A/N: Hey guys! This is my first story on Fanfiction, not in general, just on this site/app. This may just be an exciting experience for all of us. Updates are probably going to be slow because 1) I'm new to writing on here, 2) I have a full time job, and 3) I've never actually finished a story before, except a three-shot that I wrote in the middle of the night, three nights in a row. So, um, sorry if updates don't happen every week. I will try for once a week, twice a week if I can, but probably not. Anyway, now that I've given you some information, let's get to the story.
Summary: King Arthur Pendragon wants to find the mysterious man named Emrys. Along with his wife, Queen Guinevere Pendragon, and his Court Sorceress (and sister), Lady Morgana Pendragon, he will embark on a journey to small villages and even other kingdoms to find the Druid King. Nobody knows why until they finally meet and destiny can begin in a new way.
(AU, no Merthur; sadly; Arwen present; but no kisses; Good!Morgana, Druid King!Merlin, BAMF!Merlin; cause he totally is; Good!Mordred)
Enjoy!!
Arthur looked at the report his men had brought in. "Leon, is this what I think it is?" The Head Knight nodded, serious look on his face. The King grinned and looked to his right where his Court Sorceress and sister, Morgana Pendragon, sat. She glanced it over and mirrored his grin. Arthur's wife and queen, Guinevere Pendragon, walked in and over to them. "Arthur? What is it?" He handed the report to her and she looked it over. "Is this?" She hesitated and he nodded. "It is." The rest of the councilmen and the Round Table Knights entered the room and sat down in their places. Guinevere handed the report to Sir Leon and sat down on Arthur's left. The Head Knight stood before his chair with the paper in hand, waiting for everyone to settle. Once they had, he looked to his King, who stood and looked around the room. "Gentlemen, and Ladies," He added with a glance to each side of him, "We have been searching for a particular warlock for nearly ten years now. Yesterday, we found traces of his druid camp near the small village of Ealdor. Sir Leon will now read the report from the newly-built guard tower." He sat and Leon cleared his throat.
'Two days ago, we sighted a druid in the village and had our sorcerer, Matthew, follow him back to his camp. They were barely a league away and Matthew spotted the infamous Emrys. He reported the warlock to have short, black hair and strangely pale skin. Emrys had pure gold eyes and many runes on the sighted skin of his arms and neck. The tell-tale druid mark was nowhere to be seen but Matthew stayed to investigate. Yesterday, he came back with no knowledge of any druid camp or even seeing Emrys. Luckily, our new knowledge was written down before he had his memory wiped completely. We then sent a scout into the village to see if anyone knew anything, which gave us no new information. Although, I personally believe to have met a hesitant woman named Hunith. She seemed to know something but denied answering our questions. Matthew tried to mentally communicate with her but she blocked him out immediately. This morning, we sent a patrol into the woods to find the camp. They scoured the forest for until mid-afternoon but could not find any signs of the druids. King Arthur, I believe Ealdor may be our only resource to find Emrys, and within the village, only one woman can lead us to the start. You may want to journey here to question her yourself. She seems unwilling to answer to any of us. She may trust the King who saved her village all those years ago.'
"This report was written by the leader of the guard tower, Sir William." He sat down and nodded to Arthur, who stood up again. "Thank you, Sir Leon. I will be taking at least ten knights with me along with my Court Sorceress, Morgana. Queen Guinevere will be in charge while I am gone." One councilmen, Lord James, spoke up. "And how long will you be gone, M'Lord?" Arthur glanced at Leon and debated it. "Probably no longer than two weeks to hear the full report and question the woman. I will travel back after staying there for three days. Once I am back and have all of the information, I will sending groups of knights, no mare than ten per group, after the druids and Emrys. If we lose him again, we will simply have to wait until he reappears." Slowly, everyone agreed to the declaration. "I need ten knights willing to travel to Ealdor with me. Leon, pick the best men we have outside of the Round Table. We leave in two days." With that, the council was dismissed and Arthur went to his chambers with Guinevere. They laid out maps when Morgana entered the room and hovered around the table. "Sir William said the camp was barely a league from Ealdor so that gives us a perimeter of where they were." Arthur gestured to the general area of where they would search. An enlarged map of Ealdor sat in front of them and Morgana shook her head. "But he never said in which direction so we'd have to search this entire area." She waved her hand over the map and outlined a circle with her magic. Gwen smiled at the obvious use which was banned barely eight years ago. (Arthur had begun searching for Emrys when he was Regent under the guise of killing the man when really he just wanted to find him.) "True." Arthur relented before he pointed to the tower. "If they could see the druid from here, he must have been close to the edge of the village. I know druids like to travel, or at least they seem to walk a lot from what I've seen. Doesn't give us much but we could narrow it down by asking which direction the druid came from and which he left." Gwen looked up at him. "I could write to Sir William and Morgana could use her magic to transport it to him immediately." She suggested and Arthur nodded. "Yes. Also, ask for anymore information about the druids. What some of them looked like, what they wore, where their mark was." Morgana grinned up at him. "Right. That could give us some idea of which druid clan they are and where they like to camp. If it's Iseldir's, we can simply ask him but if Emrys is staying Alator or even Allister, we may not find them so easily." She commented as Gwen grabbed some parchment and a quill. Brother and sister continued with the maps while Gwen wrote a simple little letter.
