airbaths | BRAVEST AND MOST NOBLE • merlot post

Lancelot slowly begins to awake. He doesn't remember last being somewhere with a bed. Actually, he can't remember the last time he had a bed at all. It's been fields and hay and grass for more than a year.

Merlin. Why does Merlin linger in his mind so much stronger than before? Merlin....

"Merlin?" he asks as he wakes and tries to sit up. The pain in his side causes him to wince and wake up much more quickly. The fight, rescuing his friend. He looks and feels relieved, despite the pain, at seeing him safe.

He startles awake at the sound of his name, a red blotch on the side of his face where it had been smushed against the rough fabric of his blanket.

"Lance?" Merlin blinks himself back to consciousness, shakes off the last dredges of sleep and scrambles to his feet -- hands fluttering in the air vaguely over Lancelot as he decides what to do first. "Don't -- don't move, stay still, you'll re-open the wound. Does it hurt? I can get you something for the pain, or, a drink, or, are you hungry? I can get you food, we have food, um, and I should fetch Gaius and --" He trails off, breath hitching awkwardly, then rushes forward the last step again to grab for Lancelot's hand. "I'm sorry, look, this is my fault. You came all this way and then --"

Then Lancelot got hurt, because of him. Merlin feels wretched at the thought of it.

He'd almost forgotten about the wound entirely. At least the pain was there to remind him. It doesn't take much for him to heed a little of Merlin's warning. The pain, which he winces from, keeps him from sitting up too far. he observes the bandage as he clutches it.

And, of course, has to deal with Merlin feeling needlessly guilty. Despite it all, he gives a smile for actually getting to see his friend's face. To see him alive and well. "I didn't know you were bait for a giant monster." Really, how was this in any way Merlin's fault?

"What was that?"

"A griffin." Merlin swallows, draws his chair closer to the bed and sits again -- Lancelot's hand still clutched in his. "It's been attacking nearby villages, but... it isn't taking livestock. It's taking... people."

Which is more than a little disconcerting. First a creature shows up believed to exist only in the pages of myth, then it attacks villages and takes human victims. Where did it even come from? Merlin only hopes there aren't any more. One will be bad enough to deal with.

Lancelot realizes he isn't going anywhere any time soon. If the pain of the wound weren't enough, Merlin's about to grip his hand right off. He looks so guilty, the poor thing. It's not his fault the beast came after him.

"Can magic stop it?"

His sword broke in two from one swing. Lancelot may be strong, but he's nowhere near that. Relaxing might have been a terrible idea. He feels so weak. He can't! Not now. Not when there is a monster out there ready to take up people. What if Merlin needs to be protected again?

"I don't know. Maybe. It's a creature of magic, Gaius thinks magic can fight it, but you saw it! I can't bring down something like that. I don't have magic that powerful."

He eases his grip on Lancelot's hand with a sigh, closes his other hand around it to clasp it between them and frowns sadly.

"Besides, magic is forbidden here. Punishable by death. I have to be careful."

BRAVEST AND MOST NOBLE • merlot post

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject