Arthur looked up from his training and saw a strangely familiar figure making it's way up the lawn to the castle, carrying a pack for traveling. He quirked his head, thinking hard about where he'd seen the woman before. Suddenly it clicked and he called out without thinking.

"Hunith!" She stopped on the spot and turned, surveying the yard until her eyes landed on his waving hand. Her face broke into a smile that he could see, and recognize as remarkably similar to her son's, from this distance. She changed directions, obviously expecting to find Merlin at his side. Too bad he'd sent Merlin to fetch some weapons from the armory a while ago now, she'd have to wait.

"Who's that?" Elyan asked, looking between the peasant one and his prince.

"An old friend, no go on and get her bag, have you no manners?" He replied, knowing how long a trek it was from Ealdor on foot.

"Here, Miss, let me take your burden," Elyan offered, closing the remaining distance between the two of them. She thanked him graciously before bowing deeply to Arthur.

"Your Majesty, it's a pleasure to see you again."

"The pleasure is all mine," he said graciously, stepping forward and kissing her cheek, thinking about how Merlin would whine if he didn't treat his mother hospitably.

"I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting," Gwaine said to Hunith, stepping forward, giving Arthur a questioning look.

"Of course, Hunith, these are my knights. Everyone this is Merlin's-"

"Mother?" All heads turned to the servant standing several feet away, laden down with weapons and shields, and gazing incredulously at Hunith.

"Mother?" Gwaine said, eyes alight with mischief. The rest of the knights looked similarly delighted at this newfound revelation.

Merlin dropped his burdens unceremoniously on the ground, then tripped over them equally without ceremony as he stepped forward to embrace his mother.

"Oh, Merlin," she said, shaking her head and stepping forward to help him up.

"Don't worry about him, Hunith, he's incredibly clumsy and hard-headed."

"It's alright, I'm alright, careful, don't cut yourself on that spear, Mother," Merlin said as he clambered gracelessly to his feet. He stepped carefully out of the pile of weapons before he pulled Hunith into a hug.

"What brings you to Camelot, Mother? Is everything alright back home?" He asked, surreptitiously glancing at Arthur, who also appeared to be recalling the last time Hunith had come to Camelot.

"Yes, yes, everything is fine! Is a mother not allowed to visit her son?"

"Of course you are," Merlin said, aspect lightening. "But what about your crops?"

"Fiona is looking after them for me while I'm away," she said, humor in her voice. "You worry too much, son."

"I can't help it, I just want to make sure you're taken care of." He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"Hello, I'm Merlin's best friend," Gwaine said, inserting himself into the situation by extending his hand to Hunith. "It's nice to finally meet the woman who raised the man!"

"So you must be Lancelot!" Hunith said, taking his hand and smiling. Merlin snorted and several of the knights guffawed.

"Actually, that would be me," Lancelot said, lifting a hand and clearly suppressing his own laughter.

"Oh, how you wound me, Merlin," Gwaine said, "I'm his other best friend Gwaine!"

"But you don't smell like a tavern at all!" Hunith said before she could stop herself. The knights all roared with laughter as Gwaine grabbed Merlin and rubbed his knuckles into the top of his head.

"All right, all right, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Merlin laughed, trying to no avail to pry Gwaine off himself.

"Everyone's always picking on me!" Gwaine griped as he released Merlin.

"It's an honor to meet you," Lancelot cut in, pressing a kiss to Hunith's knuckles in his Lancelot way of making everyone feel special.

"The honor is mine, Merlin's told me so much about all of you in his letters."

"Uh, Mother," Merlin said, eye's wide with alarm, "why don't we take you inside out of the sun."

"No way," Leon said, stepping forward and greeting Hunith himself, "I want to hear all about what Merlin writes home about."

"Mother, this is Sir Leon, Sir Elyan, and Sir Percival. Of course, you've already met Arthur."

"Hey, how come Arthur's got to meet your mother before and I never have!"

"Because not long after moved to Camelot his hometown was attacked by bandits. Naturally, I did the heroic and chivalrous thing and volunteered to go to Ealdor and assist in the fight. We all stayed with Hunith."

"Yeah, I'm not so sure it's heroic and chivalrous if you go about bragging about how heroic and chivalrous it is," Merlin quipped.

