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Once Upon a Merthur: Chapter 1

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Chapter 1



Arthur sighed as he looked out his window watching the citizens of Camelot roam the streets, going from one market stand to the next. Turning away he sat in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair. He was tired of being stuck in the castle. He was turning twenty-one soon, and he had yet been trained to fight or seen his people. He never understood how his father thought he would be a good Prince, let alone King one day, if he didn't meet with the people. There was a tiny knock upon the door, he knew right away that it was Morris.

"Come in!" he yelled still staring out the window.

"Sire I have brought you a green cloak that you asked me to find for you." Morris' reply was upon entering. Arthur turned around, a large grin on his face as he took the cloak from Morris' hands.

"Thank you." he replied, "Please do not speak of this to anyone." he added looking straight at Morris.

"I will not speak of it to anyone sire." Morris bowed, "I shall leave you now to work on my chores." and with that Morris walked out of the room quickly. Arthur quickly ran to his dresser and grabbed the less rich looking clothing he could find and changed quickly. Throwing on the cloak and lifting the hood up over his head, walked out through the servant's door and down the corridor. Hearing footsteps he ducked into a dark corner of the hall and waited as two guards walked by. Taking a deep breathe he continued down the hall, and down a few steps until finally reached the door that would lead him outside. Taking a large breathe and letting it out he opened it up and walked out into the city square.

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"Where are you going Merlin?" Hunith asked as she washed the dishes. Merlin bit his lip and turned to look at his mother.

"How did you know I was leaving?" Merlin asked walking up beside her and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Mother's instinct." Hunith replied, "Or it could have been because the floor boards squeaked." she smiled and kissed Merlin's cheek back, "Now where are you off to?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Just going for a walk, is all mother." Merlin replied, "Around the city, maybe go to the pond." he added to clarify it with his mother. He might have just turned twenty, but his mother worried for him. He was told of how his village was attacked, and how his father sacrificed himself to let his mother escape with him.

"All right." Hunith smiled, "Be home before dinner." Merlin nodded gave one final kiss on her cheek before running out the door.

Of course when he ran out the door he immediately ran into something or someone. Falling backwards and into a pile of hay, which he found fortunate. He looked up to see one of the knights of Camelot staring down at him.

"Watch where you are going idiot." the man sneered. Merlin glared up angrily at the man and got to his feet as quickly as he could.

"I'm not an idiot." Merlin gritted his teeth, "You just happened to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time." he came back with, which he knew wasn't the best one he could of come up with. Suddenly he was grabbed by the knight and pushed to the ground, the tip of the knight's sword at his throat.

"I could slit your throat right here, right now for not treating a knight of Camelot with respect." The man sneered down at Merlin, his face showing a look of disgust towards him.  

"And I thought it was the duty of a knight of Camelot to protect it's people, not murder them." Merlin noticed a crowd building around him.

"I don't really think a piece of dirt, like you." The knight turned his wrist a bit, as if he was preparing to slit his throat, "To be a citizen of Camelot, or worthy of our protection." Merlin crawled back slowly, away from the sword's tip, until he bumped into the hay pile once more. The knight followed and was about to cut his face, when someone jumped in front of the knight stopping him instantly.

"You will not hurt him!" the person wearing a dark green hood yelled, "Or I will take this matter to the King himself." Merlin thought this man to be either very brave or very stupid. Did he not know that most knights treated the people of Camelot like fleas?

"You wouldn't even get past the door." the knight laughed and pushed the man aside and went towards Merlin again. Merlin closed his eyes ready for an immense type of pain, only to see that the man in the hood grab the sword from the man's hand, "How dare you!" the knight yelled turning towards the hooded man.

"Like I said, stop it or I will take this matter to the King." The man stood there, face to face with the angry knight. Merlin was amazed seeing the hooded man stand his ground to such a large knight.

"Fine." The man snarled and grabbed the sword from the hooded figure and turned towards Merlin once more, "You are very lucky, lad, but next time you cross me, you might not be." With that sheathed his sword and stormed off in the opposite direction. By now the crowd that had gathered dispersed. Merlin let out a breathe he had not known he was holding and started to get up. A hand was shoved into his face.

"Let me help you." the owner of the hand offered. Merlin nodded and grabbed the offered hand and was helped off the ground. He stared up to see the hooded man in front him.

"Um... thank you." Merlin rubbed the back of his neck, "For what you did just now."

"You're welcome." The hooded man replied, "What's your name?"

"My name is Merlin." he replied extending his hand, "Merlin Emrys, and yours?"

"Ar--" The hooded man began coughing and then cleared his throat, "Aregon." The hooded man reached for Merlin's hand and shook it.

"Nice to meet you Aregon." Merlin smiled, "Do you have a last name?" he asked releasing Aregon's hand.

"Uh... it's... Prince." Aregon replied in a quick tone, which Merlin thought strange but did not question.

"You're new around here, aren't you?" Merlin asked tilting his head to the side a bit.

"Yes, I am." the man replied.

