Yay the sequel to The Tallest Tower is here! :D I hope you all like it! If anyone's interested and haven't seen it yet there is an extended synopsis for this story on the end of The Tallest Tower :)

This fic is still called The Bravest Bond, as it's about the bond Merlin and Morgana share, some people say they really like the title, others say they don't, and I'm still a bit iffy about it myself, so if anyone gets any good ideas of what the story might be called, let me know! :) tricky thing is I want to keep it similar to the title of the first story, which kind of narrows down my options...

Anyway, I will let you get on with the first chapter of the sequel! With the last story every now and then I switched to the point of view of Morgana, and now in this one I will be doing the same thing but with the people in Camelot, and this is how The Bravest Bond starts off...It's on the short side I know, but I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think! :)

Chapter 1

The Dark Clouds

Dark clouds hung over the heads of the people in Camelot, even though the skies were bright and clear.

Arthur's own dark cloud made him feel like he had thrown out of the world he knew, and into one of confusion. It all began when the warning bell had suddenly ripped through the middle of the night, waking him with a start. He leaped out of bed and grabbed his sword, running into the corridor to join the other panicked and confused guards, searching for the enemy. He found his father, who was in great distress, and kept on shouting for guards to search the castle, as someone had escaped, but he wouldn't say who. He would only speak to Gaius and a servant girl called Gwen, who seemed panicked and upset. Arthur was only told they were looking for a female stranger with long dark hair, which was no one he recalled seeing in Camelot. They searched all night, in the castle and around the courtyard, but the mysterious woman could not be found. Uther looked like there was a thundercloud hanging above his head.

The next morning came and the girl was nowhere to be seen, Arthur's father had suddenly gained several years and could barely concentrate on anything, he just kept his head in his hands and stayed quiet. Gaius simply told Arthur he was feeling unwell.

But that wasn't the only strange thing. The same night the warning bell erupted, Merlin had disappeared.

At first Arthur just thought he was late, caught up in the excitement of last night, and simply rolled his eyes. But the day went on and Merlin didn't appear. Eventually Arthur went down to Gaius' chambers to ask where Merlin was.

Gaius had looked up at him, confused, "I thought he was with you Sire."

"No, I haven't seen him all day," Arthur responded.

Gaius glanced around the room, as if to expect him to appear. "Well, he's not his chambers, is he at the stables?"

Arthur shook his head, "I went down there and checked, there's no sign."

Gaius shook his head, his eyes suddenly filled with concern, not just confusion. Merlin did have some strange habits, but this was not like him to just vanish. He explained he hadn't thought to check on Merlin because he had such a busy day the day before, and then during the night there was the whole commotion with the disappearing person. Gaius looked around the room, and then spotted a letter on his desk in Merlin's handwriting. He went very quiet. Arthur had a feeling perhaps he shouldn't stay, and decided to continue searching for Merlin, and when he saw Gaius again, he too had dark clouds hanging over his head.

Days passed, the missing woman never turned up, and neither did Merlin. Arthur was beginning to get very worried, where was Merlin? Had he gone out into the woods to collect herbs, hurt himself and was now lying out there somewhere? Had he gone into town to fetch something and was attacked? Had he run away back to his home because Arthur's treatment had got too much for him? Had he had to return home because his mother was ill, and simply didn't have time to say? Had someone even...taken him, as a hostage?

But there was no word from Merlin, Gaius heard nothing either, and no ransom had been sent to Camelot, claiming that a friend of Arthur's had been taken. For once his manservant was being silent, and Arthur hated every second of it.

He considered writing a letter to Hunith, asking about Merlin, but if he wasn't with her, Arthur didn't want to throw Merlin's mother into a complete panic because her son had disappeared. He tried to talk to Gaius, but there was a great sadness in the old man's eyes as he said,

"I don't know where he's gone Arthur, but I don't think he'll be coming back any time soon."

That just made Arthur worry even more, could things get any worse?

Uther started sending his son to patrol the forest, to look for anyone 'suspicious', Arthur knew he was trying to search for this mysterious woman from a few nights ago, but when he split up from the other Knights and paused at the top of a hill looking over Camelot, he couldn't help but shout out his manservant's name, as if Merlin could hear him, and he was out there, somewhere.

Arthur had never felt such guilt. He just wished he could say sorry, sorry for treating his best friend so badly. They had had an argument a couple of days before Merlin had vanished, what did he call him? Just a servant? That was far from fair.

And if Merlin really was out there, somewhere, and perhaps had just gone home to his village, Arthur just wished he could say a proper goodbye.

The dark clouds began to form over the top of the hill as Arthur turned back in the direction of Camelot, and they followed him all the way home.

But that was not yet the strangest thing that had happened in Camelot recently.

One morning, a woman came, a woman dressed as a man, she even wore the armour of a Knight. She strode into Camelot upon a black horse, her presence filling every crevice of the courtyard as she looked down at Arthur, who stood before her, eyeing this stranger suspiciously. She had hazel eyes that were filled with determination, and something else at the same time, Arthur wondered if it was perhaps worry. Her long blond hair, which fell in loose curls down her shoulders, fluttered in the breeze a little as she spoke.

"You do not know my name, Arthur Pendragon, but I know a lot about you." There was a small smirk on her face as she spoke, she saw knowledge as power. Arthur felt like he recognised that smirk, but it didn't belong on her face, it belonged to someone much younger, a girl with raven hair, but his mind discarded this thought.

"What do you want?" He asked, not wanting to beat around the bush, he knew this woman wasn't going to give anything about herself away, not yet anyway, he needed to know if she was a threat to Camelot.

The woman got off her horse before she spoke, so the two of them were at eye level. The whole world seemed to fall still as their eyes locked and she spoke again.

"I am looking for someone called Morgana."