The Knights sat around the fire silently, it was Lancelot's turn to read first, he carefully flipped to the very first page of the journal, only to find that it wasn't Merlins normally straight scrawling, no this handwriting was much neater and straighter, in a way, more feminine. Lancelot looked at the page and noticed that the entire had been dated a little over 20 years ago.

"To whomever is reading this.. My name is Hunith and this is a journal I plan to pass down to my son, Merlin.

Merlin.. My son was born on very cold day, the wind tearing at everything and the rain sounding like pelting rocks.. I managed to survive the birth by some miraculous miracle, and a little after he was born.. I noticed it. Merlin is a very interesting boy, powerful even at this young age.. My son has magic, I spoke to one of the wise men of our village, Merlins godfather about Merlins abilities and.. my son is a warlock.

I noticed his abilities one night when a man has been attacking several people in our village, it was a few nights after Merlins birth, this man had been breaking into people's homes and attacking them.. This man broke into my home, attempted to attack me, struck me once which had caused me to cry out and it happened.. A loud noise, an outcry and the man was thrown from the house, landing in the center of the village, causing a clatter. I looked over to merlin to check on him and I saw him, lying in this small bed, his naturally bright aqua blue eyes were.. were a fiery gold, startling and obvious. Pure, unadulterated and natural magic.. purely instinctual. My son was a new born child and he acted purely on child instinct, attempting to protect his parent.. But he succeeded. My Merlin.. My brilliant, special son.. my child. Oh Merlin.."

Lancelot paused for a moment, looking at the Knights. Out of all the Knights, Arthur, Leon and Lancelot were the only ones whom had met Hunith, Lancelot had met her when he'd gone on a visit with Merlin, unknown to the others. Gwaine, Percival and Elyan had never met Hunith, only heard stories about her, but they'd always seen the shyly fond smile on Merlins lips when he spoke of her. Lancelot looked to everyone, as if asking if he should continue, earning a few nods in agreement. Lancelot turned a few pages and began again,

"Merlin met his first friend today, I'm almost certain that this child will be my sons only friend for a very long time. The boys name is William, prefers to be called Will. He saved my sons life and even after Merlin revealed his.. abilities.. Will was still so determined to stay at Merlins side, to be his friend.

From what I understand, several of the other children were bullying Merlin because of his lack of a father. They'd bullied him to the point where Merlin had taken to sprinting off into the woods, the children following him even then. They'd pushed him into the river, claiming that, and-I-quote, "The bastards magic will save him, he'll be fine!" Well they were wrong and my son almost drowned. Lucky not everyone in this village is a single minded fool, Will had jumped into the water and dragged merlin free of the waters currents, then proceed to rather violently attack several of Merlins assailants. One of the children came at William with a dagger and merlin had used his magic to burn the handle of the dagger, the boy had dropped it and the others had scurried away. From what I understand, William had looked at Merlin, shocked and Merlin was certain he'd be hurt again, but to his shock.. William had held out his hand and said,

"Come on, let's get you to your mum, then when you're not hurt anymore, we can play." William saved my sons life.. and is still his friend to this day. I just hope Merlin will be able to find more people that will see merlin as a good person, a human and not as everyone in this god forsaken village.. everyone here sees him as a monster and I just hope that someday, somewhere, merlin will find friends-I hope he finds people that he can one day consider his family when I've passed."

Though none of the Knights would ever ask it, they wondered if that's what they were to Merlin, people he considered his friends- his family. If he truly, truly viewed them as his family.