Werewolf of London: Prologue and Chapter 1
When Arthur Pendragon was a young boy, his mother told him many fantastical tales of dragons, knights, wizards, and werewolves. At the time, Arthur believed everything his mother told him.
Later, after his mother died, his father told him that the fictional tales read to him were just that: fictional. Uther wanted his son to grow up being more practical.
Arthur secretly told his sister, Morgana, the same stories his mother told him during the night. Uther had banned the nannies from telling them and his stepmother only laughed when she heard fairy tales.
As Arthur grew up, he forgot such tales. He became more like his father: a little cold, haughty, demanding and righteous. Uther always had his every demand met because he was rich and powerful, so Arthur picked that up from his father and it carried on as he got older.
However, when Arthur Pendragon met Merlin Emrys in an ancient history class, he started to realize that some people would not always acquiesce to his every demand. And he kind of liked it.
England, 1848
Arthur sighed as he entered his ancient history class. The man assigned to sit next to him had his papers and books all over Arthur’s desk. It was like this everyday and today Arthur had had enough of it. He rubbed his forehead as he walked to his desk.
“You know,” Arthur began as he sat down at his desk, “you should really keep to your own space.”
The man what sat next to him looked up and blinked. “What?”
Arthur waved a hand at their connected desks. “Your things are on my desk.”
“Oh. Sorry.” The man grabbed his papers and books and moved them to the other side.
Arthur shook his head and opened his books. A few minutes later, his friends Gawain and Lancelot came into the classroom and walked over to him. Arthur grinned and pushed his books aside as he began to chat with his friends.
“Your things are on my desk,” the other man suddenly said.
Arthur turned to look at the man. “Excuse me?” he raised his eyebrow in surprise. No one ever spoke to him that way.
“Your things are on my desk,” the man repeated coldly as he pointed at Arthur’s books.
Gawain and Lancelot looked at each other in shock. No one they knew ever spoke to Arthur like that. “Do you know who he is?” piped up Gawain.
“No,” the man retorted. “If I had to move my things from out of his way, he should move his things out of my way.”
Arthur’s eyebrow twitched up. “I am Arthur Pendragon and my father poured a lot of money into this school.”
Gawain and Lancelot shared a sly smile. People usually gave Arthur what he wanted, once they realized how important Arthur was.
“Should I care?” The man frowned, “Just because you are rich does not give you the right to be a prat. Move your books or I will.”
Arthur’s mouth crooked in a slight smile and he pulled his books back to his desk. “Who are you anyway?” He liked this man’s attitude. Too many people gave into Arthur; those few who did talk back to him always intrigued him.
“Merlin Emrys. Now if you will excuse me, I have work to finish.” Merlin turned away from Arthur and went back to his studying.
“Why did you move your books Arthur?” Lancelot whispered.
Arthur shrugged, “It seemed like the thing to do.” He stared at Merlin for a second longer before going back to chatting with his friends.
It wasn’t until months later that Arthur had another conversation with Merlin. They were paired up for an assignment in their class. They had to write a twenty-page paper and do a presentation about a topic picked by the teacher.
“The ancient Celts?” Arthur asked with incredulity. He blinked at the paper the teacher had given him and Merlin. It had a list of all the topics they should cover in their paper and presentation. There are far too many topics. Do we have to do all of them? Arthur thought.
“What is wrong with them?” Merlin grumbled. He was flipping through pages of the textbook and scribbling notes down. He didn’t even look at Arthur as he spoke.
“Nothing, if you believe in magic, banshees, leprechauns and other rubbish fairy tales,” Arthur replied as he leaned back in his chair.
Now Merlin did look up at Arthur. He glared and said fiercely, “Maybe I do. Maybe my mother told me all kinds of things about my Celtic ancestors. Maybe where the place where I was born was filled with all kinds of legends. Maybe you should think before you open your mouth.”
Arthur raised his hands in surrender, “All right, all right. You do not need get so defensive about it.” He paused and then said, “I had no clue that you were of Celtic origins. It is not like I know anything about you after all.” Arthur narrowed his eyes in thought. “Where are you from anyway?”
“Ireland. Can you not tell by my accent? Everyone always tells me my accent is easily noticeable.”
“Now I can,” Arthur grinned cheekily. “It gets thicker the more annoyed you become.”
Merlin glared at Arthur again. “I do not want to work with you either, but you do not have to be rude.”
“I did not mean to be rude and I do not mind working with you. At least you are not a sycophant or a moron.”
