First ever Merlin story so here we go!

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Summary: Arthur's been having some intense nightmares that almost seem real, but brushes them off as nothing more than just bad dreams. Merlin thinks there's more going on than the young King believes. As Camelot's enemies begin closing in on the kingdom Merlin must figure out what or who is behind it before Arthur loses his mind.

The Dream Walker

He just couldn't admit it, not even to himself. If there was one thing he was good at, and, honestly, he was good at many things, it was that he could hide his inner most sacred feelings from everyone. Well, mostly everyone. There were the occasional occurrences with his bumbling idiot of a manservant who seemed to read the King better then he could read himself most of the time. He felt that that should have annoyed him that a servant could understand his feelings better than he understood them, but then again, Merlin never seemed to be the normal manservant often produced in the fine kingdom of Camelot.

A small smile came to the man's lips at the thought of his manservant. In the past few years Merlin had seemed to overcome that title given to him and lodged himself right within the confides of Arthur's most trusted inner circle. If Arthur was going to be truly honest with himself he would have said Merlin was his best friend, although he would never let the man know otherwise. Kings and manservants weren't best friends. It just wasn't proper. It occurred to Arthur that many of the things that had happened over the years were a far cry from proper and the idea of trying to restore any proper events would be almost silly. Morgana's betrayal and his father's death, not to mention the loss of Lancelot and the many trials he has had to face as king so far were leaving him with more sleepless nights than he had ever had in his life. Thoughts of Morgana brought him back to why he was sitting up in bed, in a cold sweat in the first place and back to what he couldn't admit.

Arthur could barely remember the last time he had had a nightmare as intense as the one he had just woken up to a few moments prior and yet he had been having the same one all week, but tonight had been worse than the others. He could usually fall right back asleep after a moment, but tonight...tonight had been different. The details were becoming foggy in his memory already though and all he could really recall was the evil smirk of Morgana and someone crying out in pain. Arthur flinched at the thought of the cry that had slowly begun to fade out of his head. It had been too real for his own liking and he was, well...

Afraid

There it was. He was afraid. He hated admitting to his fear because being King meant he didn't have time to fear if he was going to protect his kingdom and its people. Arthur rose from his bed and grabbed a piece of cloth and wiped the sweat from his face and his chest. He thought about calling for Merlin to keep his thoughts distracted and not let them wonder back to the nightmare, but stopped himself from doing so. If he called Merlin in the young man would only pester him with questions about why he was there and then babble on about what ever he usually went on about whenever the two were together. Despite sarcastic comments and rolls of eyes Arthur found that he didn't mind it as much as he thought he would and that he actually, secretly, liked it. For all his faults as a manservant, because he really was terrible at cleaning, he made a pretty damn good friend. No, he would let Merlin sleep for the night. He needed his rest if he was going to be prepared for Arthur taking his anger and fear out on target practice in the morning. It seemed like a fair price since Arthur was not calling upon Merlin this late at night. Arthur closed his eyes as he laid back down on his bed, maybe the nightmare wouldn't return.

Merlin

Bright sunlight filled the room and Arthur groaned as light footsteps disturbed the once quiet dwellings of his chamber. He had been wrong about the nightmare and had awoken two more times before he had been allowed to sleep in peace.

"Good morning, sire, would you like-" There was a pause in the familiar voice that had filled the room and Arthur felt that a pair of bright blue eyes were now surveying him with curiosity and potentially concern, "You look terrible."

Arthur scowled as he opened his eyes to take in Merlin who was indeed watching the King with interested eyes. He grabbed the nearest pillow and threw it at the manservant. "Is that the kind of greeting I get from you in the morning? Honestly, Merlin, if I wanted to be insulted I would have had Gwaine wake me up this morning."

Arthur saw the corner of Merlin's lip twitch into a smile and he could feel a little bit of his own stress flowing away as their usual banter filled his chambers after a very long and sleepless night.

"It seems like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." Merlin said as he started laying out the King's clothes. He paused for a moment as he gave Arthur a small smirk and said, "But that's about every morning for you, isn't it?"

Arthur swung is legs out of bed as he glared at Merlin who was still smirking in his direction. "Merlin," Arthur said in his I'm-Going-To-Kick-Your-Arse voice he usually reserved for the manservant.

"Shut up?" Merlin asked, but he was smiling.

Arthur opened his mouth in mock shock. "So we are being ever so wise this morning." He walked over to Merlin who helped him dress and then set out his breakfast. "Round up the knights, will you? We have some serious training to do this morning."

Merlin's smile fell as he realized what some "serious training" would entail for him. It had just seemed like yesterday his latest bruises were finally beginning to fade. Merlin reminded himself that it was just yesterday that were starting to disappear.

"Of course." Merlin said as he nodded his head and left the room to retrieve the knights.

Merlin

"Come on, Princess, I've seen you fight better." Gwaine chided as he easily dodged another one of Arthur's blows. The knights had all paired up and for the past hour Gwaine continually made remarks about how he wasn't even getting a workout at all since he had been paired with Arthur. Arthur wiped some sweat from his brow. He was a lot more tired than he thought he was.

