Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin :'(

A New Era

Chapter 1

A month had passed since the coronation of the new king. The castle hadn't changed. The town was still the same with it thatched roof houses and the smell of salted meat swimming through the air. But the people. The people began each day of work with a song even the birds commended. The children ran up and down the streets playing and calling out greetings in cherry voices to all that they passed. Arthur had given life and safety to the town of Camelot without the fear that the people had greeted his father's rule. The town and the people had mourned the old kings death but with his death they knew that prosperity would meet them.

It had been a month of dinners and parties for the inhabitants of the castle but for two of our dear heroines it had been a dull month indeed. The Knights Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawain had been away for the past two weeks, on a journey to find the lair of the angel. Due to this, the new King had been in a rather bad mood.

"Why was I not allowed to go with my men? Please explain." Arthur asked furiously.

"It has only been month of your rein, I'm sure the people do not wish to risk their king this early do you?" Merlin stated with a slight smile.

"The bigger question is why was I not allowed to go? I could be helpful you know" Serena shouted. She was in a strop. She had not been allowed out the castle. At all.

"You are more at risk than me" Arthur said. He spoke quickly as to interrupt Merlin. Merlin and Serena had been at each other's throats a lot in the last month, Arthur had no idea why, he had never seen such a perfect match and from what he had heard that was what the rest of the kingdom thought as well. But then it had also been a month since Sir Colin Morgan had arrived.

Merlin looked at Arthur cautiously. To admit he was scared of the smirk that he was throwing his way would be an understatement.

"Well I have to do something" Serena shouted as she stormed out of the room.

"Should we be worried?" Merlin stood looking at the door said Lady had just left, a small smirk on his face..

"This time?" The king shook his head warily "I really think we should be" He and Merlin looked at each other and then back at the ancient wooden door.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Serena stormed through the castle, unaware of the stares she was receiving. She was fuming. The Kings death had caused security to tighten around her Esmeralda and Arianne. But two of them hadn't notice, they were missing their knights too much. Serena snorted at that thought and went to find Gwen. At this moment in time Gwen was one of the only people she would be able to a get a decent conversation out of. But then Gwen would not be able to come with them. Not to where Serena was planning on going. She knew there had to be a reason the three of them had been sent here. And the only reason she could think of was to fight. But she knew they would never be allowed in combat. So learning sword fighting was out of the question. But magic, magic wasn't . They were all bright girls and learning magic would be hard but Serena complete faith in the three of them.

As she reached Arianne's door she knocked twice.

"Who is it?" Arianne shouted through the door.

"Serena" She shouted back as the door opened. "I have an idea". This as she expected was met with worrying looks. "What?"

"Well your plans don't always work" Esmeralda sated carefully.

"Yes they do, there was that one time... okay maybe not always" Serena said smiling, while Arianne smirked at her.

"What does this idea involve anyway?" Arianne asked slightly wary as she looked at the crazy twinkle that had appeared in Serena's eyes.

"Well it involves learning magic" Serena's voice was packed with the excitement of a five year old.

"And how do you suppose we do that? It's not like Merlin is going to teach us" Esmeralda asked as Serena's face flushed red with anger.

"I was not going to go to him for help, he thinks we shouldn't even be allowed any part in the battle." She said furiously. Arianne laughed at this. It was common Knowledge what Merlin and Serena had been arguing about. But it was still hilarious for the rest of us because they both were incredibly stubborn.

"Anyway" Serena stated calming down a bit. "I was going to suggest Morgana and Morgause" She said smiling.

"WHAT!" Esmeralda shouted at the same Time Arianne was yelling "Are you insane?"

"No... well a little bit but the other day I overheard Merlin discussing how the druids were having problem with physco girl as well with Gaius" Serena spoke as if this made her plan obvious.

"Come again, what does that have to do with Morgana and Morgause?" Essie asked.

"Well, if the druids are having problems it means the most magical folk are. I would of suggested Nimueh but she's kinda dead" Serena said.

"They are going to be willing to help girls from Camelot?" Arianne said with a puzzled face.

"Maybe not, but they will be willing to help three lost girls from Port Royal. You heard what Uther said the first time we came. There is a magical shield, which means magic is welcome there" Serena said and Arianne suddenly nodded as if acknowledging it was actually quite a good plan.

"Only one problem, when they notice that were missing, they'll come after us. Lancelot and Gawain are due back anytime soon" Esmeralda stated miserably.

"She's right" Arianne said hanging her head. "Morgana is smart she'll know right away that when they come after us it will mean we mean something in Camelot. We'll become hostages."

"And we are assuming Morgause lived" Essie said.

"The druids?" Serena asked miserably as her plan was torn apart.

"I doubt they would willingly help us" Arianne slumped against the wall.

"Hogwarts" Serena said jumping up. "We can get Kilgharrah to send us to Hogwarts. We know most the helpful spells from the movie and we can bring the books we get there back here" She said jovially.

"That one could actually work, but again we have the problem of them searching for us" Arianne stated confidently.

"Not if we get Kilgharrah to bring us back to the same time that we left." Serena said happily. She was waiting for them to start ripping it apart but saw them smiling at this plan.

"They won't even know we left" Esmeralda said happily.

"What time are we going to go forward to though" Arianne asked. "Before, during or after Voldemort"

"So we get to decide which group of Hogwarts Characters we get hang out with" Serena said happily. "The Marauders , Harry and them, or Harry's kids"

"Well, the Marauders are out" Arianne said smirking.

"Why?" Serena cried.

"You'll be to tempted by Sirius, you want Merlin remember" Essie said joining in with Arianne smirking. Serena deflated.

