Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin

Chapter 1: Merlin's Epic Mistake

Merlin's first mistake was forgetting to do his laundry the day before. Perhaps if he had remembered to wash his clothes, he would have been wearing his blue neckerchief when the creature attacked.

As it was, he tied his red neckerchief (the only clean one he had left) around his neck that fateful morning, and rushed off with a grumble about royal prats and early mornings to Gaius, wearing a devious smile that thoroughly alarmed his guardian. Merlin had had a stroke of evil genius the night before, and had thought of a new and very entertaining way to get the king out of bed.

Because of his eagerness to try out his new and improved method of Arthur-baiting, and his somewhat late awakening, he left the physician's chambers without eating any breakfast. That was his second mistake. Perhaps, if he'd had a full stomach, he would have reacted more quickly when the creature attacked, but as it was he didn't even notice how light headed the lack of sustenance had made him until it was all over. After all, it wasn't unusual for him to skip a few meals. Merlin came from a poor farming village, and even in Camelot he was often too busy fighting off magical threats, doing chores for Gaius and cleaning Arthur's constantly dirty armor to eat as much as he should have.

His third mistake was forgetting to knock. It had been his routine to just burst into Arthur's chambers for so many years now that in his eagerness to try out his hilarious new idea, he forgot that Arthur was newly married. Even though Gwen had her own suite of rooms connected to the king's, the young couple often fell asleep together after engaging in… certain activities that Merlin would rather not think about two of his best friends engaging in. Not that he was squeamish about that sort of thing, he was just a little inexperienced, and well, it was Gwen, whom he thought of as a sister.

The same hectic lifestyle and overload of responsibilities that prevented him from eating regular meals also kept him from pursuing any relationships of the amorous variety, so when he burst in on Gwen waking "up" Arthur in a manner much more enjoyable than what Merlin had had planned, he couldn't prevent his face from blushing a very patriotic shade of Camelot crimson, from his sharply defined cheekbones all the way to the tops of his abnormally large ears. He immediately shut his eyes, trying to wipe the disturbing image from his brain, and tried to turn around, open the door and leave without opening his eyes again.

"S-sorry," he managed to stammer as he groped for the doorknob with one hand and balanced the tray filled with Arthur's breakfast (and a little something special) in the other. Gwen halted what she had been doing to gasp with surprise and grab at the bed sheets to cover them both. Arthur sat up with a growl and threw a goblet at Merlin's head (he missed, there obviously wasn't enough blood left in his brain for him to aim properly).

Merlin finally managed to open the door, but also managed to drop the cup that held Arthur's "special surprise", the giant black centipede that he had found in his chambers the night before. The stunned creature on the floor almost immediately got its numerous legs back underneath it and started scuttling away from Merlin and towards the bed. Arthur let out a distinctly un-kingly yelp and shot backwards.

There was a moment of silence, and then Gwen, partly out of embarrassment and partly at the look on Arthur's face, burst into uncontrollable giggles, and Merlin couldn't help but laugh as well. He would never forget the sight of his fearless and extremely manly king trying to escape from a little bitty centipede. After a few moments, he walked over and placed the breakfast tray on the table near the centre of the room, his eyes averted but his shoulders shaking with mirth.

Merlin restrained his laughter just long enough to say a far to cheery "Good morning, Sire!" and then made a run for the door.

Gwen, still chuckling but now wrapped in a dress made of bed sheets, scooped up the poor confused centipede and placed it outside on the window ledge, with all the calmness and practicality of a maidservant used to dealing with all manner of creepy crawlies.

Arthur, the battle hardened warrior, trained to kill since birth, was not amused. Centipedes unnerved him in a way that he was hard pressed to explain logically. They just… had too many legs. It was unnatural. Just watching one walk was enough to send shivers of revulsion down his spine. Merlin knew that. He glared at the door his manservant had just run through. Merlin had promised to take that secret to his grave, but now his wife knew, and Arthur was feeling less and less masculine every moment she laughed at him. The mood had very effectively been killed.

He was going to make Merlin regret even getting out of bed this morning.

Later that day, Merlin mused on the "incident" as he mucked out the stables. He knew that it was a little juvenile, but he hadn't actually been going to place the centipede on Arthur, just on the bed next to him. What better way to wake up than with a jolt of adrenaline?

Ever since Agravaine's betrayal had become common knowledge, everyone had been walking on eggshells around the king, even Gwen. Merlin thought that a little practical joke was just what Arthur needed, to distract him and remind him that not everyone was wary of his anger. He needed a dose of normality and by teasing him Merlin was essentially declaring his loyalty and affection. He was showing Arthur that he saw him as more than just the king. Also, Merlin just enjoyed making Arthur angry.

