I'm Still Here (Merlin)

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Who was this Gandalf?
 
That was the thought that had been going through his mind for the past few days now, haunting him and annoying him, just a little. He had heard the name throughout the school for a while and had seen the man from afar, however it wasn’t until recently that the man had really entered his radar. Mostly because one of his students simply wouldn’t stop mentioning him in conversation, and apparently, on further investigation a few of his own magic students had been speaking with the wizard.
 
He had a good mind to knock on the mans door and inform him of just who was the magic teacher around here. The thing was, he didn’t really care about any of the other students, oh sure he cared about their knowledge and improvement, but a second teacher to help was beneficial, they would get even more support and hopefully thrive under the tutelage of two great wizards (if such rumours were to be believed).
 
However Merlin was a different case.
 
Merlin wasn’t just a wizard, some other aspiring magic user, he was a future Dragon Lord…and that was something special.
 
True Balinor hadn’t exactly been ‘nurturing’ the nicest possible way, but it was working. And he would be damned if some other wizard thought he could just swoop in and steal his student.
 
Which was why Balinor now found himself arriving at Merlin’s flat that he shared with Gwen, letting himself in and then attempting to locate Merlin’s room. He had to negotiate some large piles of books which had clearly been set as booby traps before whisking the covers away from the sleeping warlock with a, “Rise and shine Merlin! Time to greet the morning!”

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin was having a lovely dream, it was one of those strangely confused ones and currently involved cream cake, a white horse and Arthur playing a trumpet, but it was fun and pleasant and enjoyable and he was vaguely aware of the warmth and comfort of his bed - until all of a sudden he was plunged back into reality and his covers had been yanked off.

He reached for them blearily before realising that somebody had spoken, that he wasn't alone in his room. He spared a random, wild moment of gratefulness that he actually slept clothed, immediately followed by a flash of embarrassment that he was wearing one of Arthur's shirts to bed, until he realised that nobody would know whose shirt it was, unless the person waking him up was Arthur, and he imagined the prince probably wouldn't mind. It wasn't Arthur's voice he had heard, however.

Of course, this begged the question of who exactly was waking him up, and Merlin finally looked up with utter confusion at his magic teacher, fighting back a yawn as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

"Balinor? What... what?"

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Balinor was equally happy that the boy was still fully dressed underneath the covers and hadn’t considered that possibility at all, however if he had, then he would be happy. There were parts of his students he just didn’t need to see. Folding the covers up and dropping them to the floor so they were out of reach of the bleary eyed boy he said, “I said Rise and Shine! Lessons are starting early this morning and are extremely exclusive.”

Crossing over to the boys wardrobe he pulled it open to find far more clothes than he ever expected to see. It would be the princesses doing most likely and he rolled his eyes as he looked for anything that looked warm and sturdy, muttering, “ye gods, not even Cormac has this much crap.”

Pulling out a blue shirt and a red scarf he threw them over to Merlin, closely followed by a sturdy looking brown jacket. Crossing back to the door, his long brown leather coat flowing out behind him, he said, “Put that on and a decent pair of trousers. And boots, make sure you’re wearing boots.”

With that he closed the door and made himself comfortable in the living room.

[Merlin Emrys]

It took Merlin a very long moment to even process what Balinor had said, let alone to decipher the meaning behind those words. Lessons? Early? Exclusive? Boots? By the time his brain decided to join him in the land of the waking, his clothes had already been thrown at him and Balinor was leaving. Confused but mostly on auto-pilot, Merlin began to dress, noticing with some amusement that Balinor had managed to grab his usual outfit - something he hadn't much worn since coming here to Tintagel, what with Gwen dictating the majority of his clothes these days. Still, the old clothes were comfortable and familiar and incredibly welcome in his sleepy confusion.

Tugging on his boots as instructed, he stumbled into the living room fighting back another yawn and running a hand through his bedhead.

