A/N: I'm back with a little more. Not a long chapter, just a bit of a link, but hope you get the idea of where I'm going with this. Sorry for what Ive done to Merlin, but i like to far too much *runs and hides*. Promise we'll get some more from Merlin in the coming chapters if you want to hear more. Thanks again for the lovely reviews. Please R&R.


Chapter 2

"Wake up you idiot!" Arthur shook his friends shoulders what what seemed like the thousandth time. Merlin just lay there, limp and lifeless in the Kings grasp, his head lolled back, jaw slack and face expressionless. Arthur's panic was beginning to ebb away at him, heart quickening the familiar adrenalin kicking in. It was surely not normal to be unconscious for this long, it had been at least an hour or two.

The knights had managed to find some sort of cover and although the servants clothes were soaked through the thick tree canvas had slowed the rain considerably. Thankfully the day was warm in mid summer so the risk of him growing too cold wasn't too great.

"How is he?" Gwaine appeared through the thick foliage.

"Same" Arthur sat back, leaning on his arms in defeat. "He just wont wake up, where is Gaius?"

"On his way by now i assume, can't we not just ride him back to the city? Its not far" Gwaine bent down and gently peeled back the neckerchief that had been tied around the warlock's head as a makeshift bandage. He grimaced at the sight of the deep wound. Merlin's cheek was swelling and blooming purples already.

"We can't ride him back" Arthur sighed. "Gaius told me once you have to be careful with head wounds, all sorts of problems can happen"

"Like what? He wakes up with the headache of his life?" Gwaine half heartily laughed but cut his chuckle short by the glare Arthur shot him. "Elyan has found the mare" he added, "she was half a mile down the road"

"I don't want to see that horse again" Arthur growled, "tell Tyr she is never to be ridden again, i don't want her in the Royal stables"

A small choked sound interrupted the Kings seething anger and both looked over to their friend. Merlin was retching and Gwaine quickly pushed him onto his side as the servant brought up what little food he'd eaten that day. His one uncovered eye remained closed but his brows furrowed tightly and he emitted a small gurgled groan.

"It's alight mate" the rough knight gently rubbed his friends shoulder in an attempt to console him. "You've had a bit of a knock on the head, Gaius is on his way"

Merlin mumbled a jumble of sounds then but said nothing else, seemingly slipping back into unconsciousness once again.

"Thats not good" Gwaine looked over to Arthur who was fixated on his man servant's still form.

"I wish Gaius would just hurry up" the King grumbled.

As if hearing him the physician appeared then. Wading through the thick greenery. His haggard face was pale with worry as he reached the three of them.

"What's happened?" Gaius inspected his ward quickly, opening his one eye and frowning at the sight of vomit on the ground.

"His horse kicked him, in the face" Arthur rubbed his brow, "He hasn't woken since, except just now to be sick, but he didn't make any kind of sense"

"I wouldn't expect he would" Gaius gently rolled Merlin onto his back and placed down his medicine bag, opening it. "What have you been up to my boy?" he shook his head and gently pulled the neckerchief off frowning at the injury. Merlin's left eye was almost completely closed up from the swelling surrounding it. Gaius gently poked the edges of the bump and around the area pulling a worried expression.

"What is it?" Arthur was now by the physician's side watching as he gently examined the warlock.

Gaius pulled back and sighed. "I think he's broken some bones around his eye and cheek" the man rummaged in his bag bringing out a cloth and tonic he soaked the cloth dragging it gently across the gash which extended from the servant's eyebrow to his once prominent cheek bone, now just a large purple swelling. He spent several minutes carefully flushing out the wound with the tonic. Then finding a needle and thin thread the physician carefully began to sow the deep affliction up. All through this Merlin made no attempt to wake, there wasn't even a twitch of his body as Gaius pulled the thread through fresh skin pulling the two sides together neatly.

"Why isn't he waking?" Gwaine pointed out, noting the King's own worry.

"I don't know" Gaius only replied as he pulled though his last stitch. Carefully knotting the end he cleaned over the area, which thankfully was only oozing now, Arthur's makeshift bandage seemed to have stem the bleeding well. Gaius pulled out a clean set of bandages from his never ending bag and dressed the wound over his wards left eye.

"Did he injure anything else in the accident?" Gaius looked over Merlin as a whole then, he gently checked over his ribs and then down each arm.

"He trapped his right foot in the stirrup, that's about all" Arthur was barely audible.

Gaius hummed and eased off the warlock's soaked right boot to inspect his ankle and foot. "Just bruised i think" the physician prodded at the joint and moved it around. It was a little swollen, but nothing he was worried about. "his sturdy boots seem to have done their job. He's getting cold," he added feeling the servants pale skin was cold to touch "we should really start a fire"

"Everywhere is soaked through" Leon had joined them now, having been the knight to retrieve the physician, "its not that far back to the city gates can we not carry him back?"

Gaius paused for a moment, thinking. "I would rather see him conscious before the journey" he mused.

"Stupid clot pole, I'm surprised his head didn't fall off his shoulders at the time, I'm never going to hear the end of this am I?" Arthur shook his head, trying his best to shake the worry away.

Gaius's brows knitted together again, Arthur hated that look. The physician placed both hands behind the warlock head, feeling the matts of his hair, pulling a hand out to find his palm crimson. He exhaled loudly and felt further down the servants head and then his neck. He stopped dead then, face paling considerably, his hands shot away as if to touch hot iron.

"What is it?" Arthur was bent over his manservant now and looking between him and Gaius's anguished face. Their was a long pregnant pause.

"Gaius?"

"I..." the physician struggled with his words, something the King had little to never seen. "I'm afraid I think he's broken his neck"