I disclaim. Merlin belongs to the BBC and Stardust belongs to the wonderful Neil Gaiman.

AN: So this plot bunny jumped into my head and wouldn't leave until I got it down. Basically this is Stardust but with characters from Merlin- which all fits surprisingly well, a fact that hit me when I was watching the movie last night. This is not really a crossover so much as me substituting one set of characters for another. I'm using plot from both the movie and the book and I'm making the brave decision to have this be Merthur slash although I'm quite sure I'm horrible at romance. Nothing to graphic as Neil Gaiman is a master of implication but it'll still be there. I really was planning to have Gwen be the star but come on- Merlin is so obviously Ivaine its ridiculous!

Chapter One: The Wall

Victorian England was not the sort of exciting place that many imagine. It was, on the whole, quite unremarkable for most people and for those whose lives held a little more excitement... well they usually didn't last long. It was a dangerous world, after all. (At least, they thought so. We, of course, know entirely better. In comparison to some it was downright safe. But more on that later.) But most lived unexceptional lives, particularly in Camelot, a small town that seemed, to most of the people who lived there, to be well away from anything exciting like cities or war or even loud noises.

And it suited the townspeople very well.

No one likes loud noises, after all.

Yes, the people of Camelot were very pleased to be away from everything that might bring danger to their lands. It was why they'd built The Wall in the first place.

The Wall was large stone one, that ran along the town to the north. It had been there for as long as anyone could remember and it ran all along the outskirts of town, neatly dividing the large field that ran behind it. But no one in the town cared to plant on the other side and no one ever mentioned tearing It down. No, The Wall would stay forever; when it wore, the town rebuilt it and when strange noises seemed to float over it from the other side, the guard was doubled. The was only one fault in The Wall, a sort of doorway torn in the stone. It was here that the guard was doubled, here that one man always sat, even when the wall was quiet, preventing folk from crossing the old barrier.

Of course, no one wanted to and soon The Wall was almost (almost) forgotten and the guard changed from able bodied young men to stooped old men with time. And Camelot was quiet and ordinary.

Until a boy decided he would cross it.

Uther Pendragon was an unusual boy. He was popular but not well liked, handsome but not good-looking. He was quiet and severe but still lighthearted when the occasion called for it. He was simply... odd. Not because of any the above quirks (he was a young man, after all, and young men are allowed their strangeness until they settle down) but because he longed for adventure. He dreamed of knights and battles and rescuing damsels and life away from Camelot. Which was ridiculous because no one ever left Camelot.

But still... "I'm going tonight." he said quietly to his assistant, Gaius. Gaius was Uther's only friend, although he'd be dead before he admit it and he had heard this claim many times before.

"Sure you are sir." The other man replied and continued sorting the paperwork.

Uther had just finished his studies and had taken up a post in the office of the town's only lawyer, Mr. Kilgharrah. Gaius, who had a year left himself, had taken it upon himself to clerk for his friend and prevent him from losing all of the paperwork he was supposed to be filing. "I am." Uther said subbornly, catching his friends absent and unbelieving tone.

Gaius simply sighed. These claims had been more frequent lately, since Uther had started working. He hated Kilgharrah and the old dragon, as the town had nicknamed the older man, hated him back with just as much fervor. The soon-to-be-doctor ran a hand through his prematurely graying hair. If he didn't know better, he'd say that the two lawyers had come to blows at some point in the past, so extreme was their grudge. It was a small miracle that Uther had been offered the job, but that was mostly Gaius and Balinor's doing. Balinor Kilgharrah was the younger brother of the gruff lawyer and was Uther's other, more occasional friend. Occasional, because every so often the two would despise each other for weeks, huffing and resentful until Gaius managed to get them drunk enough to forget their strange fights.

And this was why Gaius knew that Uther would never jump The Wall. Balinor was its main guard and it would be him who was fired if word got out that someone had slipped through the doorway into danger. And so he ignored his friend's plans, content in the knowledge that nothing would come of them.

Until of course... something did.

It was nothing and yet... Uther left the office, his face a flame with anger and embarrassment. Kilgharrah had betrayed him yet again in front of a client, calling out his shoddy work and deciding it was laziness and not what it was, which was inexperience. Uther could accept being young and untried but he would not be called a fool.

No.

He slammed into his small house, messy and yet empty with no wife to clean or decorate. He stared around his sad little house and then, the rage swelling around him once more, shrugged out of his work clothes and into his travel jacket and boots. Slapping a hat on his head and shoving money into his pack he took one more look around and then left, slamming the door and heading out into the twilight.

It was dark by the time he reached The Wall and he almost walked into it before his eyes adjusted. Balinor was the only one on guard tonight, and he was down by the doorway, whittling away and seated on his small stool. Uther threw his pack over and tried to climb. The Wall was not that tall, was not that slick and it should have been easy. (It wasn't.) He tried to climb it three times and each time his feet inexplicably lost traction or stones would slip from his grasp. The last time he felt like he'd been climbing for a half hour at least but when he looked up he was no closer to the top than five minutes in.

By now he'd worked himself up into a proper lather. No good at work, no good at climbing walls... what was happening to him! And so he stomped over to the doorway and Balinor, determined that he would get what he wanted.

To his fury, Balinor barely glanced up when he strode over, turning his face back to the small dragon he was carving. "Evening Uther."

Uther said nothing, but attempted to shove by him and through the break in the wall. To his surprise, Balinor suddenly seemed much larger and the opening much smaller. "Let me pass." He growled.

Balinor raised his eyebrows and kept a firm grip on his sleeve."What's wrong then?"

"What's wrong is that you and your blasted brother are constantly in my way! Now move!"

But the other man would not budge. "No one's permitted through the wall, you know that." His cavalier tone infuriated Uther more. "Now go home and cool off- whatever clouds on your mind will soon pass you by." It was so blasted annoying, how the Kilgharrah's seemed so indifferent to everyone and everything- they didn't speak about The Wall as if it was anything exciting, didn't respect it like everyone else. If anything, Balinor seemed to think it amusing that he was paid to guard people from going out.

"I know you don't think anything's over there Balinor! Look at it! It's just a field. Just let me pass- I'll come right back!" Balinor's grip was iron tight so Uther tried to reason with the man.

"What makes you so sure I think nothings on the otherside?" Balinor's face was strangely still.

Uther scoffed. "You act as if it's silly, preventing people from leaving. I've heard you say yourself we don't need to fear people leaving. So let me go- I'll prove you right."

Balinor frowned and let go of Uther's arm, but pushed him in the direction of town. "You're right boy. I don't fear people leaving- but that doesn't mean there isn't danger. Go home- whatever's been done will be better tomorrow." And with one more push he turned away, heading back to his stool and block of wood.

And Uther took his chance, knowing that if he succeeded he would lose Balinor's friendship forever.

He shoved the man hard, headfirst into The Wall and then sprinted through the opening jumping over Balinor's outstretched hand that tried to catch his ankle. Once he was a good distance away he turned back. Balinor stood in the doorway, hand to his head and glower on his face. "I'm sorry!" Uther shouted but the dark man did nothing, just glared and then sat down on his stool, back to the runaway.

The young man shrugged. Balinor would forgive him eventually, when he finished exploring the empty field and forest and returned to tell everyone that there was nothing behind The Wall but nature, just as the carver had always said. Deciding not to go for his pack, as it would bring him closer to Balinor's tight grip, Uther set out into the forest, determined to prove that he could do something no one else in his quiet, unexciting Camelot could.

Be adventurous.