So, yeah, I know it's been a few weeks since I last posted something and I'm sorry, but I hope this will make up for it. At last, here is the long awaited sequel to "Hidden Knowledge and Painful Revelations" ! I know it's been some months since the last story but I really wanted to write some other things before I started this, and I only wrote half of all the things I wanted to! Oh, well. Anyway, here's what you can expect in this story. It will have Whump, though not nearly as much as my previous story did, but don't worry I'll still hurt Merlin. It will have Great Amounts of Bromance! No Slash whatsoever. Near reveal of something other than Merlin's magic. Unfortunately, the actual reveal will not be in this story, though, it will happen in this series. Hopefully this will have some original ideas and better writing than my first story. And this will probably be around the same length as the other story as well. Also, you should all know that this takes place in the third season, so roughly something like three to four years since everything with the first story happened. And spoilers are for anything before the 304 because I never know what I'm going to put in here.

Warnings: There will be some violence and at least one near-death experience. Some possible mild swearing. Probably at least one creepy dude and maybe a few scary moments. Once again, no slash.

Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin, but I tip my hat to the makers of it for creating something that I enjoy so much that I will write about it. My only profit is the joy that this gives me and the others who enjoy it.

Gathering Clouds

Chapter 3: The Calm Before the Storm

Merlin slowly opened his bleary and heavy eyes and gazed at the yellow light coming from the small window that lit up his room. He rolled rather clumsily out of his bed and shuffled over to the window that was more of a peephole.

He'd always loved looking out his window. Ever since he had first come to Camelot and had looked out at the awe-inspiring kingdom he had been in love with the gorgeous sight. Living all his life in Ealdor, a town of less than a hundred people, coming to a place so big with so many different and unique people and things and customs had completely amazed the young warlock. And to this day he still loved Camelot-watching.

But this morning, like the past three, his routine to always gaze down at the people below him when he woke up was ruined by the dark storm cloud.

Merlin had lived and had seen a fair few storms. Some were light and only lasted a minute or two, while others were dark and could last for several days and caused havoc and destruction.

But never before had he seen a storm cloud layer like this. In the morning Camelot's golden light would bathe Merlin's room, but this morning the light wasn't as bright and as Merlin looked out at the once bustling city his heart was only more discouraged, instead of being lifted up. Usually there would be hundreds of people he could see from his window, but now there were only a few dozen who carried on with their business as quickly as possible so that they could return to the shelter of their homes. In the courtyard directly below Merlin could see a servant girl draw water and then run as fast as she could for the nearest door.

The ominous presence in the edge of his sight drew his gaze towards the thing he hoped and wished wouldn't be there when he woke up; the thing that he feared seeing. Where he would normally see on the horizon bright blue sky and a few fluffy white clouds he now saw, just like he had seen every morning for the past week, a dark, heavy layer of clouds that stretched as far as anyone could see in the direction of Cenred's kingdom. Except that it wasn't going to pay the cruel king a visit, but rather it was heading towards Camelot.

A week ago the first black hints of the storm could be seen on the horizon, but no one had paid it any attention. It was too far away to ever reach them and would be gone in a day. However, that evening two men had been granted an audience with the king and the truth of their words had been evident by the very real fear in their voices. They lived on the southeastern edge of Cenred's kingdom and they had witnessed a town in the distance getting torn apart by a storm bigger than any one they had ever seen. Their words still rang in Merlin's ears and no doubt many others.

"My brother and my family and I live on a flat plane, which allows us to see for miles and miles in all directions. It's not hard to see a distant town four days away from our little village and so it was easy to see its destruction. Not a week after we saw the storm far away in the sky it came upon them and from the safety of our home we watched rain falling like rocks and howling winds half tear apart that town, and they were only caught on the edge of the storm. I cannot imagine the destruction that would be unleashed should something be caught in the eye of that tempest. Half of us went out to help them while the other half ran as far away as they could. But we, my brother and I, care not for our pig of a king, but respect you as a good man and know of the thousands of innocent souls that reside in your kingdom and we had to warn you. Please, sire, this storm is not of natural occurrence. It is deadly and in its thunderous eye lightening shoots like arrows. It eats across the sky and yet when you turn the other way all you see is blue and not a single cloud.

"Sire, no storm of this force could last this long and come from one direction without any warning from the other. The day is bright and clear here and already you can see the black clouds of anger on your horizon. We rode straight here, only stopping to warn others, but the storm seems to be slowing down. Unless it stops before it arrives here then many of your people will perish. This is not the kind of storm that brings precious water to your crops; it is a storm that destroys all."