Arthur had given him a list of chores designed to humiliate him as revenge for embarrassing him in front of his wife, seeing his wife naked and interrupting his early morning "activities". Nevermind that Arthur managed to embarrass himself in front of Gwen all the time, and she loved him anyway. Still, he supposed that he deserved a little punishment for forgetting to knock. He shuddered. He definitely wouldn't be making that mistake again.

Because he was busy in the stables, and therefore separated from Arthur who was up on the battlements inspecting the guards, he didn't notice the creature winging its way towards the castle until it swooped in and blasted a guard with fire it snorted from its overlarge nostrils. When the warning bell started ringing, Merlin dropped his pitchfork and sprinted towards the source of the trouble, wondering what on earth could have gone wrong this time, but he wasn't fast enough.

By the time he reached the battlements the creature had trapped Arthur against the edge of the wall, five stories above the courtyard. Half a dozen scarlet-cloaked guards lay thrown around the battlements, bodies marred by vicious burns and slashes. Arthur appeared to be mostly unharmed, and although he had somehow acquired a head wound that was dripping bright crimson blood all over his face, unfortunately for Merlin he was still conscious. Merlin realized why he was the only one still alive as the creature snorted flames at Arthur, only to have them somehow be deflected by the length of Excalibur's blade, which Arthur was holding in front of him in a desperate attempt to hold off the monster. Merlin made a mental note ask Kilgarrah about the fire-resistant properties of dragon-burnished blades.

The creature appeared to be a giant, muscular black bull with massive bat wings, and talons instead of hooves. To Merlin, it looked like something that had just flown out if a nightmare. It definitely wasn't a natural beast.

It all happened so quickly. Just as it was about to charge at Arthur, completely disregarding his sword, Merlin picked up a discarded helmet and threw it as hard as he could at the thing, yelling at the top of his lungs to get its attention. He thought that if he could distract it, Arthur could find a way to stab it.

Unfortunately, the distraction worked too well. As the creature shifted its attention from Arthur to Merlin, it caught sight of his bright red neckerchief and its eyes flared an unnerving shade of crimson. The creature spun around far more quickly than something of its massive stature should have been able to move, and just as Merlin noticed that it had somehow managed to spear the red Pendragon pennant from top of the castle onto its massive horns, one of the creature's gigantic wings crashed into Arthur's torso and flipped him over the wall.

Merlin's heart seemed to stop beating in his chest and with a yell he lunged towards the edge, but he wasn't fast enough to stop the king's fall. At least not by legal means. When the king was about halfway down, his flailing limbs and terrified scream were suddenly frozen as Merlin stopped time. Even the wind was frozen, and the sudden and absolute silence was extremely eerie.

Merlin's mind raced as he considered his options, painfully aware of the giant, fire-snorting, flying, temporarily frozen bull...thing, right behind him.

Merlin looked down at the king, and then at all the people in the courtyard below, faces frozen in various expressions of horror. He looked behind him at the knights who had just reached the top of the staircase. He looked again at his king, the man he loved like a brother, frozen mid-fall with his hair flying upward and a terrified expression on his face.

Merlin looked down at the courtyard once more, but there was nothing he could use to break Arthur's fall, no conveniently placed mattresses, no cart full of hay, not even a cart full of manure, and he didn't know how to conjure one. His only options were to either break the king's fall with magic, or pull him back up to the battlements with magic. Either way, it would be glaringly obvious that magic had been used to save him.

In a split second he made his decision. He would willingly give his life for Arthur's. He would do whatever it took to save him, even if it meant finally revealing his magic. It was never really even a question. He had been afraid that this might happen for years, and he had prepared for it. Making another split second decision, he summoned Excalibur back up into his hand (he didn't want Arthur to impale himself) and as time began to flow normally once more he cushioned Arthur's fall with a magical shield. As Arthur gently bounced off the ground he spun around and threw Excalibur at the creature, guiding it straight into the bull's heart with his magic.

As his eyes flashed golden and then faded back to their normal shade of blue, and the bull collapsed onto the battlements with a roar, Merlin met the stunned gazes of Elyan and Gwaine, who had just stumbled to the top of the stairs, and time seemed to slow down again. Gwaine seemed to shake it off first and rushed to the edge of the wall beside the warlock, relaxing as soon as he saw the king standing up, miraculously unharmed from his five-story fall. Miraculously...or magically.

Elyan's gaze remained trained on Merlin, and the terror in his eyes made Merlin's heart clench. Elyan had suffered horribly at the hands of Morgana during her latest invasion. He had been magically tortured almost past the point of human endurance, and Merlin's glowing eyes were so like Morgana's that the knight couldn't help the paralyzing fear that crawled through his gut. Even though he knew Merlin was not Morgana, he also knew in his bones that magic was evil. After all, association with magic had killed his father. Any friendship he felt for Merlin was pushed aside the moment he saw his eyes glow that eerie, animalistic yellow. Gathering his courage, he ran at Merlin with a yell, but his blade was intercepted by Gwaine's as the other knight stepped protectively in front of his friend.

