To the ends of the earth.

Chapter thirteen.

     Arthur had a long day already, many meetings with his knights, countless questions about anything that Gwen needed help on for the Yuletide. Which he wondered why she didn't ask Merlin, since he knew all his preferences but he got a quick reply of 'time out'.

     So he had decided to see what the fuzz was about with Gwen and asked a servant where he could find both his warlock and head of the house. They pointed to the banquet hall that was in full swing of getting transformed into the theme of Yuletide in two months.

     Which was in full swing of getting the room entirely fixed, since some high up windows had suffered damage from a storm three weeks ago. There was a part of the floor that needed fixing from the same storm since a couple of shingles had been blown off. It was the worst storm that Arthur could remember ever hitting the castle in all of his life.

     Some wooden wall paneling needs repainting and Gwen was overseeing all of it with Geoffrey by her side to keep the records of when something got renovated and what it had cost.

     The guards open the doors for him and for a split second, all the people in the room came to a halt- apart from Gwen, Geoffrey, Leon and Merlin. Who had been banished to the chair with Leon having his hand on his shoulder. It's not an uncommon situation for Merlin to be banished into a chair with either Lancelot or Leon enforcing their hand on his shoulder to keep him there.

     Arthur hates and loves Merlin's new found mobility, apart from the fact that he walks with a cane and can't take the stairs yet. It hadn't stopped the warlock. If anything, he had embraced the new laws on free magic reign, he used magic spells to improve his stamina or strength for a short period of time. After that, he would need to take an afternoon long nap.

     But with Merlin's new found mobility, also comes, disappearing warlocks. It warmed his heart that Merlin is more free to do as he pleases, Gaius had warned that he wasn't up to health yet and shouldn't be alone at any time. Hence why Merlin was banished to the chair on many occasions. Not that Merlin was fast, but if you gave him ten seconds by being distracted by something, he could just disappear on you. It had happened a lot.

     It happened mostly on Gwaine's watch. But that's because after the first two days, he had heard all of Gwaine's tavern stories and wanted to drag the warlock there at any given moment. In the knight's eyes, that sounded like good entertainment for the two while Merlin had the strict order from Gaius no alcohol as long as he was getting heavy sleeping draughts for his nightmares. It would make him too drunk too quickly.

     Leon and Lancelot just had Merlin have his own fun, as long as they could tag along for his own safety. If he wanted to go to the lower town with a children book to read to the kids- because can you blame his boredom? They would just come along, same with anywhere within the city or outside. But if he wanted to go out of the city, they would make Merlin sit on a horse, otherwise his stamina wouldn't get him beyond the city walls.

     While Percival and Elyan were a bit more careful with Merlin. Not that they thought him fragile, but they rather liked to go play a game of chess or get an entire group of new knights in the room to gamble with. It was a lot of fun and Merlin got to know the new knights a lot better. Mostly the new knight Timmy, a very determined boy that would see the safety of the kingdom before his own health.

     Timmy had gotten to know the warlock and vice versa. Merlin promised to teach him a thing or two in magic, which led quickly to the young knight being one of the few to be alone with Merlin. He got to 'babysit' merlin in the words of Gwaine. But really, it just ended up in afternoon long magic lessons. Magic book being given to the boy with strict instructions to keep it save and tact.