The Touch of the Dorocha

Summary: Merlin experiences some side-effects from his encounter with the Dorocha and discovers something terrible.

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.

Author's Note: Finally, I have something ready to go again! I'm sorry, this has been languishing for so long. Thanks to everyone who completed my poll, I think it did help for me to see what people were more interested in reading. For everyone who voted for this, I hope it doesn't disappoint! I know it's no longer at the top of the poll, but it was when I made the effort to work on it! It's set during series 4 and I think it'll be around 3 chapters long, 2 is almost ready to go, 3...less so.

"I believe he's ill sire..." the servant answered to Arthur's frustrated query.

"Again?!" he exclaimed grumpily, with just a trace of concern.

The pale dawn light was filtering through the window and the King was less than happy about the fact that he was awake to see it. This nameless servant had woken him far too early; Merlin usually let him sleep later in the winter, at least until he had built the fire up. But apparently, his manservant was ill, yet again, and Arthur couldn't help but worry as he dragged himself out of bed, dismissing the other servant.

Merlin had been working for him for almost 5 years now and in that time he'd never been ill beyond a couple of minor colds that had caused more complaints than anything else. He had certainly never missed work. But now... this was the fourth time Merlin had fallen ill this winter and Arthur was beginning to get seriously concerned for his servant's health. He hadn't failed to notice that Gaius had insisted his ward wrap up warmer and that there was a fire in their grate far more frequently than previous years. Without pausing to think about it too much, he dressed quickly and grabbed the apple and bread roll off his plate before heading down to Gaius' chambers, munching his breakfast along the way.

When he arrived in the physician's rooms he was faced with a scene very similar to the last three times Merlin was ill. Gaius was at his workbench, brewing some sort of tonic or potion, sending Merlin concerned glances every so often. Merlin himself was curled up in Gaius' bed which had been moved closer to the fire. He was shuddering slightly under his blankets and his breathing sounded a bit laboured, but not as bad as it had at the worse of his last illness. That had scared the life out of Arthur, however hard he tried to convince himself otherwise. He had been honestly afraid that Merlin was dying.

"Sire!" Gaius exclaimed when he realised it was Arthur that had disturbed him. They both glanced at the bed as Merlin shifted restlessly, coughing, but not waking.

"How is he?" Arthur asked without preamble. With Merlin's earlier illnesses he had been much more reluctant to show his concern; putting off visiting the man and offering up half-hearted excuses when he finally had given in and checked up on Merlin. But by now, he had long gotten over his pride which was easily outweighed by his concern for his servant.

Gaius let out a sigh. "He's caught a chill sire, it has settled on his chest."

"Caught a chill? Again? How?" Arthur continued, moving over to Merlin's bedside.

"He was outside exercising your dogs yesterday wasn't he Sire?" Gaius asked.

"Yes he was," Arthur readily agreed, "but he was only out there for a couple of hours at most." Gaius looked set to interrupt, so Arthur hastily continued "...and I know from previous experience that Merlin is capable of going outside in winter without getting ill. He has demonstrated that fact perfectly well for the previous 4 winters that he's been in Camelot!" Gaius looked troubled, but said nothing. "Why is this winter different Gaius?! What's the matter with him?"

"I don't know Sire, it could just be bad luck..." Arthur couldn't help but scoff at this, typical Merlin. "Of course he's been lucky so far not to get ill." Gaius continued. "What with helping me with so many patients over the years - even I have fallen sick a few times. Perhaps it is merely catching up with him."

Arthur stared at Gaius intently, trying to tell if he truly thought that was the case. He was rather worried that it was something like that, but that the thing catching up with Merlin was years of being overworked and underappreciated.

He remembered well the lesson of many winters ago when he was a boy, and the woman that brought him his breakfast every morning had died from a fever. He had asked Gaius about it, suddenly noticing that many of the servants fell ill in the colder months.
"Peasants are far more likely to fall sick than nobles Sire, and are more likely to die from its effects." Gaius had explained. "They have a poorer quality of life... less food, more physical work from a young age, poorer cleanliness and colder housing. In general, they are not as healthy and therefore catch illnesses more easily."
Gaius had seemed amused, but somewhat pleased by his declaration that when he became King all the peasants could come and live in the castle and eat the food from the royal kitchens so nobody would fall sick. He had certainly believed in it wholeheartedly at the time.

