A/N: Hello everyone. This is the first chapter of my new story. The story starts when Merlin is banished by Arthur. After that it tells the story of Camelot's next generation.
Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin… of course I don't own it. Why would it otherwise be called a fanfiction?
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'Why did you betray me like that?' Arthur shouted and Merlin stared at him. Arthur had just walked inside his chambers to see Merlin using a spell on his armour.
'But… but… Arthur'
Arthur didn't want to listen to his friend and only felt betrayed. 'Merlin! How could you?' His voice became cold as ice. 'You tried to deceive me with your magic. You work together with Morgana and I didn't notice it before? How could I have been so foolish?'
'I don't work tog…' Merlin tried.
'Silence!' Arthur screamed. 'I thought that you were my friend. Why did you betray me?' The king looked at the warlock with fire in his eyes. 'I banish you from Camelot and if I ever see you again I will kill you!'
Merlin cringed and looked scared at his king. 'Arthur… please…'
'What are you waiting for? Leave, now! Never come back!'
The warlock took a last look at Arthur and turned around. He ran, not even stopping to say goodbye to anyone. He ran into Gaius' chambers to see the physician wasn't there and grabbed the magic book.
He ran and ran until he left the gates behind him and ran into the forest. He stopped and turned around to look at the castle one last time. Tears fell down his face, he knew that it would be a long time before he would see the castle again. The future looked dark for the warlock and he knew it.
He looked back at the forest, a new part of his life would begin.
xxx
The young prince Allen ran around the castle, his two best friends not far behind him. They ran towards the training grounds to watch their fathers train together. It would not be long before they would start their training.
The knights were talking at each other and the boys ran towards them. The knights smiled seeing the young boys.
'Good morning.' Percival said while he patted his son's head. Thomas looked much like his father and the boy was already taller then his friends even when he was one year younger.
Elyan looked at the same time with warm at his son. Jason was because of the marriage between Gwen and Arthur family of the young prince and it didn't take long for the three boys to become friends.
Gwaine looked at the young prince. 'Allen, is the king still inside?'
Allen nodded that the knight was right. 'He is still inside together with mom.'
Leon sighed and looked a bit frustrated. 'Then shall I go and get him?' He asked the other knights.
'No I shall get him.' Allen said and before anyone could say anything he ran away. He was faster then his two friends and liked to show it off. He ran up the stairs towards his parents' bedroom.
He wanted to knock on the door, but it was already slightly open. He froze on spot when he heard his mother shout to his father.
'You're really are an idiot!' The young prince could hear that his mother was really angry this time.
'Please, Gwen.' He heard his father try.
'You never listen to others. Can't you just trust me?'
'I trust you…'
'You're such a brat!' He knew that his father hated it when she called him that, his mother only used that when she was really angry at him. 'It's because of things like this that you drove Merlin away!'
His father didn't reply and it was his mother that spoke again. 'I'm sorry Arthur… I didn't mean it, I…'
'Enough.' Was the only thing the king said and Allen heard his father walk towards the door and the boy jumped out of the way. The door slammed open and when Arthur walked outside the boy was able to see his father's face. He never had seen this expression from his father. The king looked not angry as the boy had expected, but his eyes were filled with sadness and pain.
Arthur took one look at his son and turned around to walk away.
Allen looked stunned at his father and then walked inside his parents' bedroom. He saw his mother sitting on the bed and tears fell down her face.
'Mom?' He said and he quickly walked towards her to try to comfort her.
'Allen?' She looked up at the boy's face and embraced him. 'I said something to your father I shouldn't have said.'
'About this Merlin person?' The boy looked curious at his mother.
Her eyes showed a bit of confusion. 'You heard or conversation. I told you that you can't listen to other people's conversation.'
He looked down. 'I'm sorry, but who is this Merlin?'
Gwen sighed not sure what to tell the boy, but decided to tell the truth. 'Merlin once was your father's servant, but at the same time was he your father's best friend. When your father found out that he had magic he banished him.'
Allen looked confused. 'But magic isn't against the law.'
His mother nodded. 'Yes, that's right, but at that time it was still against the law. You father was so angry at him that moment he banished him, but when your father came back to his senses he understood that he had done something incredible stupid. We tried to find him, but we never found him. He still feels so guilty about what he did, he had hoped that Merlin would come back to Camelot when he allowed magic.'
'But you don't even know if this Merlin is still alive.'
'He is alive.' She smiled at her son. 'He saved you and us several times.' He looked confused at her. 'When you were still very little you and I were taking a walk outside the castle with some knights and we were attacked by bandits. They were stronger then the knights and when all looked lost he was there. He saved us with his magic. And there were also other times when he saved this kingdom.'
Allen got excited hearing these things from his mother. 'Tell me!'
