amphigoury

Title: The Rescue
Artist:

amphigoury

Pairings/characters: Arthur/Merlin
Rating (if applicable): PG
Warnings: None

Summary: Comic for a scene from a story that was to be a part of the 2011 PaperLegends Merlin Big Bang: Merlin rescues Arthur and his Knights from a cell.

Artist's notes: My writer dropped out after I'd already finished this piece and done some other concepts. I didn't want it to be for naught, so now it's a stand-alone. I'd like to thank the folks at

fanartivation and #paperlegends and #gsdmerlin chats over at Mibbit. You are the best! And thanks to

the_muppet for not only making the whole fest run, but also for guiding me through a few crisis! Well done!

Disclaimer: Fan-created content, no profit is made.

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----------- Excerpt from scene ------------

There's a flicker of movement, a flutter of wings – something small, a bird, the size of a large pigeon, swoops in through the bars of the window in the corridor. It lands on the floor, illuminated by the single torch on the wall above. It hops quickly across the cell and stops outside the bars, peering in, cocking its head to look up at him. It's half-bathed in shadow but Lance can see it isn't a dove after all; the body too slim, the tail too long, the beak too sharp –

Lance nearly chokes on his relief.

Merlin.

The falcon is hardly inside the bars before its tiny eyes flash and it changes, and Merlin is suddenly standing beside him, shoulders draped in a dark cloak, hair askew and looking positively ill. It happens to fast that no one else notices his presence, and Merlin hardly spares Lance a glance before his eyes sweep the cell and fall on Arthur, who is sitting on the ground with his back to the bars, head bent down towards his knees.

Lance watches in mild fascination as Merlin goes from looking sick to furious in the span of a breath, and he shoves through the other knights, moving so fast that he's on his knees in front of Arthur before anyone's even noticed he's here – they stare at him like they can't believe their own eyes, as if he's a hallucination, and who can blame them? The shock works, keeps Leon or Gwaine from doing something unwise, like trying to intervene when Merlin grabs Arthur's head in both his hands and pulls Arthur's face up. Merlin's expression so contorted in anger that he looks nothing like the clumsy manservant they're all used to.

“You stupid, selfish, pig-headed prat,” Merlin snarls at Arthur. “Don't you ever leave me behind again.”

Lance wonders idly if Merlin's decided that, since he's admitting to treason today anyway, he may as well commit it in as many ways as possible – because before Arthur can do anything besides gape at him, Merlin yanks him forward and kisses him full on the mouth.

Well, as if any of them hadn't seen that coming.

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Concept Art

Arthur and the knights were captured by "shadow beasts". Here is the concept art for them:

And there was to be a scene with Merlin facing off against a pack of the shadow beasts, but this piece didn't make it past the concept phase before my writer dropped out.

I'm praying that the issues with LJ photo hosting has been resolved. Any issues I've had have been resolved with "refresh". If it doesn't work, let me know and I'll find an alternate host site.

Thank you! And see you on Aug 31st for my second entry!!