TITLE: The Merman
AUTHOR: finn1013
SUMMARY: A mysterious creature has stolen something of value and only magic can assist. But the price demanded for their return is high, will it be too much for Arthur to pay? Friendship/bromance. NO SLASH
SPOILERS: nothing much, but may make reference here and there to anything pre Season 4
DISCLAIMER: Merlin is not mine, belongs to the BBC
CLASSIFICATION: T
AUTHOR'S NOTES: It's set between Seasons 3 and 4, so Arthur is Regent and Morgana is no longer at Camelot, in fact I don't think she'll appear at all in this (sorry Mergana shippers, you'll only get bromancey friendship between Arthur and Merlin in this one, possibly with a little angst thrown in for good measure, and maybe some whump if I can manage it).

In Camelot, truth can be ephemeral, and rumour can reign as fact.

Midway between the Great Seas of Meredor and the Mountains of Isgard, beside the town of Shalford, lies a great saltwater lake. It's said a creature resides in there, a creature that makes its presence felt only once or twice each generation. Whether there's truth in the tale, or whether it's a myth perpetuated by superstitious villagers, no one really knows.

At least, not until now.

"Merlin, get up, you'll be late again!"

By the impatience in Gaius's tone this wasn't the first time he'd yelled out, but Merlin couldn't seem to open his eyes, Gaius's voice was muffled and seemed to be coming from such a long way away. Merlin didn't move, nothing mattered, he was still on the edge of sleep and ready to drift off again, but then the thin blanket covering him was yanked back and his lethargy receded a little as the chill early morning air prickled his burning hot skin.

"Merlin?" Gaius's hand touched his shoulder, and the physician pushed him over onto his back on his bed. The movement made Merlin's head whirl but the sensation was quite nice, and he started to sink back down into that blissful state of unconsciousness again. Gaius took his jaw between his hands and let out a soft grunt of dismay. "Oh no, Merlin, open your eyes."

He didn't want to, but the command was repeated with more urgency and a hand pressed against his forehead, so Merlin opened his eyes, but it was an effort, everything was, especially breathing. Merlin shivered as he became aware of his surroundings, he automatically tried to sit up, but the movement made him lightheaded, and Gaius seemed to understand, because he helped, and Merlin leant back weakly on a pillow against the wall behind his bed and regarded his mentor through bleary eyes.

Gaius reached out and took one of his hands, quickly unwinding the bandage that had been wrapped almost to the tips of his fingers and thumb, it had been hiding most of his hand the past few days.

Merlin couldn't understand, he tried to stop him, he was going to be late, he fumbled, "Gaius, what? No, I've got to keep them hidden. Arthur can't ..."

"Forget Arthur for now, Merlin. Look at your hands."

"Huh?" Merlin looked, nothing had changed in the past few days, the thin webbing of skin between all his fingers and thumb on each hand was still there. The webbing reached almost to the tips of each finger, stopping at the last joint, and the thin membrane of skin was tinged blue. Merlin was sick of the webbing and having to wear bandages to hide it, and almost wished he'd never seen the stupid book, but it was so enticing, left especially for him. He coughed weakly, he couldn't seem to catch his breath, and he was so very sleepy.

"Merlin, the spell you used that gave you the membrane between your fingers. What else was it meant to do?"

He couldn't concentrate, sitting up and talking was taking so much effort. And he couldn't work out why this was so, he'd been feeling perfectly fine before he'd gone to bed.

Gaius was persistent, his face lined with worry. "Merlin, listen, it's important." Gaius propped him up and made him lean forwards, it seemed to help his breathing a little. "What else was the spell meant to do, Merlin?"

Merlin fingered his neck absently, no, the skin was still nice and smooth. He tried to breathe deeply but he couldn't, he mumbled, "What does it matter? It didn't work."

"Alright." Gaius's eyes followed the movement of his fingers. "Stay there. I'll be back in a minute." He pulled the door to Merlin's room shut behind him.

Merlin wasn't going anywhere, he didn't have enough energy. He sat on his bed, facing the window, idly watching the specs of dust floating in the weak beam of sunlight that was starting to slide across his window. The sun wasn't properly up yet, the light was just beginning to touch the sky. Arthur would be expecting him soon, but he really didn't know if he could even make it to the the door of his room, he felt so oddly weak, even a little dizzy, and both burning hot and freezing. Maybe he was coming down with something.