She closed her eyes thinking about stories she could tell him. 'There was this time he cured everyone when Morgana poisoned the drinking water. He destroyed the chimera that almost was the ending of Camelot, he healed your uncle Elyan when he was mortally wounded and he is the one that always cleans the grave of Gaius when we visit his grave. And I believe he has done even more things for us, but I never had the chance to speak to him again.'
The boy's eyes became big. 'Then he has to be incredible powerful, but why would he do that if dad banished him.'
She sighed. 'I was once told that it was Merlin's destiny to help your father create a powerful kingdom. He was always very loyal to his friends and I think he still cares for us as we care for him.'
'Then I'm going to find Merlin and bring him back here so that dad is going to be happy again.' He said joyful.
She took him in her arms and he felt that she had started to cry again. 'If only you could do that for him.'
xxx
Its 25 years after Arthur has banished Merlin and the kingdom is bigger then it has ever been before. The people were happy and none of them felt hungry or suppressed. Sword and magic worked together to defend the kingdom.
The prince Allen ran around the castle, his two best friends not far behind him. They ran towards the training grounds to train themselves. The three young men ran as fast as they could only looking out they didn't slip on the snow. That night it had snowed, but now the sun shined again. 'Come on, otherwise we're going to be late and Leon is going to scold us again.'
'We're coming.' Thomas screamed to the prince in front of him. 'We can't help it you took forever to get changed.'
'Don't be so difficult.' The prince shouted back and they reached the training grounds.
They looked at each other when they saw that Leon looked at them as if he could explode any minute. 'You're late… again!'
'We're sorry Leon.' The three young men said.
'You've to learn to be more responsible. You boys are already 20 years old and not little kids anymore.' Thomas wanted to say that he was still 19, but when he saw the look in Jason's eyes he didn't say anything.
Leon pointed at the prince. 'And you want to marry Princess Serena like that.'
Allen pouted. He liked Serena, she was really pretty and it would be good for the kingdom if he would marry her. 'I know Leon.'
'Okay, then as punishment you have to run three more rounds on top of the five normal rounds.' The boys groaned after hearing that and Thomas and Jason looked angry at their friend. Allen only shrugged and smiled at them.
He walked back towards his room after the training to take a bath and change into some clean cloths. His servant helped him get ready. He didn't like him, he was a boring brown haired boy with no sense of humour. A knock was heard on his door and his father walked inside.
Arthur looked at his son's servant. 'Please leave us alone.'
'Of course, my lord.'
They looked at him until he was out of the room before turning towards each other. 'What is wrong?' Allen asked.
'We had word from Princess Serena that she will be here the day after tomorrow.' The king smiled at his son.
'Really?' Allen smiled.
'So you will be busy entertaining the princess when she is here.' Allen nodded. 'That's why I decided that we are going on a hunting trip tomorrow.'
Allen smiled. He liked to go hunting. 'Sounds like a great plan.'
Arthur walked towards the door. 'Then that is settled. We're going in the afternoon, because I have a council meeting in the morning. Go tell it to Thomas and Jason, they are going with us. I will see you at dinner.' The king closed the doors behind him.
xxx
'Enjoy your hunting trip.' Miranda told the three young knights. She was the daughter of Gwaine and everybody knew she and Thomas were as good as together even when her father didn't like it. Gwaine was really protective of his daughter and he already had threatened Thomas several times.
'Thanks.' Thomas looked with loving eyes at her, but backed away when Gwaine started coughing. Allen could see the angry glare the older knight had in his eyes.
'Let's go.' The king said and together they started moving towards the forest.
Allen rode next to his father and looked at the older man. His hair had stripes of grey in it and lines were visible on his face. In the prince opinion he looked older then his mother, but that probably was because he was king. 'It's going to be easy to follow the prey with all this snow around.'
Arthur nodded. 'It's a good day for hunting. There isn't too much snow and it's not to slippery for the horses.'
They rode for an hour and they couldn't find any animals except a few birds who only flew away when the knights came close to them. Allen was about to say that they should go further inside the forest when he suddenly stopped. The king looked confused at his son, but also stopped.
'What's wrong?'
Allen pointed to the ground. 'Tracks of horses and carriages, there weren't any reports of a group travelling through these woods and if I remember correctly a village was robbed not far from here a week ago.' He looked at his father.
Arthur nodded. 'You're right.' He looked back at Leon. 'What do you think Leon?'
'I think the prince is right. Not many people would be out here in this time of year and they can't be far seeing how it had snowed last night.'
'Then let's go and find out the intension of this group.' The king said and the others nodded in respond.
The knights increased their pace and followed the tracks of the group. I didn't take long before they could see the smoke of a campfire and Arthur ordered them to get of their horses. They crawled towards the camp and looked over a small ledge at the group.
