Author's Notes: Everyone loves a good ol' Reveal one shot. And I love coming up with them. This is meant to be a collection of them. Instead of creating a whole bunch of individual stories, I intend to put them all in here for your simple reading pleasure! :D

Disclaimer: If I owned Merlin, Arthur would know by now. Soooo, obviously I don't own Merlin.

Not Quite Dead Yet

Arthur and his knights had been sent out to patrol the boarders in response to rumors of sorcery. Deep down inside, Arthur was sick of dropping everything to investigate every report of sorcery. They were becoming too numerous with too many dead ends and Arthur was starting to wonder if the subjects of Camelot were becoming as paranoid as their king.

Not that he blamed any of them, he told himself. He knew how evil sorcery was. He shivered at the memory of Morgause and the false vision of his mother. Magic couldn't be trusted.

Merlin brought his horse up next to Arthur's. Internally the prince groaned, he was in no mood for any of the manservant's smart comments right now.

"You know, that barmaid who reported seeing a sorcerer in these parts didn't totally seem sober," Merlin pointed out casually.

"I'm well aware, Merlin," Arthur responded with a scowl.

"I doubt anyone would be surprised if this trip would turn out to be yet another false alarm," Merlin said again.

"Just what are you implying, Merlin," Arthur snapped.

"That I'm tired and hungry and I'm pretty sure we passed a tavern just a couple miles back," Merlin indicated with his head. "If you're so intent on finding something, could we at least find something after we've eaten?"

The prince had to admit that it was a very tempting idea, but now that the idiot had asked for it, he couldn't allow him the satisfaction of getting what he wanted.

"No, Merlin, I afraid that's not an option right now," Arthur said, using his authoritative voice.

"Why not?" Merlin asked again, baiting him. Arthur didn't need to look over at him to know that he was smiling. He could hear the smirk in the manservant's voice.

"Because," the prince replied. Arthur actually had to rack his brain for a good reason. "Because, I was just about to split us all up to cover more ground, before it gets dark."

Merlin sighed dejectedly and Arthur rolled his eyes.

The prince called to his nights for their attention. "We're splitting up men. Leon, you and Averill head northwest. Broderick, you take Carlyle and Kenton north this way. Merlin and I shall head northeast and check the perimeter of the bluffs. Meet back here in two hours, keep a sharp eye out for a trail and keep your wits about."

With that Arthur headed off in the direction of the bluffs and a scowling Merlin followed behind.

They had walked their horses along the edges of the bluffs for nearly an hour and Merlin had been punishing Arthur non-stop with his sulking.

"I still don't see why we couldn't have done this later," Merlin told his master.

"It would have been dark later," Arthur replied.

"I still don't see why we couldn't have done this tomorrow," Merlin said again. Arthur sighed.

"Tomorrow, if we even found anything they would have been a whole day's ahead of us."

"Yes but we have horses, they probably don't," Merlin pointed out.

Arthur sighed, "You don't know that. It's obvious you don't know the first thing about tracking. We could easily lose their trail if we let it wait."

"If there is a trail," Merlin muttered. "It's obvious that you don't have a really good argument as to why we couldn't just go back to the tavern. Face it Arthur, there aren't any-"

Merlin stopped in midsentence and sat up straight in his saddle. "Arthur," he started. But he didn't get to finish.

At that moment there was a great flash and a bang right in front of Arthur's horse. It reared back and the blonde prince went tumbling off and rolled down the bluffs.

"Arthur!" Merlin cried leaping off his own horse and looking down to where his master had landed. The bluffs were luckily not too deep, but they were rather steep and it wasn't going to be easy for the prince to get back up.

It was good that Merlin had leapt off his horse because just then an arrow shot the air where his head had been previously. Merlin glanced over his shoulder and spotted a man perched in the trees. He was knocking another bolt to his crossbow and aiming it at Merlin's head again.

Merlin didn't mean to fall down the bluffs as well, but he saw the cross bow aimed at him and kind of instinctively stepped back. There was unfortunately no ground directly behind him and soon Merlin was tumbling down the bluff face as well.

"Merlin! You idiot," Arthur scolded. "We're completely trapped and cornered down here."

"Well, uh, the fastest way to get out of the way of that crossbow was to come down here, and Your Pratness had already fallen down here so it seemed like a good idea at the time," Merlin grumbled.

"Get up," Arthur said, rolling his eyes and helping the scrawny boy to his feet.

Glancing around the two could see that their odds were not good. Their startled horses had bolted leaving them stranded and three men with crossbows now stood above them on the edge of the bluffs. Three more ragged looking cloaked men were also in the bluffs and they now approached the prince and his manservant.

Only one of them had a sword, but all three were smiling wickedly at the two.

