The moon was hanging in the sky, ignorant as to what was happening under it.
A group of three were running through the forest as fast as they could. The sound of shouts rang through the forest. They were catching up. The forest started thinning up. They were almost out, that was good. They could call on Aithusa then. As if he could read minds, Balinor lifted his head. A deep rasping voice came out. "O drakon, e male so ftengometta tesd'hup'anankes!" he called. The other two paid him no heed. Hunith grabbed Merlin's hand and sped up again.
There was a cliff ahead of them. They had not accounted for that. "Aithusa won't be here for another 3 minutes." Balinor said. "The soldiers will have caught up in under 1." Merlin shot in. The cliff was now just ahead of them. They stopped running and looked at each other. "We just have to hold them off for a few minutes until Aithusa comes." Hunith said. Balinor and Merlin nodded in answer.
The soldiers had now caught up with them. Merlin held his sword in his right hand and held his left-hand out. Balinor had both hands out and Hunith had her hands on her sword. They had a silent conversation between them that all of them understood perfectly that said, 'You know I love you both'.
The soldiers ran forward ready to attack. Merlin shouted 'Astricé' and 7 soldiers flew backwards, landing hard on the ground. They didn't rise again. He quickly turned his attention back to the other soldiers. Merlin readied his sword. He turned towards 3 soldiers and easily disarmed and killed them, then moved onto the next batch.
An arrow came whistling through the air towards Hunith. Merlin saw it was going to hit her and acted. He slowed down time and turned the arrow around so that it hit another of the soldiers. They were so close to the cliff now, that if they got hit by an arrow or a bolt, they would get thrown over the edge by the force, Merlin thought.
They fought and managed to hold themselves for a good 2 minutes before another arrow came whistling through the air and caught Merlin unawares. It pierced through his armour and hit him right in the shoulder. Time seemed to slow down and speed up at the same time. He could feel his body getting thrown back over the edge. He saw his parents noticing what happened. Their eyes widened as he disappeared over the edge. Tears started to well up in his eyes as he thought 'I love you'. He heard Hunith shouting his name and he knew that they had gotten the message. He thought about all his friends and sent a message to them, 'I love you, and I'll miss you'. He could only hope that they got the message. He closed his eyes and felt himself hitting the water. The last thing he felt was the currents gripping his body and dragging it along as everything turned black.
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They fought and fought and managed to hold themselves. He could hear Aithusa saying she was almost there. Balinor tried to ignore her since her voice was a bit distracting. He sent her an 'ok', so she knew they were okay.
Then, he heard the one thing he didn't want to hear. He heard a child's scream. He turned around to where it came from. There he saw Merlin flying backwards, with an arrow in his shoulder. He looked so young and scared now. All Balinor could see was the tears in his eyes, and the arrow in his shoulder. The chances of survival if shot by an arrow was big, but such a long fall into a river. The survival chances were practically zero. 'I love you' rang through his head in a voice that was clearly Merlin's. He could hear Hunith shouting Merlin's name from his right. He paid her no heed. The only thing he could see was his son, his 11-year-old old son with an arrow in a shoulder, falling to his death. He was 11 for the gods' sake! He was way too young to fight!
No! He must focus! They were in the middle of a battle! Balinor turned around and resumed a fighting stance, sword in his right hand and his left-hand pointing forwards. 'We must continue to fight Love. We must survive for our kingdom. We must survive for Merlin!' he projected into Huntih's mind. She looked at him with tears in her eyes and nodded. Then they charged forward.
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Aithusa arrived only half a minute later. Still, it was half a minute to late. She quickly took care of the rest of the soldiers. When she landed, she noticed the sad look on their faces. She immediately understood something was wrong. Then she realised who was missing. "Where's Merlin?" she cried. Balinor looked towards the edge, and tears started streaming down Hunith's face. This was all Aithusa needed. "No...no...no..." Aithusa laid down with her hands over her head. She lifted her head and blew out a big ray of flames. Hunith and Balinor just stood there, looking at the grieving dragon. Aithusa and Merlin had always been close. They had formed an unbreakable bond it seemed. She laid down so that Hunith and Balinor could climb onto her back. As soon as they sat securely on her back, she took off.