'Sir William, I write to you in question of your last report. King Arthur and I were wondering if you could tell us any details of the druids from the camp? Where their mark was, what clothes they wore, that sort of thing. Also, if you could tell us which direction the druid Matthew followed came from and which he left? It will give us an idea of where to start looking for them. King Arthur, the Lady Morgana, and a few knights will be traveling to Ealdor in not too long. Your Queen, Lady Guinevere.'
She rolled it up and tied it with a simple ribbon before handing it to Morgana. The sorceress held it in her right hand and put her left hand barely an inch over it. She chanted a few words and with golden eyes, the letter disappeared with a puff of smoke. "Ok. Matthew should be able to send a letter directly to me using the same spell but if he can't, then we'll have to wait for the falcon to return." She said before turning back to Arthur. "Are we really going to wait again if we don't find them?" He nodded and both women stared at him. "What do you want from him? An alliance or something?" Arthur smiled and chuckled at the tone she used. "No, not an alliance." He looked up at both of them. "I want his friendship and the opportunity to know him." Morgana stared at her brother. "Why?" He looked back at the maps and stared at the word 'Ealdor'. "Because he's Emrys. I feel like I know him and I should know everything about him. He feels like my soul-bound opposite that I know nothing about." He banged a fist on the table and clenched his teeth. "I want to know but he keeps running! I know he knows who I am and I know he knows I wouldn't hurt him but he won't let me get close enough to actually know him." He growled before collapsing in his chair. A letter appeared on the table with a flash of gold and a puff of smoke. Morgana opened it and quickly read it.
'Queen Guinevere, I am honored to hear from you and am glad to hear that King Arthur will travel to meet us. Of course, I will gladly give more information for them to make accurate plans. The druid we saw and followed entered Ealdor from the east and left to the south. Before Matthew lost his memory, he remembered the druid taking a long walk and often curving through the trees as if on an unknown path. Fortunately , Matthew is talented with directions and was able to tell us that the druid led him north of Ealdor, probably to confuse him of their location. The druid mark was never spotted, as far as we know, and the druids themselves wore earthly-colored tunics and, usually, brown trousers or skirts. The skirts often went to the women's ankles or, for younger girls, to their knees. Often, the women wore shorter tunics that barely covered their stomachs, but we believe those women to be of the younger generations. Though, I think you may find this next bit more interesting than their clothes. The women, of any age, wear necklaces with rocks or claws on them, always in a design specific to their age. The men wear leather bracelets with either chain, for younger men, or rocks embedded into the leather for the older men. I have seen an elder once, I believe him to be the only one with them. He wore no jewelry and wore a long red robe. He had boots a peasant boy may wear and seemed to love leaving the ones assigned to watching him. Barely a week ago, I watched from the tower as he left two young men behind the barn searching for him and he went into the village alone. It seemed to be a game to him, as far as I could tell. Anyway, I hope the information helped you some and I hope to see the King and the Lady Morgana in good health soon. Farewell for now, Sir William'
"Well, that has certainly helped some." Morgana laid the letter out beside the maps and used some magic to outline the northern part of their perimeter. "This is where he said they were but I still think we should cover the entire area. We can use some of the knights we left at the tower. I could do a sweep of the area, search out any magic and try to find a trail we could follow." Gwen leaned forward to look at the letter. "What of the old man? What use is that information?" Arthur gasped and stood up abruptly. "That man tried to heal Father! He was the one Gaius found for us and we allowed to heal him. Remember? He didn't have enough power to overcome the pendant we found." Morgana nodded. "I was wondering where he went off to." She mused before looking at the map again. "Claw and rock necklaces? Leather bracelets? Which clan liked those again?" Arthur asked and Morgana pulled out her piece of parchment. She laid it out and searched through them. "Claw necklaces is Alvarr. Leather bracelets is Allister. Rock necklaces is Iseldir. All three is none. There's none of them with that combination." She sighed as Gwen grabbed another piece of parchment from Arthur's desk. "The clothes don't match any certain druid camp either. "The skirt differences for women are from three clans, Iseldir being one of them. The tunic detail doesn't match either as both Alvarr and Allister use those." Arthur grabbed another one and unrolled it. "Alvarr's group has their marks on their chest but you see them with the women. Iseldir's has their's on their upper arm but you see them with anything they wear, minus the robes. Allister's is on their lower arm, like the Bastet girl we met once, whom introduced us to them in the first place. The only other one I can think of is Ruaden and Sefa who were from a clan in Annis' kingdom but their's was on the back of the neck, seeable for men with short hair." They all sat down and looked over the three pieces of parchment as well as the map and the letter. "The information doesn't add up with anything we have and so we have no idea where they could be or where they are headed." A knock on the door interrupted their thinking and Arthur turned in his seat. "Come in." The guards held the doors open as three servants entered with dinner. "Ah. Good interruption." Morgana smiled at her brother before waving a hand at the things before them. The letter and parchment pieces went to Arthur's desk while the map rolled itself up and set itself on top of the others. The three servants set the plates in front of the royals and bowed before they left. All three royals gave the servants smiles and 'thank you's before they left. The guards left them in peace and they talked while they ate. Gwen told her husband and her best friend/sister-in-law what she did during the morning. Morgana shared her experiences of teaching four new students of hers how to find the magic web in the air. She explained how they were nearly ready for their assessments so this would be the last lesson she could give them. Arthur told of how well the new knights were doing along with some new squires that he had hoped would shape up before their final assessment in a few months. All in all, they each thought it was a good ending to a normal-ish day.