AN: I've never been a genderswap genre fan, but for some reason the fem!merlin/arthur trope has gotten stuck in my head. I've exhausted the collections written already, and needed to write my own.

Enjoy everyone! We're all in for a long ride. xoxo

It isn't going to be forever. I'm going to go home soon.

Those were the only thoughts that kept me walking towards Camelot. The tears from leaving my mother and my home, Ealdor, had long dried and dirt and dust had taken their place on my cheeks. Leaves and twigs were surely stuck in my long black hair, braided for travel. I would have to stop before I reached town and wash up in a stream. I didn't want to ask Gaius for a job while looking like I lived in a cave.

I thought of my mother back home- she was the reason I was going to Camelot. I remembered her stooped low over our fire at home to warm her muscles, her eyes closed and her brow furrowed. She was growing too old to labor as much on the farms as she had in the past. We had borrowed money from friends and neighbors, and then our debts (as well as many others') had been bought by the king's men who patrolled our village. Now those debts had to be repayed, with interest. So I, as my mother's only daughter, set off to Camelot in search of work. She called in a favor to an old friend of hers, the court physician, for me to stay with him while I worked and sent money home.

It took another day to reach Camelot, including making a stop to bathe just outside the town. The hustle and bustle inside the walls of Camelot was like nothing I had ever seen before! There were people hurrying here and there, working and shopping and talking. But there was a hushed, solemn, and almost fearful air to the people of Camelot. The peoples' eyes were downcast and flitting, their speech quick and simple.

Just as I wondered if there was something going on, I heard a loud man's voice announcing to a small crowd at the base of the castle. He, the king, spoke of how magic was outlawed and chaotic. I swallowed hard and nervous butterflies rose in my stomach. Before coming to Camelot, I knew magic was illegal, but I had never expected to be confronted with a beheading in my first hour here. The execution was quick and deliberate, and the king announced a feast to celebrate. That nervous butterfly feeling turned to disgust and anger that radiated out from my stomach and chest. My palms tingled with magic, and I clenched them.

The man's mother wailed in grief and everyone stopped to look at her. She threatened the king's son before using a whirlwind like spell to disappear. I was captivated but frightened, I had never seen anyone else use magic, let alone to threaten someone. After she was gone, the townspeople scattered in fear, some screaming and many running. Soon the area was clear of any people except me and a few guards so I left to find Gaius.

I knew Gaius lived in the castle, but I didn't know where. A man was walking confidently in the opposite direction of me in the halls. He must know where Gaius was.

"Excuse me, can you please tell me where Gaius, the court physician, lives?" I asked the man who appeared as if he had not even noticed me in the hall.

He looked me up and down with narrowed blue eyes and I grew self-conscious of whether or not I had washed off all of the dirt from the forest. "I could. Who are you?" he asked in a sneering tone. I bristled at his judgmental tone.

"Someone who asked politely where Gaius lives," I snapped back, my own blue eyes glaring up at him. I straightened the skirts of my blue dress. There were mud stains on the bottom and a few tears from travel, but surely he had not noticed the flaws that quickly.

"You should have some respect!" The man demanded as he stood up straighter, looking down his nose at me.

"Oh, because respect is something so obvious in this town! A man was just executed in front of everyone! Regardless of his crime, his death was made a spectacle!" I practically shouted. Heat rose to my cheeks and my palms itched with magic again. I had been here not even an hour and I was already enraged. I wanted nothing more than to turn back and go home.

"What is your name, girl?" He demanded.

"Merlin."

"Well, Merlin, do you know how to walk on your knees?" He threatened with a laugh.

"Excuse me?" I was appalled.

He hesitated, as if he had not meant a crude meaning. "I mean, you should have some respect for your superiors."

"Who do you think you are, the King?" I crossed my arms across my chest.

"I'm his son, Arthur," the man said tauntingly as he leaned down towards me, asserting his power. "Guards! Put her in the stocks!"

"What?!" I sputtered as two men grabbed my arms and dragged me out to the stocks. "I didn't- I didn't know!"

"Oh! And Gaius is the second door on the left. Welcome to Camelot, Merlin," Arthur laughed as he continued his walk down the corridor.

After a disgusting afternoon in the stocks and an embarrassing first meeting with Gaius, I was settled in the bedroom up the stairs in his chambers. A girl who works in the castle, Gwen, had offered to help me clean the food from my hair. One of the guards who arrested me had told her and her father of my argument with Arthur while he was getting some armor repaired, and she took pity on me. She stayed for dinner with Gaius and I, and even gave me a tour of Camelot. She said she would ask if there was any space on the castle staff for me, and for that I was indebted to her.

