Happy Little Working Song (Giselle)

[Merlin Emrys]

Starting with the dorms seemed like a sensible idea, there were already (hopefully) beds and other necessities in there, they just had to find them and make them habitable again. There still wasn't a plan going forward, but after everything they'd been through at the school it seemed such a terrible shame to leave it so abandoned, and who knew how long they might be stuck here? At least this way they were prepared even if it did turn out that they could all go home whenever they wanted.

The former boys dormitories seemed the most ideal choice, since it housed the common room as well, it meant they would have a room where all the newcomers and returning residents could meet up and discuss progress and plans and information, at least until they got some of the proper offices cleared out. Merlin realised he was making these plans as if the intention was to clean up the entire school, and he wasn't exactly sure where that idea had come from, but it seemed... right, somehow.

"I know you are able to summon your animal friends to help us," Merlin said conversationally to the happy princess as they stood outside Camelot court "do you have any other magical abilities that we might be able to use?"

[Giselle]

Giselle was excited to get the place back to its former glory and cleanliness. Even though it had only been a week for her it was quite shocking that so much time had passed here at the school. And that the school had been totally abandoned in their absence only made it worse. So Giselle was very much looking forward to getting everything clean and tidy. She carefully ripped a ribbon off her dress and used it to tie her long red hair back.

"Magic?" Giselle asked, turning to look at Merlin with wide eyes. "Oh no. I don't have any magic at all I'm afraid. Unless you think that calling to the animals is magic, though I don't think its likely. That was how I called to my friends at home and the only person with magic was the queen in Andalasia."

Giselle looked around. "This place really is a mess. Now if only we had some gardening tools. And some cleaning supplies. Maybe I should call for more animals. This place will need to be terribly clean if we plan on sleeping here and the more help the merrier!"

[Merlin Emrys]

Okay, no magic, it would have been a useful addition to have but Merlin didn't really mind working without it. He'd done plenty of cleaning in his day without using magic... and plenty of cleaning with using it as well, so a combination should be easy enough to arrange.

"More animals might be useful, the more the merrier as you say," he agreed with Giselle's assessment "I have magic myself so I can deal with structural damage and more complicated repairs, and if we all pitch in with the cleaning part we should have this place fixed up in no time..."

If they could just clear up the vines and clean up all the dirt and dust and moss they should be able to clear out the rooms easily enough to make them habitable, and anything that was living in there... well, Giselle would be useful to get them to move on to somewhere more suitable.

"As for cleaning supplies..." he thought for a moment before holding his hand out, his eyes flashed gold as he spoke a strange word and then suddenly there was a small pile of supplies in front of them, ready for use.

[Giselle]

Giselle nodded cheerfully. She could certainly rely on more animals coming to her aid if she called again. And it would be much more fun if there were more hands, so to speak, to make the work light. And magic would be quite useful in addition to some liberally applied elbow grease.

Giselle didn't hesitate to turn and give hey musical call again. The crows were still about, watching the two humans causally. And after a moment there was quite a bit of rustling as mice, rats and snakes slithered over to them from all around, but most had come from the direction of the dormitory. And a moment later, a pack of wolves emerged from the woods and tried over to the pair of humans. And a moment following that, a badger came lumbering out of the tall grass. Giselle looked at Merlin for a moment wide eyed. She had never summoned wolves or a badger before. Or crows either. But this was what she had to work with.

"Hello everyone," she began, addressing the crowd of animals. "I'm Giselle and this is Merlin." She gestured at Merlin beside her. "He uses magic, but don't be alarmed. He's very nice." She clasped her hands together. "Now, if you don't mind, we could use a bit of help. We're trying to make this place livable again for humans."

At this the badger hissed. Giselle turned a startled glance at it. "Oh,I know. Some of you have made homes here. But I promise that if you help us clean I will help you find even better homes that will suit all your needs perfectly."

Giselle turned to Merlin. "Do you have anything you want to address?"

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin waited patiently to see who would respond to her call. The rodents and snakes were expected, even if the snakes were a touch more sinister than the usual animals called by song, and he was ready to move on once they'd gathered until there was further movement in the trees and they were soon joined by a pack of wolves and a badger. He raised an eyebrow in surprise, that was quite a group. They might be able to make quite a difference here.

