I DON'T KNOW WHY I KEEP MAKING CHRISTMAS ONES SORRY
I NEED TO UPDATE MORE BUT I'VE BEEN SO BUSY AND I'M SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SORRY!!!!!!

GOOD!MORGANA GOOD!MORDRED
Also, This is Merlin's first yule here because Merlin pretended to have to go do something always and Merlin can't leave now for some odd reason unknown to you but not to me ;) hehehehhe
So a reader ( I forget who but, you know who you are) let me know that at that time christmas is actually called 'Yule' so, sorry about that. Oops.... ANYWAY, Here it is! Next chapter will hopefully be a halloween one ( i'll search up what they call it this time) Also, HAPPY 30TH ONESHOT!!!

Yule. A simple word for a simple winter day. Merlin never understood it. Why did they even have Yule? All it was to him was a time for bratty children to rant over all the presents they better get and make the kids with not as much money feel bad. Then once Yule was over, everyone talked over the fun they had and how their families were better because they could afford more. All Yule did was turn bratty kids nice for one day and nice kids sad for a month.

Merlin always hated the thought of this. He knew he shouldn't be so bitter but, he couldn't help it. He wasn't popular as a child and not getting as many presents as the rest of the kids didn't help, all it did was feed their egos. Despite this, Merlin put on a cheery face like always and said the opposite of what he believed whenever asked why he was so cheery around this time of year. This year, was even worse than the years before. This year, Merlin's brother came to visit.

Merlin's older brother, Kestrel.

Kestrel was only his half brother, Their mother was married before but, her husband died before she had even met Merlin's dad. Kestrel had magic too, but, he believed Merlin didn't as the cocky prat he was. Kestrel liked to think he was better at everything than Merlin even if it wasn't anywhere near the truth. Kestrel's drawing of a tree could look like a bunch of squiggles but, it's still better than Merlin's realistic drawing. So, of course when Kestrel heard Merlin was working for the king of Camelot, he just had to come and see to make sure his little brother still understood Kestrel would always be better. No matter what.

"Merlin! How's my favourite little brother!" Kestrel exclaimed, a smirk revealing the joke.

"Kestrel. What are you doing here?" Merlin asked with an obvious fake smile and talked through gritted teeth.

"When I heard you work for the royal council of Camelot, I just had to come and see you! Do you know if there are any jobs in the royal council? Preferably higher than you?" Kestrel laughed.

"Uh, there is no higher status here than my master." Merlin said awkwardly, a little timidly, in fact. He knew what happened if Kestrel didn't get what he wants.

"Oh really? So, here the knights are higher than the King?" Kestrel laughed as if he was the funniest man in the world.

"No, I work for the King, not a knight. Speaking of which, I have a job to do. Have fun finding a place to stay. I don't think there's any places, so...bye." Merlin said and quickly ran off.

Merlin dodged people in the crowd quickly and got Arthur's breakfast before continuing to his room. On his way to Arthur's, Merlin saw Kestrel who looked fuming. Merlin quickly hid and luckily Kestrel didn't see him. Unluckily, He didn't notice the knights watching him while on their way to wait for Arthur at training practice. Merlin looked from where he was hiding and Kestrel had his back turned so Merlin quickly ran as distinctively and fast as he could before ducking out of sight from the knights and Kestrel to Arthur's bedroom.

"Who do you reckon that bloke is?" Gwaine asked the others, nodding toward Kestrel, earning only shrugs in return.

After that, they shrugged and decided to at least keep an eye on Merlin and the unknown man, hoping their friend isn't in some kind of trouble he wouldn't be able to get out of.

Merlin got into Arthur's room after he managed to erase the emotion from his face and replace it with his usual grin. Once he went in, he quickly set down his breakfast before yanking the curtains open. Merlin grabbed Arthur sheets from his grasp and shouted in his ear,

"WAKE UP, YOU LAZY PRAT! BREAKFAST!"

Merlin quickly ran out of the way and ducked out of sight so Arthur didn't manage to throw something at him or hit him. A bonus was that he got to put his plan into action.

"MERLIN!" Arthur yelled, "Where did you go?! You better not be under my bed!"

There was silence. After a few seconds, Arthur could hear faint chuckling so he checked under the bed to find nothing but what he had under there in the first place. After that, the chuckling got louder.