"I can show you around." Merlin smiled and wondered at the same time why he wasn't taking his hood off.

"Sounds great." Aregon exclaimed and waited for Merlin to lead the way. Merlin nodded and headed towards the market place and looked through the stands. Making sure the owner of the stand that sold apples wasn't looking, he quickly grabbed three red apples and two green apples into his satchel before leaving the stand quickly.

"You stole those apples?" Aregon asked running up beside Merlin.

"Well how else am I going to eat?" Merlin asked, "My mom's job only pays for the bear minimum, which she uses for taxes on the house and buying food for supper." Merlin answered, "This is what I do for my breakfast." Merlin shrugged.

"Still no excuse for stealing." Aregon crossed his arms, "You could also get a job."

"I've tried, no one will hire me." Merlin shot back and continued walking.

"Have you ever thought of finding a job in the castle?" Aregon asked coming up beside Merlin.

"No." Merlin shook his head, "But what would I do? I do not think they need anymore servants." Merlin kicked the gravel on the ground.

"I've heard the Prince's manservant is getting another job, so the Prince is going to be looking for a new servant" Aregon replied, "Why don't you go up to the castle and see if you can take over."

"Maybe." Merlin shrugged, "I'll think about it." Merlin stopped and turned towards Aregon, "Why don't you remove your hood?" he asked, "You know what I look like, but I do not know what you look like." Merlin stated.

"I prefer to keep my identity hidden." Aregon replied. Merlin raised an eyebrow and walked closer to Aregon and took the hood off, revealing a blonde hair, blue eyed man. His jaw was sharp, his lips medium-thin,and a Romanesque nose. Suddenly right after Merlin revealed his face the knights of Camelot came running towards the two.

"Stand away from the Prince, Merlin!" the ginger curly haired man ordered, known to all as Sir Leon and was the nicest of all the knights in the Kingdom, along with Sir Lancelot, Sir Percival, Sir Elyan, and Sir Gwaine. Merlin of course was friends with Lancelot, Gwaine and Elyan.

"You're the Prince!" Merlin exclaimed in shock and dropped his satchel, which luckly didn't reveal the apples in them, "Your majesty." Merlin bowed quickly.

"Sire, you must return to the castle, this instant." Sir Leon replied. Arthur sighed and nodded, but came up to Merlin.

"I want you as my servant." Arthur and whispered something to Leon that Merlin couldn't hear. Sir Lancelot and Gwaine escorted Arthur back towards the castle. Leon turned to Merlin and helped him up.

"Prince Arthur wants you to start working as his manservant tomorrow morning." Leon spoke, "I'll have Gwen, come and retrieve you." Merlin kept silent and nodded. He knew Gwen of course, she was the Lady Morgana's maid and one of his best friends. She was the younger sister of Elyan and the not-so-secret love of Lancelot's. Merlin quickly headed back towards his home, not caring about wondering about in the forest. He couldn't believe that he had talked to Prince Arthur Pendragon. The Prince who no one ever saw step foot out of the castle.

He looked towards the castle and wondered what it was going to be like serving the Prince.

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"Arthur, I've told you to never ever set foot out of the the castle until after your twenty first birthday, when you come to age!" King Uther yelled sitting himself down, "Why would you endanger yourself out there?"

"I don't believe walking among my people a danger, father." Arthur replied fighting the urge to cross his arms.

"I can't tell you the reason why it is, son." Uther entwined his fingers together and looked up seriously at Arthur, "And I heard that you wanted to hire a boy you met to be your new manservant." Uther brought up the subject that sir Elyan passed onto him.

"Yes father." Arthur replied, "I don't know why, but I feel I could trust him around me, even more so than Morris." Arthur explained, "I cannot explain the feeling I get, it's just something about him... and besides he needs a job, and no one will hire him." Arthur added.

"Fine." Uther sighed, not feeling up to fighting about him picking a random citizen to be his new manservant, "But Morris will have to stick around for a week to show him the ropes." Uther relaxed his shoulders, "You're dismissed." Arthur bowed and walked out of the dining room. He knew the reason Uther was going to make sure Morris stuck around for an extra week was to make sure that Merlin wasn't going to do any harm. But if this was had to be done, to have Merlin as his new manservant, so he could help him and get to know him better, so be it.
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Next: Coming Soon!

Merlin (C) BBC
Sleeping Beauty idea (C) Disney, Grimm Brothers.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story.

A/N: I am not exactly going with the sleeping beauty thing, the idea of the curse being Arthur falling asleep is from you know sleeping beauty, but I made it different of course.

and sorry for the long time to post the chapter for it, was procrastinating, and when I was writing it one time, I wrote on here (deviantart) instead of the wordpad before hand, and something happened (I think computer restarted itself) and then it was gone and then I would get writers block.

A/N P.S: Sorry for not updating my Merthur: A Love Story in a while, video block for awhile, also two deaths in the family and procrastination are/were the big problems. I have not cancelled it, I'm still working on it.
© 2013 - 2024 merthurandbeatles
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2ShadowHole's avatar
I guess there won't be a next part xD