Hi! EizrilJinx wishes to say that she does not own Merlin and Never will, nor does she own any of the characters borrowed and forced under pain of permanent mental retardation to appear in this story, she does, however, own all OCs that shall hereby appear, Namely the big silver wolf, the people that play dead, and the miscellaneous personnel from other dimensions...

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Chapter 1: A Forest Rendezvous

It was yet another hunt and Merlin was groaning inwardly as he trudged the woods after the trigger-happy prince of Camelot who, Merlin noted out of the corner of his eye, was hidden in the bushes a little to his right and aiming his crossbow at a doe that the young warlock could only partially see, as it was obscured by a lot of foliage.

He wondered if he should crash in on Arthur and startle the doe away; it would surely annoy the prince and he just might decide Merlin was too much of a bother when hunting and call it a day… or it could be just the opposite and they'd end up hunting for another three hours longer than necessary. Knowing Arthur, probably the latter, stupidarroganthuntingfanaticPRAT.

There was a resounding thwang! As the bolt was released and found its mark straight at the doe's chest and the animal fell down dead, shaking Merlin out of his thoughts, he felt a surge of pity for the creature but there was nothing he could do for it, game was game.

And sorcerers were sorcerers, apparently, fair game for Uther Pendragon as much as the doe was for his son. Merlin frowned at the comparison, not liking where his thoughts were leading and was almost thankful –keyword being almost, when Arthur, not getting a response when he quipped about how Merlin shouldn't think so much as he might strain himself or when he snapped his fingers in front of the azure-eyed boy, decided that the most effective way to catch his servant's attention was to shout a very loud "EARTH TO MERLIN!!" somewhere a few inches away from his friend's ear. It was effective.

Merlin gave a start and managed to trip over his own feet, giving a small yelp as he fell face first on the forest floor, the packs he carried crashing and banging all over the place, Arthur started sniggering. Merlin glared at him.

"What? It's funny…" he said, grinning.

No. it's not. Thought Merlin, but he said nothing as he stood up and brushed dried leaves off his shirt.

"Well, are you done?" asked Merlin, aware that his tone was slightly haughty, which was weird. This was usually Arthur's tone. Arthur seemed aware of that too and raised a questioning eyebrow at Merlin, but the warlock was really not in the mood to apologize… or talk… or be cheery at all, for the matter. In fact all he wanted to do was finish his job and go back to his room and… brood. He didn't know why it was but for the past few days, he had been on edge, thinking a lot and felt like he had a lot less energy to do anything.

As if some sort of gloom had seeped into his bones while he was not looking.

And when he thought about it, he could only identify the feeling as dread, but there was absolutely no reason for the feeling that way. He frowned. Maybe he really was becoming retarded?

"Yes, actually, I am" he heard Arthur saying before the prince slung the doe over his shoulder, and Merlin absent-mindedly followed him back to the castle.

But when Arthur stopped only a few seconds after and turned to face him, Merlin knew he was in for it.

"What is wrong with you? You've lost your cheery-ness; you snap at me whenever I talk to you, you leave as soon as your chores are done, and… I can't believe it; you actually do your chores well!"

He took a deep breath.

"You don't mess up on hunts, you space out, you don't talk, you're brooding all the time, and, for the life of me, I cannot figure out the reason why unless… unless… "

Merlin could swear he could hear something jingling as Arthur screwed up his face and tried to rack his brains for a reason why Merlin would be acting this way, great, he thought sarcastically, maybe you could find a reason why, seeing as how I cant.

But Arthur gave up eventually and just settled for a "Who are you and what have you done with Merlin?" which didn't exactly help the warlock's mood. And now Arthur seemed to have gotten in a foul mood as well and they both ended up walking back to the castle in complete silence.

At least until they heard the scream.

Both boys froze in their tracks as the scream echoed from the forest behind them, a pained, frightened scream, they looked at each other then at the path they had gone through, completely forgetting about their spat. Arthur grabbed his crossbow and sword and Merlin dropped the packs he was bringing and both raced back into the forest at the direction of the sound.

It didn't take them long as they soon heard a frightening roar coming from the same direction; they both decided to hurry up… and emerged in a clearing, two sets of blue eyes going wide as they took in the scene before them.

It's gigantic, Merlin thought, as he eyed the humongous silver wolf that took up most of the clearing, it was bristling, snapping and wild… and yet, oddly graceful… beautiful. Arthur gasped and Merlin wondered if he was thinking the same thing, until he followed the prince's gaze and saw the three limp bodies at the wolf's feet… and the young girl it had cornered, she was cowering at the base of a tree, a look of utter terror on her face as the silver wolf approached her, snapping and growling wildly.

Merlin felt slightly betrayed, how could such a beautiful creature do such a thing? Well, it is wild, said a rational part of his brain, but Merlin felt he wasn't looking at the whole story here… that there was more to this scene, just lurking in the shadows, try as he might, he could not see the wolf as the antagonist.

Arthur, however, did not share his views.

