The Royal Scandal *Book One*

The Afanc S1 E3

💚 Edited-14.6.20 💚

As I left the castle, I overheard one of Father's and Arthur's conversations.

"Bring forward the execution to tonight," Father told Arthur to which he didn't respond. Even if he had, I'd already begun to run to Gaius'.

When I reached them, I pushed the door open and blurted out, "they've moved her execution to tonight. We have to prove Gwen's innocence."

"We're trying," Merlin said.

"Tell me what I can do to help," I said desperately.

"We need Arthur," Merlin said.

"Arthur?" I asked shocked.

"There's a monster, an afanc in the water supply. That's what's causing the plague," Merlin informed me.

"We must tell my Father," I said.

Merlin shook his head while Gaius said, "The afanc's a creature forged by magic. Telling Uther wouldn't save Gwen. He'd just blame her for conjuring it."

"So what are we to do? I asked.

"We need to destroy it. Then the plague will stop and Uther may see sense," Merlin said determined. He was pretty cute when he had that determined glimmer in his eyes.

"And that's why we need Arthur?" I asked.

"He's our best chance," Merlin said. "But he won't want to disobey the king."

"Leave that to me," I said, smirking and heading for the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hello, brother," I said, leaning against his door frame as he walked out of his closet. Lucky for me, I got to see him jump out of skin and have fun doing so.

"Jesus, Chelsea. What are you doing here?" He asked hand on his heart.

Time to come up with a lie.

"Father said that if we don't find a cure, he's going to send me away. He doesn't want me getting the illness so was going to send me off to be married to a random knight," I whispered sadly.

"What! No! You can't leave!" He exclaimed angrily.

"We need to find a cure then. But I can't find anyone who's willing to be a man and do it," I muttered.

"Well, you've clearly been looking in the wrong places," he said, straightening his armour.

"I know, I was just so worried about leaving and then finding this cure is proving to be difficult and I don't want to go," I lied persuasively.

"What can I do to help?" He said, grabbing my hands.

"Follow me," I said, pulling him out of his room and to the courtyard where we would be meeting Merlin. "There's this thing called an afanc."

"A what?"

"An afanc. It's basically this creature that is causing the plague. It's been living in the towns supply of water and we need to kill it to destroy the plague," I told him. "Do you have your sword?"

"Of course," he said, placing a hand over it and grasping it tightly.

By now we'd reached the courtyard and I saw Merlin waiting for us. He began to lead us to the underground water supply so Arthur got out his sword and we all rushed away.

As we went down, we all grabbed an open ended torch (some wood and fire).

"You'd better be right about this, Merlin," Arthur said doubtful.