Arthur unsheathed his own sword. "Get behind me, Merlin," he ordered.

"Good idea," Merlin replied, "You can protect me from the one guy with a sword and I'll protect you from the bolts from those crossbows."

Arthur sighed. Merlin was right, they were caught.

"What is it that you want?" Arthur asked the men in the bluffs.

One of them approached closer, chuckling menacingly.

"What is it we want, Prince Arthur? Not much, only your head," the man said.

"Oh if that's all," Merlin said, the nervousness in his voice was obviously apparent. "Might as well give it to them, you never even use it anyway, Arthur."

"Shut up, Merlin." He was calculating. If he timed it out right he might be able to get himself and Merlin out of this mess. The trick would be getting out of the ranger of the cross bows.

The man who spoke lifted up his hand and a patch of fire briefly materialized in his palm. Only a show, meant to frighten them. But that meant these men were obviously sorcerers too. Their small odds at survival were dwindling.

"What quarrel do I have with you?" Arthur asked, hoping to buy some time.

The man laughed again. "Your highness must be joking. Isn't it obvious? The Pendragon family has been persecuting our kind for as long as any of us can remember. When king Cenred hired us to do this job in order to start a war, how could we pass up the opportunity?"

Suddenly his hand lashed out and with a quick ancient word, vines sprung from the ground and wrapped themselves around Arthur and Merlin before they had a chance to respond. The vines squeezed across their chests and arms and pulled the two to their knees.

"We plan to deliver your royal head to your royal father," the man with the sword chuckled as he drew his weapon. "It will be a broken man who leads the troops of Camelot to war. Your kingdom stands no chance." The third man pulled out a large bag, presumably for Arthur's head. Arthur felt a lump form in his throat as despair settled in. There really was no way out of this one.

The sword was brought up to Arthur's neck, then the sword's man pulled back to take a measured swing.

"Arthur, no!" Merlin cried, struggling against his bonds.

"Any last words, Pendragon?" the swordsman spat. Arthur set his jaw and squared his shoulders.

But Merlin had something to say. The prince heard his manservant shout some ancient words at the attackers and the whole world seemed to explode. Dust flew into the air, that attacker's flew back, the vines holding the two all but shattered. Arthur squinted through the turmoil trying to figure out what was going on.

Then everything was still. All six of the attackers were either unconscious or dead. The vines that had held them were in tiny pieces on the ground.

Disbelief and relief bubbled up in Arthur's chest and it came out as incredulous laughter as he looked around, slowly realizing that he wasn't quite dead yet. He wasn't about to die.

Then his eyes fell on Merlin and what had just happened slowly caught up with him.

Merlin was still kneeling in the dirt watching Arthur intently.

"Merlin."

He didn't mean to make it sound so harsh. Adrenalin was still pounding in his ears from nearly having his head chopped off.

Merlin visibly flinched. The scrawny, raven-haired kid just took out six dangerous men, sorcerers even, yet he flinched at Arthur's voice.

It took Arthur a moment to process everything. Merlin was a sorcerer. Merlin had just saved his life. Merlin flinched at his voice. In fact, he looked positively terrified right now. Arthur had never seen Merlin so scared in his life.

He's expecting me to be angry, Arthur realized. And just like that Arthur realized that he wasn't angry. Merlin was apparently more than capable of taking him out right there, yet he sat there frozen with fear. How could he be angry at that?

"Merlin," he said again, this time more gently. "Are you alright?"

Merlin's eyebrows shot up as he looked at Arthur suspiciously. "Are you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You saw what happened just then right?"

"Yes, Merlin."

"You saw what I just did?"

"Yes, Merlin."

Merlin bit his lip still not moving.

Internally Arthur groaned as he realized Merlin had absolutely no reason to trust him. Not only was he the prince of the most anti-magic kingdom ever, but there had been many times were Arthur had instructed and informed Merlin on how the evil of magic must be destroyed.

Arthur sighed as he picked up his sword from where it had fallen. Bad idea. Merlin gasped a little and fell back off his knees.

"Merlin! I'm not," Arthur's voice cracked. He paused and he closed his eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you." He sheathed his sword.

Merlin blinked at him, still expecting the worst. "Am I sacked?"

Arthur chuckled. "You wish."

A smile started to grow at the corners of Merlin mouth. "Are you mad at me?"

"Yes, don't you ever save my life again," Arthur said, holding out his hand to help him up.

Merlin took it, smiling broadly now. "Sorry," Merlin replied. "Bad habit I guess."

Arthur raised an eyebrow at that statement and Merlin chuckled. Then Merlin was quite serious again. "Arthur, I have another question."

Arthur motioned for Merlin to go ahead and ask. "What's that, Merlin?"

Merlin glanced around at the vanquished sorcerers. "Can we go get something to eat now?"