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It was a long time coming, and everyone was relieved when Merlin finally learnt how to land safely... most of the time anyway. He'd still occasionally have his lapses of paralysing fear regarding his distance above the ground.
Fortunately, these occurred when he'd either be in the company of the 'little' great dragon, who'd kindly catch Merlin before he went splat on the forest floor; or he'd be in the presence of the guards and Knights of Camelot, who did likewise in saving the little Merlin from becoming a smear on unyielding stone or the hard packed earth which surrounded the castle. (The loyal men rather thought their prince would be quite furious with them if the little raptor came to any harm if they were nearby and did not offer assistance.)
Unfortunately, seeing as how there were usually several able bodied men about, but only one tiny bird, it often came to be a rather embarrassing fiasco since all eyes would be focussed upwards upon the falling Merlin rather than their surroundings. The King already lost count of the instances he'd heard shouts of alarm followed by a series of loud crashes and looked out from his office window to find several piles of groaning Knights and guards scattered across the grounds; though fortunately (for Merlin) with a stunned and shaky falcon held safely aloft in the hands of at least one of the felled men.
With the number of times this had happened, Uther was initially disappointed that the guards and Knights hadn't learnt their lesson to keep an eye out for their comrades' efforts too. That is, until the King took a step back and looked upon the greater picture, where the court ladies showed remarkable swiftness in fluttering onto the field to coo and fuss over their chosen gallantly injured man. It made Uther begin to wonder if the men were *staging* a few of these 'rescues' to attract the sympathy and attention of the ladies.
To be honest about it though, it really never got old. (The castle steward hoped that age and kingship wasn't starting to be too stressful for his lord. But he just couldn't understand why King Uther had asked for and started keeping a soft downy cushion *beside* the chair in his office rather than on it.)
Arthur's return to all his regular duties and activities meant he did not have much personal time to train Merlin anymore. And this unfortunately gave rise to an unexpected problem. After all, a falcon in the wild had much of its thoughts focused on food and the hunting of it to provide for itself; protecting its territory from invaders; or mating. Being very well fed by Arthur, Merlin was truly a pampered bird. (Arthur was leery of this fact since Merlin was still a very skinny little bird. So much so the prince insisted on personally hand feeding his Merlin at least three times a day to make sure the bird got the proper amount of nutrition. The Prince wasn't to know, however, that Merlin had taken to surreptitiously hiding the extra food with magic, then sharing the accumulated bounty with the delighted Dragon out in the woods.) So, with all his needs for survival taken care of, in addition to a prince having returned to his duties together with the curtailed flying practices and lessons, it left Merlin as a very bored little raptor.
For the sake of his sanity, Gaius and Arthur eventually allowed Merlin to reclaim some of his former chores. And happily, since he demonstrated uncommon speed and dependability in fetch and carry tasks, the castle was soon to be accustomed to the sight of a little Merlin winging through the corridors with scrolls or baskets of goods carried securely in its claws.
Merlin's screech announced his impending arrival at the window sill of the council room. Uther looked up, from the papers he had spread out in preparation of a meeting, in time to watch the little raptor land neatly on the window sill with a scroll clutched in a claw.
"Ah, Merlin. You have a message for me from Gaius?"
The bird chirruped and shook its head at the King. "Arthur, then?" Merlin bobbed his head with a whistled assent.
"Whatever could be the matter?" Uther beckoned the bird to approach. "We are meeting for lunch today. We could talk then." The bird shook his head with a low chirp of negativity as it landed on the table, making the King raise an eyebrow at him.
"So Arthur's not available for lunch?" Uther asked with some disappointment to the bird's whistle of assent and a bob of its head. "But why not? What's happened today?"
The Merlin chirruped at the King and waved the scroll at him with a leg while it precariously balanced on the other with the help of its spread wings. Uther closed his eyes for a second before wordlessly taking the scroll from the bird. It was just uncanny how, just like Arthur and most of the Knights, even *he* was now carrying out almost whole conversations with Merlin when he couldn't speak. And for that while, as he reflected on this remarkable exchange, Uther found that he wasn't able to pay very much attention to Arthur's message.
A cautious questioning chirrup broke him from his reverie to look up at the patiently waiting Merlin. "Oh! Yes, you may leave. I have no need for you to carry back a message."
The bird whistled questioningly again and pointed his beak at the scroll, prompting Uther to look down for a quick scan of the contents." I see, Arthur's expecting a reply, is it?"
Merlin chirruped and bobbed his head at the King. And Uther found himself fighting to keep his stern expression as he read Arthur's letter. "Well, I see nothing wrong with Arthur's judgement. You can tell—"
The bird's pointed whistle reminded Uther of the situation again, and the King smoothly reached for a piece of parchment to begin scribbling his reply. He was determined to keep his composure even if it killed him.
Rolling up the finished scroll into a tight bundle which the Merlin could get a claw around, Uther waved the bird off. "I'll see Arthur this evening then." He glanced out the window remembering then that they were in the council meeting rooms rather than his usual office which was on a lower floor. And a bout of mischief made the King give the bird a parting bid of caution.
"Be careful, boy. We are up three times higher than my usual window." A huge exaggeration, but Uther wondered if the boy—bird would notice. The Merlin apparently didn't since it quite visibly froze at the edge of the window sill with his words.
Uther watched with some amusement as the bird cautiously poked a head out and looked down. The King hadn't believed his son the first time he was told that his manservant was afraid of heights, but Uther could see this quite clearly now with the way the raptor quickly retracted its head and almost fell backwards off the sill. However, before Uther could guiltily suggest he open the door for the bird to take the stairs, Merlin determinedly shook out his feathers and leaped out the window.
His terrified scream all the way down, however, had Uther rush to the window to check that someone had noticed the bird's distress and was posed to catch him. And yes, there were quite a lot of men out in the courtyard this afternoon, including Arthur and his knights.
Even situated from as high up the castle as he was, Uther could hear the cries of alarm and the bone jarring crashes as guards and knights collided in their efforts to get into position to catch the falling bird. Predictably, the grounds were eventually covered by scattered piles of groaning men which were in turn surrounded by crowds of cooing ladies; while Arthur adroitly plucked his Merlin from the hands that caught him and attentively checked the shivering and shaken bird.
Once Uther was assured Merlin was not hurt, he rather quickly ducked back into the room before his son could think to throw an accusing glance up his way. Still, He couldn't avoid Gaius's disapproving eyebrow that evening or his son and ward's suspicious looks during dinner, but that was another story.
Shortly after the 'incident' in the courtyard, the council members were to arrive at and wonder why their meeting room was locked. However, since they could hear thumping from beyond the door they thought there were perhaps carpenters inside working on repairing some furniture.
They couldn't be blamed for not recognising the sound of a fist pounding a table, and of course the door and walls were too thick for them to hear the King's muffled laughter against his arm. Nor did they later question the sudden proliferation of cushions in the room. However, they did notice though never asked why their King preferred to lean against his cushion rather than sit on it.
Then again, they guessed the King was probably more concerned about his back than his seat. It didn't explain though, why Uther's cushion was more often found on the table rather than on his chair.