But he hardly cared anyway, if there was something was wrong with him, the fog in his brain was an insulating him from feeling much concern. The lethargy felt quite pleasant. He didn't move from the edge of the bed, and his breathing was quick and shallow. He opened the unbandaged hand again, eyeing the thin but tough membrane between his fingers. It had been four days since he'd spelled himself and he still hadn't managed to make it go away.

The outer door opened, he heard Gaius talking to someone then it was silent again. Something heavy was dragged across the floor, and another knock, another voice, was it Lancelot?

It was, the door opened and the knight strode in. "Merlin, what have you done?" Merlin regarded him wearily, too exhausted to bother with a greeting. He made no resistance but didn't help either, when Lancelot heaved him up and slung one of Merlin's arms over his shoulder, dragging him down the stairs into the main room.

Gaius was waiting, beside a round bath tub full of water. Merlin looked at it with trepidation, swaying unsteadily against Lancelot, surely Gaius didn't think ...?

Gaius grabbed hold of one of his arms and said to Lancelot, "Now hurry. Don't let the tub fall over, hold it steady."

"What's he done this time?" Lancelot obeyed, leaning over, and Merlin's knees hit the floor.

Gaius managed to sound reluctantly admiring, exasperated and worried all at once. "He's losing the ability to breathe in the air. He's gone and given himself gills."

Merlin lurched back, the shock of that statement almost making him wake up properly. "What? No, Gaius, I haven't, I told you, it didn't work, I don't have gills, look at my neck, my skin's still –"

"Now hold him down!" His protest was ignored, Gaius wasn't listening, he grabbed hold of a fistful of Merlin's hair and forced his head none too gently in the direction of the water.

Merlin struggled but another hand was helping and the effort of resisting was draining all his strength, he had barely a second to take a gasping mouthful of air before his head was thrust into the tub, and he gurgled and choked helplessly. The water was pouring into his mouth, down his throat and into his chest, he gagged and fought feebly against the hands holding him under, but he felt so weak, and his magic wasn't leaping to his defence like it should be, it wasn't going to save him this time, he was drowning ... but then ... he wasn't.

No, he wasn't drowning, not at all.

He stopped his struggles and drew in a deep mouthful of the life-giving liquid, all his concentration focussed on this odd sloshy feeling inside him. His body craved more of this new substance, it was the sweetest thing he'd ever breathed, perfect liquid magic. He opened his eyes, looking into this new world, his face was inches away from the wooden bottom of the tub and he wanted to stay in this new paradise forever.

A hand was still on his back, between his shoulders, but it wasn't pressing down urgently now, just rubbing gently back and forth. He paid it no attention. His skin craved the magic fluid too, he pushed himself into the tub further until the water was edging his shoulders and soaking through his cream-coloured sleep shirt. He lifted his hands into the tub, and opened the palm of the one that wasn't still bandaged. The webbing was a thing of beauty, he stared at it memorised, watching with complete concentration for what felt like hours as the skin slowly lost its blue tinge. He wanted to feel this liquid magic all over him, and he butted his head on the edge of the tub before he realised what he was doing, and it rocked unsteadily for a moment before it steadied on the floor.

He could have stayed there for a lifetime, but all too soon he was being pulled from this piece of heaven back to the world where the air was too thin and insubstantial. He resisted the tug at first, but when another hand dipped into the water and pulled at his shoulder he allowed himself to surface, but the change to air breathing was almost unbearable.

He choked and coughed again, gasping and spitting up water, until he fell to his knees on the hard stone floor, leaning unsteadily on shaking hands. He felt the water dripping from his hair and face and shirt, it grew in an ever-increasing puddle all over the floor. He fingered the trails of liquid darkening the floor, utterly devastated by the waste.

Lancelot was dumfounded, his face was pale with shock. His mouth opened and shut several times before he managed to speak in a stunned whisper, but Merlin was too busy mourning the loss of the water to notice the knight's agitation. "You ... how ... Gaius was right! You have gills, Merlin, I ... I can't believe it."

Merlin blinked slowly, and came back to himself. He could breathe again now, in the air, but he was coming down from the adrenalin rush the water had given him and he felt weak and tired again, although not nearly as bad as before. He rubbed at his neck and looked at his guardian, shaking his head. "Gaius? How did you work that out? I don't understand, I can't feel the gills, I didn't think the spell worked."

Gaius sighed and sat down heavily on the bench beside the table, his posture weary. "Your antics will be the death of me, Merlin. I knew you were mucking around with water and bowls but I thought you were practicing scrying. I should've known better."

