We talked and I found out that I had traveled to the future."

Arthur: "Like ten years into the future. I didn't know that that is possible."

Merlin: "It isn't. Just under special circumstances which won't happen again. And it wasn't ten years but hundred years. More than 400 years. Things were different. There even spoke a different language. At first she taught me the language and I read many books. But she took many history books away, when she found out that there could be a way to send me back."

Arthur: "How? If magic send you there, shouldn't you have had to use magic to come back?"

Merlin looks at him and smiles bitterly. He says: "She was a witch and used a complicated spell to send me back. That's how she understood me at first. She used a spell to translate what I said."

Arthur: "A magic user. Do you know how dangerous that was. Merlin!"

Merlin: "Arthur. I know. I didn't have a chance. It was the way to come back. Come home to you!" Arthur freezes at that.

Merlin: "She healed my wounds and didn't try anything. She wouldn't after what that piece of shit wizard did. She was fighting for non magical persons. That is why she is bodily-dead now. Or will be in the future. I wouldn't have done it if I would have thought that she was evil IR would trick me."

"You slept with the woman. You must have to have a child.", Arthur says, tired and hurt.

Merlin: " Actually, I didn't have to at that time. Arthur. Arthur."

Arthur: "Fine. Just say the rest."

Merlin nicks and says: "After I was healed and she had the ingredients she tried to send me back. She succeeded and I must have injured my head after I was back. I was more possible that I imagined it than a trip to the future. So. I thought that you were right. When the time passed, I ignored it as a dream."

Arthur: "Until now."

Merlin: "Until now. When I was there, she told me that the Magicals are at war. One side was protecting the non Magicals,the other side wanted to control the non Magicals and bodily-kill Magicals because their blood wasn't noble enough or their blood lines. The spell to bring me back needed more than one caster but she couldn't risk me with others. She did it alone. Arthur, she knew that the risk was high that she will bodily-die or the magic will be damaged if she performs the spell but she still did it."

Arthur looks more relaxed. Perhaps that magic user wasn't completely bad.

Merlin: "In the country were she lived, slavery was illegal. Everybody there was someone like a Freeman or Freewoman. The woman was Lily. An old wizard at the school where she went sold Lily when she was 12 years old but she didn't knew about it until Mr. Potter told Lily when she was 18 years old and it wasn't fast enough. I don't know the details but the end effect was that she will have had to partner him. At that age arranged partnerships weren't common. And there usually weren't magically binding. She said that she can get out of the contract but that the contract doesn't specific that she had to be a virgin. She wanted to decide about that and to use the loophole. She asked me if I would help with it."

Arthur: "And you slept together?" Merlin looks at Arthur.

Merlin: "Arthur. Don't think differently about me because I. I couldn't say 'No'. She healed me and risked much with the spell and she was so depressed. There wasn't any talk about a child."

Arthur signs. They look each other in the eyes. Arthur: "I'm not thinking differently about you. But it was still stupid to simply sleep with a stranger woman. Don't do it again. Or I will have to send you to muck out the stables until you are to tired to sleep with a woman."

Merlin laughs and says: "I amnot going to do that again."

Leon comes back with fresh water and sits down. Arthur asks: "Why is he not in his time?"

Merlin: "The letter says that if I get the letter than she bodily-died in the war and that their friend most likely betrayed them. Let's see. Mr. Potter didn't know that he wasn't his son. She thought he is mine because Potter most likely isn't able to have children. She did some test and he definitely isn't Potters child. I'm the only other option. There is a list of persons to take him, if both Potters bodily-died. Looks like something didn't go correctly. She wrote the letter when he was around 1 year old. She cast a spell that would activate between when he is 13 or 14 years old. And take him to me. When or where I was. It looks like she bodily-died when he was a baby."

Arthur: So. He lost one parent too."

Merlin says:"Yes. I will have to ask him what he knows, when he wakes up."

Arthur: "Than his mother was the magic user and he just was transported to us?"

Knight Leon asks: "His mother was a witch?" The prince says: "Yes. But she wasn't inside Camelot, is bodily-dead and she send Merlin's son to him without the boy's knowledge. He is a victim and not a criminal, Knight Leon. Will you keep our talk a secret?"

The knight looks at his prince and nods. "I won't tell the king but he will ask about the magical occurrence."

Arthur: "She is bodily-dead. Nobody needs to know that it was his mother who cast the spell. We will simply say that his mother asked a witch to send him to Merlin because she was bodily-dying in a far away country. He will speak a different languages anyway. And you time traveled bit the object was only useable once. I don't want to go on another magic user hunt when there is nobody to find."

Leon: "I understand. I won't tell the king about it." Arthur nods.

Arthur says: "Merlin. Start with the preparations. You can watch your son later. And MerIin. You have a cute son."

What do you think?

.

If you wamt to: Write your own story where Harry is Merlin's or Arthur's son.