"What are you doing here? Are we going somewhere?" As his faculties began to return to him, he was starting to understand what Balinor meant by 'exclusive', because unless they were going to drag any other classmates from their beds, this was something that involved just the two of them. Something to do with magic, but not on the usual lesson plan.

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Balinor stood as the young boy came stumbling in to the living room and said, “yes we are going somewhere, and I thought I made it perfectly clear why I was here. You are about to receive a private tutorial Merlin, I would make the most of it.”

Crossing to the front door he opened it and walked out into the hallway, not looking back to check that Merlin was following him. Despite the early morning he didn’t seem to think he should lower his voice at all and said over his shoulder to the boy, “That is unless you would prefer to have more lessons with that new wizard. Gandalf is it? I’m sure there is much he can teach you since he is the magic teacher-…oh wait my mistake. That’s me.”

He didn’t bother attempting to remove the jealousy from his tone, the wizard was stepping on his turf and Balinor didn’t like it. That’s what happened when you messed with a grumpy old man. As he walked out the front door to the block of flats into the crisp morning air he said, “and you’ve been playing a few cards close the chest. Want to tell me what a boy who can do magic is doing hanging around his royal highness Prince Arthur?”

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin held back from protesting that it was a little difficult to make the most of anything when he was still half asleep, and that as soon as he woke up he'd be fully appreciative of whatever was about to happen. He thought it was probably wise not to be ungrateful or grouchy - however much he wanted to be - in case Balinor changed his mind. Now that he actually had been woken up, he wanted very much to see what it was that he'd been woken up for.

"...are you jealous?" Merlin asked, his early morning capacity for tact having been used up keeping him from whining about being awake "he does a different kind of magic to what you do, I like to know about how it works in all the different worlds, even if I can only do it our way." he explained, in an attempt to mollify the disgruntled teacher. He honestly hadn't realised Balinor would be offended by his attempts to learn.

"What?" his reaction to the man's next words was startled, confused "I wasn't...I... I wasn't playing cards, I wasn't hiding anything, he just didn't come up in conversation is all..." he trailed off. How exactly did he explain what he was doing hanging around with Arthur? Probably best to tell Balinor he was Arthur's manservant and leave it at that, their real relationship was a little too complex for this hour.

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Of course the boy just wanted to learn, Balinor knew that he just didn’t want to come to terms with it. He was the magic teacher, thus the students should be training with him, he couldn’t help it, he just felt like the students of his advanced magic class should answer to him and him alone. He couldn’t stop Merlin of course, that as the problem, eh wanted the boy to have a choice and who was Balinor to impede his learning. Still. It annoyed him. Rather than reply he simply glared at Merlin before turning back to look in the direction they were heading.

Walking down all the twisting streets and lanes he was taking them towards the forest, something that was apparent as they turned the next corner, revealing the trees.

“Didn’t come up in conversation,” he said before adding, “pah!” storming off a little more he continued, “He’s a Pendragon, what’s more he is the son of Uther Pendragon a man who has killed many of our kind Merlin. And you are what I can only describe as bosom buddies with his one and only son? His heir?”

Rounding on Merlin and stopping in his tracks he said in a low angry voice, “Guinevere says you’re very close. Best friends. That is a very dangerous place for a wizard to be with someone like Arthur Pendragon. Have you completely lost your mind?!”

[Merlin Emrys]

Normally, one of Balinor's glares would have him panicking, wondering what he'd done wrong and how he could fix it, because he desperately wanted the teacher to be proud of him. That particular glare, however, had him fighting back a laugh - it was pretty obvious that Balinor was jealous, and that actually made Merlin feel quite good. It wasn't often anybody got possessive over him, for whatever reason, and it was quite an ego boost.

"Look it's not- It wasn't-" Merlin babbled for a moment, taken aback by the ferocity. Yes, he understood that Balinor didn't like Uther, and he definitely understood why, but Balinor had never even met Arthur, and surely Gwen hadn't said anything bad about him? ...Well, nothing too bad.

