Author's Note: Hi there! I'm Enna, and this is my first ever Merlin fanfic. I'm gonna go ahead and say sorry in advance for the strange formatting... I blame my uncooperative computer! Please drop me a line and tell me what you think.

P.S. I'll try to update ASAP!

She was standing in the middle of a battlefield under a dark sky. The sounds and smells of battle and death surrounded her, but she was not afraid. She had nothing to fear! No one could hurt her now. Victory and Camelot were within her grasp.

"Tara! Get your lazy butt out of bed this instant, or I'll send your brother up there!" Tara Middleton woke with a start. The hazy memories of her terrifying dream slowly fading from her mind as she rubbed her eyes and glanced at her alarm clock.

"Good God, Mom! I'm gonna be late! Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" She shouted angrily as she took in her reflection in her bedroom mirror. Her eyes were puffy and red from her restless night and her long black hair was a ratted mess that hung about her head in disheveled waves. She sighed; it was going to be another one of THOSE mornings. She quickly rushed into the bathroom, brushed her teeth, and did her best to brush the tangles from her hair. It was a futile endeavor.

"Oh well," she said to her reflection, "Another day looking like a Bellatrix Lestrange wannabe" she shrugged, "it could be worse."

"Bellatrix has absolutely nothing on you, sister dear,"

"Oh really?" Tara said to the smug looking blonde boy who was leaning comfortably on the doorframe.

"Yeup. You definitely win in the ugliness category, hands down."

"Thanks. Thanks so very much for making my morning complete."

"No need to thank me. It was my pleasure." Tara couldn't help but roll her eyes. Apparently her brother had decided to make her morning even more difficult by being a complete and total prat. Like he always was.

"By the way, Mom is in a seriously bad mood this morning. I suggest you get out of here as quickly as possible before things, hum, escalate."

"Thanks for the advice, but I was gonna do that anyway. Lincoln and I are taking the day off."

"You mean you're not going to school?" Tara shot him her best smirk.

"It's just one day, Alex, it's not going to hurt anything."

"Of course," he said sarcastically, "I'm sorry I doubted you."

"Bye Alex! I've got places to go, people to see!" With that parting remark, Tara grabbed her backpack and swung out of her ground-level bedroom window. She was escaping her grumpy mother and was on her way to see her best friend. What more could she want from life?

"So much more, so much more." Said a soft voice inside her head, "You could have the world if you wanted." Tara shuddered. These events with "The Voice" were becoming more and more common and coupled with her frightening dreams... She wondered if she needed to get help.

"Nope. You definitely don't need help." Came a voice from somewhere behind her. "Coffee. That's what you need!"

"Lincoln!" Tara shouted excitedly, "Where the heck did you come from?" Lincoln Drury smiled at her with his perfect smile, his cheeks dimpling adorably.

"From the great beyond,Tara. It's a terrible and mysterious place." Tara grinned wildly and ruffled his dark curls.

"And did the fairies of the 'great beyond' tell you what I was thinking just then?" She said with a smile, already expecting his answer.

"Actually no. No help from the fairies this time around, I just know your many moods."

"Yeup, I figured you'd say that. Now, let's go get us some coffee."

"Right this way, my lady." Tara happily fell in step with her dear friend of many years, but it took her all of two seconds to realize that something was wrong. Lincoln's blue-green eyes were shaded with an emotion that she didn't recognize. Was it... fear?

"Lincoln, what's wrong?" Tara asked, her concern evident in her voice.

"Nothing."

"Really?"

"Nothing worth mentioning at least."

"Tell me."

"I saw the old man again."

"Lincoln! This again?" She asked, with a hint of exasperation in her voice. Lincoln had this strange theory that this "crazy old man" with a long white beard was chasing him around town and watching his house. Tara honestly thought that he was getting paranoid, but she listened to his theories regardless. God knows that he had been forced to listen to enough of her crazy dreams and stories about "The Voice". That was how the two of them operated. They weren't just partners in crime, but also partners in insanity.

"I swear Tara, he's watching me!"

"Yeah, you're being stalked by Gandalf. Link, I've heard this before."

"But this morning was different. This time he spoke to me."

"What did he say? Good morning? Have a wonderful day? Excuse me?"

"Keep up the sarcasm and I'll stick the fairies from the great beyond on you!"

"You'll do no such thing. What did he say?"Lincoln looked at her nervously, almost as if he were afraid that she would be angered by what he had to say.

"He said, 'Be careful, she is the one that can and will corrupt your mind. She has the power to bring you to ruin.' "

"Was he talking about me?"

"Hmm... Well, it's either you or my mother..."

"Link, don't worry, I'm sure that he's just a creepy old man that has a thing for kids..."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it. Forget I said anything. Now, about that coffee..." From there the conversation became their typical banter, and the old man and his ominous warning were quickly forgotten. Everything that was frightening, strange, or outright bizarre was stored away in the recesses of their minds, quelled and forgotten for that one bright morning.

But bright mornings can't last forever, and fear always finds a way back to those who are arrogant enough to think they've escaped it. And no one knew this better than than the old man with the long white beard who sat observing the two teenagers.

It was beginning.