Love, Faith and Family

Chapter 46

(A/N: This is one of my favourite episodes...hope you enjoy. XxD)

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The goblin was apparently relentless, causing baldness of Uther's hair, flatulence in the ladies of the court and boils on the knight's faces, along with Arthur's donkey ears.

Oh, how Miriam wished she could've seen it all.

But she didn't, nor any other pranks the goblin had because Merlin found a way to expel the goblin from Gaius and trap it again.

Unfortunately, his genius plan included killing Gaius.

And in another stroke of genius thinking, Merlin and Gwen, who'd been hiding Merlin away from the guards, almost lost the antidote.

Gaius would've been dead had Miriam not arrived from healing the knights of their boils and plucked the correct bottle from the masses, not even needing to look hard as she'd been the one to mix both the poison and the antidote.

Merlin had then begged his sister to let him be the one to reverse Arthur's transformation so he could see his donkey ears. It honestly hadn't taken that much begging.

Now with the goblin locked away for good and Merlin pardoned, much to Morgana's dismay, Miriam really wished she could've seen Morgana's face when she found out Merlin was still alive, the kingdom was more or less back to normal.

Yet, Miriam knew something was about to happen. She'd gotten a feeling, but she wasn't able to tell if it was bad or good.

So, to be safe, she joined Arthur and Merlin on their usual hunt, using it as good practice for her archery skills that were actually developing quite nicely under Arthur's instruction. They'd caught several wild turkeys, dubbing the outing as successful when Arthur had spotted a tavern and decided that he wanted a nice cold tankard of mead.

So here they sat, Miriam and Merlin on one side of the bench and Arthur on the other as the barmaid approached them and wiped off the table.

"Afternoon. What will it be?" she asked, Arthur stuttering for an answer as he decided. "Mmm, you're a handsome fellow."

Arthur then chuckled, clearly very flattered as he smiled and said, "Well you wouldn't be the first to say it."

Merlin elbowed his sister who rolled her eyes.

Sometimes she didn't know what she saw in him.

"Oh no, sorry. I was talking about your friend here," the maid said as she turned to Merlin and Miriam elbowed her brother who smiled, even though a little uncomfortable. Arthur, however, was less than pleased.

"Him?" he questioned.

"Thank you," Merlin said with a rather cute smile.

"Three tankards of mead, please," Arthur grumbled, giving Merlin a look as his eyes followed the barmaid.

"I was wrong. Coming here was a great idea," Merlin said as Miriam laughed, uncaring about all the eyes of drunk men on her.

"My brother's a catch," she teased as their mead was served before a man burst into the room. "Oh, this is going to be fun," she muttered as she watched Arthur intervene after the man had held a knife to the barmaid's neck, demanding she give him more money.

"I'm going to make you pay for that," the man snarled as he stood.

"I'd like to see you try," Merlin chuckled as he brought his tankard to his lips, all eyes falling on him as Miriam's eyes widened.

And then walked in about 15 more men as he whistled, Miriam and Merlin standing, one in fear and one with a smirk on her face. They'd faced much worse odds than this.

"You had to open your big mouth, didn't you, Merlin?" Arthur scolded, realised how unarmed they were.

"You three have got yourselves in a bit of a pickle, haven't you?" a man with long brown hair said as he made his way over to them, offering Miriam a smile. She had to admit, he was rather handsome.

"You should get out of here while you have the chance," Arthur advised as the man raised a tankard to his lips.

"You're probably right," he said as he handed it to the man who threatened the barmaid before slugging him right in the nose.

Miriam's laugh was wicked as she threw herself at the men who ran at them.

A good thing about fighting men was that they always underestimated her, so she was knocking guys down left right and centre and was left without a scratch.

Merlin however found his way behind the bar as Arthur struggled to fight the ringleader, using his magic to throw out plates and jugs and even a bench.

The mysterious stranger on the other hand also ended up at the bar.

"Pass the jug," he said to Merlin who did, the stranger taking a swig before turning to nail someone in the nose again. "What do they call you then?" he asked.

"Merlin."

"Gwaine. Pleasure to meet you," he said as they shook hands, Merlin panicking as Gwaine turned around calmly and smashed the jug on someone's head. "Such a waste," he sighed before pointing over at Miriam. "Now what might be the name of that fine creature?" he asked as Miriam hopped onto a table before jumping off as she roundhouse kicked a guy out of the tavern door.

"That would be my sister, Miriam," Merlin answered and Gwaine grinned as he heard her laugh before kicking a man between his legs and then punching his face, drinking from his tankard that she took as he fell to the ground.

"Talk about a woman after my own heart," he grinned before he was pulled back into the fight and Merlin had to laugh at his new friend, but more specifically at how Arthur would react to Gwaine's fascination with his sister.

Speaking of Arthur, he was losing his fight with the ringleader as he drew the knife he threatened the barmaid with, only for Gwaine to tackle him to the floor.

The ringleader was unconscious, but Gwaine was still awake as he realised that the knife had gone through his leg, a leg that went out from under him, causing him to hit his head on the edge of a table and pass out.

"Mira!" Merlin called as the room stilled and Miriam walked back inside, having gone outside to terrorise the men who'd quit fighting.

"What?" she asked as she flipped her hair out of her face, looking to the floor where Merlin pointed to see the handsome stranger with a knife in his leg.

"How is he?" Arthur asked.

"It's not too deep," she said as she pulled out a length of bandage, she'd taken to keep with her and wrapped it carefully around the knife, staunching the worst of the blood flow. "But he's losing a lot of blood. Merlin, grab my saddlebag."

Merlin then ran out of the room.

"What's in your saddlebag?" Arthur asked.

"Medical supplies I've taken to always carry around whenever I'm with you or your knights," she said smugly to him as he gave her a look. "But it has enough supplies that I should be able to manage the bleeding and stop infection until we get to Camelot, and I can stitch it up properly."

And after doing that, they laid Gwaine over Arthur's horse as he addressed the people of the tavern.

They'd stuck the ringleader in the stocks, the people delighting in throwing food at him, especially after learning Arthur's identity as he promised to send help if he ever bothered them again.

And to Camelot they returned.