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Merlin chuckled as Freya spoke. "I very much doubt it - you better hope for the best"he grinned. Perhaps he should back off a little and allow her to do what she wanted, well until she needed help anyway. "I won't - you know me, work, work work" he said, literally bouncing around and popping things into the pot that she had cut up.

"Anyway...i'd rather overwork myself than allow you to" he told her sternly, "I should be the one telling you to take it easy". That was one thing that women were always told with Freya's condition. To rest and take it easy until the baby arrived. No doubt that Freya wouldn't listen - she was far to independant to rely on him to do everything for her whilst she carried their child.

He stirred the stew as he started to bubble slowly. It was only now that he was getting hungry. All the excitement was certainly draining to say the least.

He saw her face change and then change again when he answered her question. Teasing? Him? Merlin smirked at her, "I've done worse" he shrugged innocently and reached for the jug of water on the table, to pour himself something to drink. It was only now he realised just how thirsty he was through all the excitement. He was hungry, but too happy to so much as eat anything at the moment.

Turning to Freya, he gave her a small smile. "Are you hungry?" he asked, "because you need to eat" Ok, he was soooooooooooooooo going to be one hell of a protective father when this baby arrived!, "In fact sit down, I'll get you something" he pulled up a chair for her and set about pottering around so as she wouldn't tire herself out. "and if you're cold or anything, just tell me and i'll throw some more logs onto the fire".

Oh yes, he was going to be such a pain in the ass for the next seven months.

He could see his mother's expression change slightly as she explained about what people might do to him if they found out about his talent. "But...why would they want to do anything to me because i'm different? I haven't exactly done anything to hurt them have I?" Yes he understood that there were people out there who would be scared of him, but to try and hurt him because of what he was?

Merlin saw her smile when she dismissed his statement about being scared of him. "I was never scared of you. I was very, very scared for you, but that is a completely different matter." He fiddled with his fingers as she spoke. "Did you...did you know what it was? When I first started to do...things" he mumbled slightly. He felt a little uneasy asking her all these questions, but never once had he asked in such depth, Merlin just thought that it was something he'd possessed since birth. "Does anyone else know about me? Apart from you and Will?"

So Gauis knew about gifts like the one that he had? That was a releif to know there was someone if ever his mother or he needed advice - despite him not having met the man. Merlin froze as his mother started to stumble over her words. He could tell what was coming - what could be coming. He looked up at her from where he was still playing with his fingers, a little hurt in his eyes.

"You want me to leave...don't you?"

He returned her hug with a tight one, smiling as she thanked him. At least that was something that had made her happy. "Merlin... there is something we need to talk about, though." That sentance alone made him freeze. Talk about what? The colour of the sky? Food? Bunnies and doggies? No, no...it wouldn't be any of those. He was worrying now - despite her protests earlier, perhaps he had done something wrong. "About what?" he asked quietly.

"You are such a good boy, Merlin,"

Merlin didn't like where this could be leading already. It was as though she was trying to break some horrifying news to him in the most gentle of ways. He pulled another stool up and sat opposite her, fiddling with his fingers as she spoke. "I know you have questions... about your... gift." He looked up at her at this - the firelight making his face brighter on one side, yet dark on the other. One side of hope and the other...of some kind of darkness with pain that was yet to fall on him?

What was she trying to say? To tell him. "No...I don't" he shook his head innocently, not really wanting her to carry on incase it happened to turn out to be something bad. He'd never raised any questions about his 'gift'. It had always been part of him since before he could talk. There really wasn't any explanation for it...was there?

"What's wrong?" he asked again, this time with a little more urgency in his voice. He had to know why she was acting so strangely, yet at the same time he really didn't want to.

He'd spent the morning doing the odd job around the house whilst his mother worked. Merlin did all that he could to help her. Getting firewood, sweeping, general cleaning - attempting to make dinner (most of the time it would end up going horribly wrong, and he'd resort to looking at the broom, which would thenmove to sweep up the bits.). Today was another day. Will had dragged him out to the wood
s earlier to help find wood for the fire, most of the time his best friend bantered on about how Merlin had it easy and could just make the logs appear back at his house without saying anything. That wasn't true. Merlin couldn't make anything appear or disappear just...move?

It was strange. All this life he'd been able to move things. To stop things falling...he'd never been able to explain it, and he was sure that his mother worried for him contantly. Merlin knew he was different from everyone else in the village, but he was never made to feel like an outsider - nor was he critisised for it. Only Will and his mother knew. This secret was kept from everyone else, despite the close-knit community. He'd never asked why or how he'd come to have this sort of 'gift' as his mother had put it. Merlin wasn't sure if he could even class it as that. All he knew that his mother said he was special, and that he was a little different from any normal person. Merlin knew he wasn't normal, and he never would be - but that hadn't stopped him from trying to lead a normal childhood, despite the strange occurances.

Now that he'd grown, he'd been able to control it a little more, being able to make things stop and move when he wanted them to. That was about as far as it went, whereas when he was younger, he would get upset if a jug suddenly spilt water over the floor for no reason, when he'd looked at it.

