Chapter Text
Camelot's children were privy to one terrible secret: the king's manservant, or maybe his personal advisor, as the adults were calling him, wasn't really human.
Well…
Merlin wasn't human at all.
He was weird, really weird. Eyes-glowing-in-the-dark and eating-rodents weird. Yeah. It could be pretty gross being his friend sometimes. But Merlin was always fun to be around. It was nice to have a grown-up on their side, who could show them hidden places or help them talk their way out of trouble.
(Oh, Merlin could be very scary sometimes. But they didn't mind scary if it meant he was protecting them.)
Merlin was Camelot's best-kept secret. Because the children didn't want to share and because they had learned early that some secrets were a matter of life and death
They knew how to keep quiet with their parents and with every adult around. And if one of them slipped? They just had to pretend it was a game they were playing. Children had such a wild imagination, after all.
So they spent their childhood like this: they ran and they played, they cried and they laughed. And every so often, they spent an afternoon with Merlin, the king's manservant, their weird grown-up friend.
By the time the king repealed the ban on magic, some of those children had reached adulthood. They had already learned not to fear magic but to cherish it as one of the wonders that had made their youth so bright.
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It had begun like this.
Molly had been running in the woods, trying to escape her dad for a few hours, after he’d beaten her so badly she couldn't see from her left eye anymore. She was used to it, especially since her mom died. And lately, she spent at least two days a week in the woods next to Camelot.
She had planned to spend her afternoon with the trees, animals and flowers as her only company. The woods weren't dangerous, not this close to the castle. And she knew them. She had spent her childhood walking between those trees with her mom, as she taught Molly which plants to use to make candles. Now, even when she didn't need any herb, the woods were always her refuge when she needed to escape her dad's alcohol-filled breath.
But then, she walked into a clearing, and she saw him. It was an adult. But he didn't have that distant indifference most adults have. No, he was crouched down, and he was looking at something — a flower or a bug — with a smile on his face.
Molly knew who he was. Everybody knew him. He looked young, but he had been living in Camelot since before Molly's birth. He was the king's manservant, always behind him whenever the king was in town.
And Molly's heart skipped a beat.
If the king's manservant was here, surely the king was too!
Was he hiding in a bush somewhere?
Oh no. Oh no, no, no!
Molly turned on her heels as fast as she could. She was too young for this! Thank you! It never boded well to meet a king in the woods! Molly was only an innocent little girl!
(She was the only one authorized to call herself 'innocent' or 'little'. Anybody else who had tried in the last few months had earned a broken nose or a broken tooth.)
What happened next was to be blamed on her swollen eye. You see, her foot met a stone, or a stone met her foot, she wasn't sure. And Molly went flying. But, sadly, little girls aren't meant to fly. And she crashed face first in the dirt, her self-esteem going down with her.
Molly sighed, defeated. Her day couldn't get any worse. Plus, the ground was kind of a nice place to rest a bit. At least she wouldn't be able to fall lower than that.
But then, she felt the world shifting around her. It was a strange feeling, like swallowing a frog or having your ears pop out of nowhere.
Molly raised her head from the ground, only to see a pair of boots a few inches from her nose. Oh! And there were legs coming out of those boots!
What had Molly done for deserving this?
The king's manservant was crouching right in front of her!
Was she going to die because she had disturbed the king?
Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Hi, are you alright?" The king's manservant whispered.
She blinked at him — with one eye.
“I'm Merlin, don't worry, I won't hurt you.” He added gently.
She doubted that. The man lived in the castle. And Molly was dirty and she had just bothered the king in one of his… walks?
Molly was never going to come back here again. If she was allowed to leave.
“It was a pretty harsh fall." The manservant looked at her left eye for a second, and he smiled at her. "I'm the physician's apprentice. I can help you if you want."
“I'm fine, I don't need any help."
"Then why are you still on the ground? Come on, up you go." He extended a hand towards her as he stood up.
She grabbed his hand and stumbled upward, but he kept her from falling a second time.
“Can I look at your face?”
She shrugged. “Yeah.”
"Good. Close your right eye. I'm going to touch your face, if that’s alright with you."
Her “Yeah.” was a bit more miserable this time. There was no way he believed she had hurt herself like that in her fall. But she didn't want another person sticking their nose into her life. She already had enough people gossiping about her and her dad in town.
Still, she closed her eye.
She felt him probing, muttering to himself, but she couldn't understand the words he was saying. Something pricked her skin. And Molly pictured herself rubbing her face with snow.
“Here, all good now.”
She opened her eyes.
Wow.
They were both working!
“What's your name?”
“Molly!” Molly giggled.
“Well then, Molly, I was collecting herbs for the Court Physician, do you want to give me a hand?”