This is a story I wrote based off an OC I made for the Crossroads Roleplay Forum. You should definitely check it out, it's a lot of fun.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Merlin. The only character that is mine is Myra as I made her up. All rights to the show and its canon characters of course belong to the creators of Merlin.
Myra woke up to another ordinary day in the camp she lived in. Or so she thought. Little did she know that today was going to be the worst day of her life. Today was the day that her whole life would change and she would suffer what no seven-year-old girl should ever suffer.
She helped her mother dress her two younger brothers while her father got them all breakfast from the Druid leaders. Her mother hummed a quiet song as she forced a shirt onto Damien's struggling form, causing her to chuckled. Her father walked in with a pot of food a gave a bemused sigh as her other brother, Hayden, tried to pull his shirt off.
"Oh, Aveline. Are the boys making a fuss again?" he asked, setting the pot down and grabbing five bowls from a sack.
"Same as ever, Myran. They are two and three after all. Can't expect them to be cooperative. Myra, sweetie. Be a dear and fetch some water from the well, will you? I'd like to clean your brother's up before we eat," her mother asked of her.
"Of course, Mother," Myra smiled and grabbed an empty pot. She brushed her bright red hair from her face as she exited her family's tenet and made for the well. One of the camp leaders, Namorian, was already at the well, filling his own pot. "Good morning, Namorian," she smiled at him. He smiled in return until she heard a squishy thud and his smile turned to a grimace of pain. He fell forward over the well, an arrow sticking out of his back.
Myra let out a scream as arrows began to fly through the air. Men dressed in chainmail and red capes appeared from the trees with their swords drawn. Knights of Camelot.
"Spare the women and children!" a young blonde man ordered, his own sword drawn. Myra dropped her pot as chaos broke out. Her people were screaming and running in a panic. She tried to make her way back to her family's tent but there was so much going on that she couldn't get through the mass of running people and slashing swords and flying arrows. It was clear that many of the knights were not listening to the young man's order. She watched as Arien, a boy who was only a few years older than her with thin brown hair get shot down with a crossbow, his body falling next to the well. One by one, her people were being killed.
Terrified, she hid behind the well, her breathing heavy and her heart racing. Myra's eyes shot to her family's tent. Her mother ran out, holding her little brother's, followed by her father. A knight ran towards them and her father blasted them back with magic before the knight could reach her mother. But then Myra watched as he was cut down by another knight just seconds later.
"Papa!" she screamed, tears falling down her cheeks. Her mother, Aveline, heard her scream and look towards the scared girl.
"Myra!" her mother called out and ran towards her with Damien and Hayden still in her arms She made it halfway across the camp before she was shot down by three arrows.
"No! Mama!" Myra screamed and ran out of her hiding spot, running towards her mother and two brothers. Two knights grabbed Myra's screaming brothers and ran them through with their swords before leaving them to kill more druids. Myra ran to them and fell to her knees next to their bodies and her mother grabbed her hand, gasping for breath.
"Myra, my love...run...Run!" her mother gasped and Myra sobbed as her mother's body went limp, her blank eyes staring up at her. She looked up to see a knight of Camelot standing above her. He swung his sword and Myra let out a scream, her eyes flashing gold as the knight was blasted backwards. Then she ran. Faster than she'd ever ran before. Right into the young man who had tried to order the knights not to kill women and children.
Myra fell on her back, sobbing as she stared up at him. The young man looked down at her and he looked just as scared as she was. He seemed to be frozen in place with fear. It took several moments for either of them to do anything. The man looked around before swiftly sheathing his sword and picking her up. Myra started kicking and screaming as he carried her off to the edge of the camp where there was nothing left but dead bodies. The man set her down, his blonde hair glinting in the sun and his blue eyes shining with fear. It was then that she realized who it was. It was Prince Arthur of Camelot.
"Go…" he told her gently in a shaky voice. "Run." Myra didn't react, staring at him with wide and tear filled eyes. The Prince looked troubled and terrified. He knelt down and shook her gently. "Go!"
Myra jumped a little but ran away. Alone. Her family slaughtered. And over 12 years later when she was 19, Myra mourned when she heard the news that King Arthur of Camelot was dead. The man who led the patrol that slaughtered her family. The man that saved her life.