A/N There are lots of stories about Christmas, snow and winter around at the moment. In the Southern hemisphere however, Christmas means summer and heat. These in turn, can lead to bushfires.
Summary: Merlin and Arthur get trapped in a ferocious bushfire while on a hunt. Can Merlin defeat the most powerful adversary of them all, Mother Nature?
The heat was overwhelming, pushing them back with its ferocity. The strong gusty wind provided oxygen to the rapidly moving furnace, much like the bellows to the blacksmith's fire.
"We can't outrun it for much longer Merlin!" Arthur shouted at his servant. "Make for the stream at the base of the valley, it's our only hope!"
Merlin nodded and kept going; he had no spare breath for talking anyway.
The day had started off relatively normally, with no indication of the horror awaiting them. Arthur awoke first as he often did when they were sleeping under the stars. The sun was already giving out a considerable amount of heat for the early hour.
Two days ago Arthur had declared a sudden desire to go hunting. Merlin suspected it was more a need to escape his father than a genuine wish to pursue innocent animals. The current drought afflicting Camelot had caused many types of food to become scarce, which in turn had pushed up their price. While this wasn't a problem for the royal household, it was causing severe hardship for many of the poorer inhabitants of Camelot. Arthur had spent the last 10 days arguing with the Council about subsidizing the cost of many basic food stuffs so they would be affordable to every person, regardless of class.
It was fair to say that the Prince held greatly differing views to Uther and most of the other Councillors on the subject.
Unfortunately, he wasn't having a much better time of things beyond the confining bounds of the castle either. It had been one of the most unsuccessful hunts that the Prince had ever undertaken. In two whole days he'd caught nothing - not even a pheasant. As a result, he was more than a little tetchy.
Conversely, Merlin was quite pleased at the lack of kills. He would never understand the need to murder defenceless animals for fun and he had made sure his clumsiness and inability to keep quiet put paid to pretty much every opportunity Arthur had to make a kill.
"Come on Merlin, wake up!" Arthur threw his boot across the remains of the campfire so that it landed with a loud clump right next to his servants head.
"Ok, I'm moving," came the mumbled response from Merlin. He was not unused to such brutal methods of communication from the Prince, so did not take it to heart. He had no doubt that Arthur could have launched the boot onto his head if he wanted to, so he should be grateful he supposed.
"I won't return to Camelot empty handed, now get up!"
"Oh all right, I'm moving." Merlin grumbled back. He couldn't help but notice that despite his insistence that his servant get up, Arthur himself was still reclining, letting out a big yawn.
Prat.
"It's too hot for any self respecting animal to be out foraging Arthur, why don't we just admit defeat and go home." Merlin's put on his best whiny voice for Arthur's benefit.
In hindsight, a bad choice of words. Prince Arthur and defeat were two concepts that did not go hand in hand.
Arthur was on his feet in a matter of seconds and glared down at the still sleepy Merlin. "Yes it's hot Merlin and that's precisely why we have to move quickly. We'll only have a couple of hours before all my likely prey takes refuge from the heat."
Merlin dragged himself to a standing position and moved to get them some food.
"If you weren't so noisy and incompetent I would have gotten that magnificent stag yesterday morning and we'd be back at Camelot by now."
Merlin couldn't help but grin at the memory of the usually nimble footed and stealthy Arthur standing on and splintering a sizable branch with a very loud crack, just at the moment when he fired his cross bow. The stag had just enough warning to break into a life saving dash, avoiding the cross bow bolt by a matter of inches.
A short while later after a bite to eat and drink the two set off again, Merlin grumbling and groaning about how unfair it was that he had to carry all the gear.
They'd decided to hunt on foot, leaving the horses stabled at a small settlement about half a day's solid ride from their departure point.
It had just reached the sun's zenith the first time they smelt smoke. Neither man was worried at first as they assumed it was a camp or cooking fire.
The summer that year had been exceedingly hot and dry. Even Gaius and Geoffrey of Monmouth couldn't remember a hotter summer. As a result the forests around Camelot were parched, the trees brittle. Many of the plant life had withered and died, their shallow roots unable to provide them with any life sustaining water. Desiccated grasses, dead branches and leaves covered the ground. Many of the smaller waterways had dried up and the larger creeks and rivers were all at lower levels than anyone could recall.
A warm wind was blowing up dust and debris into Merlin and Arthur's faces as they paused for another drink break in the shade of a small copse of trees.
"I've never seen it so dry." Arthur remarked, staring around himself. "Little wonder the peasants are suffering."
Merlin concurred wordlessly. It was evident that the animals of the forest were struggling in the harsh conditions too. They'd already seen several half rotten corpses on their journey and any live beast they had glimpsed looked skinny and sickly. Quite why Arthur thought it would be an achievement to catch one of these poor suffering creatures was beyond him.
