Human Minds

A/N – for anyone who is reading or has read what I have done of "how his life changed", I haven't forgotten about it but I need a break from it and some ideas. This type of story has been done before and I really liked the idea so I'm using it. It's about shape shifting.

Disclaimer – Yeah I own Merlin, that's why this is a FAN fiction….Merlin belongs to the BBC.

Missing Merlin

Arthur PoV

2 weeks; that's how long Merlin ad been missing for. They'd been out on a hunting trip, Arthur, the Knights and Merlin, when he had gone off to wash the dishes. He had been gone for 15 minutes before anyone realised he'd been gone too long. When we went to investigate, there were signs of a struggle and some pots were broken. We followed the tracks until they just…disappeared.

I couldn't send out search parties. I had no idea where to look. There is nothing I can do.

Everyone has been hit hard by his kidnapping. Gaius is tired and weary and rarely leaves his chambers, only leaving to treat illnesses. A servant fetches any herbs the physician needs. Gwaine seems to have been hit just as hard, not drinking and being silent and withdrawn, which didn't suit the knights' personality. The other knights are silent too and it is only during matters of safety for the people that we have a conversation and even then it's about business. Our group, our brotherhood is falling apart, like Merlin was the glue who kept us together.

The castle has become gloomy. The servants, cooks, page boys and stable hands all take the loss heavily; Merlin had brought light into their dull lives and Gwen is heartbroken that her best friend is missing.

All we can do however is wait; for any information, for a sign, for some track or other to follow, to lead us to him.

Merlin PoV

I have been in this room of black for so long. I don't know what day it is anymore. It could have been 3 days or 3 years. I'm not alone in this room though. There is a girl who has similar looks to me except that her hair is longer and her features more feminine. She is beautiful, but only my Freya is in my heart. She has long black hair that reaches past her waist, which is softly curled. Her eyes are a deep, ocean blue colour that shine in the very dim candlelight and show many different emotions. She is not tall but she is not small either; a medium height that gives appearance a lithe look, like a cat ready to pounce on her enemies. Her hips and chest are in a good proportion to her height and weight and she is desirable to the kidnappers; however none have tried anything and look at her with fear in their eyes, for a reason I do not comprehend. Her name is Sapphire. We have got to know each other quite well.

I don't know what they want with me and she doesn't know what they want with her. So we wait; night after night, to see if our questions get answered.

We are silent now, deep in thought. I think to what I could be doing now. Maybe I would be on hunt with the knights, or picking herbs for Gaius, or mucking out the stables. I never thought that I would wish to be doing that right now. To actually want to much out Arthurs stables means that I might be losing my sanity. I think of Gwaine and Lancelot, Leon, Percival and Elyan too Gwen, Gaius and even Arthur. I don't know who I miss most. I think about what I would do if I got out of here. I would take Sapphire to Camelot with me, because she doesn't have a home or friends, and I can tell she's lonely and wants to settle down somewhere, start a fami-

I am startled out of my reverie by a door banging open and an ominous feeling of something big about to happen, like maybe getting those questions we have been mulling over for the last few - days?, Weeks? Who knows? – Or maybe a spell will be cast. I can sense a huge amount of magical energy walking towards, and there has got to be about 6 sorcerers of high power because this reading is higher than I've ever seen.

My guess was right, I observe as six powerful looking men with murder in their eyes bring in a torch. The light is so bright after the nearly absolute blackness that it hurts my eyes. The bald man at the front, who is clearly the strongest and the leader just stands and examine me and Sapphire closely, his eyes roaming all over Sapphires body, which was making her incredibly uncomfortable, judging by the squirming she was doing under his game. And then he spoke for the first time in a deep guttural voice very similar to my dragon lord voice but without the power.

"Well, well, well, what have we here? It's Prince Arthur's manservant and very beautiful young lady. What a shame you won't be looking that beautiful for long eh?"

"And what, exactly, do you mean by that" came Sapphires reply, dripping in venom and sounding incredibly dangerous. The leader looked taken aback slightly before he recovered and laughed.

"Feisty one aren't cha? But you see I know about both of you, I can read it in your auras, and you both should know what I mean by that, and your protecting a magic hating city, but I can't kill either of you because of what and who you both are, so I'll settle for the next best thing; changing your appearances so much that no one will have a hope of recognising you" here he and his men laughed raucously, "However you are both very powerful so me and my friends here have to work together, and no kind of magic will break this spell, it will break either when we are dead or Uther Pendragon is"

And then they started chanting. I looked at Sapphire and she looked back. I know I can trust her so I told her what I was. "By the way in case you're wondering what he was talking about, I'm actually a, um well…warlock and a dragon lord. I know I can trust you so I thought it best you now know rather than later"

