As dawn broke across the sky, Merlin and Mordred mounted the horses and put Ealdor behind them.
While the two friends rode in silence, Merlin would occasionally look over at Mordred to make sure the younger man was okay.
"Why do you keep looking at me?" Mordred asked after feeling Merlin glance at him for probably the hundredth time.
"Wanted to make sure nothing was wrong," Merlin answered.
"I'm fine," Mordred stated. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"After we finished eating the breakfast my mother made us, yesterday, you slept until it was time to leave," Merlin explained.
"And you didn't?" Mordred asked.
"Why would I?" Merlin asked in return.
"We preformed some pretty heavy magic three days ago, then set out on foot toward Ealdor shortly afterwards. We only stopped to eat a quick lunch and to map out a traveling plan. Then walked until the sun came up," Mordred summed up. "You're telling me that you wouldn't be tired after all that?"
"My magic is still slightly more advanced than yours, so I was able to preform those spells without losing to much energy," Merlin explained. "Was I still tired? Yes. But instead of sleeping the day away like I would I normally do back in Camelot, I helped and spent time with my mother. Just like I used to do when I still lived in Ealdor."
"Was it normal for you to get so little sleep while growing up there?" Mordred asked.
"During crop season it was. Every able man, woman and child would work in the fields planting crops without complaint. Around noon we had a short time to rest, eat and drink water. After that we would go back to work. We would work late into the night. Then go home, hopefully eat a small dinner and sleep until the few hours before dawn," Merlin said as memories of working in the fields and feeling normal washed over him.
"Must have been hard," Mordred stated.
"Life in a village isn't meant to be easy. It's about working for what you want and need. It's about surviving through the harsh winters and hoping to feel the warmth of the sun again," Merlin responded.
The two rode in silence for a short time, before Mordred spoke again. "Do you ever miss your old life?"
"Sometimes," Merlin answered.
"What do you miss most?" Mordred wondered.
"When I was still a child, during the spring and summer time, Will and I would run through the woods chasing each other. Both of us would have a wooden sword. Will was always the heroic knight and I was always the bandit," Merlin remembered, caught up in the memories. "One time, I was so busy defending myself and the fruit that I had 'stolen' we didn't see the cliff behind me until it was too late."
Merlin was ten and Will was twelve. Both of them had been playing in the woods since they finished their chores and ate a small lunch.
Neither of them seemed to notice the fading light in the sky or how far they had wandered.
"Give them back," Will ordered as he slammed his wooden sword into Merlin's.
"In your dreams, knight," Merlin taunted as he took an apple out of his sack while fending off his friend.
Will continued going at Merlin, causing him to move toward the edge of the unseen cliff.
"You call yourself a knight? You can't even defeat a thief." Merlin said before he clenched on to the apple with his teeth while using both hands to use his fake sword.
Will knew that what Merlin was saying was part of their game, but the words still stung. With a brute force, he slammed his fake sword into Merlin's causing his friend to lose his footing and fall over the now noticed cliff.
Merlin screamed as he fell toward the earth below him. The screaming stopped when he landed his side and blacked out.
Will rushed toward the edge and looked down at his unconscious friend. He quickly looked for a slope that could help him get down to his friend. When he found one, he ran towards it. After reaching the bottom, Will rushed over to Merlin, fell to his knees and rolled him on to his back. He felt sick looking at how bloody his friend's face was.
Even though, Merlin was smaller than Will, he knew that he couldn't carry his friend back to the village all on his own. He'd have to leave his friend all alone and injured while he went to get help.
Knowing that he was very deep into the woods, he knew that he wouldn't make it back before night fell. No one would leave the village at night to search for a boy who wasn't normal. Also knowing that they would come look for the son of a fallen knight in the dark, Will decided to find some wood and start a fire.
Once he got a small fire going, Will poured what little water was left in his waterskin over Merlin's face, and washed the blood away. He then looked for any other noticeable injuries, but found none.
He smiled gratefully, glad that his friend wasn't too badly injured.
Shortly after the darkness claimed the sky, Merlin woke up.
Merlin moved to sit up, but Will kept him lying down. "Don't get up. You have a head wound."
The younger boy, ran his hand over his forehead and cringed when he felt the wet sticky cut close to the top.
Will ran all the routine questions their mothers had taught them to ask for when something like this ever happened, through his mind. Finally he asked. "What do you remember?"
"We were playing Knight and Bandit. You hit my sword hard enough to make me lose my balance. I fell," Merlin answered. "Why aren't we at home?"
"I couldn't carry you and I wasn't going to leave you all by yourself," Will answered.
"Can we go now?" Merlin asked, not liking being in the woods at night.
"I'm not letting you get up. We'll have to wait for help," Will replied. "Hopefully they're looking for us right now."
Merlin only nodded, finding comfort in the older boy's words.
"Does anything else hurt?" Will questioned.
Merlin did his best not to move while mentally checking each body part. His will power to stay still failed him, when he suddenly became aware of the pain in his left ankle. He sat up, despite Will's protests, and began removing his boot.
Will cursed under his breath as he helped his friend remove the piece of footwear, and saw how swollen his ankle was. He quickly tried to figure out if was broken or not.
Merlin watched as his friend worriedly checked his ankle. They were both well knowledged in the bones of the human body. Their mothers knew that a day like this would happen and they would have to know if something was broken or not.
His mother had gone more in-depth because her older brother was the court physician in Camelot, so she had been able to teach him how to set a bone if need be.
"Is it broken?" Merlin asked finally.
"Yes," Will answered reluctantly, "but at best guess, it's a small break. Your mother will know more once we get you back to her."
Merlin looked at his ankle, then back at his friend. "It doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would."
"That's because you didn't feel it when it first broke. You were unconscious when it happened," Will stated. "Lay back down and try to rest. Help will be here soon."
Merlin did as his friend requested.
When a rescue team of three finally came, they found the two boys sleeping close together next to a dying fire. Merlin was using Will's chest as pillow.
They never questioned why though. The two boys had always been close enough to be brothers, despite being complete opposites.
One of the men woke up Will, while the other two men lifted the injured ten-year old off of him.
Once the rescue team came back with the boys, they went straight to Merlin's mother, Hunith.
Will sat by the warm fire with his mother, while he watched Hunith take care of her son.
"You should have known better than to go that far," Will's mother stated as she brushed the dirt out of his hair.
"We were having fun and lost track of where we were," Will defended.
"What happened?" Hunith asked, not taking her eyes of Merlin.
Will explained what happened and took full blame for Merlin falling off the cliff.
The next day, Merlin woke up in a bed. He found that very strange since he always slept of the floor. He moved to get of the bed, but stopped when the pain in his ankle and a headache protested.
At that moment, Will walked in with a bowl and cup of water in hand. "Afternoon."
"Why am I in a bed?" Merlin asked.
"Your reward, my punishment," Will answered. "You get my bed until your head and ankle heals. I get to sleep on the floor and take care of you."
At first Merlin didn't like the idea of his best friend taking care of him, but as time went on, Merlin grew to liking the idea.