Stubborn Beasts (Neav)

[Deleted]

i walk across an empty land
i knew the pathway like the back of my hand

Merlin didn’t mind horses all that much. In fact, he liked them. Growing up in Ealdor, he had only had contact with a few broken-down nags, massive, but ancient beasts that pulled the plows with ribs protruding from their backs and barrels and one palfrey mare that had been set loose after an injury to her leg. Merlin was no great rider, but all the same, he enjoyed the company of horses.

What he didn’t enjoy as much was being made to exercise Arthur’s horses.

Honestly, he could have sworn that the beasts were even less bright than their master, and that was saying something. Usually, the only ones that Merlin got to were the destriers, the massive warhorses and he was not allowed to ride them. Instead, he was forced to pony the lumbering bastard from the horse he had been assigned, an animal that had perhaps once been a rouncey for an artisan, but who was now not even dignified enough for a errand boy, but—oh, Merlin had forgotten; he was lower on the Camelot totem pole then even the lowliest of errand boys. And to make matters even worst, the animal refused to lead, most of the time.

“Come on.” He coaxed, as his own horse slipped carefully down a slight incline, but the destrier remained stubbornly where he stood. “Come on.” Merlin repeated, this time through clenched teeth.

oh simple thing where have you gone
i'm getting old[er] i need something to rely on

WORD COUNT:
LISTENING TO:
LYRICS CREDIT: Somewhere Only We Know - Keane
NOTES:
TAGGED:

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[neav]

Sometimes, when there were a great many messages to be sent from Camelot, Neav was up-graded from stable-boy to messenger. He was even lent the clothes that went with the job - couldn't have a royal messenger looking like a street-urchin, after all.
Though Neav missed the horses while he was away, he loved the chance to do nothing but ride all day, as fast his mount would go. Best of all was the chance to speak to his chosen horse without anyone looking strangely at him or asking stupid, pointless questions about what he did.

This time he rode the grey mare Sheer Folly. Pure Arabian, she was delicate and fast and Neav loved to ride her. It had taken them two days to reach their destination, and after another day and a half of riding they were now almost home. Neav had removed Folly's bridle, though he would put it back on once Camelot was in sight. People would give him weird looks otherwise. They moved now at a slow walk; both boy and horse were tired. Neav guessed that even if they walked the whole rest of the way, they would reach Camelot before nightfall.

Suddenly the boy stiffened. So attuned to him, Folly lifted her head, also suddenly alert. There were horses near by. Neav had felt them rather than heard them, and in the strange way he could not explain he knew which two they were.
"Tempest..." he murmured, naming the Prince's dapple grey charger. "And Redberry?" Neav frowned. What would Tempest be doing in the company of Redberry? She was so old and tired, she should not really be out at all.

Neav coaxed Folly into a trot. He wanted to find out what was going on. As the Prince's personally stable-boy, he was fairly responsible for Tempest, and Redberry being out worried him...
Then he rounded a corner and saw the funniest thing.
At the top of a slight incline stood the tired old mare and the charger. Mounted on Redberry was Prince Arthur's manservent - Neav forgot his name for the moment - and Tempest was stubbornly refusing to move.
Neav let out a giggle. It looked so silly! Why on earth was Merlin (as Neav suddenly remembered him to be) not riding Tempest? He guessed that the servant was supposed to be excersing the great charger, but he would do it much better if he actually rode Tempest. The proud creature was objecting to follow such a horse as Redberry.

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[Deleted]

i walk across an empty land
i knew the pathway like the back of my hand

Merlin growled, his temper far from lost, but not exactly under control, either. He wasn’t the angry type, wasn’t the one to explode when things went terribly wrong, but he was starting to get irritated. What was the big deal with horses? Couldn’t you just press a button and they went? Couldn’t there just be some switch to flip? Wasn’t there was magic spell one could cast and…?

Right, magic.

