Chapter one

Merlin

"Why am I the one who has to do EVERYTHING?! Between Arthur and Gaius I never get any time off! This destiny thing is hard work, I have to protect Arthur, hide my magic, and above it all Arthur thinks I'm a moron! That prat!" I think to myself, "Well it's not that bad. Arthur has become a friend, but I would never tell him that, and he would never admit to being friends with his servant." I sigh, "Really need to stop going on these rants in my head. One day I might slip up and say something out loud!"

I stop my inner monologue and continue walking to the woods outside of Camelot. "Off to pick herbs for Gaius, I need a day off!" I am about to go off on another rant when I hear a noise. I stop and listen, it sounds like someone running. I am about to go towards the source of the sound, when someone runs right into me. "What the hell," I shout as we both tumble towards the ground.

I am a little disoriented, and I feel a weight being lifted off my chest. I look up, and I see the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. She has long tangled dark hair. Her eyes are a piercing green color, but I see panic in them. "What's wrong? Why are you running?" I ask. She gives me a look of dread, and looks like she is going to flee. "Wait," I say softly. "It's okay, you can trust me." I smile.

While she is deciding if she can trust me or not, I look her over. Her once blue dress is torn into shreds, and it appears that she has quite a large cut on her leg. She used torn strips of her dress to bandage herself up. She is very pale, like she has lost a lot of blood. Also, she had minor cuts and scrapes all over her arms and one vicious looking cut on her left cheek. She doesn't have any shoes on, and it looks as though she has used strips of her dress as makeshift shoes as well. "WHAT happened to you?" I ask again this time more urgently.

"My name...Is Isabella." She says, it seems like it's a struggle for her to talk. "I…. Was…captured. Please…Help me!" She cried the last two words out, then takes a step towards me, and passes out. I use my magic to catch her as she falls. "I have to get her back to Camelot; there must be something I can do to save her." I think. My herbs forgotten, I race back to where my horse is, and place her sitting in front of me. I pull my horse into a run, but it's not fast enough, Isabella is dying, I can feel her life force fading away. It as is we have some sort of connection, but that's impossible, we have only just met!

As we race back to Camelot, I find myself wishing that Gaius was here. This was the perfect time for him to go to help treat people in the outlying villages; he won't be back for ages. "Actually, it might be a good thing Gaius is gone." I really don't know how he would react to seeing a strange girl in our shared quarters. I laugh to myself; I find humor in the strangest things!

When we finally get back to the palace, I jump off my horse and take Isabella in my arms, I start to run up the stairs to my chambers, when I realize how odd it will look if someone happens to see me. I very quickly perform a spell, now if anyone sees us; their thoughts will be redirected elsewhere. I'm so pleased I took the time to learn that spell!

I get to my chambers without anyone seeing us, and I lay Isabella down on my bed. She is shivering and muttering, as though she has a fever. I suddenly wish that I had let Gaius teach me more about the art of healing. I just hope I can save her, I have only just met her, and I feel I cannot live without her.

Isabella

When I awake, I do not know where I am. I remember escaping from the place I was being held, and I remember running for my life. And then, there was some one, a young man. He said he would help me, he said I could trust him. For the first time in my life, I believed. I believed that I could trust this young man. I don't know why, I just do.

Before I had a chance to think on it further, he entered the room. I was amazed, this man, who I did not know, had saved my life. I think he saw me staring at him; he blushed, and quickly said, "Hello, my name is Merlin. Before you passed out, you told me your name is Isabella. Is that right?" when I nodded, he smiled. He had a beautiful smile, it light up his whole face.

"What happened to me, Merlin?" I asked, before he had the chance to say anything else. "Where am I?" He smiled when I said his name, I barely know this man, Merlin. And yet, I feel I would do anything to see that smile again. What's happening to me?

"As for what happened to you," he answered, "I was hoping that you could tell me. When I found you, you were running through the woods. You fainted before I could ask why." I blushed when he said that, I'm not really sure why. He smiled again, and then continued.

"As for where you are, that's easy! You're in Camelot, in the palace to be exact." I was shocked; I didn't know what to say. If I was in the palace, surely he was a prince. "Sire, please forgive me," I started, but before I could finish, Merlin burst out laughing.

"You…Think…I'm….The prince?!" he was laughing so hard tears were coming out of his eyes. "No, Isabella, I'm not the prince!" He was still laughing, but it looked as though he was trying to stop. I loved the way he said my name, and I loved his laugh. This truly has the most amazing man I had ever met.

"Okay, if you're not the prince," I said, "Then what are you? What do you do here in the palace?" I looked at him with question in my eyes. He smiled again, oh, that smile; His smile, Merlin's smile.

"I'll tell you, but first, get dressed, and then tell me, what happened to you? Why were you running through the woods?" He said, and then he started to leave the room. "I laid out some of my clothes for you on the chair over there," and he pointed to a chair in the corner. "When you get dressed, come out to the main room, it's just down the stairs." He smiled and left the room.

I looked down at myself and realized I was only covered with a sheet. My dress was gone! I turned a bright shade of red, he must have undressed me. When I got up to get dressed, I noticed that my leg had been bandaged properly, and all my other cuts had been tended to. Even my back, where I had been whipped.

I looked at the clothes Merlin had laid out for me; A brown jacket, a pair of trousers, a blue shirt, and a red neckerchief. I quickly put them on, I was eager to speak to Merlin some more. We had a lot to talk about.

(Author note: Reviews are great! Please review! I would just like to note, this is an alternate universe. (Oh and I don't own Merlin.) Lancelot and Gwaine are knights. Morgana and Gwen aren't in this story. And, if I ever just quotes from any show, I will out a little star* by it, and tell you where it's from in the a/n. and make sure you keep reading! It's going to get really good!)