:O

Merlin/Arthur | Mature | No Archive Warnings Apply | Word Count: 500

Emotional Hurt/Comfort | Survival | Injury Recovery

For @merlinmicrofic with the prompt "starting over"

Merlin and Arthur find refuge in a small broken down cottage

☾ ☾ ☾

Before Arthur knew what was happening, his hand was on the hilt of his sword. He almost evicted Merlin from the mildewed thing they called a bed. 

Cold hands found his neck, his face in the dark. “It’s just thunder, Arthur.”

He lay back down and Merlin lay on his chest. Their hearts slowed together. The rain on the broken roof went on.

“I’ll work out the spell, I promise.”

Gone, for now, were Merlin’s entreaties for Arthur to return to Camelot. They would face whatever came next together.

Arthur drifted, until water dropped down on his forehead. He groaned.

Arthur strode across the small, disused field, carrying a hare by its ears. It was dusk and ahead of him was their temporary salvation, a little lopsided cottage, with a field of its own taking root on what was left of the roof. 

When he let himself inside Merlin was there to greet him, making no secret of the fact he had been peering anxiously though the little window. 

“I caught a hare,” Arthur told him.

Merlin grimaced but nodded. “I heard it screaming.”

They needed more than the meagre meals they had made of fried hazel catkins and cleavers.

Merlin was making use of a sturdy ash rod they had found while they were still running, the burns on the outside of Merlin’s right leg and his feet were still healing and the tightened skin gave him a limp. But he was dispelling any illusions Arthur had of his frailty, advancing on him now like a storm.

Arthur dropped the rusted hoe he’d been using.

“I told you! There’s no use in planting when we’ll just have to run again!”

“Your spell...”

“There’s no spell!”

“There could be if-”

“If I try? You do it, if it’s so easy!”

The ground was uneven here in the green wood. Merlin told him that this place had been used by a charcoal maker, he had no doubt that the earth here had once smoked hellishly. He checked their traps. The woods went on. But where was Merlin? Where did he leave him? Feelings of temporary safety, images of holding Merlin in a suntrap somewhere fled from him. He panicked, called his name.

Then an answer. “-thur! Arthur!”

He saw him, ran, caught him.

“Arthur! I’m sorry, I'm sorry,” he soothed, then he grinned. “My spell worked a little too well, then?”

Their little shelter was golden with the morning sun and so, just for a moment, were Merlin’s eyes. Arthur found he couldn’t let go of his hands, feeling they might just fall to their knees in relief otherwise. They were safe, anyone who tried to find them now would be gently guided away.

“Promise me this isn’t forever, Arthur,” Merlin beseeched quietly. “Promise me we’ll return and you’ll be king.”

“We will return, when the time is right, when you’re healed and we have a plan.” He pulled him close. “Until then…”

“Until then…” Merlin’s eyes fell to Arthur's lips.

pendragon siblings yet again

life is so ruthless so i must love you as hard as i can. basically

“Ocean Waves” ~ Stained Glass Art

A favor? Would you change the link on "Let me be ta'en" to the ao3 work? Right now it links to the earlier drawing on tumblr, which really isn't as good. Oh! I also finished a drawing for "Believe me, love" and linked to the drabble. One to go... but I'm having trouble deciding what image to go with for the third and final drabble. Any suggestions?

<3,

Sunfall

Hi Sunfall! I can of course! I'll do that now. Sorry for the late reply, I suspect we're in very different timezones. Just rolled over and found your second gift/related fic, thank you again so much, I can't tell you what a treat it is and how happy it's making me that you've be so inspired by my microfics (especially you, since I've been lurking on your art on Ao3 for a while now). As for the scene for the third fic, how about the ending scene when they're holding hands in the sunlight that's coming into the cottage? You could maybe have hints at what they've been through, like scars for Merlin or his ash walking stick leaning nearby? That's how I imagine the scene. Whatever you decide to do though I'll be over the moon the receive it ❤️!

-Mighty

For Aithusa doodles, may I suggest Aithusa with her head stuck in a doughnut, or tangled up in a curtain she was hiding behind, or maybe trying to drag Excalibur off even though it's much bigger than her?

She’s so so helpful!!! (x)

Seconded! Had this on tape, it was my second Arthurian piece of media after Disney's Sword in the Stone, it was wonky, but emotional. Our villain Mab has the funniest little raspy voice lol. It's only an hour total and well worth a watch!

This is a bit off topic for my typical stuff

And it's not actually about the show that the majority of you talk about

But I'm just hoping since you're a fan of the character Merlin that there are those out there who have seen Sam Neill's version

Yes Sam Neill, the guy from Jurassic park

There was a Merlin mini series that came out when I was a teenager so this thing is like 20 years old

And you all deserve to get to enjoy it

I honestly have no idea where you could stream it from if you can't find it on an illegal site

But honestly, it's a beautiful thing to enjoy from it's time period

And I hope you get to

ETA: apparently it's on YouTube I've linked it below

IMDb

Merlin (TV Mini Series 1998) ⭐ 7.1 | Action, Adventure, Drama

1h 1m | Not Rated

kind of obsessed with thesaurus dot com claiming that lover is a synonym for knight

Our Japanese class found it funny that in common terminology "food" isn't very distinguished from specifically "rice" until it was pointed out to us that in English "meal" is "loose roughly ground grain"