This is my first ever Merlin fic. It follows Anna , who's basically a kickass druid girl working with the knights under Gaius. The main people are actually Leon and Gwaine, although Gwaine takes a while to get it. It follows the entire five series' but the first two are a bit jumpy, sorry!

Anyway happy reading!

Just so we're clear, Merlin is by no means mine

I jumped out of my skin when someone knocked on the door.

Gaius hadn't noticed, and if he had he was blatantly ignoring it. He just kept looking for the book I needed. Eventually I heard the door creak open and a young man speaking.

"Hello? Gaius?" he called softly, knowing if the physician was here, he would be heard.

On hearing his name, Gaius finally turned. But the walkway was too narrow for that sort of turn and he ended up leaning backwards against the rails, which were very weak. For a man, Gaius wasn't particularly heavy but that rail was by no means strong.

"Gaius!" I cried in alarm, leaping forward when the rails gave out and he started falling backwards away from me. I didn't get halfway before I felt like I was moving through treacle, rather than air and my skin started tingling. I managed to look up and saw the young man stood by the table, his eyes a rich topaz colour.

Then time returned to normal but Gaius didn't land on the floor. I hadn't noticed but the young man had telekinetically moved Gaius' bed underneath the falling physician so that instead of cracking his head open on the stone floor, he only had the breath knocked out of him.

I raced down the stairs, almost tripped and falling myself, before getting my balance back and helping Gaius to his feet.

"What did you just do?" he asked the young man sharply. Gaius must have been at least sixty but for such an old man he wielded strength and authority and he could make the bravest knight quail and do as he was told. It was a skill I had copied and it came in very useful in my line of work.

The young man stood there awkwardly and attempted to answer the question but Gaius was very impatient.

"Tell me!" he snapped.

"I have no idea what just happened," he stammered. Now he looked nervous, rather than awkward. Now he wasn't performing a spell, I could see his eyes were a strange blue-grey colour that went with his skin tone. He had short dark hair cut like a small boy and his clothes were that of a village lad or a servant.

"Um, Gaius?" I whispered. He turned to me, immediately softening. The old physician had a soft spot for me, it was well-known, and he didn't have it in him to get annoyed at me. "I'm just going to take that book and get back to Leon, if that's okay."

"You won't mention this, will you?" the young man asked quickly. He clearly understood how much danger he was in having magic in Camelot. I just smiled at him.

"That was the first magic I've seen since Uther had my father executed during the Great Purge," I told him quietly. Then I held up my shirt and turned my back so he could see the triskellion tattoo on my spine. "You keep my secret, I'll keep yours," I told me. "Oh, my name's Anna by the way."

"I'm Merlin," he replied and sent me a cheeky smile in return. I picked up the book on broken bones and walked out, thinking I had just made a new friend.

Leon noticed how happy I was when I came back and he frowned. Sir Leon was one of the few people who knew most of my past and he knew I didn't often have reason to smile.

"You'd have thought a good friend wouldn't smile at a broken wrist," he muttered under his breath, which made me laugh.

Leon was only a few years older than me but considered fairly old among the knights, nearly thirty. He had rugged blonde hair and clear blue eyes, a tall frame and a dry sense of humour. He'd been a page when I'd started working with Gaius and the knights and I'd forged a strong friendship with him and a few of the other knights, as well as a serving girl called Gwen, who'd grown up knowing Leon as well.

Today he'd been training with Prince Arthur, a spoilt little boy if there ever was one, and Arthur had swung wrong, his blade glancing off Leon's, down and snapping his wrist. Arthur had just stalked off unhappily, probably because his favourite punch-bag wasn't going to be playing any more. He was that kind of selfish brat, just as bad as his father.

To this day, I don't know why Uther didn't have me burned with my father. Sure, he had no proof that I'd ever used magic but I had a druid's tattoo on my back: that should have assured my guilt.

Maybe he just couldn't bring himself to burn a five-year-old girl. But he could orphan one.

"Don't dwell on the past." Leon's ever-calm voice broke through my reverie and I shook myself, concentrating on sliding the bones back into place. Luckily, there weren't any fragments, a quick silent spell on my part had assured me of that, so he'd been fortunate. In less than ten minutes, his wrist was bandaged securely and he was under doctor's orders to not train for at least a month.

"Not even if Arthur demands it," I added when I spotted his uncertain frown. Leon was essentially a very nice man and he hated making other people cross. In Camelot, he was almost like the second-in-command, which reassured me: the King and the Prince were both incompetent.

"Rather you than me," he replied worriedly. Of course, Arthur would throw a tantrum when Leon had to refuse training and someone would have to explain it to him.

"Ready to go again, Leon?" Just think of the Devil and the Devil shall appear. Or in this case, the Prince of Camelot. Leon just sent me a look and I sighed.