She looked back for a second, calculating, before nodding, "Okay, thank you and I have a little magic myself but not very much, enough for a glamour, and well I would tell you what I am but I don't know what that is so I'll just show you"

She took a deep breath and then she began to glow a soft, pure silver, the men weren't fazed by this, meaning they had seen this before. When the glow died, I almost did a double take. She had cat ears and a cat tail with a bow on it which also had a bell on it (A/N if you have seen Tokyo Mew Mew, like Mew Ichigo, except Sapphires bow is green and blue) but that wasn't what caught my eye. It was her wings. They were absolutely amazing; they were pure white all the along, but where the feathers texture grew more pronounced, they changed colour, many colours to be more specific. It was like looking at a rainbow, like every colour known to man was in the feathers.

She looked at me and smiled, a shy, almost sheepish smile, and I smiled back. We would get through this together. So we sat and I was thinking of any way I could to get out of here before they finished. I tried several spells, before they stopped chanting and released the spell.

What happened next was so hard to explain, that I didn't even try. I felt strange, like I was curling up on myself but like my bones were shrinking for the most part but growing in others. I was changing shape. I shut my eyes, and I could feel my magic shrinking with me, weakening to get in proportion with my new shape, and I knew it wouldn't help me any in the events that were sure to follow.

And then it stopped; the chains that had bound me and Sapphire fell to the floor with an unusually loud clang, while the group of sorcerers, sounding exhausted for the most part, laughed. They opened the door and left, leaving the door slightly opened.

I got to my feet…all four of them; that was only slightly unusual, what told me something was very wrong was that I could feel something at the base of back swishing. I turned to see that I was now sporting pure black fur, had a long incredibly fuzzy tail, paws and large ears. Then I looked at Sapphire, and confirmed my fear of what had happened. She was in a similar state, except while I was black she was white and still sporting her bow on the tail, but now she also had a bell around her neck on blue ribbon, with a name tag. She seemed to sigh but looked comfortable and relaxed, almost like this was normal, while I was freaking out.

"Relax Merlin; they are letting us go you know. Just because we have been turned into cats does not mean we should sit in the room and sulk. This is not my first time being a cat, in case you haven't noticed, so I'll guide you on how to act. I'm guessing you want Camelot, yes?"

I nodded; glad that we could talk to each other. I got up and walked around, familiarising myself with how this new body moved. Then together we scampered out the door and into the knight, heading towards Camelot. I thought, as we ran, how I would get the point across that I was Merlin, and not just some stray. I stumbled a lot, still clumsy even as a cat, while Sapphire moved gracefully and with all the poise a cat should have.

"How will I show them it's me? I mean we can't exactly talk to them can we?"

"Simple, clumsy seems to be an attribute to your personality, no offense, and if you have something people recognise you by? Like your neckerchief for example. Find the people you want to know you've been tuned into a cat by a bunch of crazy sorcerers, and gather them together. I'll give you a hand with that if you want. Then go and grab the neckerchief and try and put it on. If that fails we will find another way"

"Okay, good plan, good thing you're so relaxed about all this and can actually think straight"

"Yeah this seems normal to me. I don't mind being a cat"

"Can we stop for a little while, I'm tired and I want to see how close we are"

She nodded at me before finding a small clearing we lay down in, with a little river nearby, where we could get a drink. Fortunately, I recognised the clearing as the one I had stopped in with Arthur and the Knights when I got kidnapped. We were about 2 hour away from the gates, so we stopped for a little cat nap up a tree, so no one would pick us up. We slept through the whole night and awoke at dawn, immediately setting off at a sprint for home.

We made it there eventually, after many trips and stumbles on my part and we sat on a cliff overlooking the entire city.

"It's a beautiful city. If only it were not tainted by the death of innocent people"

I sigh, "It's hard for me to live here sometimes, with the constant threat of execution, but I believe that Arthur will change that when he becomes once and future king"

She started at the title. "Once and future….that must make you Emrys, as in THE Emrys! Wow. Well we had better get going if we want to reach the city before lunch. Do you know if the knights gather at any point during the day?"

"Training after they have had their lunch actually but how will we get them to Gaius' chambers?"

"I have an idea. You go down to the training grounds and I will lead Gaius down. Is there anyone else?"

"Gwen, she might be with Gaius or at the training grounds"

"I'll come down to the training grounds then and see if she's there, then I will go to your room and grab a neckerchief, and hopefully Gaius will follow"

So we continued; me showing Sapphire directions and such before we reached the fields. Arthur and his knights had just arrived, with Gwen in tow. I pointed this out to Sapphire and she ran off to fetch my guardian.

A/N – What do you think?

Review Please!

I will try and get this story finished and uploaded today and tomorrow.

Thanks for reading XD

SapphireMoonbeam xx