Uther had not known quite what to believe about the tidings of doom that had been brought to him, but he had told Gaius to search his books to see if such a storm could be natural. Of course, Merlin and Gaius had pretty quickly concluded that if the storm did reach them then it was most definitely caused by magic.

Since that first day perhaps a dozen or so people had come to Camelot telling of the destruction the storm was causing. One man had even described to them the devastation he had seen in areas that the storm had already passed through. And now with the black clouds marring the sky there was hardly a single person who didn't believe the truth of what those people had said.

At first Uther hadn't been sure what to think and had decided to wait for some more conclusive proof. But after a few days it had become very clear that the once small spot on the horizon that was growing ever bigger was a terrible storm that didn't seem to be stopping. So Uther had sent men and patrols out in order to get a good look at the thing and the reports hadn't been very encouraging.

It was only a week later and already the clouds were starting to block out the sunlight. The clouds themselves were grey on the top, but the blackest black on the bottom. And sure enough, in the middle of the storm one could easily see shards of lightening spike down and flash within its noxious center.

Merlin doubted that there was anyone in the whole of Camelot who hadn't heard the tales the visitors had told and now everyone was afraid to so much as step outside their own door. But it wasn't just the dark clouds that had people scared, no; it was the buzz, the sparkling electricity that danced along their skin anytime they were in the open. Only the safety of the indoors seemed able to keep out the electrical current that the lightening in the distance sent towards Camelot.

People were afraid and Merlin had to admit that even he was scared. There was something unnerving about the clouds, something that made him feel slightly queasy. Every morning when he woke up the clouds would be a little worse, though; they seemed to be slowing down just a bit, but not enough.

It had been one week and Merlin had known instinctively as soon as he had looked out at the practically deserted streets of Camelot that today things would change. Something would be done about the huge storm cloud intending to destroy Camelot today, though what Merlin didn't know.

Merlin burst into Arthur's chambers with plenty of noise just as he did every morning. And just like every morning he threw open the curtains so that the bright sunlight would wake Arthur up instead of him having to be within the prince's attack range. Of course, he still would always get something thrown at him, but in Merlin's experience having a goblet ping against the back of his head was far more preferable to having the breath knocked out of him by one of Arthur's punches to his stomach. Though, sometimes they felt worth it when he saw the fog of sleepiness clear from Arthur's eyes and realization of what he had done dawn upon him. Once Arthur had even gone as far as to give Merlin a day off after he had reflexively socked him so hard in the gut that he hadn't been able to stand for a full ten minutes afterwards.

Merlin knew that Arthur never meant to truly hurt him. Cause some discomfort and light pain perhaps, though, Merlin still found it and odd way of expressing friendship. But in the end, having proof that Arthur actually cared about him had been worth the agonizing pain.

That didn't mean, however, that he wasn't a little afraid and disappointed when the light from the windows wasn't bright enough to wake Arthur up on this particular morning. Sure enough, the light fell on the prince's face, but sometime in the night the dollop-head had completely buried himself under his many pillows and blankets, so the sunlight hardly affected him. Merlin wasn't sure if it was the pile of pillows on top of his pratish master or if the days were starting to get darker, but either way he wasn't happy with what he now had to do.

Merlin considered using magic to wake Arthur up, but he decided against it since Gaius would most likely kill him if he found out. Whenever any evidence of sorcery was brought to Uther's awareness Gaius would always get really freaked out and would drill into Merlin yet again that he must be extremely careful with his magic and must not be caught under any circumstances. But considering what had happened almost two years before with the Witch Finder Merlin supposed Gaius had a right to be worried. Merlin couldn't suppress a shudder at the thought of what Gaius had gone through at the hands of Aredian. Merlin knew that it had been his carelessness that had caused his guardian so much pain and the weight of that guilt was something that he knew he would carry for the rest of his life.

Merlin had a lot of regrets, but right now he was trying to figure out which he would regret more, letting Arthur wake up of his own accord and then having to listen to Arthur rant about how incompetent he was and probably would have to suffer through countless disgusting and humiliating chores. Or he could wake Arthur up now and quite possible suffer great pain and probably wouldn't get as much sympathy this time. In the end, though, Merlin decided to perform his job since he had a gut feeling that it was important for Arthur to be on time to everything today.

Merlin picked up a pillow and tossed it at the blanket-covered shape that barely resembled Arthur. The lump shifted but otherwise there was no change. Merlin picked up two more pillows and threw them as hard as he could at Arthur. No effect.

Merlin sighed deeply. There was nothing for it; he'd have to make physical contact because if he threw anything heavier at Arthur then the prince would no doubt kill him. Merlin leaned forward and shook Arthur as hard as he could and then jerked away and crouched down. But for all his swiftness Merlin only just barely missed getting hit by the powerful arm that flew up into the air.