'They're clearly bandits.' Leon whispered.
The king nodded. 'You're right. They're foolish to come this close to the castle.'
'I recognise a few of them. Their group has attacked a few villages around the border.' Percival whispered.
'Then what are they doing here?' Elyan hissed.
'I don't know, but we should go back and gather some reinforcements to…' The king began.
Allen interrupted his father and pointed at a group of people in the middle. 'They have a girl.'
All of them looked at were the prince pointed and saw a few men standing around a terrified looking girl, who clearly wasn't there out of her own free will. She was wounded by the men seeing how the snow around her had spots of red in it.
'We have to help her.'
'You're right, Allen take Thomas and Jason with you. I want you to get the girl out of here and we will meet by the horses.' The three young men nodded that they understood and the king looked at his friends who also nodded. 'Then let's go.'
They stood up as one and ran towards the bandits while they reached for their swords. The bandits were surprised, but some of them quickly got their weapons and started fighting back.
Allen had only eye for the girl and he knew that his friends were behind him covering his back. He cut the man in front of the girl and the man fell in the snow. He got one of the other ones who was to shocked to react. There was only one man left in front of the girl and their swords hit each other. The man was stronger then Allen, but had clearly not as much training as the prince and after a few hits he hit the man and he fell dead in the snow.
He quickly walked towards the girl who stared at him with big blue eyes.
'It's okay, I will get you out of here.' He held his hand out and she grabbed it without hesitation. He looked back at his friends and saw that they looked at him. 'Let's go.' He ran towards the horses, still holding the girl's hand and the young knights followed them.
They reached the ledge and Allen stopped for a moment looking if his father was okay and ran further with the others behind him.
'Allen, stop.' Jason screamed when they were halfway and he looked confused behind, but when he did he understood what was the problem. The girl was breathing heavy and her blue dress became red on her side.
'Are you okay? We're almost by the horses.'
She breathed heavy and nodded at him, but he saw that she couldn't run anymore and he didn't know if any of the bandits were following them. He sighed and picked her up and carried her like a princess. He could hear Thomas and Jason laugh softly and glared at them.
He began running with her in his arms and after a while he could feel that she had calmed down a bit.
'I'm sorry that you have to carry me.' She said and he could feel his heart skip a beat. Her voice was so warm and loving.
'D… don't worry about that.' He began to blush, but she didn't notice.
They reached the horses and he put her down slowly. He grabbed a bandage from the bag on his horse and tied it around her side to cover the wound. She stared at the three knights and they stared back at her, which made her blush.
Allen looked at her and couldn't help but gasp a bit. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She had wavy long black hair, a slender figure and the most breathe taking blue eyes he had ever seen. He felt lost when he looked at them and his heart skipped a beat again.
Then tears appeared in her eyes. Thomas walked forward and grabbed one of her hands. 'It's going to be okay, calm down. You're safe with us.'
It was clear that the girl had started to panic again after all that happened. Allen understood why, after all it was clear what they were planning to do to her.
'Th… than…k… you.' She said through the tears and Allen felt as if his heart broke when he heard her cry like that.
'It's okay, can you tell us your name.' Thomas asked and she calmed down a bit.
'E… Eleana.' She sniffed and the prince came closer to her.
'Yeah, that name fits her.' He thought and he grabbed her other hand. She then smiled at bit at him.
'Thank… you… so much.' He only wanted to embrace her, but restrained himself.
Then she suddenly closed her eyes and collapsed. Both boys tried to grab her and she was hanging in their arms. Allen took her in his arms and looked at her.
It was Jason who spoke. 'It's no wonder she collapsed. So much has happened to her.' The other two nodded in agreement, while staring at Eleana.
It didn't take long before the older knights arrived at the spot.
'How is she?' Gwaine asked seeing her in Allen's arms.
The prince responded. 'She is unconscious and wounded.'
'Did she tell you her name?' The king asked and he kneeled down next to his son to look at the girl.
'Eleana.' The prince answered and then he looked confused at his father. The king stared at the girl with wide eyes and a somewhat surprised expression.
xxx
He kneeled down next to his son and watched the girl. She had raven black hair and her face…. Her face!
He could hear his son tell him the name of the girl. 'Eleana.'
He looked at the knights behind him and they saw that something was wrong with the king. They came towards them and he could see that they saw the same person as he in the girl.
Gwaine sat down next to his king and he touched her face. 'She looks so much like him.'
Allen was now clearly irritated. 'Who does she look like then?'
They all stared at the prince and it was Elyan who answered. 'An old friend of us.'
'It's getting late and she needs treatment, let's go back to the castle.' Arthur said and the others nodded.
Allen took Eleana in front of him on his horse and they rode back to Camelot.
