A/N. Thanks for all those who gave me reviews and thanks for those who are following this story. :) Remember to review and that this is my first fanfic so please tell me if there are any mistakes with grammar, etc.

Chapter 2. What Lead To The Truth

As the loud shouts and cries, of what seemed to be bandits, filled the area, Merlin couldn't help but mentally groan.

He just had to say it. Gwaine just had to say it. Merlin could not believe it, he should of known that the day so far had been too peaceful to be true.

To be honest, the day had just been the normal average day. Well if average meant: waking up late; annoying a certain prat; dodging randomly thrown objects from that same prat; being called a girl or an idiot about twenty times over and then being dragged out on a hunt. Overall, a pretty normal typical day-in-the-life- of Merlin day.

But then just as to his luck always turns out to be, a hunt turns into something else and here he is on the edge of a forest close to the Valley of the Fallen Kings preparing himself to hide and protect as he always does. Joyful.

He just couldn't understand why destiny could not just leave him in peace for just a couple of days.

Might as well ask Kilgarrah not to speak in riddles or for Gwaine to not go to the tavern. Merlin pondered. After all I have a higher chance of one of those events happening than a nice relaxing non-bandit day.

Dragging Merlin out of his thoughts was Arthur shouting out over the cries. "Elyan, Percival protect Guinevere."

Leaving their horses- which were losing control due to the sudden shock of the attack- Percival and Elyan ran over to protect their Queen. The rest abandoned the other startled horses too and with a high pitched scraping sound, withdrew their swords to prepare themselves for the oncoming attack.

As the dark clothed bandits ran down the hill, the knights all took stance ready to defend their King and Queen.

Normally needing to avoided danger as much as he could, Merlin decided that heading over to the queen would be a better option than standing a fair bit to the left of the knights.

However just as he was about to head on over to Guinevere. He found himself hitting something. It was as if he had ran right into a solid stone wall. Suddenly Merlin feels, something of which could only be described as a surge of vile energy, flow through him. Causing him to feel as if he was to be sick, seemingly forcing his legs to temporarily give way.

The sound of metal clashing found its way to Merlin's ear confirmed that the knights and Arthur had started to begin their attack on the bandits.

Slowly he stood up, still feeling as if he was going to empty the contents of his stomach onto the forest floor, as the vile shudders of the remaining energy still flowed through him. Gasping for air he looked around to see what he had run into. Nothing. There was nothing there...

What the hell was that?

As the still lingering horrible feeling was leaving him, Merlin could instantly sense magic in the air. The air was thick to the warlocks lungs, the pressure overwhelming.

Dark magic. Powerful Magic. Where is it coming from?

Scanning his surroundings Merlin could not see nor sense anyone in the area to who could of used that kind of magic. There's got to be something or someone ... unless the magic itself came from the strange wall? That he had just ran into. But that doesn't make sense, there was nothing there...

Suddenly bringing his attention back to the battle was Gwaine, on the other side of the small clearing that they had travelled into, letting out a string of curses.

"Arthur! They can't be hit," Gwaine shouted defending himself against one of the attacking bandits blows, "Its like there is some sort of shield, protecting them."

Next to catch the warlocks attention was Tristan yelling something similar, " Arthur, the bandits... something protecting them"

Looking to see what Tristan and Gwaine were shouting about, he turned to see Leon striking down one of the many bandits, who had now seemed to have filled the area. However the strike did not hit.

A red and gold in-colour shimmer appeared instead. The bandit didn't even seem to react to the deadly strike he had just received he just continued attacking. Clearly evidence of the fact that some kind of strange magic was being used.

Great, just great. Another magical attack. Is it really not possible to have a day without destiny.

That was when Merlin noticed something even stranger than the weird magic surrounding him... no one was attacking him. Yet here he stood, deep in thought, trembling from a nausea that had made him fall to his knees not thirty seconds ago, without any protection whatsoever. Strange.

"Arthur!" He exclaimed..

No reaction

"Arth-"

"He can not hear you."

Startled, Merlin spun around. To his surprise stood a man in dark black clothing, hair a peculiar deep aubergine colour with an unusual hint of green. His black coloured tunic covered by a flat-raven feathered jacket.

Huh? I'm sure he was not there a few minutes ago... that's one weird hair colour.

"what do you mea-"

"None of them can hear you. You, are alone."

"But there righ-"

"Right now they do not even remember you exist."

"Wha-"

"A spell I cast to give them a temporary unresponsiveness to your presence."

Who the hell is he? What does he mean by that?

Looking back Merlin knew he shouldn't of taken his eye off of the strange man whilst he turned to call out to the others. He knew he shouldn't have, but he did. As soon as he realised his mistake...

Everything had faded to black.

Please review even if its a smiley face :). to know that I'm doing all right.