"Merlin!" came Arthur's groan, but it was muffled since the prince's face was still buried deeply in his mattress.

"Time to wake up, sire," Merlin said with practiced ease as he began to pick out what his master would wear.

Arthur lifted his head up and out of the pillows to stare at his window. Merlin couldn't suppress a snort at the sight of his master's disheveled and sloppy hair.

Arthur squinted as the light hit his eyes and then scowled. "Merlin! Are you getting even more incompetent? It's not bright enough to be morning yet. You've woken me up for nothing." And with that Arthur's head disappeared back into the covers.

With a sigh in his voice Merlin replied, "No, sire, I haven't, it's morning."

"But it can't be!" Arthur retorted with early-morning annoyance in his voice. "I've lived in Camelot all my life and I know what the sun is like at what times of the year. I also, Merlin, know my bedroom window and I can tell you with certainty that this is not morning. Maybe an hour or two 'til morning, but not time for me to wake up!" Again his head dropped onto his pillows.

"It is if there is a great big storm cloud blotting out the sun," Merlin replied slowly.

And just like that Arthur shot straight up in bed and took a long good look out his window and noticed the very thing he too had been dreading. Arthur got out of his bed and Merlin watched all the exhaustion bleed out of him as the gravity of what was heading toward Camelot fell on his shoulders. There was perhaps nothing that mattered more to Arthur than Camelot and he was being faced with something he'd never had to fight before. Nature.

"Well," asked Uther, "what's causing it Gaius?"

"Sire," the old man replied, "I can't say for certain but I know it isn't the usual way of things. This storm is not being caused by any force of nature."

Merlin almost grinned as he saw Arthur straighten himself where he was standing slightly. The warlock didn't doubt that Arthur was glad it wasn't something he had no defense against. Of course, he himself already knew what Gaius was going to say and had actually been preparing some for it. But it hadn't been easy. For the past five days Arthur had been doing everything he could to ease his people's fear and that meant that Merlin had been working twice as hard.

Shortly after Arthur had eaten his breakfast and had been fully dressed a summons from the king had arrived. Arthur, the knights, the most important councilors and Gaius had been called for a meeting. And, naturally, where Arthur went Merlin went also.

Uther hadn't wasted any time asking Gaius what the source of the storm was, and Merlin just hoped that the king wouldn't freak out too much at what he heard. Then again, it's Uther.

"Well, what do you believe this threat is?" Uther asked, never one to beat around the bush.

"My lord, I believe it to be the cause of magic. No ordinary storm could last this long and create such damage," Gaius answered carefully. Merlin got the feeling that he was warily watching his words as he always did when around the Pendragons, especially Uther.

"Magic!" the king exclaimed and Merlin wanted to roll his eyes. "But who would be powerful enough to create such a storm?"

Merlin was actually a little surprised that the king had asked an important question instead of getting all angry and in his "purge" mode.

Gaius looked very grave as he answered. "Not someone, my Lord, but something. To my knowledge there is no one who wants to destroy Camelot powerful enough to do something like this." Merlin inwardly smiled at how his mentor hadn't outright lied. Merlin didn't know if he was powerful enough to do this, but if he was then at least the old man hadn't lied. "I have done some research and I have come across a device that is said to hold great power. It can grant all but the most powerful of wishes and if someone tried to use this artifact to send a never-ending and deadly storm to Camelot then we are most certainly in danger. A man by himself would not be able to keep up this kind of magic for long, but if an unfeeling object had enough power stored within it then there would be no problem. The item I found in my search is said to be able to grant wishes and I believe that it could be the cause of this storm. And if that is the case then the only way to stop it is to turn it off or destroy it."

Some of the people in the hall whispered to each other at these words, Merlin; however, kept his attention on Uther and Arthur to see what their reactions would be.

"And where is this…" Uther floundered slightly for the right word, "magical item located?"

"Sire, the only information that I have found as to its whereabouts says that it is somewhere on the other side of the Border." That caused even more whispers. "That is all I know," Gaius finished.

Merlin could see Uther visibly stiffen at the mention of the Border. Since coming to Camelot Merlin had heard the occasional rumor about what was southeast of the kingdom and why no one ever ventured there or why they were no kingdoms in that area. But he had never really heard anything substantial about it because it was apparently another one of those touchy subjects with the king. And looking at Uther now it wasn't hard to tell.

The king's features twisted slightly in anger. "There is nothing across the Border, Gaius; you of all people should know that."

