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“Whose idea was this?” Lancelot asked Merlin wearily as they walked along the road about a mile away from the sanctuary entrance, both laden down with signs they were going to be putting into hedges to direct people to the Open Day. The Open Day was supposed to be taking place in a worryingly close amount of hours and there was still an awful lot to get done.
“The Open Day or putting these signs up?”
“Putting the signs up. And whose idea was it to do this many? How many have you got?”
“Seven.”
“And I’ve got eight, so that makes fifteen. Surely there aren’t fifteen places between the carriageway and the sanctuary that people could get lost at.”
“Gwaine said there are.”
“Did he check on a different type of map to the ones I’ve always used and find loads of junctions that don’t actually exist?”
Merlin had never heard Lancelot, who was normally the kindest and most patient person that Merlin knew, be so sarcastic before. “Are you feeling okay or is the heat getting to you?”
“It’s the pollen.”
“The pollen?”
“I have hayfever but instead of sneezing and having watery eyes I just get irritable and tired.”
“Oh. Well, I’m not sure what Gwaine did about maps. I think he just came up with a list of all the points where he’s got lost trying to get to the sanctuary and then made a bunch of extra signs.”
“He’s got lost on the way here in 15 different places?”
“He’s got lost on the way here in far more than 15 different places because when he first started working here, when he was living by himself, he used to sometimes get lost between leaving his house and getting to the carriageway.”
“Oh dear.”
“Gwen and I got him a SatNav for our first anniversary.”
-
Though walking along the roadside meant getting hot and sticky and exasperated with the clouds of bugs, it was still rather less stressful than being at the sanctuary.
Arthur had been put in charge of all the planning and preparation for the open day. Being in charge had been one of Arthur’s favourite things to be for as long as he could remember. He had adored it as a child, been head boy at his secondary school and then very quickly made a job out of being in charge as a manager at various levels in various companies. Then he fell in love with someone rather less arrogant and more left-wing than him, experienced a vast shift in morals and received encouragement to do what made him happy for the first time in his life.
He was now finding that all those things combined were what had resulted in him standing on top of a haybale with a clipboard in hand and a tin of mackerel in his pocket. Gwen had passed by him, handed him the tin and told him to give it to a cat with an orange and black tail.
Of all the staff who worked at the sanctuary, Arthur was undoubtedly the least hands-on with the animals and all their paraphernalia. He was very good at doing all the necessary paperwork in the local office of the trust that ran the sanctuary, which was what he was really what he was payed to do. He kept the website up to date and looking pretty and best of all, he was the one who made the long and infuriating calls to insurance companies. The sanctuary had to both pay for various types of insurance but was also paid by insurance companies; for quite what exactly they got money for, only Arthur seemed to understand.
Arthur was also in charge of public engagement. One of the things about working outdoors with dragons, or even indoors with dragons, was that it often had the effect of making one somewhat eccentric. Arthur was suitably separate from the large quantities of being outside and working with dragons, so was deemed the best at getting the main sanctuary staff to be publicly palatable for long durations of time.
This year, Arthur had planned out the timetable for the day, given roles out to all the staff and done the health and safety paperwork. He’d arranged for sponsors and other charities they worked with to come to the open day with banners or little tables covered in leaflets to stick under a marquee, even though he knew full well that hardly anyone ever went to look at those kinds of things. There was an ice cream van and a truck that sold soft drinks and another truck that sold Greek food; he’d hired picnic benches and got a stack of cheap dustbins from B&Q to dot around the premises for the day.
Arthur Pendragon liked to be in charge. Arthur Pendragon liked it when everything went to plan, particularly when it was his plan that everything was supposed to be going to.
Arthur Pendragon was a hard taskmaster and good luck to anyone who wasn’t following his instructions properly.
-
“Do we know how many people might be coming to this?” Gwaine called out to Gwen as he came jogging up to her. She was tugging hay bales out of the barn to make the last of the tiered seating thing that Merlin was going to have to talk to an audience in front of at some point later on.
