As Luck Would Have It by Emachinescat

A Merlin Fan-Fiction

SUMMARY: After Merlin accidentally breaks a sacred charm of an old witch lady, she curses him with bad luck. Arthur thinks Merlin's sudden lack of luck is hilarious, but when things get out of hand, Arthur and Merlin embark upon a quest to break the curse before Merlin really gets hurt.

A/N: As if I don't have enough stories to deal with right now, here I am starting a new one. :) This one has been a long time coming, though – you guys voted on my next big project and it was a tie, so I broke the tie, and this is what you guys are going to get! :D Updates should remain steady because I'm not going to overload myself (more than I already have of course!), and only update once a week, so be expecting a new chapter every Wednesday. ;) That being said, I hope you enjoy the story! Please review, let me know your thoughts so I can write the next chapter even better! :D

This takes place sometime in season 2, so Morgana's not turned evil yet but she's not all good either. :)

As Luck Would Have It

Chapter One

The deer stood gracefully beside the lazily winding river, her ears relaxed and head lowered as she drunk from the fresh water source. Ten feet away, concealed within the bushes, a well-muscled, blonde young man crouched, crossbow aimed, one index finger centimeters away from pulling the trigger.

Arthur Pendragon, Crown Prince of Camelot, took a slow, steadying breath as he honed in on the target. It had been a rough morning, that was for sure. He had decided on a whim to go hunting – although a lot of his decision was based upon his amusement at seeing his servant complain about his least favorite activity – this morning, but it seemed that nothing had been going right since he and Merlin, his dark-haired, clumsy oaf of a servant, had left Camelot.

Arthur had managed to catch a rabbit, but that was it. It was after midday, and this doe was the first real prize that he had run across as all the animals had apparently decided that the warm summer sun was too hot for them, and there was no way that Arthur was going to let the deer get away.

His eyes narrowed fractionally as the doe's graceful head rose to sniff the air. It was now or never. Arthur steadied himself, made sure his aim was precise, and pulled his finger toward the trigger –

"Arthur!"

Arthur cursed as the deer bounded away at the sudden noise and flung his crossbow to the ground. Rounding on his servant, Arthur's light blue eyes met Merlin's own deep blue ones to see no amount of remorse for scaring away Arthur's catch. This only served to make the testy prince angrier – today had not been his day! "Merlin," he fumed, barely controlling his annoyance, "is there anything – anything at all – that you're not a complete buffoon at?"

Merlin shrugged good-naturedly at the harsh tone Arthur was using – a tone that, Arthur noted dryly, had caused some of the kingdom's bravest knights to back away cautiously from their prince. Merlin, it seemed, wasn't (and by the looks of it, would never be) too terribly intimidated by his master. Although Merlin's cheekiness and refusal to let Arthur get away with anything was obnoxious sometimes – a lot of the time – Arthur couldn't help but be fond of his servant, not that he would ever let Merlin in on that little detail.

"Sorry," Merlin said simply, grinning easily at his master.

Arthur snorted, beyond annoyed. "Sorry?" he snapped. "That deer—" he gestured wildly in the direction that the animal had fled, "—was the only thing worth killing on this stupid hunt, and you scared the blasted thing away! How am I supposed to feed the kingdom with you scaring away all the bloody animals?"

Merlin winced slightly at the irritation in Arthur's voice but then smiled. "I wouldn't say you're exactly 'feeding the kingdom,'" he began, but shut up at Arthur's glare. Merlin may have treated Arthur differently than any other servant – like more of a friend than a master – but even the clumsy warlock knew when to shut his mouth. After all, even though the two were closer than was customary for a prince and his servant, Arthur was still a prince, even if Merlin sometimes had to make himself remember that.

The rabbit Arthur had killed earlier dangling from his hands, Merlin hurried to catch up with Arthur, who had picked up his crossbow and was stalking irritably in the general direction that the deer had darted. "Sorry," he repeated. "I didn't mean to scare the deer away, but honestly, you can't tell me that you didn't feel just a little bad about what you were going to do? It was so peaceful and innocent…" He trailed off, knowing that Arthur would have felt no regret about doing something as natural to him as hunting, but his words achieved what he had hoped they would and made the prince smile and fall easily back into their normal routine of teasing each other. The tension eased almost immediately.

"Honestly, Merlin, you're such a girl."

"At least I'm not a prat."

"Merlin?"

"Yes, Arthur?"

"Shut up."

Merlin grinned and did what the prince had commanded, relieved that the aggravation Arthur had shown toward him earlier seemed to have dissipated with their usual banter. After a few minutes of silence, Merlin couldn't take it anymore. "Did you know that there's a house back there?" he asked conversationally.

Arthur rounded on him. "What are you talking about, Merlin? No one lives in this part of the woods. We would know – Father took census just last year and there was no citizen accounted for living in the forest."

