Ships:

Arthur/Gwen at beginning

Gwen/Lancelot later on

Arthur/OC eventually

And would you like some Merlin/OC? Tell me!

Merlin POV

Hunting. Again. I groaned quietly as we clambered over rocks and foliage - supposedly silently - to find a herd of deer. Well, I hoped it was deer. Arthur hadn't specifically told me what we were hunting today. He was rather mysterious, actually. 'Oh, just the usual.' He'd said vaguely. When I asked what the usual was (we hunted for different creatures each time) he got moody and snapped at me. 'Just shut up about the hunt, will you?' He'd said. 'If you keep taking about it we'll never get there!' So naturally, I shut up and got the horses ready.

Anyway, now we're trampling around the forest trying to find some poor animal to murder--

Snap. The sound of a breaking twig directly ahead of us abruptly stopped my train of thought. I looked at Arthur who was staring straight ahead intently. He glanced at me then at the other knights who had come with us and beckoned with his hand silently. We all crept forward, Arthur at the front, quickening his pace until he broke through the trees and threw his spear at the animal in the centre of the small clearing we had entered. The spear pierced the creature right through it's side and it let out a terrible scream. It rolled onto it's back, and to my horror (and definitely Arthur's) we saw it was a human woman, caked in mud and dirt making her appear as an animal. My eyes widened in horror and Arthur instantly ran forward, not bothering to check for other dangers in the area, going straight to the woman he had injured. She was breathing irregularly and blood was spurting out of her wound as fast a water down a river. She was sobbing and moaning, and Arthur hastily put his hand around to spear and pressed down against the wound. The other knights ran around the clearing, checking for danger, whilst I just stood there, dumb-struck. Arthur looked at me furiously.

"Merlin!" he yelled. "Come on, help me! You live with Gaius; surely you can do something to slow the blood flow until we can get her back to Camelot!?" I snapped out of my daze, completely awake and ready to help. I fumbled in around trying to open the bag that was always at my side, with the constant groans and sobs echoing around me. I finally open the latch (my hands had been shaking) and quickly found what I was looking for: bandages. I pulled them out of my bag and started wrapping them around her body just as Gaius had shown me. I concentrated on putting most of the bandage around where the spear entered with suffocating her by making it too tight. When I was done, Arthur wasn't particularly satisfied.

"What do you call that?!? ! The blood is seeping through already!" And he was correct. Small patches of blood appeared on the bandage, getting bigger by the second. I instantly felt ashamed at my shoddy work and then angry.

"Well, at least I wasn't the one who skewered her." I said as I momentarily forgot my place. Arthur bristled, but just then the woman shrieked again and he instantly looked ashamed and anxious. Without saying a word, Arthur effortlessly lifted her into his arms and carried her swiftly back to his horse. I quickly went to mine, and mounted just a second after Arthur who was still carrying the woman. The other knights hadn't had time to register that Arthur was leaving, and so were not ready to leave that instant. Arthur turned to them and said in a very commanding voice,

"I have to get her to Gaius. Follow quickly, but me and Merlin will make haste as her time is running short." The knights nodded and started going towards their horses. I was startled to see that Arthur had already sped off, and me and my horse quickly followed.

We got to Camelot not 5 minutes later, and just in time too. The woman was extremely pale and her breath was almost inaudible. No more pained cries came from her, as she had fallen unconscious on the short journey to Camelot. Arthur jumped off his horse with the girl and ran past the confused guards to the area where the medical quarters were located. He ran inside the room without knocking and a startled Gaius looked up. He looked at Arthur's sweaty, panicked form, then took in the condition of the woman he was carrying. His eyes widened, but he didn't ask questions as he was a professional. He quickly pointed to the table where he usually worked on patients and Arthur quickly laid her there. Pressing his hand against her forehead, he looked down at the bandages I had wrapped around her crudely in my haste. He sighed, and began unwrapping them gently. Although she was unconscious, this didn't stop a moan escaping her lips as the material pealed of the open wound. Gaius worked in silence, pealing off the bandages until none were left, with me and Arthur still stood there, watching him. He looked at Arthur and sighed again.

"Sire, I believe it would be better if you left now, as what I am about to do is complicated and requires the utmost concentration. Unfortunately your being here would most likely distract me." Arthur nodded curtly, and with one last glance at me then the woman, he left and closed the door behind him. As soon as the dorr was closed, Gaius looked at me. I returned his gaze. He sighed and glanced at the woman, bleeding to death on the table. He looked at me again and said quietly,

"We have two choices, Merlin. Choice one: We help her best we can, using my scientific methods and obeying the law. Or choice two…"

"I use my magic to heal her." I finished. Gaius nodded cautiously. I looked at the woman, whose breathing remained as it had before, but was even paler than it was 3 minutes ago.

"Of course I choose choice two… I always will use my magic to heal if you'll let me. But that's what I want to know… Why her? Why are you letting me heal her, when so many others have been lying there, dying, and I can't help them? Why is she so special?" Gaius shrugged.

"I don't know, Merlin. I just have this feeling that she has to live. I think she's special, but I don't know how or why." I nodded. I couldn't agree more.

A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks for reading my story ^.^ So… You like? Reviews please! I know where I'm going with this story, so I don't need plot help, but any suggestions as to Merlin-ish problems will not go unappreciated. This story is set about a month after the end on season 2, when everything has got back to normal. Oh, and Morganna will be appearing in this story, as a bad guy (girl) of course. Just so you know, Arthur won't suddenly end up with OC, it'll happen after he finds out about Gwen and Lancelot getting together. And it won't be suddenly after that, either. Their relationship is a complex one! I can't tell you the plot without ruining the story, but I will tell you that this all happens before Arthur is King. So this story swerves away from the legend, just like Merlin, okay? Anyways… Bye!

Boe