"I second what Giselle said," he addressed the animals unselfconsciously, he regularly talked to dragons after all "We'll make sure everybody has a suitable home, and we're really very grateful for you all agreeing to help."

He turned thoughtfully to the pile of cleaning supplies, glancing back at the animals.
"Let's just make these a little more appropriate..." another gesture and muttered word and several of the supplies changed shape, just slightly, but in ways that would be easier for jaws or claws or tiny paws.

"Shall we get started?"

[Giselle]

Merlin was brief but to the point and she nodded along with him, agreeing entirely. They would all be very grateful for the help and the friendship of these creatures. And Giselle was positively delighted to have so many helpers. It was so thoughtful of Merlin to modify the cleaning supplies to work with smaller hands and claws.

Giselle nodded. "Alright everyone," she began cheerfully. "Let's get these vines out of the way and then we can clean out the inside!"

Giselle grabbed a couple of tools and began to scrape and tug at the vines in the way. "Whistle while you work," she began to sing as the wolves began to dig at the vines and others tugged at them to loosen their grip on the building. The mice and snakes began to skitter and scamper all around her. The badger trundled over to where Giselle was working and began to use it's sharp claws. For now the crows watched. "And cheerfully together we can tidy up the place. So hum a merry tune. It won't take long when there's a song to help you set the pace."

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin also moved over to pitch in, using a combination of a scrubbing brush and magic to clear away the vines. He was tempted to enchant the brush itself to clean on its own, but he'd heard bad things about doing that, it always seemed to end up not going as well as you intended. He could at least use the magic to lift himself up a little to get to the things that the others couldn't reach.

Giselle's enthusiasm for the task was infectious, and he found himself singing along with her, he still did a fair bit of singing at home (Arthur, for some reason, couldn't get enough of it), so his voice was smooth and confident.

"and as you sweep the room, imagine that the broom is someone that you love and soon you'll find you're dancing to the tune."

[Giselle]

With so many hands and paws (and in the case of the snakes, tails) the cleaning was going quite well! The vines were coming off the building with ease. It was starting to look like the old school building again! Well, a very dingy version of the school anyways, but one that was inhabitable for humans. And that was really the point anyway. A building could be repainted and refurbished anytime. Most people liked to know that there was a roof over their heads when darkness fell.

Giselle was pleased that Merlin sang along. It was always more pleasant when others joined in with the singing. The mice had begun to squeak along and every now and again a snake would let out a hiss at just the right moment to make it sound musical.

And then Giselle looked up and have a delighted gasp. "Oh, Merlin, look. We've uncovered the door!"

[Merlin Emrys]

"Oh excellent!" Merlin allowed himself to float back down to the ground, pushing open the uncovered door and peering into the dingy hallway. It was dark and vine-covered inside, and things moved in the shadows. They would be easy enough to move on with Giselle's help, and the forest was likely large enough for all the creatures that had taken refuge in the buildings.

He summoned a few floating lights and glanced back at Giselle "If some of your friends want to stay out here and keep working, some of us can head inside and start there?"

It was going to take them a while, but if they all worked together it would probably be done by the time people wanted to go to bed, or at least done enough that they could house people for the night, and then finish up the next day.

[Giselle]

Giselle peered down the hall, peeking over Merlin's shoulder. It was so dark and she things moved in the shadow. She wondered what they were that hadn't answered her call. They must not be very friendly. Tintagel had always had friendly animals. Why, just last week she had been babysitting the squirrel family. She hadn't seen any squirrels here yet. But time had passed here differently. She couldn't really think of that right now.

The crows rose from the ground and flew above Giselle and Merlin into the hallway, cawing. Giselle watched the flock go, wondering what they were up to. She turned back to Merlin. "Oh, of course I'll ask them," she agreed. She turned to the crowd of animals that had stopped working and were looking up at the two humans. "Friends, we need two groups please. One group to stay out here and continue getting rid of the vines. And the other group can come with us." She would leave it up to the animals on who would stay and who would go.

A couple of the wolves trotted into the hallway. Another wolf, slightly smaller in stature nudged at Giselle's hand. Mice and rats disappeared into the hallway and then into whatever darkness they could find. Giselle stepped over the threshold, still humming to herself. "Let's get to work everyone!" she declared cheerfully. But only a moment later there were snarling down the hallway. The wolf by Giselle bristled and took up a defensive stance in front of Giselle, a low growl in her throat. Giselle looked concerned. "Oh no, please don't fight!" she called. She tried to go see what the matter was, but the wolf in front of her blocked the way. "I hope its not dangerous."

