Lily sat down in her rocking chair. Her hand was resting on her tiny belly as she focused on the men down her window. Arthur was practicing his dueling techniques. His shirt was rolled up and the sun was doing its miracles as his laughter filled the area. The whole scenery brought a smile to her face. She remembered the first time Arthur had learnt her how to sword fight. How gentle and encouraging he was. But her mind always wandered of to the person who had kept an eye on them during the entire exercise.

Lily tried to forget about Peter, but she couldn't. She had stopped believing she ever would. After all, she had promised him an eternity. Sighing, she circled her beginning tummy and kept wondering. What would Peter be doing right now? She shook her head in an attempt to get her thoughts straight. He had killed her father, he had haunted her in her sleep, had demanded her to make a choice. He deserved to not be a part of her life any more.

That's what she told herself everyday. The truth was: she missed him. She missed everything about him. Deep inside, Lily knew Peter wasn't a bad guy. He just made bad choices...

As memories tore her apart deep inside, a knock gave her a welcome distraction. After she had granted entrance, Merlin entered. « Good morning, Princess. How are we feeling today? » He put his bag on her bed and stalked towards her. « I wasn't that ill this night, I cannot complain. » Lily laid her head back as Merlin ran his usual tests. Arthur assured her it was the best if they wanted their child to be healthy to have Merlin keep a close eye on her. She knew he was right, but deep down it felt as if he thought she was to weak to carry a child. Calmly she let Merlin observe her stomach, measure her temperature and describe her diet for the week.

« Will he be a lot stronger than I am? » Lily asked as Merlin returned his instruments to the bag. Merlin smiled friendly. « You are already very strong, Princess, but everybody has their limits. » Merlin sat down on the chair next to her. « From what I can tell at the moment, he will be a true joy. A little curious, but we all know where he would get that from. » He playfully winked. « And incredibly loyal. » He finally added. Lily couldn't be more pleased. The way Merlin described her son, he truly was a gift.

As she thought about what Merlin said, his young apprentice made an appearance in her thoughts once more, driving Lily to ask the old wizard a question she had been dying to ask ever since she had gone back to normal. « Merlin, I was wondering... How come you use your magic for good things like figuring out what kind of person my son will be, whilst Peter... » She didn't have to finish her sentence for the wizard to understand it. He looked at her with sympathy in his matte blue eyes. « Are you still thinking about the boy, dear Princess? »

Lily rested against the chair. « Not in the way you're thinking... » She was lying. « But more out of curiosity. You have been helping me with your magic, and I can assure you Peter did as well, but at the end... He got lost in it. »

Merlin rested back as well, contemplating his thoughts. When he opened his eyes and looked at the young princess, he could barely believe what he was going to say. « Dear Princess. I will explain to you a bit about myself. I do not to this often, so I rely on your fidelity. I believe that you will understand the world a bit more after this. » Lily's eyes sparked with curiosity, a trait Merlin knew Peter was so fond of as he had been describing the girls' eyes every now and then when he talked about his vision. The thought stung his old beaten heart.

« When I was younger,... » he sighed. « I used to be very adventurous and a little know it all. I still know it all, but I don't brag about it any more. » He tried to joke. « Either way, I worked for a King of a wealthy kingdom, around that time. He was very powerful, and nobody knew his weakness. Except for me. I knew because I helped him hide his only secret. And a dark one it was. His son,... His son was a monster. A true malicious monster. I had never seen anything so beastly in a human being. Although, you could barely call him human. » Lily watched him thoughtfully.

« I used my magic to help him hide this monstrosity of a son. We created a giant maze where only I knew how to get through. We couldn't kill the boy, though that would've been a much more honorable thing to do than to send him to a life of solitude. The King still loved the kid and couldn't bear the thought of murdering his own son. So we continued to create the maze with my magic. It was magnificent, I tell you that. But as the boy grew up, it became more clear of how big of a cruelty he was. He no longer ate the normal dinners we provided him with. He only reacted to raw meat... And later in the process, we would send living animals into the maze to still his hunger. But after a while, these animals were killed but never consumed. »

Lily listened horrified. Her hands were covering her mouth though she didn't notice. « I was the one who suggested the King to use slaves... » The old wizard dropped down his head. « I became obsessed with the monster. I didn't see that we were crossing the limits. We had already done terrible things, when I decided to send a slave in the maze, without the King's approval. An innocent girl...» The wizard closed his eyes and tried to ban out bad memories. « I heard her scream, I heard every detail of the beast's feast... And that's when my King decided I had created the Monster his son was. And it was true. I was the first one to offer him human beings to fulfill all his desires. Sacrificing other people's lives, for what? A monster hiding in a maze! » Merlin yelled out. Lily sat back in her chair watching him in horror.