After a short while it became obvious that the smoky smell wasn't going away and in fact was getting stronger. The possibilities were becoming more than a little concerning to Arthur. He had spent many days and nights outdoors during various hunts, quests, patrols etc. and during this time had attained considerable knowledge of the bushland.
"I have a feeling that smoke might be coming from more than a cooking fire Merlin. We better find some high ground and take a look."
Merlin's face fell, "What do you mean?"
"Well, it may not be anything that will endanger us," the Prince began in his calmest voice, "But it could be a grassfire or wildfire or something." The last thing he needed was a panicked Merlin to deal with, so Arthur had done his best to play things down. He had learned during his life time as Prince and thus a person with authority, that if he acted like everything was under control, his followers would respond accordingly. Much like horses really.
Merlin was staring at him wide eyed. He didn't want Arthur to know how scared he was at that possibility so he just nodded in what he hoped was a wise way.
Arthur strode off confidently towards the nearest hill which was only about 10 minutes walk away, Merlin trailing after him dutifully.
The view from the top of the hill was worse than either man imagined. A fire front stretching almost continuously from the south west right around to the north east lit up the forest, bellowing huge clouds of smoke and embers.
"God save us!" Arthur cursed under his breath. Merlin unconsciously edged a bit closer to his Prince, the calamity of the inferno making him feel puny and powerless.
A small flock of birds flew over their heads away from the fire, squawking loudly in warning. Merlin swallowed and looked toward Arthur for guidance. Just then, a group of 5 or 6 deer bolted out of the tree line below them and ran in panic past the two men as though confirming the seriousness of the situation.
"What do we do now? That looks far too close for comfort."
"Put that stuff down for a start." Arthur gestured towards the extra gear Merlin was lugging around. "Keep the blankets and water skins only Merlin. We'll make for the north west; the Lake of Denaria should provide safe refuge." Arthur took the water skin and one bedroll from his servant then set off, his long strides covering ground quickly.
They both wore only linen tunics, having divested themselves of any coats long ago. Merlin still carried the garments within the bedrolls though. He quickly dumped Arthur's crossbow, arrows, cooking stuff and rearranged what was left of his load, and then set off at a run after Arthur.
The air was becoming unpleasantly grainy with smoke and numerous embers floated along over their heads, starting small spot fires all around them. Animals fleeing the conflagration sprinted past every few minutes, desperation clear in their harried movements. The two men kept moving as fast as they could, but the smoke was making it difficult to get enough air.
"Come on Merlin, keep up!" Arthur urged his friend. "The fire front is probably still leagues away, but we need to get to safety." He knew that a fire this big would be creating its own wind, increasing its rate of progress through the tinder dry forestlands.
The situation was rapidly becoming extremely perilous for the two men. This was further driven home when a bird dropped out of the sky, landing dead only a few paces in front of them. It did not appear scorched so it was probably a combination of lack of oxygen and latent heat created in the hellish flames that caused the birds demise.
Merlin knew he was running for his life. He wracked his panicked brain for a way to save himself and Arthur without being extremely obvious that he was using his magical abilities. Creating a whirlwind to divert the brutal inferno was a last resort. It would take a tremendous amount of his power to shield them from something containing this much energy and it would be pretty much impossible not to reveal his secret, carrying out such a spell. If he could get to water, it may be possible to create some sort of fire-proof barrier around them.
Arthur ran ahead of him, turning his head every few minutes to ensure Merlin was still behind him. Through the ever thickening smoke Merlin could still make out Arthur's blue eyes staring back at him, wide open with fear.
It was during one of these backward glances that Merlin's inescapable clumsiness revealed itself yet again, the young Warlock landing heavily on the ground after tripping over a prostrate branch that was just that little bit wider than he'd thought. As he lay gasping in the smoke laden air, momentarily stunned by his fall, he saw the sky above suddenly turn black.
"Gods Merlin, you idiot". Arthur ceased his onwards momentum and returned to his fallen servant as quickly as he could. There was no way he was going to leave the boy behind, even if he had to sling him over his shoulder and carry him out!
As he crouched down beside Merlin to check he was alright, he too witnessed the darkness closing in above them. They both new what the proximity of the thick, malevolent, cloud meant; that the fire was extremely, uncomfortably close.
"We can't outrun it for much longer Merlin!" Arthur shouted at his servant. "Make for the stream at the base of the valley, it's our only hope!"
Merlin nodded and kept going; he had no spare breath for talking anyway.
The heat was becoming unbearable, further indicating how close the fire front was. Visibility was down to a few horse lengths, which combined with fear and panic was making it hard to stay oriented. Fortunately, it was still clear which way was downhill, and the two young men ran for their lives into the valley below them, desperate that there'd be some water in the stream at its base.
The thought in the back of both their minds was how dry many of the other waterways had been, and that the presence of water in this particular stream may be the difference between life and death.
A/N Well, are you worried? Did all that talk of summer and heat make the people in wintery countries feel warmer? Please review and let me now.