Without hesitating to think of the impending conciquences, Merlin cast a furtive look around him, then raised his hand, aiming it in the general direction of the dirt beneath the destrier’s feet.

“Claochlaigh, bris.” He murmured. His eyes changed color, turning to an amber-gold color and he felt the familiar thrilling sensation in his stomach. Then the small bank that the destier had been standing on crumbled and the big horse sunk. Pulling his legs out of the ground, he resentfully lumbered after Merlin’s palfrey.

Merlin smiled gleefully with his job well-done. Moving his horse at a walk again, he felt smug. And Arthur thought he could do anything...
He would have continued merrily on his way, unaware that he had had an audience, but he turned his head to straighten out a crick in his neck and in so doing, he caught a glimpse of someone, standing on horse back not far from where he was. He froze and his mare took the excuse to come to a stop as well, which also brought the plodding warhorse to a halt as well. His heart rate quickened as slowly, he turned around to take a look at just what manner of peeping tom had thought to watch him perform magic.

oh simple thing where have you gone
i'm getting old[er] i need something to rely on

WORD COUNT: 289
LISTENING TO:
LYRICS CREDIT: Somewhere Only We Know - Keane
NOTES: Again, sorry for the wait. I've decided to write through muse problems.
TAGGED: Neav

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[neav]

Neav grinned, watching as Merlin tugged at the rope and Tempest stayed stubborn. He was just about to nudge his mare from the shelter of the trees and offer to help, when Merlin glanced about him and then raised his hand. Neav froze. If he hurts my horse...
He heard Merlin say something he did not understand and suddenly the earth began to crumble beneath Tempest's hooves. Neav stared in indignation as the stallion snorted, pulled his legs from the ground and moved forward. That man had just made his horse sink! Of course Tempest actually belonged to the Prince, but Neav thought of all the horses in the stables as his own.

The boy pushed his mare forward, meaning to confront Merlin - not because he had illegally used a spell, but because he had made Tempest sink into the ground. When somebody did something strange to any of his horses, Neav forgot that he was normally so shy he did not speak. He forgot that he was a stable-boy with no family, that everyone was bigger and stronger and more important than him.

Tempest pricked his ears in greeting, pawing the ground. He was so bored, he complained. Redberry gave a soft whinny.
Neav grinned at the two, then turned to glare at Merlin.
"You made my horse sink," he accused.
Neav did not think how strange he must look. A small, skinny boy on the back of a beautiful mare without a bridle, his stirrups crossed over the front of his saddle. With his fine but obviously borrowed messenger tunic and the bruise on his left cheek. (A parting gift from one of the grooms, though Neav had already forgotten what he had done to earn it.)
"Of course he is not going to follow Redberry like a foal! He's a war-horse. He's got his pride. You got no excuse to sink him like that!"

[Deleted]

i walk across an empty land
i knew the pathway like the back of my hand

Oh ----!

Merlin whirled around, the cuss words going off in his head again as he realized, with a sinking feeling of dread, that the boy had been watching him fire off his magical abilities. He shuddered, and automatically, his lanky form crumbled on horseback, as if trying to avoid some sort of blanket of doom that was closing in around him. A pink, fluffy blanket with bows on it, for those were the worse kind. His stomach sickening, he forced himself to turn back around and look at the boy, whom he recognized as a stableboy from Camelot.

Oh no...

"You made my horse sink."

He blinked. He'd made his horse sink. Merlin had been expecting something along the lines of, "You have magic! I'll have your head on a pike for this!", but, "you made my horse sink"?

It took Merlin a moment or two to remember that he was both riding and leading a horse, two separate horses, that was, and seeing that this boy was known to Camelot and they had to be familiar to each other, he was going to have play stupid, if he had any hope of getting out of this alive.