"Fine" She huffed. "So who do you think we should go to?"

"Harry, Ron and Hermione" Arianne said "I bet they'll be retaking their seventh year, which means we hang around with them after Voldemort."

"I have just thought up a whole in my own plan" Serena said then looked off into space.

"Well?" Arianne said sharply.

"No one is religious anymore. So no one will believe angels actually exist" Serena said with resignation.

"So that plan is out" Essie sighed.

Arianne looked at Serena carefully wondering how she would react. "Our only choice of learning magic is Gaius and..." Arianne trailed off as Serena looked up.

"Merlin" She said holding her head up high. "Fine, but I doubt he will agree"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It took mere minutes to find Merlin. Essie had been given the job of asking him due to Serena's rage at him and Arianne's good keeping the peace tactics. Essie believed wholey that Merlin would help them though her thoughts were soon diminished when she found him storming out of Arthur's chambers. Unfortunately for her she was not out of the way in time.

Essie and Merlin both fell to the floor at the same time and apologised profusely to each other as they stood.

"Hi I was just looking for you" Essie smiled at Merlin as he gave him a hand up.

"Why? You're not going to yell at me on Serena's behalf are you?" Merlin asked cautiously but Essie just laughed at him and he eased up.

"No" she said laughing but when she looked up she got distracted. "Will Gawain and Lancelot be coming back soon?" She asked hopefully.

"I don't know Arthur said that there trip would take a while" Merlin said as he watched her face fall. He didn't have the heart to tell her that they should have already been back by now.

"Will Arthur know?" She asked praying she would get a good answer.

"Esmeralda I really don't know, I'm sorry" He said looking down.

"It's okay, but that is not why I came looking for you, I have to ask you something" She looked around warily ,with a new sense of determination on her face, as to make sure no one was close by. "Will you teach the three of us magic?"

"WHAT!" he yelped, jumping back in surprise. "Why?"

"We want to be able to help and we can't if we are not allowed to go out at all because we can't defend ourselves." Essie said as if stating the obvious.

"No, Arthur would kill me!" He said shaking his head and walking off in the opposite direction.

"Arthur doesn't have to know no one does but you and Gaius" Essie voice held the slight tone of begging causing Merlin to look away.

"No and you expect me to believe that Serena would willingly take help from me right now" He snapped and grew tense as she smirked "Serena does know about this right?"

"Of course it was her idea" She said think back to all the plans said girls had actually had.

"To ask me?" He doubted it to be true but it made sense in context to her earlier statement.

"Well you are a last resort really" Essie said while looking at her nails following Arianne's instruction to make him feel unimportant.

"Last resort?" He said angrily.

"Well, Serena thought about going to Morgana and Morgause, she said that they would probably be more willing to help" Essie said twisting her hair around her finger trying to look uninterested as War raged on Merlin's features.

"Are you kidding me?" He shouted.

"Well if you don't help we'll have to go to them won't we" Then smirking Essie added a bit more wood to the flame. "And Serena would be happy to get away from Sir Colin, he been following her around so much" She empathised the last bit and hid a big grin to the Merlin unknown jealousy flair up.

"I'll help if it keeps you from being stupid and reckless" He yelled before storming off doesn't the corridor leaving girl standing proud with a satisfied smirk on her face.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Merlin couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe they would ask him such a thing. Well no, if he was honest with himself he could see them wanting to do that. But what he had to admit was annoying him the most was the fact he had said yes. He knew he could not back down now either because he had too much pride to let the girls no he had only said yes because they got to him. Who did that Sir Colin think he was strutting around the castle as if he owned the place, and flirting with a lady of court. It was despicable. But he couldn't help but think maybe it wasn't that bad an idea for them to learn some things.

They were the ones being targeted. Why shouldn't they be allowed to be able to defend themselves? They weren't exactly going to be able to fight in hand to hand combat. Merlin found himself laughing at the thought of any one of them actually holding a sword without falling over. However, this then lead to picturing Serena coming at him with a sword. In this past month he wouldn't be shocked if the idea had crossed her mind.

So why had he said yes? Magic was still against the law. Arthur hadn't got around to changing it yet. Merlin understood why. It was not something that could just be brought up after all the years of tyranny. But he hoped that it would be someday soon. But in the meantime he would teach the girls all he could secretly, but he had other things to worry about right now as well and this new predicament didn't help.

Gawain and Lancelot had not been back when they were supposed to be and soon he and Arthur would go looking for them and when that time came he would pray that they found them. Gawain and Lancelot were some of his dearest friends and on a more selfish note he really didn't want to have to deal with Esmeralda and Arianne on top of Serena. But at this point in time he didn't know what to teach them. It had taken most of his life to get where he was today and he was a warlock. As Far as he knew these girls didn't have a drop of magical blood. Maybe he should pay visit to his favourite field and pray that Kilgharrah wasn't in a mood.

To those who have read my first story i am really sorry for how long it has taken me to put the sequel up but I just didn't know what to put in it . I had to force ideas out of my head just to get this chapter. And I am sorry to say chapters will probably take a while because I hate how short the ones in my last story were and really wanted to make them longer. Big thanks To xxmadmooxx1996xx my beta and co-character. Please review and flames and criticism is welcome i want to make my story the best it can be :D, But I will not accept flames where it abusive as my sister recently had one like that and it had nothing to do with the story. It was targetting a certain type of couple and she had the nerve to post the exact same review on to other stories of the same coupling. SO it the flame has nothing to do with the story and is just cruel I will comment :D xx