My first fanic!

I own nothing of Merlin.

The forest had a gentle serene feeling to it. They had just left the city that morning in search of smugglers, according to their reports. Thankfully it was a calm sunny day, with only a few lonely clouds in the sky. The ground had finally dried out from all the rain that summer was ushering in. It was early afternoon by the time they were in the forest, in no hurry.

It was another senseless patrol in Merlin's opinion. Arthur rarely gave him a day off, and even then, the young prince would end up in some life threatening mess and Merlin would have to fix everything. So even his days off weren't days off. It was only the two of them on this patrol, which was turning out to be the prince dragging his manservant through a pointless, time wasting, uneventful, mission.

A scream of pain and complete exhaustion instantly had the duos attention. They galloped their horses in the direction of the sound finding a dozen bandits. They were near the darkling forest now, the men were still on the move, seeing as the horse was still attached to a large cart they were carrying. It seemed to be the same area as when Arthur had accused Merlin of playing hide and seek shortly after saving his life.

Typical. Merlin thought, as he followed Arthur in pursuit of the men. Five minutes later the knight was standing, sword raised, as only a few bandits ran for their lives. Merlin curious eyes were drawn to the cart. It looked relatively new when they had first encountered the thugs, but had then be jostled and broken from the men fighting. But it was dented and had been separated from it's wheels. It looked large enough to hold something but what? It was just simple square cart, the men had abandoned it their haste. Merlin felt strangely drawn to it; as if there was something in there he needed to get to, to help.

But why?

Unable to resist, he stumbled over, knelt down, and carefully opened the door. It hadn't been locked, nothing there except a piece of wood to keep it closed.

"What were these people trying to smuggle?" Arthur wondered aloud, walking over some of the fallen men and their forgotten possessions. "Merlin!" Arthur yelled, now watching as the boy opened the door to a cart of only who knew what contained.

Merlin's eyes widened in shock as he took in the sight of a dirty, exhausted, and clearly terrified young woman. She was in a corner of the cart, her knees huddled close to her body, as if someone was going to suddenly grab her, and put her through something horrible.

"It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you." He said quietly as he extended a hand to her. That's when he noticed the chains. She was shackled to around to the back of the cart, where there was a hole so she could be controlled. Her bonds attached her wrists together, using more chains, which looked as though they had been through as much as she had.

"Merlin what are you…" The Prince trailed off as he saw the poor girl. The prince pulled back slightly, as he looked into the girl's eyes. She looked as though she expected to be killed.

"Are you alright?" The manservant asked tentatively.

The girl nodded shakily. "Your safe now. I'm going to go to the front of the cart to see if I can release you." The Prince explained. "Merlin, try not to do anything stupid."

"Who were those people?" The manservant asked in a lighter voice, trying to lessen her tense nature by talking. He had stiffened somewhat when he first saw her, but now, not wanting to give any reason to think they were actually going to hurt her, he relaxed his posture again.

"I-I don't know. I t-think they wanted to sell me." The girl responded relaxing slightly. What does he seem so sincere? She asked herself as she felt her muscles ease slightly, her face calming from her perpetual state of horror.

"I'm sorry for what you've been through. But I won't let anymore harm come to you." He said as a small smile making it's way easily to his lips.

Merlin heard the sound of chains slipping through wood and watched the girl pull her arms forward to examine them. Her arms were small to begin with, but why did it look like she had been burned? Her skin was raw and bloody, and she was trembling.

The girl watched carefully as the noble reappeared, without any sort of weapon to hurt her. She looked over at the raven haired boy, and began to move out of the dark, windowless cart. She moved toward them, as the Merlin held out his hand. Cautiously she took his hand, her face flitting to shock before instantly recovering, as she moved into the sparkling light of the now quiet forest.

The girl had long dark hair that reached past her shoulder blades, falling in messy waves down her back, she wore a plain brown wine colored dress that was tattered and torn up to her knees, the sleeves ripped off to her just above her elbows. Her eyes however, were a deep blue, like dancing water on a sunny day, despite her recent experience, she did not look completely broken.

"Let's see if we can find the key." Arthur stated as her looked around, glancing at her restraints.

"There was a man that was i-in charge of that. I believe he is lying over there." The girl said, her voice now a little steadier. She pointed a short ways to her left.

Merlin went in the direction she indicated, fining the unconscious, sweaty man lying against a tree. The man looked to be middle aged, wearing a brown fur vest over his dark tunic. Merlin immediately spotted the key in a pocket of his shirt, and walked back over to the girl. She was still shaking regardless of the warm summer air. Even thought she was tired, hope seemed to swim back into her eyes as she saw the key. Within minutes the shackles sunk to the ground with a thud.

"What's your name?" the warlock asked kindly, holding her gaze.

"Mirriya." She responded, a small shaky smile appearing at the kindness of the men who had saved her.

The prince the caught her gaze, "Well I'm glad your safe Mirriya, my name's Arthur, and this is my servant, Merlin."


In the late afternoon they made their slow journey back to Camelot. Mirriya had taken Merlin's horse, as they had noticed her exhaustion, injuiries, and the fact she was still shacking. Merlin led light black horse, walking beside the girl to make sure she didn't fall. It was odd that he didn't sense anything dangerous about this girl. He felt strangely relaxed with the new addition to the group. He just sensed something good in her.

"I've never been this way before." Mirriya said quietly, trying to keep herself awake as the effects of exhaustion, stress and burns took over.

"You've never been to Camelot then?" Merlin asked, looking at her questioningly.

"Camelot? Wait... Does that mean this is Prince Arthur?" Mirriya asked, pointing to the blonde riding a little farther ahead of her, one hand over her mouth. She had heard so many stories and descriptions of the brave young royal, but she had never expected to meet him. "I thought he was a knight!" she exclaimed, her drowsiness forgotten.

"Well he is, and a prat to boot." Merlin replied, not bothering to keep his voice down, as he looked a head. Luckily Arthur was too far into a daydream he didn't hear the jab.

As they walked further into the afternoon sun she looked down at the servant. He had such a gentle expression on his face, that it had caught her off guard. He just had a way of making his opinions known with such honesty that Mirriya couldn't help but chuckle softly. Why did she suddenly feel as though nothing could hurt her? What was this warm feeling she couldn't seem to shake? Somehow, she could bring herself to care or be worried about it. When was the last time she had laughed or felt like this? There was no other word for it. She felt safe.

I used the Merlin wiki site for the spells but I brainstormed on the the name Mirriya-(Mear re ya)

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