Prompt# 88 - Haste Makes Speed - With Wings - Tekia - original

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: With Wings
Fandom: original
Prompt: #88 Haste Makes Speed
Warnings: none
Rating: G
Summary: Merlin has a pair of students that rile up his otherwise lazy days.

Merlin sat at his window, chin cupped in his hand as he gazed out at the bright blue sky. Beyond the village proper, the forest flanked a field of lush green grass to the north, while field upon field of farmland surrounded the other three sides. A lone bird soared above the tallest trees, its cry reaching the magician’s ears even at that distance. A smile curved his lips as he recognized the hawk.
Today was a day for relaxing, he decided with a sigh, enjoying the lazy breeze that drifted through his open window. He would send his students off when they arrived and they would, no doubt, fill his small space with their laughter and youth.
Ah youth, how it was savored by the young.
He leaned out the window, his long hair trailing out with him to hang loosely in the air. Perhaps he would spend much of this day in air, flying with the hawk, or perhaps as a smaller bird...
As his mind wondered over the many different types of birds, he heard a door slam open several stories down as his two students arrived. Immediately the sounds of laughter and high pitched voices filled the tower rooms where he kept mostly to himself. He sat back in his chair and watched the closed door to his private chambers.
All sound outside the room suddenly ceased as his students realized he was watching them in their antics. The old wooden door creaked open ever so slowly and one head popped in. Merlin smiled at the young girl, her own face creased with a tinge of fear. When she saw his smile, her face transformed and she grinned impishly at him.
“‘Allo, Master Merlin.” She stepped in, making room for her fellow student. He was taller than her by a head, and fair where she was dark. “Rurik says that you’ve got something brewing in that devious mind of yours today.” She knelt at his feet, her smile nearly evil in its intensity. Rurik stood just out of arms’ reach, an identical smile curving his lips. These two, unlike any of his students before them, made him feel old.
“Devious? You discredit me. Just because you two are too shallow to understand my depths, you call me devious?” He waved a hand airily. “Perhaps I waste my time on you two. It is, how do you say, hopeless to teach a young dog old tricks.”
The two giggled at him, earing a stern look from their mentor, which they both ignored. The girl stood abruptly and went to the cooling teapot setting on a table in the center of the room. She set out cups and poured for them all. Then she spun on her heel and clasped her hands before her. “Lady Melinda says that I shall have the chance to be Lady Saya. With the right training, I could be a lady proper, she says.”
Merlin felt a twist in his heart at those words, but forbade any hint of it to touch his face. The girl was a bright light in the darkness that was his life these days. A rejuvenating breeze in a hot summer day. He really didn’t want to lose these two students of his.
“Lady Saya, you say. Maybe so, but you would have to work hard at that.” As she handed him his old stone cup, he matched her grin with one of his own. “But, perhaps you would be better suited to being a lady than magic. After all, you’ve not learned anything from me.”
She gave an affronted gasp, placing her hands on her hips. “I have too learned much of magic!”
He raised a brow. “Really now? One would assume that after all these years, then, you would have learned how to heat tea without a fire.”
She flushed as Rurik laughed outright. She snapped her fingers just as Merlin took a drink and the tea was instantly scalding. He bit back a curse as he jerked the cup away from his lips and liquid splashed over the side onto his fingers.
“Master Merlin!” Rurik reached out to help, but the magician waved him off. The boy turned his glare on the girl now blowing steam off her own cup of tea. “Saya! That was uncalled for.”
“He asked for it,” she sniffed.
Merlin laughed and stood from his seat next to the window. “Leave her be, Rurik, after all, there is no cure for idiots.”
Saya humped and turned her back on them. Rurik grinned at his mentor.
“What shall we study today, Master?”
Merlin sighed, he glanced out the window where the breeze still lingered, tempting him into its embrace. “I think that today you two will learn outside better than trapped up here.”
Instantly the duo were grinning at him, eyes sparkling. “Where are we going to go?”
“Can we visit the stone?”
“I want to see the lake!”
Merlin waved the two into silence then held them in suspense for a moment more. “Patience, you two. Haste makes speed. You’ll get no where if you don’t learn to shut up upon occasion.”
Saya rolled her eyes while Rurik nodded obediently. “So, where are we going?” Saya asked, slurping her tea.
Merlin narrowed his eyes. “I am going to fly with the birds. I don’t know about you, Lady, you’ve got lessons to attend with Lady Melinda.”
Saya’s brow furrowed. “I did not say I was going to become a lady. I only said what Lady Melinda told me. Besides, I would rather learn magic.” Suddenly her frown was gone. “Can you really teach us how to fly? Like a bird?”
Merlin laughed, knowing how the girl would react to this gift he had decided to give them. Eh, he might as well make two birds with one spell.
“Yes, yes, I can.” He placed a hand on each of their heads. “Come along now, and I will show you.”