« The King punished me... He sure did. » If you didn't knew Merlin you would tell his smile was the one of a lunatic, but it was one of deep sadness. « He send me and my son in the maze, locked us up in my own creation. » Merlin stared out of the window and up to the sun. « But I was going to escape... No King could tell me what to do. So I made a spell to create wings for me and my boy. » His eyes were hiding the old man's tears. « He was so happy when he saw them for the first time... » A smile sank down as his memories continued. « We flew away, high out of the maze. I thought I had everything under control. I was a bit overwhelmed by my own succes. For as far as I knew, I was the first one to make wings for humans. But this was my second mistake after agreeing to the creation of the maze... I was too sure of myself, tumbling down the wind, my son in front of me. When the wind twirls through my tower I can still hear him laughing. » The wizard looked down at his old hands. « It's too bad he had adopted my self secure look on the world...He fell down. My poor young boy... His wings just melted away, I couldn't control them any longer though I tried so hard. We had lost too much time playing around, thinking we were gods. I had tried to defeat nature. I flew right after him as he made his drop to the ocean. He cried and screamed and tried to get a hold of something, anything. But I was too far, I couldn't help. I tried with all I had to catch him with magic, but I couldn't. I had reached the limits of my powers. I was helpless as I watched him fall to his death. Every day when the sun rises, I'm reminded of that awful day. » Merlin didn't blink as he looked up.

« What I'm trying to say, Princess... Magic comes with temptation. It creates great opportunities but great responsibilities as well. You think I'm a good guy, because you don't know my past. But the truth is, nobody is truly good and nobody is truly bad. We're all somewhere in between and the balance is defined by our choices.

Peter has made the choice to give up the fight for balance, surrendering himself to the darkness. That was a choice he made which led him to the outer end of the balance. I can't promise anything for the future of Peter, but in a wizard's life there's a turning point which leads him to a side. Every mistake guides you your way. For me the death of my son was the point of no return. I had to leave the past behind me and act wisely... for my son. But for Peter... I'm not sure if he has already reached his point of return or if he will never experience that... All magic comes with a prize, Princess. And I assure you Peter will pay his prize just like the rest of us. Those who chose to use their magic for good will be rewarded by losing the burden of the past. But those who don't chose at all, ... faith has an awful way to make us. »

The wizard stood up and smoothened his robes. « Don't break your head about the boy, Princess. There's a reason he remained in the past. » He made his way towards the door before Lily stopped him. « You never told me the name of your son, Merlin. »

The wizard smiled sadly, before pulling open the door. « Icarus. His name was Icarus. »

Quote

I think I love the ocean

because it's calm, beautiful, infinite

but also angry, harsh and magnificent

and that intrigues me

- C.B.

A/N

I felt like I needed to explain a bit more about Merlin. He's pictured as the good guy throughout the entire story, but he has had a bit of a tumultuous life before,filled with bad choices. I tried to capture a bit of the Once Upon a Time story telling way, like the first season of the series.

As said before, I'm going to ask some questions on which I would like an honest answer. If you don't want to answer, no one forces you and every answer will be treated with the same respect even when it's a negative comment.

So here we go:

1. How did you find Enchanted? Did you first read Everland or on the recommendations? How did you notice this story?

2. What made you read this story? 

3. If you were to give it a number from 1 (bad) to 10 (great) how much would you give?

4. What mysteries/questions were you left with after the Peter Pan Season in OUAT the Series or in Everland?

5. What do you think of the character development throughout the two books? 

Thank you if you take time to post your comments down below. If you like it, don't hesitate to vote as well :)