"Oh Merlin," Hunith scolded. "We were very grateful for your help, Your Highness. We might have all died without you."

"Hi's ego's already big enough, Mother, you don't have to go inflating it for him." She shook her head fondly at Merlin.

"I see any hope I may have had that your mother being around would improve your behavior were foolish, Merlin," Arthur said.

"I'm glad to see the two of you are still getting along," Hunith said.

"Oh, they're always like this," Leon told her.

"They argue like an old married couple," Elyan added.

"Nobody asked you, Elyan," Arthur replied.

"Mother, please, sit down, you must be exhausted," Merlin said, trying to usher her towards a stray chair that had been left out on the lawn.

"I'm fine, really."

"No, I won't hear of it, you've walked all the way from Ealdor, you should really rest."

"Merlin's right," Arthur said, which was alarming enough on it's own without the wicked glint his eyes had just gotten. "Why don't you watch us train? Merlin helps." Merlin groaned. He should have known the knights would want to tease him in front of his mother.

They would laugh at his embarrassment, as all good friends must. Lancelot, to his credit, looked less than eager for the idea. But nothing would dissuade Arthur and soon Hunith was sitting with a glass of water in her hand watching as the knights attacked Merlin.

About two hours later Arthur broke off practice early and gave Merlin leave to escort her back to Gaius's chambers.

"While I'm not sure I approve of how rough on you those knights were, I am glad that you're surrounded by so many friends," Hunith said, reaching out to straighten Merlin's clothes. He shook his head, smiling.

"They're good men, they just like to tease me is all, don't worry."

"You're clearly very dear to them." Merlin scoffed.

"I don't know about that, outside of Lancelot and Gwaine that is."

"I mean it, Merlin, they care for you. You're lucky to have such friends here in Camelot. I'm glad, I was worried about you."

"You always worry about me, Mother," Merlin replied.

"Of course I do, I'm your Mother, It's my job."

"Ah, Merlin, how's your mother, settling in well?"

"Yes, sire. She was a bit worried by how rough on me you knights were at training though," Merlin said lightly, tilting his head in his mock concerned expression.

"Ha! Now I know why you're such a weakling, Merlin. Your Mother coddles you." Merlin rolled his eyes.

"Yes well, Mothers are like that."

"And what of the knights, did she like them?"

"Yes, sire. She said she was glad I had so many friends here." Arthur smiled fondly. "Gwaine's already invited himself over for supper and apparently is dragging Lancelot with him."

"Sounds like you've got quite the charming evening planned."

"If Gwaine doesn't talk all our ears off." Arthur snorted.

"Yeah, you have fun with that." Merlin laughed and poured more wine into Arthur's goblet.

"I think Gwaine is hoping she'll tell him embarrassing stories from when I was little."

"Well I hope she does too, I'm certain as soon as Gwaine hears them he'll tell the rest of us."

"Yeah, I'll have to tell Mother not to give him anything."

"That's cheating, Merlin!"

"How is it cheating? You and the rest of the knights tease me enough already, I'm not giving you any more material."

"You're no fun, it gets tiring making fun of Gwaine all the time because he's such an easy target."

"What about Percival?"

"Nobody in their right mind would make fun of Percival, he's massive."

"Fair enough." After a moment of quiet deliberation, Arthur spoke again.

"Merlin, why don't you take off early, since Hunith went to the trouble of walking all the way here."

"Really?" He asked, surprise and excitement coloring his voice.

"Yes, I wouldn't want it to be a wasted trip for her." Merlin grinned broadly and sketched a hasty bow before bounding out of the room.

"Yeah, well it's hardly fair, Lancelot's story makes me look so bad! So what if he saved Merlin's life from a griffin, I saved him and Arthur in a bar fight!" Merlin snickered.

"I appreciate both of you protecting my son," Hunith stated diplomatically, a content smile gracing her features.

"And if I recall correctly," Gwaine went on, "Merlin and Arthur started it!"

"We didn't start it! Those thugs that were trying to take that barkeepers money started it! Arthur was just protecting his people!"

"Yeah, just him and his manservant against about twenty thugs," Gwaine retorted.

"We didn't know there were twenty of them when we picked the fight. Ad we weren't even trying to pick the fight!"

