Merlin carried the child towards Camelot in a daze. Before he even realised he was within the city walls he was in the Physicians chambers with Gaius raising a disapproving eyebrow at him. "Merlin, what on Earth have you done this time?"

"Nothing I swear!" The Warlock replied.

"Oh really?" Gaius said, disbelief tainting his words. "then why do you have a small child in your arms?"

"I'm still not entirely sure how I ended up with him..." Merlin said before hastily describing what had happened to Gaius. That was when Merlin remembered he had left the basket in the woods. He apologised to Gaius.

"Never mind that," said Gaius. "This boy needs seeing to!" Gaius looked directly at the child then. "Hello, may I ask your name?"

"Albion!" The boy cried happily.

"yes alright, but do you have another name?" Gaius asked, keeping calm in the face of a possibly dangerous, powerful child.

"Mama calls me Arfu sometimes," The boy admitted.

Gaius suppressed a chuckle, fitting, he thought, for the human form of a country Arthur is to bring forth is also called Arthur. "Well, Arthur," Gaius addressed the child. "How old are you?"

Little Arthur's body fell almost completely limp in Merlin's arms. All but the boy's spine had sagged into Merlin's grip. After a moment the still body flew back into life.

"I was born today!" Whatever response Gaius was expecting, it wasn't that one.

"You were born today?" Gaius asked.

Arthur pushed himself out of Merlin's arms and landed nimbly on his tiny feet. "Not so much born," he said. "As made..."

"What do you mean?" Merlin asked, crouching to the child's height.

"Nations aren't born the same way humans are."

"How do you know all of this?" Gaius asked, with some difficulty he also got to the child's level.

Little Arthur shrugged. "Just do, I suppose."

"That makes so much sense!" Merlin said, letting his head fall heavily on the table as he sat down.