Gwaine hadn't yet had time to process the fact that his first ever friend was a sorcerer, but no matter what he wasn't going to let any harm come to Merlin. He owed him more than he could ever say, and trusted him absolutely. Merlin had just saved Arthur's life, again, and killed the beast attacking Camelot; he deserved to be honoured, not murdered. He would reflect on what this meant for the larger issues surrounding the legality and morality of magic later.

"What are you doing?" He asked the terrified knight. "This is Merlin! He'd never hurt you!"

If Gwaine had turned around, he would have seen the heartbreakingly grateful expression that crossed Merlin's face, and the tears shimmering in his eyes from both Gwaine's unwavering faith and Elyan's terror, but Gwaine was far too busy fending off Elyan's attacks to notice.

Down in the courtyard, Arthur had recovered from his fall, and he wanted to shout to the heavens how happy he was to be alive. The blood rushing through his veins made everything seem sharper, and he couldn't help but laugh with joy and relief. He had evaded certain death once again, and there was no better feeling in the world.

He paused for a moment to wonder exactly how it was that he had fallen five stories into a paved courtyard and sustained only a few bruises, but realized he didn't have time to ponder it when he heard shouting and remembered the creature on the battlements.

The creature on the battlements with Merlin.

He realized that he'd somehow managed to lose his sword, but when he couldn't see Excalibur anywhere in the immediate vicinity he just huffed in frustration and raced up the stairs, leaving a stunned mix of commoners and nobles in the courtyard behind him. When he finally made his way to the top of the wall again, he had to force his way through the knights and guards that were blocking the narrow stairway. He remembered to grab a sword from one of them as he passed. When he finally muscled and commanded his way out the door, he was stunned to see the creature lying dead with Excalibur through its chest, and Elyan trying to fight his way past Gwaine in order to skewer Merlin.

"Sorcerer! He's a sorcerer!" The knight was screaming, looking crazed in his fear.

"Elyan!" Shouted the king, "What the hell are you doing?"

Elyan didn't even seem to hear him, so Arthur gestured two knights forward to restrain him. After they had managed to take hold of his arms and forced him to release his sword, he finally seemed to notice Arthur's presence and stopped struggling, but he remained quietly trembling in the grasp of his comrades, never taking his eyes off of Merlin.

He turned to Gwaine. "What happened?"

"Uh…" The knight hesitated. "Merlin killed the beast."

Arthur looked at his servant in blatant disbelief. "How?"

As he watched, Merlin's face seemed to close and he shrank back against the wall. Gwaine looked at Merlin again. "Uh…"

"With magic." Elyan whispered, his voice trembling. "He's a sorcerer."

Arthur looked at his knight, his face clearly conveying his skepticism. "Elyan... I think you may be a bit confused," he said in a gentle tone.

"I'm not confused!" Said Elyan, his eyes pleading with Arthur to believe him. "I'm not crazy, I know what I saw! His eyes were glowing! He threw the sword at the beast and his eyes were glowing! Gwaine, tell him!" His voice became higher and more frantic the longer he spoke, and when he was done he turned to his fellow knight, begging him with his eyes.

Gwaine was extremely conflicted. Magic was punishable by death in Camelot, and even though Arthur had been far more merciful towards magic-users than his father, he knew that if he told Arthur the truth he could be sending Merlin to the pyre. But if he lied, he would be betraying his liege and letting him think that Elyan's mind was no longer sound. The knight had already been through enough, he didn't deserve to have his king and his friends doubt his sanity when he was telling the truth. Besides, sooner or later Arthur would stop to think for a moment and realize that he should have fallen to his death. Gwaine turned to Merlin, feeling helpless.

Merlin gave him a half-smile. His face was resigned but his eyes were terrified. He had clearly come to the same conclusions that Gwaine had.

Perhaps the series of events that had to led to this moment could have been prevented, if only Merlin could have seen his mistakes for what they were. If only he had been faster, stronger, smarter. If only he had been a seer like Morgana, maybe he could have put off this moment until years later, until a time when Arthur was truly ready to accept his magic. But perhaps not. Perhaps this was always meant to happen, in this way and at this exact moment in time. After all, none of us can choose our destiny, and none of us can escape it. Looking back on this moment, Merlin would eventually realize that the only real mistake he made was blaming himself for everything that happened afterwards.

Merlin straightened up from the wall, looking taller and more dignified than Arthur had ever seen him. "It's alright Gwaine," he said, but his eyes were locked with Arthur's.

"I'm a warlock."

A/N - This is my first ever fanfic, please please please review and let me know if you like it! Constructive criticism would be much appreciated, hopefully this will become a multi-chapter story.