Of Flying Dice and Too Much Ale
Merlin - S2
Path 2 - Funniest Moment
“Long night, mate?” The guard moved his helmet to let the man sit beside him.
“Just the usual.” He clapped his forearm in greeting. “Another night guarding the cells.”
The other guard waved his hand to order a drink for himself. “What’s so rough about that?”
“You’ve clearly never worked the night shift down there.” Urian, a fellow guard, took a seat beside the ignorant man, boxing him in. “Things happen.”
Reneic hummed in curiosity. It was nice to know he wasn’t alone in this. “Tell me about it. Have you worked the main square? You can’t stay upright for more than ten minutes.”
Their uneducated guest scoffed. “Well perhaps if you didn’t spend so much time in the pub” his judgmental statement was cut off by a smack to the back of his head.
A worn man with smell of liquor put his arm around the man. Joryk had been a guard for too many years to stomach ignorance. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, boy.” His accent was thick but confident. “What’s your name?”
“Filimir.” He muttered, hunching his shoulders at all the attention. Reneic couldn’t help but smirk. This man had no idea what he’d started.
“Welcome to Camelot, Filimir.” The older man raised his eyebrow. “You’re new aren’t you?”
“My uncle got me a position as a guard. I start tomorrow.”
All three men chuckled. “Does your uncle like you much, boy?”
“He’s my wife’s uncle.”
“That explains it.” The older man leaned closer. “Strange things happen when you work the night shift. You’re never the same.”
Filimir recoiled, still not completely sold. “Like what?”
Reneic leaned in to the conversation. “Well tonight, I was guarding the cells and playing some dice. Suddenly my dice went flying; and I don’t mean rolled off the table. I mean they flew across the room.”
Urian choked on his drink and all the men turned to him. “The same thing happened to me the other night.”
“Your dice went flying?”
“Yes. They rolled down the hallway.” He ducked his head and looked around to make sure no knights were listening. Even though they were both self-proclaimed guardians of Camelot, there was a divide between the guards and knights. A rather pompous divide. “I actually left my post for a minute.”
Joryk squeezed his arm around Filimir tighter. “Oh, thank goodness I’m not alone.” He leaned closer to the young man, his eyes deadly serious. “They will tell you that you can’t leave your post for anything but when you hear ungodly noises from around the corner, you have an obligation to investigate.”
The other men echoed. “Exactly!”
The rest found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13972089
