A/N: Didn't plan to update so soon, but as I learned in Physical Science today that some sick-o named Schrödinger is killing kitties with radioactivity, I figured I'd better get a move on and publish more before he came after Yours Truly. (Oh, please tell me you got that. It was a joke… because of my fanfic name?)

Anyway, bad jokes aside, please enjoy and review. Sorry it's a little weak... but the rest will be better, I promise.

No slash, duh. It's about a girl and Merlin.

Chapter One

Merlin sighed as he crouched on the ground, far behind the rest of the group. Normal hunting was bad enough; hunting for magical creatures that would potentially kill you was worse. A lot worse. It scared him silly like nothing else could… and he meant nothing else.

For it was unfortunate but true that the same Merlin who drank poison to save the life of Prince Arthur, the same Merlin who killed evil men, faced down a knight twice his size, and admitted to being a sorcerer to save Gwen's life, turned into a bumbling (well, more bumbling than usual), foolish, ridiculous idiot on these trips.

Which was probably why Arthur insisted that he come every single time.

They were on foot now, sneaking up on the beast that had eaten several cows and attacked two villagers, and Merlin wanted to be somewhere else. He held no weapon Merlin here? He wasn't trained for this!

The knights ahead of him stayed close to the ground, silently making their way through the undergrowth, walking (on purpose!) towards the shuffling noises that sounded like the creature they were after.

Merlin had spotted it once, just before their trip. That thing had been scary: green and scaly, but feathery along its… well, its arms, he supposed. It had the shape of a lizard, and the size of a large dog. Its tongue had been pointed like a snake's, and Merlin could've sworn it breathed fire at intervals.

The thing made his heart beat a little faster.

The men were silently rotating, still in a triangle formation, as they followed the sounds the creature (Gaius hadn't been able to give it a name, but Arthur had one: freak of nature, how about?). Merlin didn't notice, so caught up was he in his anger towards Arthur and knights in general. They, in turn, were too focused on the bushy trees in front of them to pay any attention to what Merlin was doing.

Xyla, farther back than even Merlin, cocked her head to the side. What was the manservant doing, standing there? Was this planned?

Obviously not, she decided as a large crashing sound and an un-manly shriek from Merlin resounded. The scaled creature was running away from the knights… and right at Merlin, its sharp teeth bared and flames licking at its nose.

Oh, no.

Merlin could've tried to stop the monster with magic, but he wasn't stupid enough to perform any spells with so many knights watching, so he took the only path open to him: running for his life.

He spun on his heel, yelling, and raced back to way he had come not ten minutes ago, ungracefully stumbling every other second. He looked back over his shoulder after a few steps to see the creature in hot pursuit, looking angry. Well, what had he expected? That it would just stop?

He kept going, ducking behind a tree in hopes that a stupid creature would lose him, his heart throbbing so fast he could hear it.

It wasn't stupid. It kept coming.

Merlin gasped for breath, the knights disappearing behind him, though he could still hear their shouts. In all their heavy armor, they were not as fast as a scared Merlin or an angry beast.

When he was perhaps ten seconds worth of running ahead of the knights of Camelot (and out of sight), Merlin stopped running and turned around, hand outstretched, eyes beginning to flash gold. Time began to slow, the beast began to slow… but his spell never got a chance to finish itself. Suddenly a hard object struck Merlin's side, and he lost his balance, falling to the ground and hitting his head.

OWW! Wha…? Something hit me! Where's the monster?

Merlin looked up to see the beast, lying on the ground and drawing its last breaths. With every movement, more silvery blood spilled out of the creature's chest, around the dagger embedded in its body. Merlin's dagger. But Merlin hadn't put it there, of that he was sure. Merlin ran his hand over his side. The dagger was not there, of course.

The creature gave one last, pathetic whine, and lay still, no longer breathing. The bleeding began to stop.

Someone next to Merlin gave a sigh of relief. Arthur?

Merlin started at the legs of the person and looked upward from there, eyes finally resting on the face. He gulped in surprise. Ooh, boy, this was most certainly not Arthur Pendragon.

A pretty young woman peered down at him, her golden eyes rapidly changing back to brown. She wore a white blousy shirt and fitting pants, and her brown hair was falling out of her braid and onto her face. Did he mention that she was pretty?

All of this he took in within the second before she gasped out, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…" He started to get to his feet.

"Merlin!"

That, however, was Arthur, coming fast. And here was Merlin, kneeling in front of a mysterious girl who had just used magic to save his life – though, of course, he could've done that himself…

"Hide!" he ordered, jumping to his feet and pushing her behind the nearest thick tree, where she thankfully stayed put.

"Merlin!"

"Right here, Arthur," called Merlin, his voice shaking slightly.

Arthur appeared suddenly, running flat out. "Are you okay?" he called, his voice and eyes filled with concern. He stopped in front of Merlin, stared at him in amazement, and then looked down at the dead beast. "What happened?"

"I killed it," offered Merlin lamely, with a covert glance behind the tree. He inched forward, forcing Arthur to step back without realizing it.

"You killed it? With what?"

"A dagger?" said Merlin, as though it was a question. With what? Did Arthur seriously just ask him that?

Arthur's blue eyes went wide. "You got that close? There's not a scratch on you!"

Merlin rolled his eyes, trying not to look like he was making this up. "No, I threw it."

"And you actually hit it?" There was no mistaking the doubt in Arthur's voice. Apparently, he'd sufficiently recovered from his moment of caring to start acting like a… like a… prat…

"Obviously," said Merlin, tilting his head and giving his trademark goofy smile. "It's dead, isn't it? So I guess this means we can go home?"

"Yeah…" Arthur had not yet recovered from the shock. It was a lucky shot, he told himself. It had to be a lucky shot.