Unfortunately, now that he was King he found that he had rather more pressing things to deal with, such as a hunt for a dangerous dragon egg and a narrowly-averted war with Caerlon.
But that didn't change the fact that there was an issue with the living conditions, and really the only peasant he had regular contact with, though it had been a long time since he'd thought of him as such, was Merlin. But thankfully Merlin had never given him any cause for concern...until now.

"Perhaps I should give him some time off, when he's well again." he said aloud. "See if some rest will help."

Gaius nodded unconvincingly. "You can certainly try my Lord, but I don't believe Merlin would be able to sit idle for long."

"No, you're probably right." he agreed, his mind already thinking up alternatives. There wasn't much he could do about the draughty little room his manservant slept in as Merlin had continuously turned down offers of proper servants' quarters near the royal chambers, preferring instead to stay close to Gaius. Arthur had already given the Merlin one of his old cloaks... could he make Merlin eat better food? Perhaps if he just...

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door, followed by the arrival of Guinevere, who was carrying a tray with a bowl of something steaming.

"Arthur!" she exclaimed, smiling at him. "Have you come to check on Merlin?"

"No! I was just... seeing where he was. He's late again!" he immediately denied. He may be willing to admit to himself that he was worried about Merlin, but he was hardly going to tell the rest of the world that...

Gaius frowned quite genuinely at this. "I do apologise Sire. I informed a servant that Merlin would be unable to serve you today, clearly he didn't pass the message on."

Oops. "Ah well no... yes... I did know... But... I was just here to check that it was true. And he wasn't hungover or anything."

Gwen frowned at him slightly, probably knowing damn well he was lying through his teeth. She set the tray down and took a seat next to the cot. He tried to justify himself. "I found it unbelievable that he's managed to get ill for the fourth time in 3 months and had to come and check."

"It is worrying..." Gwen replied, looking down at the man in the bed with concern. "He's never fallen ill much before..."

Gaius came over then, holding a vial containing a liquid that was a disgusting shade of yellow. "Help me wake him up. He needs to drink this and then have that broth to keep his strength up."

Waking Merlin was harder than it sounded, but after much shaking and a little shouting he finally stirred sluggishly.

"Merlin?" Gwen said sympathetically.

"Merlin wake up!" Arthur tried, a lot less sympathetically.

The man on the bed groaned and tried to turn away from them, sinking deeper into the blankets as he coughed weakly. "'s too early..." he mumbled.

"You're 2 hours late for work Merlin, it's not too early!"

It was quite comical really to see Merlin's eyes pop open after that. "Huh?" he exclaimed, struggling to sit up.

Gaius was on him immediately. "Drink this." he said, thrusting the vial towards Merlin as Gwen helped to prop him up.
Merlin seemed to realise then that he was ill and groaned again, but drank the tonic without question, suggesting to Arthur that he must feel pretty awful to willingly drink one of Gaius' concoctions.

"Now this!" Gaius snapped as Merlin tried to vanish under the blankets again.

He'd managed to get down about half of the broth, though it was a slow and painstaking process in between Merlin coughing and shivering. Finally he turned away and Gaius took pity on him. "Alright, that'll do."

With little more encouragement than that, Merlin had sank back down with his eyes shut. Within moments he was fast asleep again.

Arthur had been hovering nearby during all of this, but keeping out of the way; now he stepped forward. "Will he be alright?" he questioned Gaius.

"I think he will recover soon enough," the physician replied, sounding pleased. "It's nowhere near as bad as last time."
Arthur nodded and Gwen sighed with relief. "Thank goodness!"
"He'll need a couple of days rest," Gaius added, "but then he should be fine."

Yea, not a lot happening in this chapter! Like I said, chapter 2 is almost ready. Please take the time to review :-)