He had successfully made some stew for his mother when she returned. It wouldn't be long now. She seemed a little lost in her thoughts that morning, so Merlin had taken it upon himself to make her some supper and to have some freshly picked flowers waiting for her when she came home.

Chucking some more wood onto the fire, he pottered about for a while. With all the chores over for that day, now he could finally sit down for the evening.

Something caught Merlin's eye, where he'd been staring previously. Right from where Mordred's voice had come from. The boy was now making his presence known so it seemed. Merlin had no need to defend himself yet, but he kept his guards up all the same.

"I have not come here to fight Emrys. I am merely seeking answers and it is pure chance that I find you out here alone. So we may talk wizard to wizard."
Ok...That was certainly unexpected, then again Mordred had been raised with druids, and they were supposedly peaceful. He wasn't going to deny him.

"Alright..." he replied back in his mind, "What answers did you come to find?" he asked curiously. He had no idea what Mordred could possibly want with Camelot at this very time - the last he'd seen of him was when the boy threatened that he would pay. He'd done well to keep from Camelot for such a long time if that was his wish.

Then again he wasn't there to fight and neither was Merlin.

She was protesting now as he had ventured into the water after her. "Cold shmold!" he scoffed, "Besides, it makes it more easier for you" and that was all that mattered to him. What harm was a little dip in the lake anyway? No doubt Gauis would give him a look up and down when he returned, along with a "what on earth happened to you?!" statement. Merlin would lie and say he tripped over his own feet and just happened to be next to the lake. Gauis wouldn't buy it, but at least he'd give up on the subject.

Freya told him about the druids and their lives. "It must have been nice" he said, "for you to be free, to be who you are without anyone around you judging you - and to be able to just use it as you wished" Merlin wished he could do that more often, but with Arthur around the the whole little detail of magic being banned, he could only use it as and when he wanted to. One of these days though, Merlin would tell him - and when that time came he was going to make sure that he could show Arthur just how much magic could be used for better.

"I miss the way things were."

Even now Merlin was thinking of Ealdor, of Will. His best friend had taken his secret to the grave. Merlin missed him as Will seemed to be the only one who understood, plus they'd grown up together so they could hardly turn their backs on one another.

Merlin shifted a little in the water and looked down at the reflection. All he saw staring back at him was a 'chicken bone' with the weight of the world teetering on his shoulders. "I know...but even sometimes I think that Gauis doesn't give me enough. I don't want him to, but I would have thought that he would at least understand a bit more - seeing as he was the first person to know of my magic when I arrived in Camelot"

"We'll figure it out,"

"Mmmm" came the muffled sound of his voice from where it was currently pressed down on the tabletop. SEVEN MONTHS. He couldn't hate that number anymore than he did now. In fact Merlin didn't even know why he was freaking out so much, possibly the fact that this was REAL LIFE. It wasn't long in his book.

"It doesn't seem like a lot of time but I think we'll manage."

Babies, magic, magical babies....he'd relayed the same thoughts and coversations with himself over and over and over again. Nothing could prepare him for this, no matter how much or little time they had left. He needed to calm down - perhaps breathing would be a good idea. He looked up from his current resting place on the table and to Freya.
His mother? It was an idea. He'd already written to say that he'd left Camelot, but left the details of why, vague. She wouldn't have had an answer from Gauis as Merlin didn't even leave a note or anything. He'd thought it best to just slip away unnoticed.

He ran a hand through his hair. "I think it's time that I told her why I left Camelot" his eyes met Freya's, "after all...she needs to know, i've never really kept anything hidden from her...well, perhaps a few things but something this big? She'd never forgive me if I didn't tell her about it". Merlin loved his mother dearly, and hoped that she wouldn't think too badly of him for giving up everything he had worked towards for love. "I'll write to her..."

She couldn't wait and he knew that. He didn't her to go through anymore pain because of him - he caused enough before, and to see it again. Well, he didn't like it. Not one bit. It just made all the memories resurface. "You NEED to get back in the water" he stressed, "Remember how I told you that I would look after you?" he asked her, "well, this is me looking after you."

Wait...she'd been on shore before? It was dangerous for her now, she shouldn't be trying things like that. Then again, if she was confident and adament enough that she could do it then he had faith that she would become stronger within time. Merlin just didn't like the thought that air could possibly kill her, when he used it to keep himself alive. "You should have told me before..." he said quietly, "You should have told me that you were going to attempt to come ashore" his eyes met hers, "I would've helped." He felt his words become far more quiet, as though they were both sharing a secret.

"You must take care, though, on your journeys with Arthur. There is so much that you and the prince must still overcome and I fear for you."

Merlin pulled his knees up, wrapping his arms around them so as he was hugging them. He gave a small scoff at this, "Don't I know it..." a sigh escaped him. Everyone who knew about his gift seemed to expect him to be this great warlock who with Arthur united Albion, he felt very far from it lately.