Merlin rolled his eyes. "I didn't say that anyone was living there, Arthur," the secret warlock pointed out. "I just said that there's a house back there."

Arthur grunted. "I suppose that's why you decided to interrupt my hunt?"

Merlin laughed. "Nah. I just like to watch steam come out of your ears when your prey gets away."

Arthur wacked Merlin none-too-gently upside the head and the servant pouted as he massaged the offending sore spot. "Idiot," Arthur accused, almost affectionately. He paused. "You're sure it was a house?"

Merlin stared, disbelieving. "I think I know what a house looks like, Arthur. I lived in one all my life."

Arthur chuckled. "Well, we'd better go check it out. If someone is living there, they've not registered it with us, and it's important that Father and I know where our citizens are. If someone's living there without permission, they could have magic and be hiding out, so we'll have to watch our step. Magic is dangerous, Merlin."

Merlin nodded slowly and swallowed heavily. It was his destiny to use his magic to protect Arthur and help turn him into the great king that would unite Albion and bring magic back to the kingdom. Sometimes, though, Merlin found himself wondering if that day would ever come. Some days, Arthur would be open and seem to realize that there was more to magic than what it seemed, what his father believed about it. Other days, like today, he would be firmly convinced that all magic was evil. Merlin knew different, however, because he had magic, and he wasn't evil. He just wished Arthur could see that.

Realizing that in his musings he had fallen behind, he saw that Arthur was walking briskly in the direction that Merlin had told him the house was in. The tall, thin young man hastened to catch up with his master, tripping over his feet spectacularly right as he caught up to him in the brush near the house. Arthur rounded on Merlin. "I said, watch your step, Merlin!" he whispered as Merlin struggled to his feet and dusted dirt and grime off of his blue shirt and black breeches.

The house was small and old – more of a large shack, really. They had been hunting in this area many times before and neither Merlin nor Arthur had ever seen it. That meant, despite its old appearance, it had to have been built fairly recently. Arthur made a series of ridiculous looking hand motions and Merlin nodded in agreement without having any idea of what he was supposed to be doing. When Arthur moved, he moved right along with him. He needed to be in a position where he could help Arthur if he needed it.

Arthur didn't protest to Merlin following him, so either Merlin had somehow correctly interpreted the hand signals or Arthur had resigned himself to the fact that Merlin was going to do what he wanted despite what his master told him. They rounded the front of the shack, taking in the worn, weather beaten outer walls and the flimsy door hanging haphazardly from rusty hinges.

Someone was obviously living in the house. The remnants of smoke curled slowly out of the makeshift chimney. The tell-tale wisps of smoke would have been impossible to see from a distance, but now that they were standing right next to the home, both Arthur and Merlin could see the light gray swirls against the white and blue splotched sky peeping from above the tree branches.

Arthur made some more complicated hand signals, which Merlin promptly ignored, and the two of them crept closer to the strange house. When they approached the door, Arthur's eyes went wide as he saw a small but obviously enchanted glass artifact hanging from the doorway. It was glowing a faint – almost undetectable – green and was shaped like a rabbit's foot, only it was made of fragile glass. Merlin found himself transfixed with the glass foot, his magic wanting to get closer to the source of the strange enchantment. It felt as if the source of the magic was the earth itself.

Without realizing what he was doing, Merlin slowly moved closer to the charm – because that was obviously what it was, a charm for luck, safety, health, or prosperity. He heard Arthur hissing at him to come back and he shook his head, clearing his senses. Feeling foolish, he turned to head back to Arthur.

He let out a surprised yelp as his eyes rested upon a wrinkled, hunched old woman wearing a tattered green shift, her dark skin leathery and loose. Her eyes were sunken into her old face, but Merlin could see just a glimmer of violet from the dark sockets. Stumbling back in surprise, the back of Merlin's foot hit a tree stump and he fell, barreling backwards and headfirst into the door of the hut. His collision with the surprisingly firm door caused the frame to shake, and before he could stop it, the charm hanging from the door fell to the ground, shattering into hundreds of tiny pieces.

Behind Arthur's back as the young prince unsheathed his sword and began to turn to whatever had affected his servant, the old woman's face turned into a mask of rage as those violet eyes landed on the servant sprawled under her door, the charm no longer glowing and lying at his feet in shards.

Her voice was low and crackled with every word. "You!" Arthur, thinking she was talking to him, faced her, surprised to see an old, hunchbacked woman with purple eyes glaring past him at his servant. Her gaze deadly, the woman pointed a gnarled, bumpy old finger at Merlin and snarled, "You will pay for that!" The power in her words and voice made a tingle of apprehension slide down both men's backs.

There was no doubt that the woman meant every word she said.

A/N: So what did you think? We'll learn more about the old woman and her green glowing glass rabbit foot charm in the next chapter. Please REVIEW and I'll update Wednesday! :D

~Emachinescat ^..^