Chapter 1

To say that the fight was going well was an understatement. It was going great! Arthur was standing in the middle of the madness surrounding him and watched his knights cleave away the bandits like a knife slice through cheese.

He let his guard down and idly noted how confident they had grown of their ability. One by one the knights stopped as there were no more bandits for all of them to fight with. About 10 bandits were still left but they were all circling around the target they thought would be easy picking. Arthur looked on amused as the bandits faces changed from malicious glee to horror in seconds as they watched how their "easy" pray turned out to be the most formidable of them all.

He watched as his best friend; Yes! you heard that right! he had finally given the "Best Friend" place to him, turned with a flourish and easily dispatched two bandits. Gwaine who was getting bored was yelling at him to get a move on, while munching on an apple.

"Where did Gwaine get an apple?" Arthur had no idea.

Arthur started to tap his foot impatiently as his so-called best friend tried to knock each and every bandit out without killing them out right. Arthur sheathed his sword still tapping his foot impatiently, while wondering how much of a softy his friend was. Just imagine it: King Arthur Pendragon, the ultimate killing machine was friends with a softy. He grinned thinking of how much he can use this to taunt his friend.

Finally as the non-fight in front of him looked like it was coming to an end, Arthur got this strange feeling of being watched. Though he had let his guard down it didn't mean his battle instincts, which were honed with many battles and practising since he was five years old, were idle.

He quickly turned to look behind him to see a bandit, how he managed to evade all of them he had no idea, standing behind him with a malicious wicked grin that made him look hideous, raise a long, sharp two edged sword that had every intention of cutting through him like butter.

"Wow that's one shiny sword. Merlin can take some lessons from him." was the first thought that crossed his mind a as the said shiny sword swept through the air toward him with a flash.

Arthur was rooted to the spot. His brain stubbornly choosing not to act. "So ends the life of King Arthur!" Arthur thought sarcastically as he watched the blade cut through the air coming to him "There goes my dream of dying in a blaze of glory" He thought as he closed his eyes preparing to take the oncoming blow of death.

That is until he heard a yell, "ARTHUR!" and was shoved away from the blade's path. Arthur fell on his side with a grunt as he hit his shoulder.

"That was uncalled for!" Arthur thought through a haze. He will punish who ever pushed him away hard enough to fall with stable duty for week!

Even though that person just happened to have saved your life? A tiny voice in his head ,which sounded suspiciously like Merlin asked. Yes! His "Prat voice" as Merlin loved to call it answered back in his head I'm the King! I can do whatever I want so shut up. Arthur's prat voice effectively made Merlin-voice shut up.

However this nice chat in his head was rudely interrupted when he heard,wait was that Gwaine?, yell one panicked word that managed to snap him back to reality with a heart wrenching lurch.

"MERLIN!"