The rest of the knights had begun to gather around, waiting for Arthur to tell them what to do.

"Sire?" said Merlin gently. "Shouldn't everyone head back to camp now?"

"What?" Arthur looked up, dazed. "Oh, yeah. Yeah. Everybody, we're finished here!" He turned around to face his knights, pushing back his blonde hair. "We'll go back to Camelot in the morning."

The knights all nodded in respect and assent. Merlin waited impatiently for them to leave. They turned almost as one and left, walking slowly and talking among themselves. Soon it was just Merlin and Arthur left… and a mysterious girl behind a tree.

Leave, Arthur, you stuck-up prince. Go, I'm busy here.

"Merlin?"

"Sire?" To Merlin's credit, his voice was even and patient.

Arthur smacked him on the head.

"Oww!"

Arthur's face suddenly went hard, and he pointed a metal-covered finger at Merlin accusingly. "Pay attention next time, idiot."

Pay attention? This from the man who had spent almost every day with Merlin for nearly two years and hadn't noticed that the boy was a warlock? Sure, sure, it was better this way for everyone (especially Merlin), but still…! Pay attention!

Rather than answer glibly, as per usual, Merlin bowed his head respectfully. "Yes, Sire." Anything if you'll just go!

Finally Arthur went too, not noticing or caring that he was leaving Merlin behind. The warlock saw him shake his head and knew that he just couldn't get over the dagger-throwing bit. Merlin didn't know whether to be insulted or annoyed.

Dolt, thought Merlin at Arthur's retreating back. Eventually Arthur disappeared from view in the thick foliage. Merlin waited another few seconds before turning to the (pretty) girl behind the tree.

"Come out," he ordered. "Who are you?"

She came out, smiling at him, innocent as a babe. "Xyla." She looked down and then up through her eyelashes.

Xyla? What sort of name was that?

"Merlin," he told her, extending his hand for shaking.

"I know," she giggled. "Anyone within two miles knows, Merlin." She took his hand. Her hand was soft but strong.

He smiled a little, too. "Arthur's pretty loud."

Her eyebrows came together. "But he isn't very nice to you."

"He's all right, really. He just…"

"Full of himself? Pig-headed? A total jerk?"

"You've met him, huh?"

She had to laugh at that. The scowl slipped off of her face.

Merlin's expression grew serious. "What are you doing here? Where'd you come from? How come you weren't afraid to…?" he trailed off meaningfully, looking at the dead creature.

She smiled and went over to the dead beast, pulling out Merin's dagger and returning it to him. He took it, a little disgusted.

She went and sat down, snuggling her back against a tree comfortably. "Well," she started, "I'm actually a magic woman, here to kill Uther for destroying all of my friends and family, but I liked you, so when I saw you in trouble I decided to help you out."

He stared at her for a second, and she stared back seriously. But then she laughed, a sweet sound.

"I'm joking, Merlin!"

Merlin sighed. "Oh. You better be careful making jokes like that, they can get you executed."

"Are you going to tell on me?" she asked, knowing the answer.

"No… I mean, you did save my life…"

She smiled, triumphant. "Truthfully," she lied, "I was on my way back home with my father, but he was killed by some bandits." Tears began to float in her eyes. "I got away on my horse, hoping to find away back to my village, but I guess I got lost."

Merlin's soft heart ached for her. He sat down next to her, wanting to comfort this strange girl but not knowing her well enough to put his arm over her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

She took a deep breath and the tears disappeared.

"Arthur would make sure you got home. We can go…"

"No!"

Merlin looked at her, surprised at the outburst.

"Sorry, no. I've been following the group for about a day, and I thought about asking for help, but you know," she said with a blush, "that's an awful lot of men, if you understand me."

Merlin nodded, scratching his dark hair and looking at her, scrutinizing her. "Well, I want to help you. What can I do?"

She laughed. She laughed a lot. "You're sweet; I like you. My family is all gone now, so I was thinking I would just follow this group to Camelot and get work there."

Merlin responded, "What? No. Don't you know that people like you can get killed in Camelot? Besides that, you have no food or protection out here!"

She shook her head, smirking. "Come now, Merlin, it's only for a little while! You don't seriously imagine that no one with magic has ever hidden in Camelot, under King Uther's nose, do you?"

Well, what could Merlin say to that?

"And Merlin, I can take care of myself." Her eyes flashed gold as though to prove it.

It took more convincing than that, though. Merlin gave a lot of reasons why she should consider doing something else, some stupid and some very practical. She argued the most stupid ones out with him until he was blue in the face, but when he gave a particularly good reason she would just sit there, silently.

And smile.

And smile wider, until even Merlin was convinced that he'd just said the most foolish thing ever heard on God's green earth.

Eventually she won the argument – Merlin couldn't do a whole lot to stop her. He gave up with a shrug, looking disapprovingly at her.

As he stood up to walk away in defeat, knowing Arthur would be looking for him, she stopped him by calling his name.

Hopeful, he turned around. Had Xyla changed her mind?

She smiled at him, a joyful, innocent smile. "Merlin, I like your ears. They're adorable. And I like you. You're adorable."

He could only look at her, dumbfounded.

"Until later, Merlin."

"Until…. Until later, Xyla."

She smiled again, then turned and left him standing there, a smile beginning at the corner of his lips and spreading over his whole face. He just couldn't decide what he thought about that girl.

A/N: Whew! Finally! Okay, I know, not very exciting. Also, it was kind of… sudden. I'm sorry. I'm trying. This chapter is sort of a chapter just to fill in the blanks. I had to get her in there somehow. Please review and tell me if I'm being spot-on or over-critical of myself.