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Arthur loaded another bolt into his crossbow. The deer they were hunting ran away again. Him and three other knights that accompanied him made their way down to the river. The animals usually went there to drink. When they arrived, there were no animals at the river.
On closer inspection, they noticed something silver reflecting the sun laying on the riverbank. They slowly made their way closer towards it. The silver they noticed was an armour piece. There was someone in the armour. The boy had a mop of black hair on his head. He couldn't be more than a few years younger than Arthur, and Arthur was now 14 years of age.
The armour around the boy looked way too thin to protect him from anything, but the arrow in his shoulder hadn't gone that far in. Wait... He's got an arrow in his shoulder. "What happened to him?" Arthur wondered out loud. He searched the boy, trying to find anything to identify him. The search turned out unfruitful as he couldn't find anything. "We need to take him to Gaius" Arthur commanded.
He grabbed tight around the arrow so that there would be about 5cm (2,5 inches) left of the arrow. He carefully bent the arrow until it snapped. One of the knights gave him a red cloth bit, probably ripped from one of their capes. He grabbed it and tied it carefully around the boy's wound. Arthur carefully lied the boy down and climbed onto his horse. The knights lifted the boy up on Arthur's horse so that he leaned on Arthur. He had one hand on either side of the boy while holding his reins. They slowly started making their way towards Camelot.
They arrived in Camelot later that evening. The knights grabbed the boy as soon as they were inside the courtyard. Arthur jumped down from his horse and grabbed the boy bridal style and brought him up towards Gaius' chambers. One of the knights knocked on the door and they went in.
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A pricking pain went through Merlin's torso as he woke up. He groaned and slowly opened his eyes. The light was blinding, so he blinked a few times until his eyes were used to the brightness. He could make out his surroundings after a small minute. He didn't recognise the room. It looked like a physician's room, but not their court physician.
"Hello. How are you feeling?" a voice asked. He turned towards the voice and saw an old man with long grey hair and a warm smile. Merlin couldn't help getting a bit panicked. His eyes widened as he started to look for a door. The man realised what he was doing and soon tried to calm him down.
After a few minutes of the man talking reassuringly was Merlin somewhat calm. The man brought some pillows to place behind Merlin's back so that he could sit more upright. "My name is Gaius. Might I know what your name is?" the man, Gaius, Merlin reminded himself asked. He thought about it and opened his mouth to tell him, but he couldn't form a word. Only a small croak came out. Hm, he hadn't noticed how dry his throat was. Gaius quickly got a cup of water and gave it to Merlin. He drank it and tried to speak again. He was successful this time.
"My name is Merlin." He answered while thinking to himself. Maybe best no one knows he is a prince just yet. He didn't know if he could trust them. "Nice to meet you Merlin. Now I would appreciate it if you could tell me what you were doing in a river with full armour and an arrow in your shoulder? You seem to young to be a solider and you had no kind of seal or anything on you, so we could find out where you come from." Gaius inquired.
His mind started racing trying to find up an excuse. He decided on going with a half-truth. "Me and my friend were out in the forest when we were attacked. I got shot and fell into the river. I don't know what happened to my friend." Merlin trailed of, thinking about his parents. He didn't know whether they got away or got caught. Gaius sat there quietly letting Merlin think, noticing the sad look in his eyes.
Gaius spoke up again after a small minute. "I'm sorry about your friend, but it still doesn't explain the full armour." Gaius inquired yet again. Oh, Merlin forgot about the armour. His mind was racing again to find an excuse. He had quite a talent in lying and coming up with excuses since his father helped him. Maybe it wasn't normal teaching others to lie, but it was necessary if Merlin ever got caught or something. "My friend is the son of a nobleman. I often get to borrow his practice armour when we're out." He quickly supplied. Great. Now he had committed himself to acting the role of a peasant for an indefinite amount of time. This was going to be difficult.
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Hello!
This is my first try at writing something like this. I hope it turned out okay. English isn't my first language, and I'm only 15 so I'm sorry if there are any grammar faults or words that are used wrong. I appreciate constructive criticism to help me improve.
This chapter is 1778 words long. I have no idea how authors writhe such long chapters, so kudos to them. I've used about 3 months on this single chapter, but I am working on speeding up. Please tell me if this seems interesting. Just send me a pm or something telling me to hurry up if I haven't updated in a while.
XO
MajaTerese