"Sorry, sire, I'm under doctor's orders. No training for me," Leon replied regretfully. Of course, on hearing this, Arthur immediately looked to said doctor for an explanation.

My name is Anna Llandovery and I am a druid's daughter. When I was five, the King had my father burned at the stake for healing a large cut on a man's thigh with magic. He spared me and Gaius took me in as an apprentice of sorts. Now I am the doctor for the knights, primarily because they've learned the hard way not to push me around but also because I work better around blood than vomit. That's Gaius' area of expertise. I just do the large gashes and broken bones.

Such as the one I was about to give the Prince hell for.

"Why can't he just train with his left hand?" he asked arrogantly and I noticed Leon making a 'damn that's a good point' sort of face. Ha, no chance I'm letting this patient back into Arthur's silly inexperienced hands.

"Sire, I'm afraid Sir Leon won't be able to train until the bones are completely healed," I told him, having to make a serious effort to not smack him across the face. Talking to him gave me the sense of talking to a mildly violent brick wall: nothing I said sank in like it would to a regular person. "Any sort of physical activity could jostle the bone and mess up the recovery. So no riding either," I added over my shoulder to said knight, who groaned in general irritation. He knew he had a very boring month to look forward to. When I saw Arthur's semi-thunderous, semi-tantrum face, I knew a quick solution was in order. Why did I have to say what I said though?

"If your Highness wouldn't mind, I could train with you," I offered and immediately regretted saying that. I had no intention of losing but I also knew that beating the Prince would get me shut in the stocks every day for the next fortnight, which was hardly appealing.

It looked like he might refuse though. "A girl can't fight, least of all a girl like you," he told me with a brutish laugh. Leon was frowning at me too, probably wondering why I would make such an offer: he knew the consequences as well as I did. There was a reason his talents were so under-appreciated, considering he always had to lose to Arthur or risk losing his head. I'd seen him fight though and after that, I've always been of the opinion that one Leon is better than ten other knights.

"Then your Highness has no reason to be scared of losing to me," I replied shortly. My frustration levels were at an all time high recently and I really needed to goad Arthur into a good fight, just to let off some steam.

"Anna's right, Sire," Leon added, surprising the both of us. "You've been training since you could walk, whereas all she has to learn from is watching us. She's just a training partner. You've nothing to fear from her."

Clearly, the thought that his knights would think him a coward if he refused was enough to convince Arthur that using me as a replacement Leon was a good idea. "Find a sword then," he said shortly and I had to hide a grin when I heard a hint of nervousness. Then he strode off to wait for me on the field.

"You can borrow mine, if you like," Leon offered, kicking his sheathed sword, which was lying on the ground at his feet. "I won't have much use for it for a while," he added grumpily. He glared at Arthur's turned back, which surprised me because he was such a mild-mannered gentleman. "I can't believe he has the nerve to talk to you like that. He has no idea how valuable you are. Or how much trouble he's in now," he grumbled, although that last thought cheered him up slightly. He was right though: I might have been five foot seven, so at a serious disadvantage, but I had the strength of a six foot male and had won more than my fair share of tavern brawls, usually courtesy of a drunk Leon, who could get really rowdy when intoxicated.

I helped Leon to his feet and drew his sword. It was a little big for my delicate hands but I was more used to axes as thick as my forearm so a slightly-too-big sword wasn't much of a problem. In actual fact, even though it was a broadsword, I found it easier to use one-handed, which visibly made the Prince nervous. A small crowd had already drifted around to watch and out of the corner of my eye I spotted a slightly out-of-place-looking Merlin. He seemed interested though.

"Ladies first," Arthur said, slightly shakily, making a feeble attempt to taunt me. I shrugged.

"As you wish sire," I replied brightly and swung for his head.

Instantly, I saw why Leon always wore a frown of intense concentration when he practised with the Prince: his footwork and grip were awful! I had make a conscious effort to avoid his large clumsy feet and to parry his off-balance blows, which detracted from how well I could fight back. For a few minutes, it was a vaguely enjoyable mental challenge but after a while, I just wanted a slightly more technical opponent. Arthur had all the grace of a rampaging bull.

I took a sharp step forward and Arthur roared with indignation when I stepped on his foot hard. It was something I'd wanted to do for at least ten years. "Move your feet," I told him, getting a bit exasperated when I did again, this time not on purpose. "I could run circles around you if I wanted to! And you need to hold the blade perpendicular to your body, otherwise you'll break my wrist as well or slice your leg off." When he ignored all my advice and continued to hack at my defence, I lost what little patience I had left and used a little tap-tap-smack combination I'd copied from Leon.

Arthur was on his back in a matter of seconds.

