Time to catch up on what Merlin and Morgana have been doing! Hope you like the chapter, excuse any cheesy romance. Please review! :)

Chapter 2

The Warning Bell

Merlin didn't know what had awoken him, and for the few moments that he didn't he felt like he had been woken from a blissful dream, something wonderful had happened. He didn't realise what until he rolled over and saw Morgana lying there beside him, fast asleep. Then he remembered, he had taken her hand and they had ran through the night, he had ran away with the most important girl in the world to him, and they could be free together now. Despite leaving Camelot not twelve hours ago, the thrill and the excitement of it all was still fresh in his heart.

But it was then Merlin realised something was wrong. He glanced out the house and could see nothing but darkness. Yet they had travelled during the night last night and decided to rest during the day, which meant they had overslept by a long way if darkness had already descended on them again.

And worse still, through the still night Merlin heard what had made him wake up with such a start.

The warning bell. Uther had found out that someone was missing.

They didn't have much time.

Hurriedly, Merlin shook Morgana awake. She too woke up with a small smile on her face, as if she had been dreaming about freedom, and the dream was no reality.

But as soon as she saw the worried look in Merlin's eyes and the warning bell reached ears too, she sat up quickly.

"Do you think..." she began.

"Yes I do," said Merlin, knowing what she was going to say. "Quick, we have to get moving. As soon as they realise you're not anywhere in the castle they'll start searching the rest of the Kingdom."

Morgana nodded with agreement, and quickly pulled herself up onto her feet.

The two of them had spent the rest of the night before after they had left the tower running. They couldn't afford trying to escape the Kingdom in the daylight, there would be more people to spot them, and even though no one would recognise Morgana, they couldn't take the risk of anyone getting suspicious, and it wouldn't be long before Uther realised his ward had gone missing. They had to take opportunity while it was still dark.

Camelot had suddenly become a much more ominous place in the dark. Knowing that every shadow could be hiding a guard, who would immediately suspect two people running through the night as trouble. Merlin knew that Camelot was not a friend of his kind of people, not yet anyway, but never had he regarded it as an enemy, not until that night when they were running from the looming shape of the castle, not even realising they were still clutching each other's hands tightly as they fled.

Morgana found it difficult. This was a world she had only watched from afar through a little window, and now she was running through it in the dark. Merlin could tell she was nervous, but she didn't show she was scared. She hardly got any exercise being locked in those small chambers, but never once did she ask Merlin to slow down, she never looked like she was going to give up the chase.

And now Merlin had made his decision, he didn't look back on the castle he had grown to love.

So far they had been quite fortunate with their journey. They only had one scare when leaving the castle's courtyard. They had been creeping towards the exit, only to find that the portcullis was down. Merlin cursed himself, of course it would, any person entering or leaving Camelot in the middle of the night would be up to no good! In a few hours when dawn fully arrived they would open it, but they couldn't risk waiting.

Through the darkness he could feel Morgana's eyes on him, waiting for him to do something, to make the right decision. One mistake and they would have the whole of the castle's guards and soldiers to answer for. He took a deep breath.

"Codi."

Painfully slowly, and with a horrible creek, the portcullis began to rise. Merlin could feel the weight of it in his body, as his magic desperately tried to hold it up. After a few moments there was enough of a gap for two people to slip away into the night.

But then there was another noise. The sound of footsteps, coming closer. A guard on patrol, it must have been. The person were hidden by the stone wall and the angle Merlin and Morgana was standing, but Merlin could just about see the flickering light of his torch as the person came closer.

Distracted by the movement, Merlin forgot about his magic keeping the portcullis above the ground, and it began to lower again. Panicking, Merlin and Morgana dived beneath it and then rushed towards the darkest shadows on the other side of the wall before the soldier caught up with them.

They waited and listened in the darkness and silence, panting heavily. But there was no sound of the portcullis being opened again, there was no cry from the soldier as he saw two mysterious people flee the castle. He hadn't spotted anything suspicious. They were safe.

After a few moments of waiting silently to make sure it was safe, Merlin and Morgana fled into the streets of Camelot.

As first they passed empty and silent market stalls, and a few houses, but everyone nearby seemed to be asleep. If anyone looked outside they would see two figures dash past them, heading down the street, their feet pounding on the cobbled road as they held their hands and didn't dare look back.

As Merlin and Morgana travelled further, there were more houses, smaller and more cramped together, which helped block out the sky. But there was no denying that soon they would have to stop, dawn had already been approaching when they left the tower, and already the shadows were shrinking and the silhouettes dimming. The sky was turning pink, the blackness which had hidden them from sight was disappearing.

Soon the streets around them would come to life again, and it would be too much of a risk to continue trying to escape. Exhaustion was starting to set in after being up the whole night too. The adrenaline was fading away, to be replaced by nervousness and hunger.

It didn't take Merlin very long to find a suitable hiding place though. Not all the houses here were occupied, he had been to this part of the Kingdom many times to deliver medicine, and had noticed how some houses remained void of life, lights never flickering in the windows, and when curiosity got the better of him and he looked inside, he could see nothing but a fine layer of dust covering the floorboards.

No one had been in these houses for a very long time. They wouldn't think to find the King's ward here.

Soon Merlin managed to find an abandoned-looking, one storey house, and using magic to check he knew the only living creatures in there were a few mice. It would be a good enough place for them to hide out in the day and get some rest.

There was nothing to sleep on however but the old, dusty wooden floor. Morgana didn't complain though. She looked nervous and hadn't spoken in a long time, but when she looked up into Merlin's eyes she managed to smile, as if she realised that everything was going to be OK.

Merlin hoped she was right.

It was chilly, and they couldn't afford to light a fire to attract attention, but the warmth of their bodies was enough. They forgot about what anyone in Camelot would think, they forgot about the shyness and nervousness they felt around each other. After eating some food Merlin had brought with them, they curled up in each other's arms and drifted off to sleep.

But they had slept too long. When Merlin looked outside, ignoring his groaning joints that were suffering from his rough night's sleep, darkness had completely taken over Camelot once again, for how long? He couldn't be sure.

And even though they felt like they had left the castle far behind them, it could still be seen towering above the little houses, illuminated by the moonlight, and its warning bell rang through the silence.

Soon the Kingdom would be swarming with guards, they didn't have much time.

He suddenly heard something behind him, and turned to see Morgana standing just over his shoulder, gazing into the street, eyes wide.

"What will happen if he finds me?" She whispered, and suddenly she looked very afraid.

It was only then that Merlin truly realised the risk he had taken helping Morgana escape from her tower. The usual punishment for having sorcery was execution, she was lucky that she had just been kept prisoner, but now she had escaped and was on the run, would Uther show mercy Morgana once again, even though she was his ward?

But this man looked at his ward and felt nothing. He would not show mercy again. And what would happen to Merlin? The manservant with magic who had helped a prisoner escape Camelot. There would certainly be no mercy for him, and Arthur would never forgive him for this.

The thought hit Merlin like a brick wall, even though he had known all along this was the sacrifice he had to make, it had not sunk into his heart yet.

They could never return to Camelot.

But he gave Morgana a comforting smile, and took his hand in hers again. He wished he could tell her that there was no one in this world that made him feel the way he did when he took hold of her hand and looked into her beautiful eyes. But now was not the time.

"It's all right Morgana, we've got so far, we can do this." He whispered.

And once more they were running through the night.