Once upon a time, there was a beautiful memory stick, small enough to fit in any pocket, black as pitch but with a scarf of red metal constantly wrapped around its middle. It was called Merlin. Merlin was incredibly dependable, and loyal, and had so many secrets stored upon him, secrets he would never tell anyone or anything untrustworthy or dangerous. And on his first day in his new home, he was simply trying to find a place to fit in, trying to figure out this new world, this new computer, when he met Arthur.

Arthur was a much bigger, and stronger USB. Well used and reliable, the sole tenant of the mentioned laptop, and unfortunately did not take kindly to this quick saving, agile little memory stick, slotting in and taking over.

Over time, Arthur was used less and less, the files ageing and becoming useless, whilst Merlin was being used almost every day. The young USB was unaccustomed to over-use, and found it hard to contain so many files, and stories, and songs in his heart, especially since his owner plied her way through GCSE coursework, and soon grew exhausted.

To his surprise, the jealous memory stick he'd met on his first day wandered over, and seeing the poor memory stick's burden, offered to share it, and soon they became fast friends, sharing files of old, stories of new and fighting off many evil virus's, one after the other, side by side. Together.

But one day, when it was Merlin's turn to accompany his mistress to school, a terrible tragedy occurred! The young mistress had simply taken off her jacket to slip on a hooded jacket, when Merlin's world, and pocket, was turned upside down, and he found himself falling so far, and came crashing down on a horribly cold, tiled floor, skidding and sliding into the shadow of the large desk until he hit the wall with a smack!

It was not his mistress' fault, as she believed him to be safe and sound in her pocket, but the poor memory stick was huddled in the cold, alone and afraid, waiting to be found. As he watched his mistress's feet unknowingly walk away, he felt his steel heart began to break, just a little bit.

That evening, when all the lights of the classroom had been turned off, he tried to rock himself into a gentle sleep, trying to pretend he was back on the mantelpiece with Arthur, when he heard his mistress' distressed voice in the corridor, asking to be let into the room to look for him! But in front of her stood a tall, vicious looking man, with a pin striped shirt and long white coat, barring her entrance, telling her to leave!

Merlin wanted to call out, reach out for her, but could do nothing but sit there, lonelier than ever.

The next day, that horrible bell rang again, singing its tune to bring the children into the room, their feet hanging dangerously close to Merlin's small casing. He waited there for hours, hoping desperately that his mistress would come and find him, and maybe bring Arthur with her, to help her in his absence, but she did not.

Another long night followed, before that awful thing rang again, and Merlin had almost given up hope, until he heard 'and now Arthur's gone too! I can't find them anywhere!' His mistress! She was looking for him! But apparently so was Arthur!

He knew the older memory stick would miss him, but to leave his post, just to come and find him? That was incredibly brave of him…

Suddenly there was a great clatter to his left, as a clear plastic sword dropped down beside him, it's ordered numbers dancing in front of him. He saw an unfamiliar hand reach down to try and find it, and he shuffled close, trying to attract its attention, before his mistress' kind voice rang out; 'It's ok, I'll get it' and to his great delight, she bent down under the table and closed her hand around him!

The little USB could've wept, had he not wanted to risk short-circuiting his wires. He was home, and his little mistress was over-joyed! But as Merlin slid into the all too familiar pocket, greeted warmly by the worn-down rubber Gaius, and his beautifully sharp ward Gwen, he felt sad and worried. Arthur was still out there, desperately searching for him and…'Hello there, little one! Are you new as well?'

Behind Gaius a tall, broad, and quite frankly terrifying new memory stick loomed out from behind the shadows, its red centre glowing in the darkness of the fabric. 'But…' Merlin stammered; 'You look just like me! Only…well, bigger!' The tall memory stick laughed, the scarlet square on his chest glowing brightly as he said 'we must've been manufactured in the same factory! I'm Balinor' 'I'm Merlin!'

As the day continued, Merlin and Balinor discovered they had much more in common than their factory status, and revelled in each others company all the way home, but as soon as Merlin's scuffed little casing was placed onto the empty shelf, his longing for Arthur returned with a crash.

Dear Arthur, out there, alone, searching for Merlin, not knowing that he had returned safely, and it was Arthur who needed rescuing. He'd have to go out and find him himself; Merlin declared, but right after he'd recharged…getting lost is incredibly tiring for a young memory stick, you know…

Ok I know this story is completely insane, but I swear it actually happened like this! I lost my little Merlin on a Monday at school, so began using Arthur again, but then he disappeared too! I got a little stressed about it, and began moaning to everyone I knew until eventually my dad surprised me with a new memory stick…that looked scarily similar to my old one :/ which made me feel horrible for replacing poor little Merlin, but I had coursework to do so I just got on with it. Then one day, Merlin returned! And so I decided to use him and Balinor together, but sadly…Arthur never came home :( But I just haven't had the heart to tell Merlin that yet... xxx