Chapter 1

In the forests of Camelot, there are many hidden secrets. The Crystal Cave is one of them; the King would surely be furious to know of its existence. The source of all magic, within Camelot's borders? Unacceptable! The Lake of Avalon is another, and very few know what happensthere. There are others, of course. The hidden lairs of many magical beings, the resting places of countless magical artefacts. But we don't care about those, or at least, we don't yet. What we care about are the Druids hiding throughout the forests of Camelot. Their numerous camps, always ready to leave at the first sign of trouble from Camelot's soldiers. And one camp in particular . . .


There is a young girl, a druid girl. She is powerful, though she does not know it. She has no mother and she has no father. That's what the Druids say, and the Druids don't lie. Why would they? There's no reason to, after all. And it's not like she needs parents. She's perfectly happy without them. The Druids give her everything she needs. They are her family.

She has many mothers amongst them. She has just as many fathers. She has 5 brothers and 6 sisters. She has a home and the Druids teach her magic and she is never hungry. The entire forest is her garden. She has all the animals as her playmates. She sings with the birds and runs with the deer and swims with the otters and she is free, or at least, she is as free as anyone can ever be under Uther's reign. So she is happy.

And of course there is Mordred. Mordred is her favourite brother (though of course Druids don't have favourites, but she is young and not quite a Druid yet, so she is allowed to have a favourite). He is younger than her, but he loves her and she loves him and he always loves to watch her practice her magic and he swears that one day he will be able to do everything she can do. She promises that she will teach him everything that she knows when the Druids say that he is old enough, but it may be years before that happens because they started to teach her magic long before they taught the others, though none of her siblings know why. But what does it matter to them? The Druids surely have a reason, and the Druids are never wrong so why question them?

She is a pretty child, and will doubtlessly grow up to be a beautiful woman, but beauty was never that important to the Druids. She has long brown hair and blue, blue eyes. She is of medium height and she has skin healthy enough that it seems to glow. Her looks are certainly enhanced by the life that radiates from her. She has grown up in the forest surrounded by life and it has seeped into her very bones and it has made her so very wonderful to be around. Once the Druids found an injured traveller in the forest. They healed him as best they could but when he woke and they told him that the bandits that had attacked him had killed all his fellows he seemed to lose the will to live. One day the girl went to see him and she brought him flowers. She stayed with him for hours and when she left he had a smile on his face for the first time in days. She visited him again the next day, and the next. Within a week he was on his feet and walking with her through the forest. The next week he left and the girl was sad to see him go but he told her that he had to go out into the world so that he could show people everything she had shown him. She didn't understand what he meant but the Druids did. She had shown him that there was always something to live for.

You may wonder who this girl is. You would be right to, because she is very important. She is very powerful and well loved and though she herself has no great destiny, she will shape the future. Her name is Branwen.


AN:

So, this is my latest offering. I'm reinventing myself (sort of) and with any luck I will actually get somewhere with this story. I shouldn't have quite so much trouble with this one, because the story is pretty much completely planned out and all I need to do is actually write it.

So it starts off pretty innocent, but later (much later) it will involve things that deserve the rating T, so I thought I'd better label it as such right away. It sticks to the basic plot of Merlin as much as I can make it, but there are some pretty drastic changes.

I will try to update regularly, but I make absolutely no promises. I will try though.

Thanks for taking the time to read this! I hope you like it.

Martha