𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑛𝑒 - 𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜 𝐶𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑡

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"Look, Milli ! That's Camelot, can you see it ?" exclaimed Merlin as the castle was clearly visible from the hills.

Millicent sighed and rolled her eyes. "How could I not see it ?" she replied wearily.

"That means we're almost there."

"Oh, I know that because you've been saying it over and over again for several leagues now," she said, turning to her brother, her look accusing and her tone reproachful. It was her way of telling him that he was annoying.

"The castle must be huge-"

"From what we can already see," Millicent added for him. He'd said it before. Twice. They'd seen the castle for a while. Now they could see the city gates, its edges, some of the roofs of the houses. The vision became clearer as the whole of Camelot drew closer.

"How grumpy you get when you're tired..." Merlin muttered with a little chuckle.

"I'm not..." She stopped suddenly and turned to her brother. Seeing the amused look on his face, she took a deep breath. "You know what ? You're making me tired."

He raised his eyebrows in response. Indeed. She really was grumpy.

"What if we ran to get there fast-" Merlin stopped talking as he felt his sister's murderous gaze on him. He glanced in her direction before cracking a goofy smile. "I'm only joking."

"I hope so." They resumed their journey when an idea struck the girl. "You seem to have a lot of energy today," she said to her brother.

"Oh yes, I've got energy to spare," the boy boasted proudly, not seeing the trap that awaited him.

That was all Millicent needed. She stopped and lifted her bag from her shoulders. "Here then." Merlin barely had time to turn before his sister's bag, which she had just thrown at him, hit him right in the chest. "This will tire you out," she added with a mischievous smile.

"You are exploiting me," the boy complained, though he kept the bag that had just been entrusted to him. He readjusted his grip on his sister's belongings and grumbled.

"I'm preparing you for what will probably happen to us when we get there," she joked, although there was some truth in her words.

At the moment, she and Merlin had an uncertain future. They didn't know what would happen to them once they got to Camelot. But one thing was certain, their daily lives would surely be very different from the ones they had in Ealdor.

He knew that they would both find paid work, and they wouldn't be complaining about it. They would take whatever came their way. It was bound to be something thankless, but hard work had never been a real concern given their former way of life in their village.

"I can just picture you mopping floors in taverns," Merlin began to tease gently.

Millicent imagined it and then a grimace appeared on his face. Working in a tavern ? Not for her. Coming into contact with people who drank too much too soon or too little too late and ending up serving certain customers whose hands would surely wander more than necessary. She wouldn't let that happen and she would be in trouble.

She shook her head, wiping the horrible image from her mind. "And you picking up horse droppings in the stables."

"Yes, well, the company of animals would certainly be more pleasant than that of drunkards," he continued to tease her with a sneer.

"I'd rather dip in beer than in-"

"Oh Millicent, don't be vulgar !" Merlin exclaimed with a burst of laughter that was as indignant as it was hilarious.

She raised her hands innocently to the sky and giggled. "You started it."

They looked at each other for a moment before laughing.

There was silence before Merlin spoke again. "I hope we can adjust to life in Camelot easily."

Millicent raised an eyebrow. Her brother's voice was a little higher than usual. Not like when he was lying, like when he had an idea in the back of his mind, or when he was venturing into dangerous territory. The brunette quickly realised that he was trying to broach a subject that she might not necessarily appreciate.

"Do you doubt it ?" she asked him without much conviction, more with the aim of continuing the conversation and seeing where Merlin was trying to take her. He and she were not very complicated. There was no reason why they shouldn't.

"The key to our living well in Camelot will be finding paid work," Merlin said, returning to the previous topic of conversation.

"Gaius has probably already thought of everything for you." Merlin shouldn't worry too much. « Their » journey had been planned for some time.

"Yes, since he knew I was coming." There they were. Millicent gave a discreet smile, almost amused by the situation. The way Merlin was trying to broach the subject of his unexpected addition to the journey was hardly subtle, but she said nothing.

"Are you worried that my presence will inconvenience him ?"

"No, I don't think so. But it would have been better if he had been warned before-" At the sound of her brother's moralising, Millicent sighed and rolled her eyes.