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin glanced at Giselle with a concerned expression at the sudden snarls from the hall. He had hoped that Giselle would be able to get any creatures inside to move, but now that he thought about it, if Giselle's particular skill worked on them, they probably would have come when she called the first time.
Whatever it was, the wolf with her appeared to want to protect her from it.

"It probably is," he replied pragmatically, sending a little more magic to his floating lights to try and brighten the hallway up a bit and see what was ahead of them.

"Let's move forward slowly," he suggested, as much talking to the wolf as Giselle, hoping it would let her actually pass "We can see what's happening and do what we can to help..." he didn't want the wolves they had brought with them to get hurt, not when it was their fault the wolves were here. Besides, they didn't know what was out there in the dark, it could be something that didn't really deserve to get hurt either, it might just be defending its home, and they did have to clear the place out so it would be better to figure out what they were up against.

[Giselle]

Giselle was getting more and more concerned as the wolf by her side kept growling low in her throat. She couldn't imagine what could be up ahead. She hoped it wasn't anything too frightening. She was glad she had Merlin here and the animals. They would make her feel a little safer about this. Carefully she edged forward, craning to look down the hallway. Even with the floating lights it was hard to see.

The wolves down the hallway growled and snarled and it was beginning to frighten Giselle. She'd never heard such awful sounds before and she couldn't think what it could possibly be down the hallway that was making the wolves behave so. But she wasn't alone. She had many friends.

And speaking of friends, a crow flew from down the hall straight to Giselle. The girl held up an arm for her friend to land on. The crow gave a squawk and landing. It tilted its head up at Giselle with an intelligent look in its eye. "What is it?" she asked, her eyes wide, encouraging her friend to speak. The crow made a strange coughing sound, then it look straight up at Giselle and said "Dragon."

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin edged forward, trying to make out the shadowy shapes in the distance. The growls were getting louder, more intense, he couldn't make out the nature of the creatures - but then the crow returned, luckily unhurt, and revealed to them the nature of what Giselle's wolves were fighting with.

Merlin's reaction was not really the most appropriate, he immediately brightened.
"A dragon? Wonderful!" he realised after a moment that Giselle would probably not appreciate his cheer when her wolves were potentially in danger, and sobers up quickly "Sorry, I just mean that I can communicate with dragons..." and control them, if he had to.

He edges forward a little more and calls out in a harsh, guttural language that almost sounds like a human tongue shouldn't be able to speak it. There's a roar in response and Merlin glances back at Giselle.

"He can understand me, but he can't talk, a lot of the dragons I've encountered here couldn't, but I can probably get him to calm down, could you call the wolves back?"

[Giselle]

Giselle petted the crow's head gently. What a brave bird. She turned a concerned look to Merlin, who was looking pleased. She didn't understand. Dragons were more dangerous than ogres and progress were very dangerous. And very scary!

She let out a sigh of relief when Merlin explained. Well that was lucky at least. She smiled. "Sage," she called. "Ember. Come back please. Merlin is going to speak to the dragon." There was one final snarl and then the wolves trotted back down the hallway. A few of the crows flew with them. "Okay, I think that's everyone."

[Merlin Emrys]

Once the wolves and crows were back to safety, Merlin headed down the corridor. He walked fairly confidently, knowing he could stop the dragon if it intended to attack. He didn't want to use that power, he hated to force dragons to do anything they didn't want to do, preferred to reason with them instead, but he would use it if he had to.

"It's okay," he called out, speaking in dragon once again "We mean you no harm"
He managed to get close enough to the dragon to hold a hand out and allow it to sniff at him, staying still and calm and waiting until the creature has lowered its wings and relaxed, clearly no longer feeling threatened. The lighting was dim but there was something familiar about the creature's colouring, it was small enough that it was probably fairly young, but he was confident it was descended from a dragon he had known back when they were here before.

"We need to clean out the building, we're going to have to find you a new home" he explains, edging a little closer to look at it. It's actually even smaller than he would expect, possibly the runt of the nest, no wonder he was here alone.