As soon as he had seen the limp bodies and cornered girl, he immediately categorized the situation… girl: victim. Wolf: bad. Arthur: good. And leapt into the fray with a loud battle cry. Startling Merlin out of his thoughts, and the wolf out of cornering the child. It leapt away instantly, regarding the newcomer with wary eyes. Silver eyes. Noted Merlin. Still quite entranced at the giant wolf, but not enough to forget about Arthur, The wolf was not normal, it was probably magical… like the griffin, or the questing beast, and as such, would not be harmed by normal weapons, he had to enchant Arthur's sword.

But would Arthur notice? And if he did, what would Merlin tell him? The spell wasn't exactly the most inconspicuous one in the book, what, with the blade burning blue fire and all that.

And Merlin did not want to kill the wolf.

And that was probably the reason why he decided it would be best to just attempt to get the girl to safety and distract the wolf so that all three of them could run.

He just hoped Arthur could hold up for that long, because if he didn't… then Merlin didn't have a choice, Arthur's life was worth more than the wolf's.

Slowly, he edged closer to the girl, who was watching in bated breath as the prince swung and jabbed at the wolf, missing it by inches, Merlin blinked, the wolf was not attacking, it merely dodged every blow Arthur aimed at it, and it was surprisingly fast for something its size, but it did not attack. It did however, eye the girl and snarl at her, and she cowered even more and curled up into a piteous ball, whimpering. Arthur used the chance to jab his sword at the wolf, aiming for the heart, but the animal leaped to the side instantly and the blow hit its shoulder instead and Merlin gazed, wide-eyed as the cut spurted blood, the crimson staining the wolf's silver coat.

How? He thought, gazing in horror at the bloodied creature, that couldn't possibly happen, it shouldn't have been hurt. But it was, and the girl's gleeful shriek mingled with the wolf's howl of pain. No, he thought horrified, Arthur's going to kill it! He had to do something… but what? He had to stop Arthur… he had to–

The wolf closed its eyes and gave what Merlin thought could only be a long-suffering sigh, if wolves could sigh, and without a second thought, swiped at the prince with a paw, and the young man was thrown in the air, hit a tree rather viciously and fell to the ground unconscious. The girl seemed to cower down again as the wolf approached her, this time a lot more cautious, and it eyed Merlin several times warily. Merlin was torn… he couldn't let it eat the girl, but he didn't want to hurt it either. And he so desperately wanted to run over to the other side of the clearing to make sure Arthur was okay, but he was stuck on the spot he was standing on… indecisive.

The silver wolf growled at him, a warning growl, and had it been anyone else, they probably would have ran away screaming by now, but it was Merlin, and he had to do something, he wondered if the wolf would attack him if he tried to get to the girl, so far, it seemed it was not too keen on hurting anyone else, just the girl… He took a small step closer to the girl and was rewarded by a loud snarl as the wolf bared it's fangs at him. Merlin gulped, he was pretty sure that wolf could take his head off in one bite; its longest fang was about the size of a small dagger.

Merlin gulped again but looked defiantly into the wolf's silver eyes… the wolf looked back at him with the same defiant expression as if to say I dare you to stop me, but after a while, it rolled it's eyes, if wolves could roll their eyes, and placed a gigantic paw on Merlin's head, the warlock flinched and closed his eyes, sure that he was gonna get hurt but opened them again when he found that there was no hurt forthcoming. The wolf was staring at him pointedly and slowly and deliberately moved him to the side, far away from the girl.

Merlin didn't really want to move, but found that if you have a gigantic, heavy, powerful-enough-to-crush-bone paw on your head, there wasn't really much you could do against it. The wolf glared at him for a few moments, as if to say stay right there and keep out of trouble. Before turning to the girl, only to find that she was gone.

Apparently, the girl had used the few moments that the wolf was distracted by Merlin in order to slip away and get around the wolf, she was still in the clearing however and the wolf snarled in frustration before bounding up after her. Her eyes widened, but she did not scream… she was smiling.

The wolf was almost on top of her when all of a sudden, the entire clearing erupted into chaos, Merlin felt like he had been thrown into a tornado, fierce winds blowing him first this way and then that, leaves blew through the air, marking the paths the wind was taking, Not that Merlin could make them out anyway, he was too busy trying to hold on to a root, he felt like he was going to be blown up and out of sight the moment he let go, and he probably was, he could just barely make out the silver wolf just a few meters in front of him and it seemed even it was hanging on for dear life, it's snarls and growls joining in with the roar of the wind… and the girl's laughter.

She caused this. He realized. She's a sorceress.

"Too late, guardian…" he heard the girl saying. The wolf snarled angrily. "I was careless, but I've learned from my mistakes. You won't find me again."

And with another laugh, the girl disappeared, and the wind became still…

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EizrilJinx hopes you enjoyed this story and will send reviews, if you do not, she will be happy as well, although she will then resort to locking herself up in the closet and begging for chocolate oatmeal cookies and tea while standing on her head, let that be on your conscience.