"Merlin! Where are you?! Come out right now!" Arthur demanded and got up to look for Merlin. While he was looking for Merlin, Merlin quickly snuck under the bed unnoticed.

"Merlin! If you don't come out right now, uh, err I'll cut your pay and put you in the stocks for a month!" Arthur decided.

"Do you even pay him? And I think Merlin enjoys the stocks, that peculiar man." Gwen laughed, watching the man she married look under a chair for Merlin "I don't he'd fit under there, he's surprisingly tall for his age!" Gwen laughed even more at this.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Merlin yelled, unable to help it. Arthur did a double take and looked in his closet again.

"And you were quiet for so long Mer- aha! Oh, come on!" Arthur exclaimed exasperatedly when he found his closet empty.

"How can you be so good at hiding? I'm the King of Camelot and a knight of the Round Table, I've been trained since birth, how are you able to hide from me?!" Arthur complained.

"I don't know, I told he's peculiar. Besides, Merlin, Gaius told me to tell you to hurry back or he'll make you clean the leech tank!" Gwen laughed after she heard a bang and a loud 'ow' meaning merlin hit his head from under the bed trying to get out. He shook it off and rolled out from under and made a scramble for the door.

"BUT I CHECKED UNDER THERE!" Arthur yelled, perplexed at how Merlin had evaded him.

"Yes, I'm sure you did Arthur. I need to tell you something about Merlin." Gwen said, now looking worried.

"What did the idiot do now?" Arthur asked, "Did he finally clear out the tavern and pickled eggs with Gwaine?"

"You do know he's allergic to pickled eggs? It's something that they put in to make the eggs sweeter." Gwen said " Anyway, no. The knights saw him with a man earlier today; they all say that he looked extremely nervous around him and practically fled as fast as he could from the man. Lancelot said he kept looking over his shoulder and hid in fear when he thought the man saw him. I really think you should talk to him, Arthur, about who this man is and why Merlin was so terrified of him!" Gwen explained what happened.

"Hmm. I- I'll see what I can do. Do you really think there is a reason to worry Guinevere? I mean, what if the knights misread the situation?" Arthur said, half trying calm Gwen, half trying to calm himself.

"I- I think you still should at least check, now start getting dressed, I'll get Merlin." Gwen said and left to get Merlin.

Arthur figured he had quite a lot of time, Gaius was on the other side of the castle, maybe that was part of the reason Merlin was late... Oh well. Arthur barely had time to sit down before Merlin came back in.

"Merlin! But I thought that Gaius was-" Arthur started before Merlin interrupted him.

"I stopped to help a servant really quickly, besides you guys weren't talking very long." Merlin rolled his eyes before starting to make the bed and set out Arthur's clothes while he was eating.

"Merlin, uh, Gwen said that the knights said they saw you with a man this morning, uh who is he?" Arthur asked, making a mental note of the slight tension that occurred when he asked.

"He uh, he happens to be my brother. Well, half but, still. He's just an arrogant brat, don't worry about him." Merlin muttered, slightly frightened and slightly disappointed in himself he didn't notice the knights.

"Oh. I wasn't aware you even had a brother. Is he older or younger?" Arthur asked, a tiny bit intrigued at the new piece of information about Merlin. Arthur also recalled past thoughts of the fact he didn't know much about Merlin.

"Older." Merlin simply said, silently hoping that Arthur would just drop it.

"He decided to visit me because of the holidays." Merlin added, lying. Merlin knew why Kestrel was here and the holiday definitely wasn't the reason.

"Hmm. Speaking of the holidays, what are you planning?" Arthur asked.

"Not really anything, Sire." Merlin shrugged.

"Not really anything?! It's Yule, Merlin! Why don't you go visit your mother or something?" Arthur suggested, now finished with his meal.

"My mother doesn't celebrate Yule." Merlin muttered, picking up the fish and putting them on a table by the door for him to grab on his way out.

"Doesn't celebrate Yule? Even my father celebrated Yule, it's Yule! How can people not like Yule! That's like not liking, uh, the Mele!" Arthur exclaimed, apparently horrified at the fact Merlin's mother doesn't celebrate one of hid favourite holidays.

"I don't like the Mele, Arthur, All it does is give people chance to kill each other or seriously injure them and their armour. Guess who has to take care of the armour and help Gaius with the injured people?" Merlin rolled his eyes at Arthur's childish comment.