"Sink?" He repeated, slowly, as if he had never heard the word before. "Mare? Warhorse? Redberry? Sink?" He grinned stupidly and then did what he supposed would further indicate goodwill: he dropped his reins onto Redberry's neck.

oh simple thing where have you gone
i'm getting old[er] i need something to rely on

LYRICS CREDIT: Somewhere Only We Know - Keane

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[neav]

Neav stared, incredulous. That Merlin was repeating his words like a bewildered parrot! Surely he could not be as stupid as he sounded. Neav did not think Merlin could be so clever if he was riding Redberry while trying to lead a horse like Tempest, but he could not be a complete idiot. They never would have let him near the horses if he had been. Besides, he had used a spell! Idiots did not do magic either. Spells were very difficult things to learn.

Neav watched him drop his reins onto Redberry's neck. He had the sudden, wicked urge to ask the mare to throw him. She would have done it, and then Merlin would have been off with forest dirt on his stupid grinning face.
But Neav did not do it. Getting Redberry into trouble would only make him feel worse, after all. So he only glared, eyes like twin chits of ice.
"Don't pretend you don't know!" he cried. "You did magic and sank Tempest to make him move. You do that again and I will get Redberry to throw you and - and - and Tempest will bite you!" Neav finished triumphantly. He Normally he would never have dared to threaten such things. Not only was he being rude, he was also giving away the curious talents he had with the horses. But for someone to use a spell on his horses, even if it had not hurt them...! It made him flare with icy anger.

It did not cross his mind that he might be in danger. That he had seen the powers of a magician and could be killed out here for that knowledge. He did not think that Merlin might worry that Neav could betray him to the King.

[Deleted]

i walk across an empty land
i knew the pathway like the back of my hand

There was only so much playing stupid one could do with a child and Merlin knew it. With adults, he could at least attempt to rationalize. This became difficult around such people as Uther...and Arthur plain didn't count as an adult in his eyes. Children were like natural-born liar-detectors and Merlin knew how to lie extraordinarily well by now.

"I didn't!" Merlin insisted, but his heart wasn't in the fib this time. "I don't know how to do any magic! I..." But he felt the words die on his tongue, but admitting to magic...but he was a mere child, surely, the powers that be were more likely to believe an adult servant than a child servant. Besides, Merlin had sharp ears and he caught what the child had said.

"You'll get her to throw me? Wouldn't that be using magic on the horse herself?" He quipped, not-so-subtly edging away from the destrier, Tempest, if that was indeed his name.

oh simple thing where have you gone
i'm getting old[er] i need something to rely on

LYRICS CREDIT: Somewhere Only We Know - Keane

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[neav]

Neav stared. So this Merlin was not impossibly stupid, but seemed to think that he was stupid enough to believe his lies! It was pretty insulting, actually. Neav opened his mouth to say that there was no point in trying to trick him because he had seen Merlin do the magic and that he was not some stupid child to blindly believe everything that he was told.
But then Merlin's exuses trailed away, as though the man had figured this for himself.

But when he neatly changed Neav's threat to an acusation, the boy suddenly went pale. It had not been three days since he had learned of his strange magic and he was still getting used to the knowlage. Three days ago he would have said that of course it was not magic to get Redberry to throw him; that most people just did not know how to listen. But now was different.
And Merlin's words made him realise in a wave of understanding the danger he was in. He had discovered the Prince's manservant to be a magician. What if he were killed now for that knowlage? What if Merlin accuased him of magic? Neav had no doubt to which servant to be believed. He swallowed.

"Of course not. I don't do magic," he said, echoing Merlin's own words. But Neav never had been good at lying. "Besides," he continued, trying to cover up in rudeness. "Just because you can't tell the back end of a horse from the front does not mean everyone is so hopeless! They will listen to me because I know how to tell them." But the fear was now dancing through his eyes.

((Note: I am so so sorry about how long I did take to reply. You see I wrote my post some days ago and then deleted the whole thing by mistake. I was so annoyed to write it out all over again that I did not... until now. So I am sorry.))