Chapter 2
Merlin woke up, in a dusty room. He coughed, and the simple action sent a pang of pain rushing through him. He groaned, and took in his surroundings. The whole area, including himself was covered in rocks. The memories of past events came back to him, when he remembered. Morgana! He scanned the room for any sign of her, and he couldn't see her. He thought she was gone, when he heard a painful groan, from somewhere under the rocks.
He managed to push the rocks off of him, and looked for her. "Say something!" he yelled, ignoring the pain in his limbs, he couldn't leave Morgana alone, not in a place like this. He heard another muffled groan near him, and he quickly started rummaging through the rocks, to find her. He soon saw the fabric of her dress, and sighed in relief when he managed to free her. She was in a worse state than he was, and she glared at him, but not with equal intensity as she did before. But that was understandable. She didn't say anything when she rose to her feet.
Merlin raised his eyebrows, he was stupid to expect any form of a thank you, and rolled his eyes. He turned his back to her, not wanting to face her at the moment. "Thanks." He heard, it was almost unbearable but it was still there. He turned around to look at her, and she was standing with the help of a cave wall, clearly in some sort of pain.
"Are you alright?" he asked. She looked at him with a more annoyed expression than a thankful one.
"Does it look like it?" she sneered, and Merlin's annoyance returned once again. He was slowly regretting helping her, just a little bit.
"What are you waiting for? Go!" she said, not meeting his eyes. Does she really think he would leave her hurt like this? There must be something to do to help, even though he would probably regret helping her later, he just couldn't leave her to die like this, that was something no one deserved, no matter how evil. He didn't want to admit to her though, that he wanted to help her.
Merlin looked around him, and could only draw one conclusion. They were trapped.
"There's no way out." He said, dreading the fact that he was stuck in a room with just her. She looked around as well, and she came to the same conclusion.
"This is your fault!" she screamed, slowly approaching him, using the cave wall as support. He frowned at the accusation, why was this his fault! He couldn't possibly have done this, he didn't even have magic!
"I don't even have magic right now! How could I have caused some sort of earthquake, if it's someone's fault, it's yours!" he yelled back, she balled her fist, and looked legitimately angry now, and he was starting to regret what he just said. He could see that she was going to use her magic, and he braced for impact. But nothing happened.
He looked at her, and she looked absolutely terrified. She looked at her hands like she had never seen them before. She fell to her knees with a loud thud, and she stared shaking. He didn't know what was happening, and it terrified him to see her that way, Morgana shuddering in fear was something he never thought he'd see.
"What's wrong?" he trembled, she looked at him with wide eyes, and she shook her head in defeat.
"My magic…. It's not working…"
~#~
They sat around in silence, after they've come to the shocking discovery that their magic didn't work. For Merlin it was nothing new, since his magic was already taken from him. Morgana didn't take the news all too well, it was understandable, a lot had happened and he had trouble processing it all too. Morgana was on the other side of the room, curled up, she wasn't shaking anymore, but she was staring ahead of her. Just staring. There were several bruises and cuts all over her body, and he knew that they both needed some rest, if they wanted to make it out of here.
"We should rest." He mumbled, just loud enough for Morgana to hear. She slowly turned her head to look at him. Her tired eyes were full of hate and disdain, and it was sad to see her like that. Merlin avoided her piercing gaze, and played with some Small rocks that lay next to him.
"We need to get out of here." Morgana sneered, but her voice was weak, and it was obvious she was in need of some rest. Her eyes were closing, but she was determined to keep them open, to not show any weakness.
"You need to rest." Merlin commanded. He knew that he had to stand his ground. If he wanted her to listen to him. Morgana groaned, and tried to stand. The combination of tiredness and pain made her fall to her knees again. She bit her lip in frustration.
"Alright." She hissed, throwing a rock at the cave wall with force. The rock bounced back with a loud thud, before falling to the cold hard floor. Merlin sighed, and tried to warm himself up; it was cold inside the cave. He noticed Morgana was getting cold as well, but she was probably colder than he was. Since he was the one with a jacket, and all she had was a dress and a thin coat. He did feel bad for her, and to his own chagrin, he ended up offering her his coat for warmth.
"Here" He said holding the coat in front of her. She looked at him, thinking he was joking.
"Don't be ridiculous. It's way too cold to be sleeping without your jacket." She rolled her eyes, and faced the other way. Merlin put his jacket back on and sat next to her. He wasn't going to snuggle up with her, no way, but there was at least some heat radiating from her, to make him a little bit warmer. He lay down, with his back turned to her, and closed his eyes.
~#~
When he woke up, a small ray of sunlight illuminated the cave. He shuddered, it was still cold, but it was more bearable than earlier. He looked at Morgana, she was still fast asleep. Good, he didn't need any of her sneering in the morning. She let out a small sigh, and turned. She looked peaceful when she was sleeping. A small smile crept up Merlin's lips, and he shrugged off his jacket once again. He draped it over her. She smiled in her sleep, and held on to the jacket.
Merlin stood up, and looked for the hole where the sunlight was coming from. He found one, higher up on the cave, and sighed in relief when there actually was a way out. The only thing was that they had to climb their way there, and he wasn't sure if Morgana was able to with her injuries. His pain had mostly subsided, and he hoped Morgana's did too. He could hear a groan coming from Morgana, and her eyes fluttered open.
"Good morning." He said before he could stop himself. To his surprise, Morgana gave him a slight smile. She looked at the jacket and frowned. She pushed it off of her, and stood up. Merlin was glad she could stand, yesterday she wasn't able to.
"I've found a way out of here." He said and pointed to the hole, about 2 meters up, but they could climb up there with a little effort. Morgana squinted at the sunlight and moved to where he was standing.
"Thank god." She sighed, and gave him his jacket back. He was glad she didn't ask him any questions, as to why he had put his jacket over her. Since he didn't know the answer himself. For some reason, he was warming up to her.
~#~