"That's not all! I say this every time, it's a way to relieve tension between kingdoms and-" Arthur started, but was cut off.

"How does losing to you every year relieve tension?" Merlin asked, raising an eyebrow almost similar to Gaius.

"Well, it's to fight for honour!" Arthur said, as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

"What 'honour' do they get by losing to you?" Merlin asked.

"I give up! Don't you at least celebrate Yule in some way?" Arthur said, not believing they don't celebrate Yule in any way.

"Nope. All of Ealdor doesn't celebrate Yule. We never have." Merlin shrugged.

"Well, at least you get to celebrate Yule this year." Arthur said.

"Yep. At least." Merlin rolled his eyes. By now, Arthur was dressed and in his armour.

"I won't be coming to training, I have to help Gaius with something so George will be with you today." Merlin said, trying his hardest not to smirk and look innocent.

"Great. Just fantastic." Arthur grumbled.

"Mmm hmm." Merlin agreed. After that, he grabbed the dishes and left to the kitchen and then to his thinking spot.

"That man puzzles me." Arthur muttered after Merlin left and decided to leave as well.

Merlin did stop by Gaius and asked him to make an excuse for him if Arthur came around, but not the tavern. After that, he left to the lake. What he didn't know was that Arthur cancelled training and the knights without Arthur saw Merlin. Since Merlin can't catch a break, they followed him.

Surprisingly, the knights could barely keep up with Merlin and keep quiet for that matter. They were glad they decided to discard their armour before leaving to follow him but, they kept their weapons. Just in case.

When Merlin finally stopped, they were at a clearing with a lake. The lake was breathtaking, even when frozen and the trees around it were beautiful, the whole clearing was....none of the knights could even think of a word to describe it. Merlin looked at the beauty around it and took it all in. He laid down and put his arm over his eyes before taking a deep breath, becoming extremely relaxed. The knights could understand why Merlin would go there, even in the freezing weather.

While Merlin was lying down, a girl appeared. She almost seemed transparent but, the knights could tell she was beautiful.

"Merlin." She whispered gently but, loud enough for the knights to just barely hear it.

"Freya." Merlin whispered back, "It's good to see you."

"I'm glad to see you too, Merlin." Freya said, smiling softly. "Merlin, why don't you just tell them? I'm sure they will understand."

"They won't. You should've seen how Arthur freaked out when I told him My mother doesn't celebrate Yule or how all of Ealdor never celebrated it. Imagine how he'll freak out if he learns I hate Yule? He'll do everything in his power to change my mind but, I won't. After a while, I'll just pretend to give in and then I'll be miserable every holiday, even more than I already am every day. Not to mention the knights are getting suspicious." Merlin explained to Freya what was going on.

"What are they suspicious about?" Freya asked.

"Kestrel." Merlin groaned.

"Oh. oh. Well, what did they see?" Freya asked.

"Just me hiding from him in fear." Merlin said in a joking tone

"I see. I'm guessing they told Gwen who convinced Arthur to talk to you about it." Freya guessed.

"Yep...What should I do Freya? I can't tell them because who knows what Kestrel will do but, I can't keep living in Camelot knowing that he is practically out to kill me!" Merlin asked.

"I don't know, Merlin. I really don't-" Freya said before she faded away.

"Goodbye, Freya." Merlin whispered, "I wish we had more time. Hmm. Time. What a silly thing. Sometimes it feels like forever, other times it slips away. We all want more time in the end. I just wish the ones that deserve it would get it instead of the ones that don't. I know you're still there Freya but, I can't see or hear you or feel you. I should go now, though. Goodbye Freya, thanks for everything."

Merlin sat up and took a second to arrange his thoughts before he got up and rubbed his eyes.
"Time to go serve the prat, and dodge the questions. Maybe should grab a few herbs, in case that was Gaius' excuse. I wish it wasn't always the tavern. I don't even drink, why doesn't the prat realize that?" Merlin muttered to himself as he walked back to Camelot. The knights looked at each other in surprise and, the moment Merlin was out of earshot, began to discuss what they had seen.

"What the hell was that?"

"Merlin's girl is a ghost..."

"Who the crap does that Kestrel bloke think he is?!"

"Who knew Merlin was deep and almost wise?"

"I wonder how Freya died..."