First Slow, Then All At Once

Izusa

Merlin awoke from the sunlight peering onto his face. He felt very warm, and a bit constricted. He looked down to see what was holding him. They were arms? Merlin became a bit more self aware, and felt something rise and fall on his back. He looked over his shoulder, and saw Arthur's face, eyes shut, and lips parted slightly. Merlin realized that Arthur was holding him from behind. Merlin wiggled a little bit, but Arthur just squeezed harder. He sighed, and actually tried prying Arthur off of him. Gladly all the movement woke him up.

"Who's there?" Arthur asked dazed and tired.

"We need to set out again if we don't want to add an extra day to the trip. And I can't exactly move at the moment." Merlin said. He tugged on Arthur's shirt sleeve. Realization washed over Arthur, and he let go instantly.

"Sorry about that. Usually a pillow is there." Arthur apologized. Merlin got up.

"It's quite alright. It was cold last night." Merlin said. He gathered everything they laid out, and packed it up. Arthur feed the horses, and they set off again in silence.

All they heard was the trotting of the horses feet on the ground, and the occasional snort of them. Merlin used his vision to see ahead to make sure they were heading the right way. After a couple hours of riding, Merlin checked the path, and found a large tree in the middle of the clearing.

"It's straight ahead!" Merlin exclaimed excitedly. He pushed Night to run faster, and Arthur forced his horse to keep up.

They soon bursted into the meadow, and saw the tree.

"There it is." Arthur said, happy with himself. It was an enormously tall tree, with yellow bulbous fruits hanging down. They hopped off the horses, and Merlin turned to them.

"Don't run off. Just stay here in the meadow. Got it." He told the horses firmly. Night and Day both snorted in agreement, and Arthur and Merlin walked to the tree.

"Do you really expect them to stay here?" Arthur asked. Merlin nodded.

"I've cared for those horses entirely. We understand each other." Merlin said. They walked up to the tree and looked up. The fruits were there, but they were very high up.

"How will we ever reach the Quince? It's too high up." Arthur said concerned. Merlin looked up, and assessed the branches. They weren't too far apart from the other.

Merlin backed up quickly from the tree. Before Arthur could ask, Merlin took a running head start at the tree, jumped off the trunk, and grabbed onto a tree branch. He pulled himself up, and sat on the branch.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Arthur exclaimed.

"Climbing. You stay there and I will retrieve the fruit." Merlin told him. He stood on the branch, and started climbing up the sturdier ones. Soon Arthur could barely see Merlin.

"Be careful! I'm going to go get a bag!" Arthur yelled. He ran to the horses to retrieve an empty bag, and came back.

"I've got a bag for you!" Arthur yelled.

"Throw it up!" Merlin yelled.

"I can't throw it all the way up there!" Arthur argued.

"Damnit Arthur just throw it in the air!" Merlin argued back.

"Fine!" Arthur retorted. He threw the bag expecting it to fall back down, but instead it stayed in the air. Arthur watched as it levitated up around through the branches, to where Merlin was.

'Levitation. I forgot about that.' Arthur made a mental note. Merlin filled the bag with Quince, and be levitated the bag down to Arthur. Arthur already had another bag ready, so he threw it up in the air, and Merlin filled that one as well. They ran out of bags soon, so Arthur tried stuffing some of their belongings into another bag so they had one more. Once Merlin was done, he climbed back down.