"You worry too much, Merlin. That's your problem." She cut him off, already running through a thousand scenarios in his head. "He's old, I think, so we'll just have to make him think that this was always planned and he's just forgotten or there's been a mistake."

Merlin looked at her, almost scandalised by her words. "You're really being dishonest."

"No, I'm simply avoiding unnecessary conversations for a result that will remain the same. Why get bogged down in details ? Might as well get straight to the point."

But Merlin didn't seem to want to drop the subject and tried a new approach. "It must be strange for our mother to find herself all alone..."

Millicent looked at her brother, then sighed, "She's known life alone before. She's known life without us, we're the ones who haven't known life without her, surely it won't do us any harm to depend only on ourselves. And neither will she..."

Millicent whispered her last words. Merlin did not hear them. To leave her mother alone in Ealdor. It was perhaps the only thing that could make the brunette feel guilty about leaving, but nothing could make her regret it. Deep down, though, she thought it might be a blessing in disguise.

Millicent was convinced that leaving would take a load off her mother. She didn't mention it to Merlin because he would protest, disagree and probably try to convince her that it wasn't true. He wouldn't be able to understand him the way she did. With the same distance she had.

Her mother had spent more of the last few weeks worrying than doing anything else. She'd done it all her life. Mostly for Merlin, usually, and when it wasn't for him, it was for her. But since the accident, it had changed. It was deeper. The kind of worry that's too negative, that's bad for a person's soul. The kind that eats you up inside. And this time, even though her mother denied it, Millicent knew she was mostly to blame. She didn't want this.

Perhaps if she moved away, the worry would go away and Millicent would take away everything that could be harmful in her mother's life. Hunith was, in her daughter's eyes, a perfect mother. She always had been, and had never made her feel anything other than love, but part of Millicent had always wondered. About the fact that they might have been a burden to her mother without her even realising it.

But Millicent didn't want to dwell on such thoughts, or spoil the general mood. "Besides, I'm sure she'd rather have me away from her with you than with her and you alone," she added to reassure Merlin, a wry smile on her face.

"What does that mean ?" Merlin huffed, not sure he liked the implications of her sentence.

"I don't know, you tell me," Millicent teased him.

"I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself," the boy protested boldly.

"Oh, you think so ?" his sister teased a little more.

"Of course I do !"

"You wouldn't last two days without me !"

"Whereas without me, you'd last as long as a cockroach."

Millicent thought for a second before accepting the remark. "Thank you."

"It wasn't meant as a compliment !" the boy pointed out incredulously. But her brother's horrified expression only added to her amusement.

But Merlin was not fooled by his sister's veiled attempts to distract him from the original subject. He cleared his throat. "What I meant was that your departure was rather unexpected. It wasn't like we left one after the other. We both left at the same time, so it's normal that I'm worried about our mother."

Yes, about their mother, of course... "Well, if you feel so bad, come home."

"Hey ! It was my journey, I remind you. You're the one who came."

Millicent, unlike Merlin, didn't jump in with both feet at Merlin's provocations and taunts. She ignored them with phlegm. "And why should you have the honour of being the first to leave ?"

"I was born before you," he reminded her.

Yes, Millicent didn't react easily to her brother's provocations. Not the way he did with her. In theory. But this. This, he knew, was something that particularly annoyed her.

She, who had been walking ahead of him for several minutes, suddenly turned to face him. "A few minutes doesn't count, Merlin !"

"Yes it does."

"No, it doesn't."

"If you had been born first, it would have mattered."

"Of course it would !"

"Hypocrite !"

Millicent turned again in annoyance and walked briskly away. Merlin thought how ridiculous she looked at that moment. He had to trot to catch up, the two bags were starting to weigh a lot.

Millicent let out an exasperated groan and rolled her eyes again before suddenly turning her head towards Merlin. Merlin swallowed as he felt his sister's piercing gaze. "Say all you have to say now. Then we'll speak no more. Once we've passed through the gates of Camelot, everything that happened before stays in Ealdor."

"Fine." He sighed. He seemed a little worried. "I'm glad you're here with me." Those little words were simple, but enough to calm her. "But if my leaving Ealdor makes sense, because we both know I never really found my place there, but you... It was the opposite."

Unexpectedly, Millicent hadn't interrupted him yet. She was listening. He couldn't read what she might have thought of what he was saying, but at least she wasn't closed off yet. So, since she was still receptive, he continued.