“No. Probably the same amount of people that have come before?” she guessed. “Toss that one up here and could you get another one to replace that one? It’s a bit small. And aren’t you supposed to be doing something else?”
Gwaine scratched the back of his neck and grinned sheepishly. “Uh, yeah.”
“What are you supposed to be doing?”
“Helping Percival hang up a banner by the front gate.”
“Have you left him to do it by himself?” Gwen stopped hauling her hay bale and stared at Gwaine aghast. “Arthur’s going to be-”
“It’ll be fine; Percival can manage better without me than he ever could with me getting in the way.” Gwaine said confidently. “Besides, what Arthur doesn’t know can’t make him angry at me.”
Gwen raised an eyebrow. “Are you willing to risk that?”
“Well I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Have you been made to give a talk later?”
“No. Arthur doesn’t trust me to talk in front of a load of people who are supposed to be giving us money. Are you doing one?”
“I think I’m doing three. Well, it’s the same one but I have to do it three times. It’s the same one I did last year. And the year before that.”
“The one on the history of dragon sanctuaries and why they’re important and we need to be given extra money on top of the government stuff blah, blah, blah?”
Gwen threw a blade of straw at him. “It’s more than just blah, blah, blah!”
Gwaine threw the straw back. “I know there’s more to it than that. You’ll be fine. The public love you.”
“I’m always fine because everyone loves me.” Gwen said, smiling. “If you’re not helping Percival, do you want to help me get this finished instead?”
“I am one of the people who love you the most.” Gwaine grinned and kissed her on the cheek. “And one of the reasons I love you is that you are completely capable of finishing this all by yourself and you only asked me to help so that I could feel somewhat useful, a gesture I truly appreciate, but I am more than happy for you to finish it all by yourself and I will find somewhere else to make myself useful.”
He jumped down from the hay bales and Gwen threw a handful of straw onto his head. “There’s only one bale left to sort out, you coward!”
“The last one’s always the hardest so that’s why I’m leaving now!”
Gwaine darted away.
Gwen was just finishing the seating when Arthur walked over to her, looking like he would have much rather been in his air conditioned office sending emails than be preparing for the beginning of the Open Day. “Have you seen Gwaine anywhere?”
“He was just here but I don’t know where he’s gone. Is everything alright?”
“No, nothing is alright. Everything is terrible and this whole thing is going to be a disaster!” Arthur shouted, arms flailing.
“Are you possibly being a little bit overdramatic?”
“Yes but I needed to get it out of my system so I don’t kill Gwaine when I find him.”
“What’s he done?”
“He left Percival to hang up the banner by himself, which made him take twice as long as was needed so now the rest of my schedule is running behind!” Arthur said.
He still seemed quite agitated.
“I’m going to go and make sure he’s not skipping his next task again.” Arthur walked off.
Gwen hastily got her phone out of her pocket to check the schedule Arthur had given her. She didn’t want to be on the receiving end of his disgruntlement. He’d be a complete softie once the day was over and someone had given him a cold drink, but until then he was scarier than their scariest dragon.
-
Merlin got back to the sanctuary before Lancelot did.
Their routes for putting up the signs went in different directions, so Lancelot had gone one way with his last two signs and Merlin had gone another. When they’d left each other, Lancelot had been using his signs for fanning himself and swatting away crowds of bugs. Merlin was much more amenable about bugs and heat and hayfever than Lancelot was.
Merlin got back to the sanctuary and wished that Lancelot had stuck with him so he wouldn’t have to deal with Arthur shouting about a banner and Gwaine by himself.
Percival was standing in front of a banner on the front fence. He had a toolbox in one hand. Arthur was gesturing at the banner rather angrily.
“What’s happened?” Merlin called.
“Gwaine’s abandoned his position and Percival let him!” Arthur shouted.
“I don’t-”
“I’m going to go and find Gwaine.” Arthur decided. He turned and walked down the drive.
