Assisting Arthur

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin clanked down towards the training grounds, arms laden with Arthur's newly polished armour. He came to an abrupt stop in the ring of dusty ground where opponents would practice sparring.

"Arthur?" he yelled, dropping the heap of metal onto the ground, only narrowly missing his own feet! He knew Arthur would be here somewhere; he could normally be found in the training grounds at this time of day. Besides, his favorite horse was tied to the post near the weapon shed.
As Merlin watched two members of the cavalry galloping towards each other in the distance, he felt a pang of guilt realising he had forgotten to bring a soldier for the Prince to spar with as requested. Merlin just hadn't had time- what with his Guild duties, helping Gaius and... sleeping in all morning. He hoped Arthur wouldn't mind too much.

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

"And just where have you been Merlin?" Prince Arthur asked, striding towards him with his arms folded. Although the pair were firm friends nowadays, Arthur still liked to belittle Merlin in front of his noble friends and the army. It was just his way, and not all of it was pretense.

The training ground was full of his knights today, sparring and practicing stances, training their horses and every other army related activity you could think of. Several of the royal guards were there too, polishing armour or sharpening weapons. Arthur felt a great sense of pride as he watched them. They were his men and they fought not only for Camelot, but for him too.

He clapped Merlin on the back and bent down to his height.
"Just where is my sparring partner Merlin?" He asked as though he didn't know what had happened. Poor old Merlin would probably think him sincere. "And was it worth you polishing my armour today?" He sighed.
Merlin was loyal and trustworthy, but he was not a Knights servant. The armour which had been freshly polished was now laying in a heap at their feet, emitting clouds of dust each time it slipped.
He picked up a recently gleaming greave, which was now a dull grey colour, and brushed some of the dust off to show a slightly brighter grey.
"Merlin," Arthur said patiently, putting his arm round the boys shoulder and pulling him along to walk with him, "I am the Prince of Camelot. And as Prince of Camelot, people have certain...expectations of me. One of those expectations, is that my armour is polished and presentable!" He raised his voice at the end of the sentence, more for effect than anything else, and several nearby men glanced round.
"Prepare me for sparring." He said calmly, and tossed Merlin the greave.

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin jumped as he heard Arthur's voice, turning on the spot to see the Prince striding towards him. He smiled uneasily as Arthur questioned him about the whereabouts of his sparring partner.

"Well, you see, actually, it's quite a funny story... he was coming, but then, he sort of didn't and..." he trailed off, Arthur's interest had turned to his armour which was sprawled out like a collapsed knight on the dusty ground.

"Ah..." Merlin looked down at it, but before anything else could be said, Arthur had pulled him into an uncomfortable walking embrace; a strong arm around Merlin's shoulder, forcing him to walk almost doubled over, like some kind of gangly stork. Arthur spoke loudly, Merlin soon realised, for the benefit of the soldiers around him. He was right, people did hold certain expectations of the prince.

Pulling away, Merlin dropped dramatically to his knees flinging his arms outwards and, with a hint of a grin on his face, cried:
"Oh sire! Please forgive me! Next time, I will ensure that your armour will shine with the fire of a hundred suns, sparkle with the light of a thousand glowing stars, glitter with the brilliance of a million diam-- OUCH." Merlin was cut off as Arthur unexpectedly hurled a greave at him, hitting him on one of his rather prominent ears. Several of the soldiers who had stopped training to watch, snickered.

Merlin picked himself off of the ground, rubbing his bright red ear and scowling at Arthur. He picked up the Prince's heavy chain-mail, shaking it so it rattled like rain in an attempt to remove the dust.
"So, who are you going to spar against now?" he asked.

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

"You." Arthur said simply.
He went to the nearest weapon rack and pulled out a hand-and-a-half sword which was well balanced -and thus more suitable for someone less used to handling a sword- and held it out to Merlin.
He pulled his own sword from his waist, and using his foot to push his armour out of the way, stepped back, in a fighting stance he wouldn't normally use. It left him more open to rushed attacks than he would like, but with Merlin that wasn't particuarly important.

