Merlin watched helplessly as a bandit snuck up on a preoccupied Arthur. Merlin was starting to worry about his friend and king as he continued to not notice the encroaching bandit. He was also wondering if now was when he would have to save Arthur using more blatant magic than usual.

But then the young warlock remembered one little fact that had kept him away from a burning pile of wood for over three years. Arthur was one of the most unobservant entities in all of the great land of Albion. So his first port of call was to do his usual bandit stopping tactic. He dropped a very sturdy branch on the bandits that Arthur was fighting, promptly killing them. Merlin then turned his attention to the bandit that was about to behead the king of Camelot.

"You stupidly unobservant clot pole", merlin muttered. Without thinking, merlin sprung at the surprised bandit, pulling out his sword during the short sprint to intercept him. Seeing Merlin approach, the bandit changed the direction that his sword was facing and faced down a steely faced Merlin. The bandit took the first swing which merlin miraculously dodged and slashed at the bandits exposed flank. The bandit brought his sword to intercept Merlin's. With a shower of sparks, the blades collided in mid-air.

"Oh dear god, I'm going to die." thought Merlin. Pushing his sword away from his body, he jolted the bandit back a pace, giving Merlin time to ready his sword in preparation of another attack from the small bandit. It came as a swing directly for his head. Merlin parried and swung his own sword at his opponent's feet. When his sword met no resistance, Merlin was very surprised. He looked down for a split second as the blade impaled a very innocent root. Without time to yank it out he let go of the handle and danced away from a slash to his ribs. By now the rest of the camp was silent, the rest of the bandits either dead or dying in pile of two or three around shocked knights of Camelot. Meanwhile merlin had scrambled backwards and picked up the first vaguely offensive thing that he could find. As he brought it into his line of sight he noticed it was a saucepan. Groaning to nobody in particular he threw it over hand, hitting the laughing bandit in the chest causing him to stumble back a bit. This managed to buy the sorcerer a few seconds to find a proper weapon. He heard a savage war cry as his hand grabbed the guilded hilt of one of the fallen bandits' swords. Bringing it up just in time to catch a swing from the now furious bandit. Spinning out of the block he slashed the blade across the torso of the bandit, forcing him into the ground. With a final flourish so he was standing over the bandit, he brought down the blade onto the bandits exposed neck. It was only then that merlin noticed the unusual design of the sword. It was a single handed sword with an abnormally thin double edged blade. What made it unusual was the design of the blade. It's cross guard and handle was a single piece of exquisite metal work in the shape of a dragon with its wings outstretched. The dragons head was resting on the blade just above the outstretched wings that made up the cross guard. The rest of the dragon was melded together into the handle which seemed to fit perfectly into Merlin's hand. The pommel was a gem about the size of a walnut. The gem was pitch black.

"Merlin!" Arthur exclaimed after a while, causing Merlin to stop admiring the sword and remember what he had just done.

"Umm.. Yeah?" merlin asked a very amazed looking Arthur.

"What do you mean 'ummm yeah?'", Arthur asked incredulously. "You just saved my life!"

"Yeah. Again" merlin thought to himself. "What that? That was nothing." Realisation hitting him as to what he had just done. He had duelled with somebody who was trying to kill him, and won. He had used a sword properly. This was something that he couldn't even do in the relative safety of the training grounds back at Camelot.

"You hear that Gwaine? Apparently it was nothing." Arthur stated sarcastically, causing sir Gwaine to smile. "So merlin if it was nothing then I won't need to give you any reward will I?"

"Well now that you put it that way 'sire'" merlin countered quickly. This caused a hearty laugh from the rest of the knights that were on their way back to Camelot with the dynamic duo. Merlin had completely forgotten about the rest of the knights. Merlin's cheeks burned bright red when he remembered there presence.

"Merlin?" sir Leon asked. "May I have a look at that sword that you were using?"

Merlin looked down at his hand that was, to his surprise, still wrapped around the hilt of the amazing sword. "Yeah sure. Just don't break it." Only half joking.

"Don't worry merlin. I doubt I will be able to break it with anything that I possess." The bearded knight answered seriously.

This answer surprised everyone in the campsite. "Leon what do you mean?" Arthur questioned.

"Well sire. This is a blade forged by the revered noble house of Rhunemoin." This caused a few of the older knights to step away from the blade and hands to go to swords. This caused Arthur to look at it more cautiously.

"Please. Go on."

"Sire. In the times before the Great purge they were one of the strongest and well respected houses of all of Albion. And they were also known as some of the greatest forgers of weapons. The weapons of the Rhunemoin forges were said to be able to kill even those that are already dead. They were said to be forged with metals from the center of hell sire." Leon stated in a calm voice.

"Leon, how can you be so calm about that?" merlin asked, looking at the sword with wide eyes.

"Well I know for a fact that this particular sword is made of steel and a metal called stygian iron." Everybody let out breaths they didn't know they had held in.

"Stygian iron?" Gwaine asked.

Leon explained, "Stygian iron is a form of iron that was fused with magic during its forging to give it properties that were desirable in a war. That blade that merlin is holding will never dull or rust. Also I can say that it was made for the prince of Rhunemoin along with another identical sword with a pure white gem stone."

"Leon," the fair haired king said, "did you just, without any shuddering or hesitation, say that that sword was made with magic.

"no sire. What I said is that it the iron is fused with magic. There is a slight difference." The knight explained tiredly. To merlin it seemed that leon was tired of telling that story, even though it was the first time he had heard sir Leon talk of stygian iron or Rhunemoin.

"Wait," Elyan piped in, "were? What happened to them?"

"During the Great purge" Merlin noticed an unusual amount of venom in his voice. It didn't seem to be missed by the rest of the party either, "the house of Rhunemoin was destroyed by Uther because some of the Rhunemoinain royal family were known to have magic. He gave the people one chance to give up their leaders before he launched his assault on the castle of Rengath. When they refused he began to make his way to the keep, forcing his army to slaughter any that got in their way. Rhunemoin had always been a peaceful nation and had always been strong allies with Camelot. For a while camelots weapons were supplied by the forges at Rengath." During this time, the usually gentle knight had unconsciously clenched his fists. "He swept through the city at the front of his army killing any that got in his way, be they; men, women or children. He was blinded by his hate of magic that he didn't see what he was doing. When his rage subsided after the battle and he had realised what he had done, he gathered his troops and swore them never to speak of the assault of Rengath on punishment of death. They were to tell all who asked what happened that the city was in ruin when they arrived." At this Leon suddenly seemed to notice that his hands were clenched and he gave a little cough to try and excuse his actions.

"Leon. You never did tell me where you grew up." Merlin stated.

"Merlin!" Arthur exclaimed. "This is hardly the time." Merlin, ignoring the king as usual, asked Leon, "Where did you grow up Leon?"

Leon's reply stunned the whole of the camp into silence. "I was born in the great city of Rengath and I grew up as a refugee, and came to Camelot at the age of three and was adopted by a noble family."