"Why don't you just keep your mouth shut, Gwaine." Arthur growled as he thrust his sword forward, catching the fellow knight slightly off guard, but was blocked none the less. The other knights had stopped practicing and had gathered around, cheering their King on. Gwaine swung his sword as to knock Arthur off his feet, but Arthur jumped and swung his sword down. Gwaine smiled as he caught the sword with his own and knocked it out of the King's hands. The cheering stopped as everyone watched the two stare each other down. Gwaine's hard stare finally broke into a grin as he leaned down and picked up the King's sword and handed it to him. Arthur returned the smile.

"It seems that drinks are on you tonight, sire." Gwaine said with a small bow.

Arthur handed his sword to Merlin as he said, "Then my bill will be rather high if you are doing the drinking, Gwaine."

The knights laughed and Arthur dismissed them, but once they had all taken their leave Arthur's smile fell into a frown.

"Arthur, you okay?" Merlin asked as he began removing Arthur's amour.

Arthur remained silent for a moment, trying to decided whether he wanted to tell Merlin about the nightmare he could barely remember. It seemed pointless now since it wasn't going to make him feel any less tired, although it might have made him feel slightly better to tell someone.

"You know you can tell me anything, sire." Merlin said when Arthur had remained silent longer than usual. He could tell the King was deep in thought, but the troubled look that had passed over his face was enough to raise the warning flags in Merlin's mind.

Arthur turned to face Merlin, the smile back on his face as Merlin finished removing the amour. "Lunch and then we'll be back out for more practice, so get ready to run." Arthur patted Merlin's shoulder and headed in the direction of the castle.

Merlin watched his friend stroll into the castle. Arthur thought he was being sneaky, but Merlin saw the smile slide from his face again before going back to the castle for lunch. Merlin sighed as he picked up the amour and placed it in its appropriate home for the time being. Merlin always knew when Arthur was hiding something. He had been around the young King long enough to know when something was troubling him and time and time again he had tried to instill in the King that he could tell him anything. Merlin knew that Arthur trusted him, but he could also sense that the King was putting on a brave face and being stubborn-as usual-and was shutting people out.

How am I suppose to protect him if he won't even tell me what's bothering him.

Merlin thought to himself as he began his walk towards the castle. His destiny seemed to get more complicated each day. Merlin shook his head as to clear it of all his thoughts. Maybe Arthur was just really tired and he was being super paranoid about the whole thing, but for some reason Merlin couldn't shake this feeling of dread as he walked through the castle doors.

Merlin

"Merlin, don't be such a girl." Arthur said as he watched Merlin rubbed his arms quickly before going back to preparing his bed for sleeping.

"It's not my fault that you-" Merlin paused in the middle of his sentence as Arthur sent him a death glare. Merlin was about to say "missed" but Arthur's stare had told him to choose any word, but that one.

"That I what?" Arthur said through his teeth.

"Are so strong." Merlin said after a moment and rather sheepishly.

During their second go at training Arthur's exhaustion had hit it's peak and he had accidentally sliced Merlin's arm which had put an end to the training for the day. Merlin waited for Arthur to throw something at him, but the King just shook his head as he sat down on the edge of his bed.

"I'm sorry about your arm." He said as he laid down.

"Don't worry, battle scars, right?" Merlin said at an attempt to make Arthur smile. He was not disappointed when he saw a small smile form on Arthur's lip.

"We needed to toughen you up anyway, Merlin." Arthur said, returning to his same old self again, which caused Merlin to roll his eyes, but was slightly relieved to hear Arthur being himself for once today.

"I'll toughen up when you stop fattening up." Merlin said with a cheeky grin.

Arthur grabbed the nearest pillow and threw it at his manservant. "I am not fat!"

"Whatever you say, sire." Merlin said with a nod of his head, the grin still on his face. "Will you need anything else tonight?"

"No, that'll be all." Arthur said as he repositioned himself back on the bed. Merlin nodded his head, blew out the candle and left. Arthur stared up at the top of his bed. He felt beyond exhausted and he hoped that he would be able to fall into a deep sleep without any dreams or nightmares to bother him. He closed his eyes and immediately felt himself drifting off.

Merlin

Long, slender fingers curled around a few locks of golden hair before they became suspended over a boiling black liquid. The hairs fell softly on top of the black liquid that was bubbling away and they stood out indefinitely against their black background. Soon they were stirred in and could no longer be seen. A small, white bowl was dipped into the liquid and was slowly brought up to a pair of bright, red lips.

"Sweet dreams, Arthur." A silky voice whispered before ingesting the contents of the white bowl.

Well, there you have it folks. First chapter of my first Merlin story. I felt like it was a bit short but I really wanted to introduce what was going on so future chapters should be longer and have more going on. I'm sure you all can take a wild guess at the mystery person at the end...I hoped I've captured the characters pretty well so far! So please drop me a review so I know how I'm doing and anything that you would think would make this better. Much appreciated!

-vballqueen17