Gaius looked like he wanted to sigh and Merlin didn't blame him. "There may be something ancient left over from the old times, sire. And if there's not then we shall have no way of preventing this storm from reaching us."

Uther looked like he was about to yell, but then he calmed down some and turned to gaze at his son. "Arthur, you will take a patrol of as many knights as you need and you will cross the border and find a way to stop this threat. Gaius, how long before the storm hits?" he asked of his old friend.

"About two weeks, and the eye of the storm will hit a few days after that," he answered. "But, my lord, it is possible that the knights will be unable to pass over the Border."

"And why is that?" Uther asked pompously.

"You've heard the rumors, only—" Gaius began but was interrupted by Uther.

"That's all they are, Gaius, nothing but rumors. You should know better than to take stock in them." He gazed sternly at the old man that he often forgot was his friend. "The myths of the Old Religion mean nothing now," he said with a finality that left no room for argument. Once again he addressed Arthur. "You will ride out as soon as you are ready."

Arthur bowed along with the few other knights in the room and turned and left. Merlin followed along behind him and once they were a fair distance from the throne room Arthur turned to him and said, "We leave tomorrow at first light. Try not to be late this time, Merlin."

Merlin considered making some sort of joke, but he knew that there was some times where he needed to let Arthur be serious and do his thing. So he let his prince walk off to gather the rest of the knights without saying a single word, opting instead to talk with Gaius.

He entered the chambers he shared with the old man and saw that Gaius was already there and bent over some sort of potion. His guardian seemed pretty intent on whatever he was working on so Merlin went into his room and began to gather his things. After he had collected the few things he planned on bringing along he decided to break the comfortable silence and ask the questions that had been pestering him.

"Gaius, what is the Border exactly?"

The old man straightened up and sighed. "Sometimes I forget that you don't know these things. As you know, during the time of the Great Purge Uther hunted all those who had even the slightest relation to magic and many tried to flee from his wrath. Most did not escape and were killed. Some of the more powerful ones like Nimueh were strong enough to hide themselves. But there were a few who weren't very powerful but managed to run far enough. They ran to the east and disappeared. When the knights and soldiers tried to follow them they were stopped by some invisible force that blocked their path. And it was the same for others. Some sorcerers who tried to take refuge in the land beyond that invisible line were stopped just like the soldiers, while other passed through with no difficulty. Many tried to leave simply because they did not wish to live in the world Uther was creating, even though they themselves didn't practice magic, and some of them were allowed to cross. The Border is an invisible wall between Camelot and some unknown land and for as long as anyone can remember only a random few are allowed to pass through it. Some believe that only the good and pure of heart may enter that strange land. Others believe that only those of a great destiny may do so. And some believe that only those with a great need of its refuge will find its shelter. How much of this rumor is true I do not know, though I did see someone cross the Border a long time ago, but I do know that when Uther tried to pursue the fleeing sorcerers he was stopped."

Merlin pondered that for a moment. "So it is possible that myself and the knights will not be able to do this?" he asked.

"Yes, Merlin," Gaius answered simply.

"But what do I do? I can't just not go because of a possibility!" Merlin exclaimed. "I guess I just have to cross my fingers and hope that the Border likes me." He smiled slightly.

"Somehow I think it will, Merlin, it's hard not to like you," Gaius responded and reciprocated the smile.

Merlin's face fell a little bit. "But what happens if none of us can make it across?"

Gaius sighed and his face became serious. "Then Camelot falls."

So...that's the first chapter and I hope it didn't disappoint. I tried to make it different from the first one because not only was that one about Merlin in his beginning stages, but I also was in my beginning stages of writing fanfiction. Personally, I already like this better and I definitely think that my skill has improved since the first one. But what do you guys think? Please review and tell me how much you like this story so far.

So, I bet a bunch of you are wondering what happened to "Chapter 2: The Growth" . Well, my idea when I mentioned that "chapter" was to have something that would sum up all of the work that the actual show has done. For me, everything that comes before this story is the growth of their friendship. I felt like I couldn't just skip over the three or so years that pass by in the show, so I put that in there. But this story is chapter three in this series of mine, and I may never write a actual story for chapter two. But, if I come up with something good then I may.

And, in case any of you are under the wrong impression, you should all know that I have no plans to ever write a Merlin/Morgana fic. In my previous story I mentioned that Merlin is going to kill Morgana with his love, but what I meant by that was something completely different. It will make more sense when it comes. Also, I do think that Merlin loves Morgana, but only in a friendship way. Until the show gives me proof that Merlin cares about her in a romantic way I refuse to write anything about that.

So, thank you to everyone who's read this chapter and plans to continue reading this story. Please review.