“Thank you. I guess.” Merlin pulled out a pad of paper. “When are you free to meet?”
“Whenever. I have a lot of free time.”
Merlin rolled his eyes. “Fine. Where do you want to meet? Your grandiose house I suppose?”
“No,” Arthur replied forcefully. “Do you live in one of the halls?”
“I do.”
“Great! We can meet in your common room.”
“Okay,” Merlin replied slowly.
“I can get the books from the library and have them delivered. Which hall is it?”
“Pendragon Hall,” Merlin mumbled as he scribbled something down on a notebook.
Arthur smirked, “What time?”
“How about tonight at seven? My biology class ends then.”
“Biology? You are taking that and a history class?”
“I am studying to be a doctor. I want to be one, like my uncle is. I have to take history classes because they are required for some of my medical classes.”
“I see.” Arthur didn’t really, but he wanted to steer the conversation away from medicine. He was not a fan of medicine, ever since his mother died.
They were silent for some time, reading their textbooks and taking notes, as the rest of the class chatted around them.
“What about you?” Merlin asked.
“Hmm?” Arthur replied distractedly because he had been looking through his notes for anything on the ancient Celts.
“Your major? Why are you taking this class?”
“Oh, I am a business major,” Arthur said with a look of disgust on his face, “but I minor in history.”
“You do not like business?”
“It is very boring at times. I only do it because I am expected to. Everyone knows I will take over the family business and Father thought I needed to know more about it. I, however, like history, so Father said if I major in business then I could minor in history.”
“Oh, well, that was nice of him,” Merlin said sarcastically.
“Yes it was.” Arthur ignored the sarcasm. He was about to speak up once more, when the teacher called for class to end. He packed up his things and nodded to Merlin. “I will see you at seven.”
Merlin nodded back. Arthur waited for more, but Merlin ignored Arthur and left the classroom. Arthur frowned at Merlin’s back. I really do not like being ignored.
As Arthur waited in front of Pendragon Hall, he shivered a little under his cloak. Even though he was wearing the best-made clothes money could buy, not even they could withstand a freezing-cold winter night in England. Although, he thought. It is not usually this cold this time of year. It should only be mildly cold. He looked up as he heard the echo of pounding shoes across the nearly empty campus. It was Merlin, running towards him.
“Hello, Merlin. You are late. By a half hour,” Arthur said haughtily. He does not look cold at all. Perhaps it was all the running.
“Sorry,” Merlin panted. He bent over and put his hands on his knees. His bag, full of books, almost fell off his shoulder, but he grabbed it before it could. “My professor needed help with something. I couldn’t say no.”
“Why not?” asked Arthur imperiously. “I have other things to do. I do not have time to wait around for you all bloody night.”
“Damn it Arthur! You are not the most important person in the world you know? Especially not to me! Professor Kilgharrah is a very important doctor. He could get me into any hospital I wanted. So if it comes to helping him or making you wait, I will make you wait every time!” Merlin shouted in frustration. “Now, can we just do this project so I never have to talk to you again?”
Arthur scowled as Merlin climbed the steps to meet him. “Fine.” He walked ahead and opened the door. “After you.”
Merlin glared. “I am not a girl.”
Arthur took a deep breath. “All right then. Do whatever you want.” He went into the hall and let the door shut behind him. “Fantastic,” he muttered as he walked past the front desk. This will be a fun night. I can tell already, he thought sarcastically.
Arthur turned out to be right. Merlin ignored him for most of the night and in turn, Arthur ignored Merlin. Around nine at night, Merlin finally spoke to him.
“Where is that book you took?” he asked gruffly. They were sitting, alone, in the common room at a large table. All the books Arthur had found at the library were strewn around them
“You will have to be more specific. We took a lot of books,” Arthur replied while not looking up. He was making notes from a book of Celtic mythology.
“No. It was a book I was looking at and then you did something with it.”
“What was it about?” Arthur began to search through his pile of books. He wanted to finish this night as quickly as possible, and getting into an argument with Merlin was not the way to do that.
“It was a book about Celtic food,” Merlin muttered while shifting through his own pile of books.
Arthur paused and looked at Merlin incredulously. “There is a whole book just on ancient Celtic food?” he asked with raised eyebrows.
“Yes. It is very detailed and important to what I am doing right now.” Merlin sounded very irritated, whether it was by Arthur or by the fact he was unable to find the book, Arthur didn’t know, but it was too much for Arthur to take.