"You seem to find yourself in a lot of dangerous situations," Hunith commented. Merlin shot Gwaine warning look. He quickly caught on to the worry in her tone and dialed it back a bit.

"But of course with a skilled fighter like me on their side, the fight was a breeze."

"I seem to recall you getting knocked out and having to be carried back to Camelot. But before that, you were having the time of your life." Merlin looked towards his mother, "he introduced himself, asked me to pass him a pitcher of ale, took a drink, then smashed it over a thugs head." Hunith chuckled.

"Sounds very eventful."

"Yes well, things are never boring around here," Gwaine said.

"But don't worry, we all take good care of Merlin," Lancelot added. Hunith smiled.

"Truly, I can't tell you how grateful to you for looking after him."

"Um, I think we're all forgetting something, I'm grown and can take care of myself." Every single person at the table gave him an oh really look. "I can!"

"Fortunately for the lot of you Merlin has become rather skilled as a physician or you'd have all died several times over, so he takes good care of you as well," Gaius added. Merlin felt his ears warm a little at the praise.

"True, Merlin's quite brave and dependable," Lancelot said.

"Never known anyone as generous or kind," Gwaine piled on, and Merlin felt his cheeks flushing now.

"He's a very good boy," Hunith said, taking Merlin's hand. "But I am quite tired from my journey if you all don't mind I should like to retire."

"Of course, forgive us for keeping you for so long," Lancelot said. The five of them stood, Gwaine and Lancelot embracing Hunith like an old friend before bidding them farewell and departing.

Merlin was left with a soft smile as his mother kissed him goodnight.

"Gwen will be giving Mother a tour of the castle and lower town today," Merlin commented idly as he helped Arthur dress.

"That's kind of her, but are you sure your mother shouldn't rest more?"

"She's tougher than she looks, Arthur. She's been working her fields alone since before I was born."

"Of course. She could probably beat half the hopeful knight recruits in a fight," Arthur joked.

"Oh you bet she could, but trust me, her words can pack just as much punch as her fist." Arthur laughed loudly.

"I trust you got into plenty of trouble as a child."

"Oh yeah," Merlin replied, remembering how livid she'd been when he and Will had nearly flattened Old Man Simmons with that tree.

"Did Gwaine get any good embarrassing stories out of her?"

"More like she got embarrassing stories about him."

"Of course," Arthur said, emerging from behind the screen fully dressed. "I trust Gwen will take good care of her, so we should get started with our day."

Arthur felt Merlin's energy shift and looked ahead to see Gwen walking toward them with Hunith at her side.

"Ah, Gwen, Hunith, how goes the tour of the castle?" Arthur asked when they were close enough.

"Quite well, your highness, your home is very lovely."

"Thank you, Hunith. I do hope you'll enjoy your stay here, and Maybe tell us a bit about what Merlin was like as a child," he widened his eyes teasingly at Merlin. "All the knights are dying to know about him." Hunith smiled.

"Of course, Your Highness." The two groups parted ways and Gwen led Hunith down more hallways.

"Arthur would never admit it, but he's really fond of Merlin, we all are," Gwen told her.

"Mother, are you sure that you don't want me to go back with you?" Merlin asked, doing up the saddle on the horse Arthur had lent her.

"No, Merlin, your place is here, by Arthur's side. Besides, the escort is too much anyway."

"King Arthur just wants to make sure you're safe, there have been reports of bandits on the road to Ealdor."

"And I'm sure you had nothing to do with it." Merlin smiled.

"I may have asked for the escort, but the knights were all fighting for the job."

"You ready, Ma?" Gwaine asked, coming up beside him.

Merlin rolled his eyes. During her one week stay Gwaine had roped all of the knights in to calling Hunith 'Ma' to annoy Merlin. He was glad they all liked her so much.

"Give them time to say goodbye," Lancelot told Gwaine, shaking his head.

"Take care, Mother, I've packed you enough food for a week. Don't let Gwaine eat it!" Gwaine looked offended at the thought but backed away to give them space. Not ten feet away the rest of the knights were gathered, looking mischievous, and Merlin was sure they had something embarrassing planned.

Ten minutes later when Merlin had helped his mother onto the horse and she was riding away they all threw up their hands and shouted loudly "BYE MA!"

Hunith turned and waved, her smile visible even from where they stood, before she rode out of the gate towards home.