N/A: Wow I did not expect the response I got from chapter 1 so thank you all very much :D
natcel - Thanks very much, sorry I couldn't post sooner, I had to move all of my stuff out of my university hall and drive it all back home fun times.
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As Merlin's foot sunk into the ice he fell forwards his body slamming into the edge of the broken ice, and his arms slapping against the surface, as he gasped from the shock of the ice cold water surrounded him, soaking into the fabric of his clothes. Merlin took large uneven breaths as he tried to find a purchase on the seemingly impossibly smooth surface of ice, whilst he kicked his quickly numbing legs in and attempt to keep afloat.
Taking deep breath to try and calm down and to try and adjust to the freezing temperature of the water surrounding him, though Merlin realised that, that may not be his main problem as, the numbness that had started in just his feet had begun to spread rapidly up his legs towards his torso which so slowly becoming more and more submerged as the seconds went by.
Distantly Merlin could hear Arthur and the knights calling out to him, but their voices were becoming muffled by the hazy of drowsiness which had started to tug at Merlin's consciousness.
His fingers had turned from a bright pink to a pale grey colour, whilst he tried frantically to find some sort of perch on the cold surface, but with no luck Merlin felt himself sliding slowly deeper and deeper into the lake.
MM
Back on the shore, the group of knights and Arthur looked on in shock and horror as Merlin disappeared into the lake.
Snapping back to himself Gwaine was the first to move from the spot, in which he had been previously been frozen in, as he took an almost tentative step forwards, something that practically no one had ever seen the confident Knight do, but he quickly followed this first step up with several more, an action which seemed to finally snap the others to attention.
"Merlin…" Gwaine said as he took a few more steps forwards, growing slightly more confident in his movements as he did so.
"Wh- What do we do?" Elyan managed to stutter out, as his eyes flicked back between Merlin and Gwaine.
"We have to help him, of course!" Gwaine shouted, whipping around to face the rest of the group. Percival put a hand to try and calm Gwaine down, as he spoke.
"We know that Gwaine. It's just how do we?" He trailed off, hoping someone had an idea to solve their predicament quickly.
Arthur straightened up, tearing his eyes away from his manservant, to address his knights.
"One of us will have to go out there." It was a simple solution really, the only problem being if the ice gave way under Merlin's slight weight there would be no chance of it holding any of the heavily muscled knights, especially with the all the armour they were wearing.
"Alright. Which of us weights the least amount?" Elyan asked, only to receive pointed looks from the rest of the group. "Me?" He paused glancing around the group, he had already known he was the shortest, not by much sure, but still the shortest. "Ok, help me get my chainmail off then."
Gwaine and Percival quickly stepped up to assist Elyan, whilst behind them Arthur had turned back to Merlin's thin form, which was slowly being swallowed up by the lake. Arthur's fists balled at his sides and he tried to squash the urge to running straight out on to the lake a pull Merlin back to the safety of land, knowing that likely as not he would just end up being another casualty for his knights to rescue, something that would waste valuable the time that Merlin was quickly running out of.
The clinking of chainmail hitting the ground drew Arthur from his thoughts, as the others managed to successfully free Elyan from its weight.
"Hurry up then!" Arthur couldn't keep the slight edge of desperation out of his voice as he spoke, and Leon looked on worriedly from besides his king.
Elyan gave a quick nod in Arthur's direction as he started forwards towards the lake, closely followed by Gwaine.
As Elyan took his first nervous step on to the ice, Arthur, Gwaine and even all let out a collective breath, which none of them even realised they had been holding.
Nodding to himself Elyan took another step forwards, relieved when the ice remained completely still underneath him, he even relaxed his muscles a little though he remained on guard just in case. Taking his eyes of his feet Elyan looked out towards Merlin, who appeared to be unaware of what was happening around him, as he tried in vain to keep above the surface of the lake.
"Hold on Merlin!" Gwaine's voice called out into the clearing, causing Elyan to stumble and almost slip over in shock at the sudden loud noise in the otherwise quiet clearing. Regaining this footing Elyan sped up in his approach of the manservant, knowing that his time was rapidly running out.
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The darkness that had at first just clouded the smallest edge of this vision from his impact with the ice, had begun creeping across his field of view, narrowing Merlin's world down dramatically. This along with his sluggish thoughts, from the numbing cold, served to make Merlin completely oblivious to anything happening on the shore. Distantly he heard a shout. 'Was that my name? Names are funny.' Merlin though blearily, as his left hand lost its grip and he slid farther down into the water almost covering his shoulders now, though it was difficult to know for certain as Merlin could feel almost nothing of the water which he knew was surrounding him.
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Elyan had made it most of the way across the ice without any problems, but as he began to draw closer to Merlin, and the ice which the bandit had initially cracked, he started to hear cracking as the weakened surface began to struggle to hold his weight. Slowing his pace back to the speed he had original employed, Elyan had crossed the first section of damaged ice, when it happened. Merlin's hands seemed to go lax, because he had run out of strength or, because he had forgotten the importance of keeping himself afloat above the surface, Elyan would never know, but what he did know was that he was out of time and had to move now, before he lost Merlin in the icy depths.
"MERLIN!" Elyan barely took any notice of the distressed cry, from the other knights still on the shore, as spirited across the remaining distance, his feet pounding hard against the icy surface, and his breath fogging in front of him as he went.
Upon reaching the hole in the ice though which Merlin just had just fallen Elyan crashed down on to his knees, his eyes searching the depths desperately for any sign of their youngest companion.
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Merlin blinked slowly, trying to clear his blurred vision but to no avail, as he let out a sigh of frustration, or at least he intended to sigh but the movement sparked a coughing fit in his frozen lungs, a harsh but weak sound, which jerked Merlin's body farther into the water.
Panting slightly to regain his breath Merlin rested his head on the damp ice, his eyes sliding closed briefly before the snapped back open just a few seconds later.
"Hu?" The confused sound left Merlin's lips as barely a whisper, before his eyes dropped closed again, and this time they did not reopen.
