This story is set about 2 weeks after the events of season 4 episode 6 (A Servant of Two Masters).
The prologue is Merlin's POV but the rest of the story is Arthur's POV.
Prologue
This was getting ridiculous.
Ever since Merlin had taken a mace to the chest, gotten separated from Arthur by a rock fall, was captured by bandits and thought dead for a couple days, Arthur has refused to bring him on any of his missions outside of Camelot. At first Merlin didn't mind being left behind on a couple of hunting trips (which he hated going on anyways) and one of Arthur's dull surveys to map patrol areas. He figured that Arthur would just be overprotective for a short time and then as the memory of Merlin's injury faded he would revert back to the old ways.
Not that he would ever admit that he was leaving Merlin behind because he was worried about him. He had come up with reasons so unbelievable Merlin wondered if he should be insulted that Arthur seemed to think he would actually buy them. Having been on every single hunting trip with him for the past 6 years or so, Merlin couldn't imagine how he was supposed to believe that he couldn't go on this one because Arthur couldn't return from a hunting trip without his slippers warmed up and waiting for him. Arthur hadn't even worn his slippers in years and Merlin was supposed to believe that he needed to stay in Camelot to warm them for Arthur's return? It actually made Merlin feel better about some of the less believable lies he told when he couldn't think of anything better to make up on the spot.
Merlin didn't really mind. He felt kind of touched that Arthur cared about him enough to worry. That is, until Arthur had announced his intent to ride into the forest of Magnaroth to retrieve the leaves of the Japnus tree, while Merlin stayed behind in Camelot. Hunting trips and patrol mapping were usually pretty safe so long as Arthur didn't go too far from the castle, but if Arthur thought that he was going into a forest infested with magical creatures and inhabited by bandits without Merlin, he had another thing coming.
The reason for the trip was a plague that was sweeping through Camelot. So far no one had died, but Gaius warned that those infected would grow weaker and weaker until a cure could be obtained. After a bit of research he found that the only cure was an extract from the leaves of the rare Japnus tree, which grew on the East side of the forest of Magnaroth. Arthur had claimed that Merlin was needed in Camelot to help Gaius care for the sick, while he rode out to get the cure with a company of knights. It didn't help that all the best knights of Camelot were out on a patrol to the north and wouldn't be able to accompany their king on this mission.
Yes, it was getting ridiculous if Arthur thought he could just leave Merlin behind and still expect to survive his overly dangerous missions. Well, screw that, thought Merlin as he resorted to his good old "follow Arthur" strategy.
Fortunately he had recently perfected his mastery of tracking spells or this would be a lot harder, considering that Arthur had left a whole half-day earlier than he had told Merlin he was going to, probably to make sure that Merlin wouldn't follow him.
Merlin couldn't help feeling a hint of vindication amidst the horror when he found Arthur alone and tied up on the ground in the middle of a camp of bandits.
Yes, Arthur couldn't last a single day without Merlin at his side. And now it was rescue time.
Usually Merlin was very good at coming up with ways of subtly using magic to save Arthur with him being none the wiser, but with Arthur surrounded by what looked like at least 50 bandits, Merlin's ideas were, for once, not very forthcoming. That is until he spotted a cloak that had been hung out on a tree branch near the edge of the camp and a plan started to formulate with a somewhat less subtle approach to using magic to rescue Arthur.