"Everyone in the village loved you."

"No, no one had a grudge against me," she corrected Merlin.

"Come on, Milli. Don't be a liar. You got on well with everyone. You had your own dynamic. You had your routine. You liked the way you were useful in the village." In your village, everyone contributed. Everyone participated in the life of Ealdor. And at the end of the day, when you went to bed exhausted, you were happy to know that you had helped.

"Even the children loved you." He added.

The brunette raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean, « even » the children ?"

"Don't take it badly. What I am trying to say is that you have found your place, unlike me. You had a boyfriend..."

"Okay, okay, I get it." Millicent cut him off. She didn't need him to go on listing the reasons why you should have stayed in Ealdor instead of leaving.

"Mother imagined you staying there forever. Only leaving the house to live with Williams after marriage." She choked up at the words.

Millicent looked at his brother as if he were mad. Marriage ? She shook her head slightly as she giggled nervously in disbelief. "Come on, Merlin, it wasn't that serious with William. You know Mother. She imagines things quickly. That's what mothers do. They extrapolate and put the cart before the horse. But marriage ? Seriously ? William and I have never even talked about it."

"Maybe, but if things hadn't changed, would you have left so easily ?"

She looked at him silently for a minute, not knowing what to say. Probably not. A lot of things would have been different. But one thing wouldn't have changed. One thing would have stayed the same no matter what.

Merlin saw his sister's face soften as her lips curved into a small smile.

"Listen, even if things hadn't changed, I would have come with you, Merlin. And leave you all alone out in the wild world ? Seriously, what an idea," she teased gently before becoming more serious. "William or not William. Boy or not. Nothing could have stopped me from coming with you." She insisted on that point. "I can't leave you alone. You're a social disaster." A soft chuckle accompanied her words.

Merlin rolled his eyes at being called « a social disaster », but he was clearly not annoyed. He knew it was somehow true. Even if he tried, he couldn't help but smile slightly, amused. He shook his head, faking annoyance.

"And no one, let alone a boy, could have separated me from you." It seemed important to his sister that he understood, so he nodded. The message was clear and Merlin would never suggest otherwise. Mostly because he knew Millicent wouldn't, but also because he knew she would be hurt and offended if he thought she would give up on him so easily.

Millicent sighed before adding with a half smile. "We're a team, remember ?"

Merlin chuckled. "Which means my problems are your problems," he finished, repeating what he had said to her the day they left Ealdor.

"And if I'm miles away, how can your problems be mine ?" He stretched out a smile, but suddenly he felt almost sad.

"Did you really leave Ealdor for me ?" he asked as guilt began to creep up on him.

"No, Merlin. It's for me." And even though she claimed that Merlin couldn't do without her, Millicent knew that as far as she was concerned, she couldn't do without him either. She didn't want to be separated from Merlin just yet.

"You know very well I had my own reasons for leaving." He felt genuine here in her words. She wasn't just saying that to make him feel better. And he understood exactly what she meant when she spoke of her reasons for leaving.

Merlin shook his hand negatively, making his disapproval clear. "You had no reason to leave." The brunette stopped immediately and turned to him. And the look she was giving him made it clear that the fact that he was extremely clumsy was no excuse for what he was about to say.

Merlin closed his eyes for a moment. Oh God, why did he never listen to her when she often told him to think before he spoke. He swallows, choosing his words carefully. "I mean... No one is blaming you, Millicent, so why are you blaming yourself ? It was an accident. You did the best you could. You couldn't have prevented it. No one wanted you to leave because of it. Ealdor remained your home even after that. William was there too, and did you see him leave the village ?"

The boy regretted his last sentence the moment it left his mouth. It was probably one too many.

"It's not the same Merlin."

"Yes, it is. I don't..."

"You don't understand." She cut him off suddenly. Her tone, hard and sharp. "That's the point." Her voice was louder, but she didn't shout. "You don't and you couldn't." Merlin opened his mouth to speak, but his sister took her statement before he could get a word out, making it clear that there was no place for conversation here. "I don't want to talk about it. I don't even want to hear about it, Merlin. Never again."