Over the next few days, I helped Gaius by delivering medications and gathering herbs. In return, he was teaching me about magic in secret. Just as we had gotten into a work flow, and I had potentially found work with a fabric merchant, it all changed.

I was aiding the servants in the kitchen temporarily while one of them was out sick during a feast with the singer Lady Helen. But something was clearly wrong when she started to sing. Her voice was captivating, perhaps too captivating. My eyes stung and itched like I was very tired. I stifled a yawn before I noticed that everyone around me, including Arthur and the king, was falling asleep. I clapped my hands over my ears as I realized what was happening. Lady Helen was using magic! As I struggled to stay awake I realized she was walking towards the head table and pulled a dagger from her sleeve. I looked around to see if anyone else was awake as cobwebs formed on everyone and everything. My breath caught in my throat as I began to panic.

The heightened emotion brought magic bursting at my palms. Lady Helen was under the candle fixture and I knew what I had to do. I used magic to cut the thick ropes and chains that held the fixture to the ceiling and it fell on top of the singer.

Everyone awoke, confused and scared. I stepped forward to make sure Lady Helen was dead, but before I got there her disguise melted away. It was the mother of the man who was executed on my first day in Camelot! She had threatened the king's son's life in repayment for hers. As this realization struck me, I noticed that the old woman was not dead, as I had suspected, and was rising with the dagger still in hand. She was going to kill Arthur!

The woman threw the dagger and I used my magic and slowed time, just as I had done my first time meeting Gaius. It was just enough time for me to sprint to Arthur and push him out of the way. Colliding with him was like running straight into a wall, but I managed to tackle him to the ground. My heart pounding in my chest I heard gasps and shouts of anger and fear from all around me and I yanked Arthur around to face me, my hand on his chest where the dagger had been aimed. He was safe- I had saved him. He stared at me, gaping, with his blue eyes wide with confusion and fear.

"Are you okay?" I asked, but before he could answer I was pulled to my feet by the king.

It was a blur, but I was rewarded with a position in the royal house. A good paying job!

"You will be rewarded with a position as Arthur's servant," King Uther announced.

What.

Arthur and I exchanged glances and I wanted to go back to Ealdor more than ever. But this was essentially the best paying job in Camelot. I wouldn't have to stay as long, and the money I sent back to my mother would be quicker. Perhaps this wasn't the worst possible outcome….

A few days into my new job as Arthur's servant, I began to hear this voice. A deep commanding voice, that I was sure was in my head. When I was released from my duties the third day of hearing it, I followed the sound further down into the castle than the dungeons. It was dark and damp and smelled of smoke and moss. Fear made my steps unsteady in my threadbare boots which slipped easily on the damp rock.

"Hello?" I called into the dark expanse of the space below the dungeons. My voice echoed around me.

"I am here," said the voice. Wind blew in a sharp gust and whipped my long black hair away from my face. A real dragon landed on a rock before me. I gasped and stepped back.

"Why do you call me?" I questioned the great animal, my voice wavering.

"I needed to meet the great sorceress who would unite the land of Albion with Arthur Pendragon!" the dragon said as if it we obvious. "How small and feminine you are for such a great destiny."

"What?" I exhaled.

"Arthur is the Once and Future King who is destined to unite the land of Albion. But not without the protection and support of you and your magic, Merlin," the dragon explained.

"You've got the wrong girl. Arthur and I mostly fight and I'm only his servant. Besides, magic is outlawed in Albion," I said dismissively and started to back away from the dragon to go back up the stairs.

"You are stuff of legend, Merlin. We've been waiting for you," the dragon said ominously before flapping his great spiny wings again and taking off into the darkness.

I called for him to come back and explain more, but to no avail. More confused than I had ever been in my life, I trekked back up the many stairs to my chambers. I spent most of the night tossing and turning, thinking about what the dragon had said and what it meant. How could I be expected to protect Arthur's life if I hoped every day that there would be an accident on the practice field with the knights? Or a tragic hunting accident? I sighed. Perhaps saving his life at the feast was more than impulse, it was destiny.

I eventually fell asleep, only to awake and convince myself it was all a dream. No need to tell Gaius that I had dreamt I met a dragon who talked to me about magic and the person with whom I spent most of my waking time. No need to alert the court physician of my delusions.