“What happened?” Merlin asked Percival. “Or do I not want to know?”
“I’m not entirely sure what happened.” Percival said simply. “I need to go and brush the alpacas now.”
“I’ll see if I can persuade some dragons to come out of the woods and fly past.” Merlin decided. “You don’t think Arthur’s going to be going near the woods, do you?”
“No. Why?”
“Because if he carries on shouting like that, all the young dragons there will get over-excited and might start a fire.”
-
Arthur’s anger towards Gwaine diminished somewhat when he saw him helping one of the volunteers from another charity setting up their marquee.
“Am I allowed off schedule if it’s to help other people?” Gwaine shouted when he caught sight of Arthur. “Or is helping not allowed?”
“Helping people is fine!”
They both secretly considered calling the other out on the suspected sarcasm in each other’s voices but decided against it.
-
Lancelot came back to the sanctuary in a far worse mood than he had been in when Merlin left him. “I fell into a patch of nettles.”
Merlin looked at Lancelot’s rash-covered arms and winced. “There’s some cream for putting on nettle stings in the first aid cupboard in the office in the barn. I think it’s called Arnica."
Lancelot held up the palms of his hands, showing even more rash. “Could you get it for me?”
“Of course.”
The dragons were, obviously, the main draw to the open day. Most of the time, the dragons who lived at the sanctuary were spread out fairly evenly across it. There were dragons living wild in the woods and the hills and the river; there were also those that inhabited the hedges and the fields. Some had far more interaction with the staff; the dragons that had injuries or illnesses so needed medication, the baby dragons being hand-reared, like Aithusa, and the dragons that didn’t know how to fully look after themselves in the wild so needed a bit of help, like Billy. Some of the dragons just like to come for a bit of extra food or a chat, like Millicent, and some were absolute recluses that the staff only saw in the woods about once a year or so.
A lot of the dragons were fairly happy to be bribed into the barn for one day a year to be looked at by the visitors. Merlin and Lancelot walked into the barn, heading for the office, and much to their surprise, found a tree dragon dangling off the lampshade with a book in its teeth.
Merlin sighed. “You’re going to have to wait a moment to get that cream, Lancelot.”
-
An alarm went off on Arthur’s phone. It was time. “Open the gates!”
He heard nothing. He looked around himself and realised that there was no one in earshot. “Open the gates!”
He walked around the side of the cottage and caught sight of Merlin. “Oi! Merlin!”
“What is it?”
“It’s time to open the gates now!”
Merlin went running up the driveway to get the gate open.
-
The open day finished at five. Arthur’s next schedule began; gates had to be shut and some of the animals had to be taken back to their usual locations. The food trucks packed up and drove away, as did the other organisations present. The dustbins were emptied into one of the mega bins behind the barn; the company that Arthur had hired the picnic benches from called to say that they were running a bit behind on their schedule and would be picking them up about an hour later than planned. There had been no emergencies or catastrophes or burns, so there was no paperwork to be filled out or claims made to the insurance companies. As far as public satisfaction went, the day had been a success.
There was a team meal in the garden of the cottage at the end of the day. Merlin had a mountain of frozen pizzas and garlic bread defrosting on the kitchen table and the rest of the staff were floating around laughing and chatting.
“I think that went really well, Arthur.” Gwen said. “Well done!”
“It went alright.” Arthur said, smiling. “I’ll count the money later.”
“Do you want a drink, first?” Lancelot walked out of the kitchen with a crate of beer. “I think we’ve all earned it.”
“No drinking for me until after all the money’s been counted.” Arthur said. “I’ll check the online banking tomorrow but I’ll count all the cash tonight and then keep it in the safe here until I can take it to the bank on Monday morning.”
Gwen and Gwaine exchanged a look. “There’s a safe here?”
Arthur sighed. “On second thought, I’ll have that drink now thanks, Lancelot.”
Gwen and Gwaine laughed.
Lancelot handed out the beer. “To Arthur being good at organising!”
“To Arthur!”