He gave Merlin a stern look. "Merlin, the enchantment for webbing almost always is associated with water breathing. It's very advanced magic, but I shouldn't be surprised you can perform that sort of thing by now. After all, the book was left for you, and a lot of the magic in it would be impossible for many to master."

Gaius shook his head. "I've certainly never heard of anyone who's successfully managed water breathing as an enchantment that also allows you to breathe in the air. But because I misjudged your abilities I didn't think of the obvious, until this morning when you were struggling to breathe. You were expecting gills in your neck, weren't you, Merlin?"

"Well, yes." It did seem the obvious way of doing it. Slightly abashed, he tried to explain his logic. "Fish, Gaius, that's how they breathe."

Gaius was exasperated, Merlin didn't even realise he wasn't out of the woods yet. "But you're not a fish, Merlin, and fish can't breathe out of water! You need to think things through before you blindly try them out. Now come here, and let me listen to your chest."

Merlin obeyed, walking over beside him. Gaius pressed an ear against one side of his chest and directed, "Now, take a few deep breaths." Merlin did, and the physician listened and grunted. Then he put his head on the other side of Merlin's chest. "Again." Merlin repeated the exercise and eventually Gaius raised his head.

"My boy, listen and don't interrupt, you don't have much time." He beckoned to Lancelot. "You pay attention too Lancelot, you'll need to help him. Merlin, get out of that wet shirt, and put on your boots, Lancelot's going to have to take you out of Camelot."

They both nodded, and Gaius said, "Merlin, it sounds to me like one side of your chest allows you to breathe normally in the air, the other sounds full of fluid, that'd be where your gills are. So what you've managed to do to yourself means you're able to breathe in the air, and in the water, but you're not going to be able to survive long in one without the other. This isn't completely uncommon in nature, some creatures can breathe in water and in air, although not always at the same time, creatures such as salamanders, mermaids, kelpies or naiads are a few, though they manage it in different ways. Now, when did you perform this enchantment?"

Merlin finished pulling his blue shirt over his head and sat down on the stairs leading up to his room, yanking on his boots. His hair was still dripping but he didn't appear to notice. "Uh, it was four days ago, or nights. The night I got the book, actually."

Gaius shook his head. "By the look of you this morning you should have been in the water yesterday, but that might have just been because you didn't water breathe as soon as you performed the enchantment – you didn't, did you?"

Merlin shook his head. "No, I told you I didn't think it'd worked. I was expecting gills on my neck."

"Well, you may be lucky and you might be able to air breathe for up to a week before you need to spend time in the water, once you've had this first swim, but I wouldn't count on it. Are you starting to feel tired, or weak, or sleepy again?"

Merlin shrugged. "A bit."

The tension in Gaius's voice increased. "Now's not the time to be a martyr, Merlin! Are you getting tired again, or not?"

Lancelot was watching this exchange with fascination bordering on horror, his head moving from one to the other.

Merlin rubbed his forehead. "Um, yeah. I feel like I could crawl into bed and sleep for days, actually, although I do feel better than when you first woke me up." He shot a glance at Gaius and admitted, "And uh, it's getting a bit hard to breathe again."

"Right, I'll try and be quick because you must understand. Whatever we, as humans, take from the air to breathe, or in your case the water as well, you don't have enough in your body. The webbing between your fingers is turning blue again, but it should be pink if your body is working properly. Your lips are still blue Merlin, so are your nails, your skin has a bluish tinge, you're sleepy and breathing's a problem." Merlin managed a hazy blink at this one-colour catalogue of his predicament.

Gaius hadn't finished. "You're also feverish. And I'm sure your magic is compromised too, you won't have the will or the strength to wield it if you don't do something soon. Now you've got to get going. You need to get to the Great Lake of Shalford, you need to swim around a large body of water and it's the closest. It's salt water, but it'll have to do."

"What?"

"You don't have much time, Merlin. You'll need more water than you can get in Camelot."

Merlin protested, "But Gaius, Arthur's expecting me, any time now. And he's going to Shalford today anyway, you know what's happening there! I'll manage, I have to. I can't just go riding off, he's getting really annoyed with me lately."

And it was true, Arthur's temper was as predictable as Uther's mood swings were unpredictable; the extra stress and responsibility heaped on the prince when his father was having one of his less lucid weeks wasn't making Arthur an easy prince to serve at present.

Gaius ignored him in favour of someone with more sense. "Lancelot, he's not going to have the strength to ride alone soon, he won't be able to stay on the horse by himself. Take him on a horse with you. Make sure he stays upright, try and get him to lean forwards slightly as it'll be easier for him to breathe that way."