"Come on Merlin," He smirked, "Unless of course you're scared." It probably wasn't a good idea to taunt a magician. He did of course have a distinct advantage: He could use magic.
Arthur however knew that Merlin would not show him up, nor would he harm him and of course Arthur would not harm Merlin either. It was all a clever ruse (on Arthurs part) to show his guards that he could defeat everyone and everything.

[Merlin Emrys]

"M..me?" Merlin stammered in reply, eyes widening, "But Arthur, you know I can't..." he was cut off as Arthur thrust a sword toward him and Merlin jumped back with a girly scream, until he realised the sword was meant for him to use. He warily took it, eyeing it incredulously like a man who had never seen a sword before. Merlin had seen a lot of swords in his time, but he was always tending to them with a polishing cloth or a whet stone, never actually fighting with one.

Arthur took his stance, and Merlin gripped the sword tightly with both hands, partly because he found it heavy and in part because his palms were so sweaty, it felt like it would slip from his grip any second. He licked his lips which were suddenly very dry, as simultaneously, a taunt escaped from Arthur's.

"Come on Merlin...Unless of course you're scared."

Of course I'm scared! Merlin's thoughts raged inside his head, but he did not put them into words. It was his own fault for forgetting Arthur's sparring partner... that and he spotted some very attractive maids watching from the stands. Arthur probably wanted to show off infront of them, and his soldiers, who had now stopped training to watch the fight.

Merlin tried to copy the placement of Arthur's feet, bouncing up and down as he had seen soldiers do in a warm up before exercise.

"Are you sure you want to do this Arthur?" Merlin yelled to his friend, with a grimace more than a grin, "It's not going to look good when you're beaten by your servant!" he hoped Arthur would fall for his false confidence, although he doubted it. He swung the sword a bit, clammy in his hands, and waited for Arthur to make the first move...

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

Arthur laughed as Merlin attempted to copy his own footwork. Jumping up and down on his toes, he looked more like an excited puppy than a soldier, but then what did Arthur expect?

With a clever twist of his sword, which would have done nothing in an ordinary fight but leave him open to attacks, Arthur thrust his sword forwards and jabbed the air to the left of one of Merlins rather prominent ears.

"Watch out!" Arthur taunted, "It's hard to judge the size of those things." That caused an outburst of laughter from the Knights and Arthur shot Merlin an apologetic look- Maybe he was being too harsh again?

"Come on Merlin, I'm open now," He said holding his arms out either side of him, "Attack me." He hoped Merlin would not do any damage, but with Merlins skills with a sword- it could go either way.

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin yelped like a small dog as Arthur jabbed towards him with a sword. Far too slowly he swung his own sword across his body to block the attack, but Arthur had already moved back, and all Merlin achieved was the almost decapitation of his own nose.

"It's hard to judge the size of those things."

At this taunt and the laughter that followed, Merlin narrowed his eyes into a scowl. He resisted the urge to touch his ears and make sure they were still there, as Arthur's sword had been a bit too close for comfort!

After Arthur's following words, inviting an attack, Merlin retorted:
"Never mind my ears, your big head is target enough. Did you have your helmet custom made?" With these words he swung the sword with fully outstretched arms towards Arthur's torso, stumbling forwards as the weight and momentum of the weapon was greater than he'd anticipated, but managed to catch his footing before he fell entirely. If anything, his trip probably aided the attack, making it quicker and less predictable.

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

Big head? No, Arthur definitely wasn't being too hard on Merlin.
He laughed as Merlin taunted (despite his sudden dip in self esteem) and for the benefit of his Knights said,
"You better watch yoru place servant, you forget which one of us is skilled with the sword."

As Merlin stumbled at him, his arms outstretched and the blade pointed at him, Arthur was surprised. He only just avoided the tip, and it was more luck than anything- although he would never have admitted so.

Beginning to wonder if fighting Merlin to make himself look better was such a good idea, Arthur decided enough was enough. With a fancy twirl of his sword he brought it straight to Merlins throat, and with a laugh, sheathed it.
"I think I proved my point!" he said, holding out a hand for Merlins sword. "Now collect my armour."

As soon as they were away from the other Knights Arthur could let his pretence fall and they could go back to being friends, as they were in the privacy of the castle.