“A book all about food!” Arthur laughed. “How can it be detailed enough to warrant a whole book?” Arthur put his head down on the table they were using and laughed.
“It is not funny,” Merlin growled.
Arthur raised his head up and said, while still laughing, “Yes it is.”
Merlin’s mouth twitched, then he grinned and let out a chuckle. “I guess it is.”
The two men laughed for a while, before sobering up. Arthur wiped his eyes, he had cried from laughing so hard, and said, “I do not see that book over here”
“I found it. It was hidden beneath a book about architecture,” Merlin replied sheepishly. “Sorry about before. I am just stressed about my classes. I have to be a doctor.”
“I apologize as well. I am not used to people being late for a meeting with me or talking back to me.”
“Well, you are going to be the next Duke of Camelot.”
“Aha!” Arthur crowed. “You do know who I am.”
Merlin’s face flushed slightly. “Well, I asked around after we were assigned to work together.”
“I asked about you too, Merlin Emrys. It seems you do not talk to many people.”
“I am working hard. My mother-” Merlin cut himself off and glanced away.
Arthur smiled faintly and his face softened. “You should talk about her. No one talks about my mother anymore. I enjoy listening to others talk about their mothers.”
Merlin nodded slowly and began talking. “My mother has been ill for awhile now. She has good days and bad days, but no one knows what is wrong with her. Even my uncle, who is the best doctor I know, is mystified by her sickness. I am hoping that once I become a doctor I can find out what ails her. So I have to work insane hours and take as many classes as I can to become the doctor to save her.”
“How is she doing now?” asked Arthur seriously. He wished that there were a doctor like Merlin around when his mother was sick.
“Better than yesterday, but she could be worse tomorrow,” Merlin sighed and looked down at the books surrounding him.
Arthur watched Merlin for some time. He heard a bell toll in the distance and reached inside his vest pocket, pulled out a watch and checked the time. “Well, it is late and I bet you have a seven am class, so we had better go,” he said.
Merlin nodded and began to gather up the books on their table. “What will we do with all these books?” he sighed. Arthur had picked out about twenty books and he was loath to carry them back to the library, as the staff that had brought them over had most likely gone home.
“The head librarian is a friend of my father’s. We can just leave them somewhere safe and come back for them tomorrow.”
“The perks of being a rich prat,” Merlin smirked at him.
Arthur laughed, “I suppose so.”
The days passed and during nights Arthur still met Merlin at the common room to work on their paper. It went fairly smooth, even if they still did have the occasional blowout now and then. Arthur mainly blamed Merlin and Merlin called him a prat, so it all worked out in the end. Their professor was highly impressed with both of them, for not only working together without killing one another, but also for having a detailed paper and presentation.
The day after they turned in their assignment, Merlin found Arthur outside of his late night medical class. It was a cold, dark night; the only sources of light were coming from either inside the building or from the lamp Arthur was standing under.
“What are you doing here?” Merlin blinked at him in surprise. He shifted the many books he carried in his arms from one side to the other.
Arthur smirked as Merlin’s classmates stared at the two of them, then started whispering amongst themselves. Merlin glared, but didn’t turn around.
“I was under the assumption that we are friends,” Arthur replied lightly. He looked down at his nails and inspected them under the lamplight. Out of the corner of his eye, Arthur saw Merlin flush a little.
“We are! I just did not expect to see you waiting for me,” Merlin frowned. “You usually wait at the hall.”
“Mer-lin,” Arthur sighed. “We are not doing any assignments together anymore. Why would I wait for you at the hall if I do not have to?”
Merlin sputtered and fumbled for words. “Exactly,” Arthur grinned. “Come on, let me give you a ride home.” He took some of Merlin’s books from him.
“Of course you have a private carriage.”
“The perks of being rich.”
“A rich prat. Have I told you that?”
“Not today,” Arthur grinned again as he waved his arm. A carriage came around a nearby corner and stopped in front of them. “After you, Merlin.”
Merlin sniffed imperiously and raised his head slightly. “At least you know how to be a good host,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes.
Arthur’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”
“You are a horrible ancient food connoisseur.”
Arthur laughed and shoved Merlin into the carriage. “Just get in.”
Merlin laughed as well and settled down into the carriage. Arthur sat across from him and banged on the roof. The carriage set off towards Merlin’s home.
“Wait, I should give you my address.” Merlin asked in a confused tone of voice.
“I already know it,” Arthur smirked.
Chapter 2