"I'm Arthur's manservant, I sort of have to be around him, and actually it's a good thing that we became friends because it's much better than keeping my distance," he explained, getting a little heated himself, "he's not like his father, and being here has helped that even more, he's seen the good side of magic, he knows it's not inherently evil. Being friends" - or lovers - "with someone who can do magic means he gets to see a wizard as a person, and he's more understanding because of it."

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Balinor tried to listen to the boy but he simply couldn’t, he just didn’t understand how someone who did magic could become friends with the son of such a person. “The apple never falls too far from the tree Merlin,” he said angrily, “this boy may not seem to be much like his father now but wait until his father calls on him. Wait till he returns home and his father expects certain things from him. You will find that his love of magic will disappear quite quickly, and then…then you will be in a very dangerous position.”

Beginning to enter the forest he continued, “never underestimate a fathers influence. Right now he can appear to be rebellious and yes, he may even think the way you say he does at the moment. But that can all change from one statement from a father, especially from a man like Uther. Do not put your trust in Pendragons Merlin, they are hardwired to betray.”

Entering the clearing he looked up and smiled, his body relaxing after the stressful conversation and motioning to the two large creatures that stood there he said to Merlin, “put your trust in real dragons.”

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin listened to everything Balinor was saying with increasing irritation. He had a lot of respect for the magic teacher, but it was starting to wane just a little bit with this tirade against Arthur. He wasn't sure what was more annoying, the words themselves or the fact that he couldn't properly explain why he knew Arthur was different. It was true that Uther probably had a lot of influence over his son, and yes Arthur may have trouble trying to argue the case with his father, trying to convince him to go easier on magic users, but it wasn't Arthur's fault that he wouldn't be able to change Uther's mind, and Merlin was certain that things would change when Arthur was king.

"Well I wouldn't know anything about a father's influence, I don't have one," he snapped, "you don't know anything about Arthur, he-" everything he was about to say just fell away, and even though he was still angry at Balinor and he was sure he'd remember that later, right now he couldn't do anything but stare at the creatures that were standing in the clearing.

"...are they going to moan at me about destiny?" was the most intelligent thing he could come up with to say.

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Balinor gave Merlin a confused look before laughing a little, placing a hand on his shoulders. “No these are not like Kilgarrah, they have no foresight and speak in less riddles. I am guessing that he speaks in just as many riddles as he did when I knew him…you should listen to him though…he knows these things…”

He looked a little forlorn at that last bit but shook his head and the smile was back in place as he looked at these dragons. “Besides, unless you know old Norse then you won’t get much of a conversation out of these two.”

The two dragons looked docile enough and looked down at the two men curiously. “The first thing you need to know Merlin, something I think you already understand, is that Dragon’s are in many ways just like us. They think, they love, they learn and above all they simply wish to be respected,” said Balinor moving closer to the dragons.

He looked up at them and spoke in an odd language, his eyes glowing. The dragons looked like they were listening intently. When Balinor was finished the two dragons lowered their heads and the rest of their bodies until they were flat on the ground. Balinor grinned and motioned to the dragon on the left saying, “right, get on.”

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin was momentarily startled when Balinor actually understood what he was talking about - technically he knew that the older man had met the dragon in Camelot, and that he should have expected him to get what he meant, but it was just so rare that anybody did.

"I would listen to him," he said when he got over his surprise "if I could understand a bloody word he said."
He knew that Kilgharrah gave good advice, he just wished the dragon would be a little more straightforward about it, instead of being all cryptic and then scolding him afterwards when he got things wrong.

The person he did intend to listen to, cryptic or not, was Balinor. It was a wonder he hadn't magiced up a pad and pen so he could take notes, but perhaps he was still just a little bit sleepy. He watched carefully, taking in every word that Balinor was saying - even the ones he didn't understand, they intrigued him even more. Was it a specific dragon language, or just a magic one that he hadn't come across yet? It certainly wasn't the ordinary kind that he used.

"Wait - get on?" he stared at Balinor, amazed "As in... get on?"