"I'm sorry." He murmured like a child. "I just..." He let his voice fade in the emptiness, knowing it was better not to make things worse by talking any more. He just wanted her to stop blaming herself, but it was as if the more people told her not to blame herself, the more she did. "Never mind." He finally gave up.

A heavy silence fell as they continued their journey.

They climbed one last hill. There were no trees around them and nothing to block their view. They felt a refreshing breeze blow through their hair. And in front of them was Camelot. They had a perfect view of the lower city, even though it looked like a mass of large shapes close together.

It was impressive, and you'd have to be shameless not to admit it. It was then that Millicent finally understood her brother's euphoria, excitement and impatience, and she shared it.

She turned her head to him and he grinned at her. He seemed proud that she was suddenly feeling what he was feeling. The brunette returned the smile.

Once they were down there, it would be as if nothing separated them from Camelot. All they had to do was walk straight ahead and they would be there. Millicent was far from sad that their journey was finally over.

She looked back at the town, then at her brother, then at the slope ahead of them. Suddenly she thought of the comment her brother had made to her earlier. She glanced in her direction and Merlin, too lost in his contemplation of the landscape, had not seen the small twinkle in her eye or the sly smirk on her lips.

Without warning, she tapped him on the shoulder and started running. "Last one down !"

Merlin was startled and didn't bother to understand before he ran off, cursing. "It's not fair ! I'm carrying the bags and you didn't tell me !"

Millicent was the first to reach the bottom, without much surprise. She almost twisted her ankle, but turned and stood proud and victorious on the slope as she watched her brother hurtle down. "And yes, life is terribly unfair !"

He nearly fell several times too, but miraculously made it to the bottom in one piece. He stopped short and let his sister's bag fall to the ground so he could bend over and lean on his knees to catch his breath.

He looked up at her. "I thought you were too tired ?"

"I said I didn't want to run, not that I was tired. And it was easy," she corrected him.

"Minimum effort, eh ?"

"Why should this be any different ?"

He muttered some unintelligible words between his teeth, probably a comment about how disloyal she was, but Millicent paid little attention. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow as he caught his breath. "I knew you were tougher than that."

"Do you know how much your bag weighs ?" the dark-haired man huffed. "And what have you put in it ?"

"Yes, because I've been carrying it for two days. And the bare minimum."

"Yes... I have my doubts." He was curious about what was in it. "And your back doesn't hurt ?" he wondered.

"No, because I'm not a wuss like you." The remark seemed to sting the boy. He gasped in indignation.

"Go on, I'll relieve you of your burden." She moved forward to pick up her bag, but just as she bent down to grab it, Merlin stopped her and straightened up. "No, it's all right, I don't need your help. I can carry it myself." Even if her helper here was to take back and carry what belonged to her. But if she could carry it, he would.

She rolled her eyes when she saw how proud this mule was. "If you insist." She stepped back and raised her hands as if to show that she would not touch the bag again - she had the impression he would jump on her neck if she gave him the insult of laying a finger on it - before straightening up.

They continued on through the trees and branches, Merlin in front. After minutes of pushing the branches back, he let go of one of them voluntarily, and it landed directly in his sister's face.

He stifled a laugh as he heard his sister scream behind his back. He offered her a false apology that did not fool Millicent. She wanted to lead the way, but Merlin refused, fearing she would retaliate by doing the same to him. After several minutes of pushing and shoving, they ended up walking side by side, bumping into each other because it was more practical to stay in single file in the middle of all those branches, but neither of them wanted to give up the idea of staying in front.

But this time, instead of being held back by the trees and bushes and getting hit in the face by another branch, there was nothing but emptiness around them. They turned to see that they had just left the narrow, wooded passage they had just taken, and when they looked ahead again, they realised that it was because they had just arrived.

The imposing gates of Camelot lay before them.

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I don't know what you think of the length of this chapter. Too long. Too short. I'm not sure how I feel about it myself. I just felt like I had to cut it right there. Anyway, let me know what you think.

The length of the chapters will vary because I'm not sticking to a word count per chapter, but more to the feeling. What I want to put in it, what I don't want to put in it and where I think it should end.

Btw I hope you enjoyed the chapter ! Uther, Morgana and Gaius will be in the next one 🤭🤭 Have a good day/night <3