"But Arthur, he's expecting me, he'll –"

Gaius cut through Merlin's complaint impatiently. "My boy, you're not understanding the seriousness of this! You need to get in water for at least a few hours, right now. Your body needs the water to breathe properly, didn't I just tell you, you're still blue? You are risking your life, Merlin, you don't have much time!"

Merlin gaped, and Gaius took pity on him, lowering his voice. "Merlin, I'll send a guard to Arthur's chambers to say you're ill, I'll keep Arthur out of our rooms if he comes looking for you. Lancelot is going to need to take you to the lake, and my guess is that you're going to need to spend several hours underwater there. You need to swim around a lot to get the water through your body, what you've done here will only go so far."

Lancelot stood up. "I'll look after him, Gaius, don't worry."

Merlin was getting more worried, but not so much about his breathing. "But Lancelot, you know Arthur was going back to the lake today, he might see me!"

Gaius was unsympathetic. "Well stay under the water then, he won't see you there. Now Merlin, I hardly need tell you that you'd better hope there's a counter spell in that book they gave you for that, you really don't want to spend the rest of your life in the water at Shalford at least a day every week. I'll look for one while you're away, but don't even think about trying it without telling me, I want to keep an eye on you." Gaius was stern and Merlin nodded obediently. "Now get going."

Merlin followed Lancelot down the stairs, and into the courtyard. Dawn had broken now, and a few people were out already, mainly servants, but it made Merlin realise it was much later than he first thought.

"Lancelot?" He spoke quietly, and Lancelot threw him a concerned look.

"Are you okay, Merlin?" Merlin suddenly realised Lancelot was also wet, he'd dressed before he'd come to Gaius's chambers, and his the sleeves of his shirt were wet up to both elbows, and there was a damp patch on his shoulder.

"Yeah. I uh, just wanted to say thanks. Arthur's probably going to be annoyed with you when you don't show up this morning, he was expecting you to go with him too, you know that, don't you?"

Lancelot's gaze was steady. "This is far more important, Merlin."

Merlin grinned, and glanced up automatically as they passed by Arthur's window, but then he had the shock of his life, the prince was at his open window and was probably only moments away from seeing them. Merlin's heart raced and he felt an incredible wave of dizziness wash over him, he stumbled and swayed, only staying on his feet thanks to Lancelot's quick reaction.

"Merlin!" Lancelot's exclamation of concern was too loud, the morning was still quiet and Merlin knew without a doubt Arthur would have heard.

He cringed, expecting to hear at any moment Arthur's angry shout demanding to know why he wasn't up there right now delivering his breakfast and getting his gear ready for their trip, but as the seconds passed it seemed he'd been given a reprieve. He leant unsteadily against Lancelot, grateful for his friend's support, his head was starting to spin.

Lancelot took in his pallor and increasing weakness. "By the look of you, we need to hurry." He swung Merlin's arm over his shoulder, and put his own arm around Merlin's waist, holding him up. They stumbled down to the stables, Merlin slumped down on the ground against the wall as Lancelot saddled one of the horses.

"Merlin, can you get up on Shadowmere?" Merlin didn't respond, his eyes were shut, his head lolling against the wall, and Lancelot cursed under his breath. "Merlin!"

Merlin's eyes flew open when his friend slapped him lightly on the cheek, his face confused for a moment. Lancelot didn't waste time, he pulled him upright, helping him clamber unsteadily onto the horse's back. Lancelot climbed up behind him and nudged the horse into a quick walk, picking up the pace as they headed out of the stables.

Lancelot was concerned, Merlin was slumped against him, and not making much of an effort to hold on. His breathing was laboured, Lancelot tightened his arm around his friend's waist as he kicked the horse into a faster gait as they neared the courtyard.

But that was when trouble struck, Lancelot turned automatically when he heard his name being called, only to see a cranky looking prince heading down the main steps at the entrance to the castle, and even from across the courtyard it was clear by the expression on his face and the short sharp strides he was taking, that Arthur was angry.

Merlin's groan of dismay at this turn of events was clearly audible, Arthur was bearing down on them, only yards away. The horse's hooves clattered on the cobblestones as Lancelot slowed the animal down, and then it was Merlin's turn to have his name yelled, the tone a clear command for them to stop.

But Lancelot's hesitation had vanished, he didn't give himself any time to think about the consequences, he twisted the reins and kicked the horse into a gallop, and they flew out through the gates, leaving a furious prince behind.

... continued soon ... :)