"Before you fight any more of your knights, may I suggest you improve your fighting technique, sire? That way, I might not spend every minute of every day treating broken wrists," I said sweetly before stalking back to Leon, who was grinning from ear to ear.

"Have fun in the stocks tomorrow," he told me, still chuckling. "Uther's going to be fuming when Arthur tells him about you kicking his butt."

"Leon!" I cried in shock. "What happened to your perfect vocabulary?"

"I started spending more time around you than Gaius," he told me simply, eliciting an amused giggle from me.

I spent the rest of the afternoon entertaining the knights with the story of how I'd beaten Arthur's pathetic butt into the ground. It would have come as a surprise to him to realise a lot of his knights didn't really like or respect him that much: they just followed his orders because he was higher up the totem-pole of Camelot than they were. I sparred with a few other knights, dispatching them quickly, although more kindly than I had Arthur. It was coming to early dusk when we saw three figures, two in red and one in dark gold, crossing the practise field.

"Good luck," several voices murmured to me. Because of course the figure in gold was Uther Pendragon, King of Camelot, whose son I'd beaten up earlier in the afternoon. As such, I was probably in quite a bit of trouble.

"Anna Llandovery?" he said, lording it over his knights who didn't think much higher of him than of his son. I just held my head high and stood, inclining my head in as much of a bow as he was going to get from me. "Thank you," he said grudgingly and most of the knights had to hold back a gasp of shock and surprise.

"What for, sire?" I replied, thoroughly confused. "I made your son look like a fool earlier."

"I'm perfectly aware of that, thank you," he said shortly. "But thanks to you, we can do something about my son's sloppy swordsmanship, a problem that might not have come to light otherwise." As I knew quite a bit about Uther Pendragon's mind, what he was saying made sense to me, whereas a lot of the knights looked confused still.

"My pleasure, sire," I replied, sending him what might have been a very risky cocky smile.

He got my hidden meaning, but fortunately he was too grateful to me for saving his son from future embarrassment to call me on it. He just sent us all a very tight smile and left.

We were all sat, or in my case stood, in silence for a few minutes until we were sure the King was out of earshot, then Leon burst out laughing. I slumped down next to where he was lounging on the grass and laughed along with everyone else. We talked for a few more minutes, then the knights had to get ready for the evening feast, which I had already decreed Leon would not be attending. He didn't need that kind of strain on his wrist. Instead, I decreed he would get some sleep, which he went along with quite willingly. Leon was never ever a late-night person unless he was completely hammered, which was a rare occasion to say the least and any excuse to get out of going to the weekly late-night feast was welcomed with open arms.

I sent Sir Ewan, a nice young knight with a lot of potential, to make sure that Uther understood exactly why his favourite knight wasn't attending and then made sure Leon was comfortable. It was that weird kind of friendship between boy and girl that meant we weren't in the least interested in one another but he didn't mind me seeing him in nothing but his shorts as he climbed into bed after a soothing camomile bath. I had to change the bandage while he was resting, humming all the while and when I looked up he was fast asleep.

Not many people know this, but Leon is a really deep sleeper and he likes it. He was so out that I could make him comfortable and he didn't notice at all. Quickly, I cleared up his armour and hung it all up where it was meant to go, then lit a small fire and left him to sleep.

When I got in, Merlin was sat in front of Gaius, the pair having apparently bonded while I was tending to Leon's wrist earlier in the day, and for some reason Gaius was picking lettuce out of the young man's hair.

"First day in Camelot and you wound up in the stocks?" I laughed. Merlin just grimaced and told the whole story. "Yeah, my example is only to be followed if you know you have a lot of skill with a sword or you've been wrestling with knights for fun for most of your teenage slash adult life," I told him lightly. "But the effort's what counts. You did the right thing today, Merlin, and against the biggest prat the Goddess ever blew breath into."

Merlin frowned at me then. "You don't like Arthur then?" he asked me and my 'what do you think' expression told a life story. He laughed and asked a new question. "You still hold to the druid beliefs?" he asked curiously. He leaned forward slightly, I noticed, interest catching him out.

His question made me pause for a moment before I could form a coherent reply. "When you're a druid, or a druid child like me, beliefs seem more like laws of the world, so you don't forget them," I replied slowly, wishing I could follow Leon's example as usually I would have been tucked up in bed by now. "Besides, when you can use magic, the druid beliefs have a lot more relevance." Just to prove my point, I made Merlin out of the watered-down wine in Gaius' cup, which earned me a withering and an admiring audience. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm heading to bed," I told them, before walking off.

"Um, Anna? You're in the other room now," Gaius called after me. I just sighed and went up the other flight of stairs to the room above my old one, which was now Merlin's.

I sensed power in Merlin, power that made me shudder every time I thought about it. And for some reason the name Emrys would not leave my mind.