The forest was dark and only a little light from the moon came through the trees above them. Merlin knew it was madness riding this hard when it was so hard to see. He and Freya lay as close as possible down over the horse's neck to avoid eventual low branches as much as possible. Several times Merlin felt twigs scratch over his head and back. He tried his best to hide their traces with his magic and thankfully they had the wind at their backs so it would be difficult for the dogs to catch their scents. But Merlin feared they had picked it up because the barks came closer, but were still far away. They came to a small stream of water and Merlin steered the horse into it and followed it leftwards. The horse snorted as she trotted through the water and drops splashed up on her two riders.

"The dog won't pick up our trail if we ride in the water," Merlin explained.

They followed the stream for maybe two kilometres or so, until the dogs' barks had become more distant again. Now the sun had started to rise too and Merlin decided it was safe to stop and rest a little. The horse had grown tired from running half of the night and Freya had fallen asleep so he carefully laid her down and then even dared making a fire, it would be light soon enough anyway and he would hear the dogs long before Arthur and his men would reach them. He fetched some water by the stream and kicked the pebbles, an idea struck his mind, one of those ideas Gaius would claim mad, but it was really an excellent idea. He put the cauldron aside and kneeled beside the water and ran his fingers through the pebbles. Soon he found one suiting his purpose and took it and the cauldron back to the fire. First he prepared the breakfast and while it cooked he examined the little stone closer. It was as dark grey as lead. The surface was smooth from being worn down by the water. It had an oval shape and was about one inch high and half an inch wide and flat with round edges. He starred at it, dumbfounded with no clue on what to do at all. He had never done a protection spell before and didn't know what words to use or anything at all. Well he did know some keywords but it was that he didn't know how to use them, and things would end up bad if they were used in the wrong way. He tried creating a few spells inside his mind, mixing the place of the words and bending them in different forms, whispering them silently as to taste them, as to get a better sense whether or not they would work. Finally he found one he thought would work. It was pretty simple and he doubted it would be strong enough, but if it worked the least, it was something. And he knew it depended on how strong the curse had been.

He took up a dagger from one of the saddlebags that Gaius had packed and carved the druid's symbol for 'protection', he remembered seeing it once in one of Gaius' books and thought it would help to improve the power from the spell. He could have used magic to carve out the symbol, but he found it peaceful doing it by own hands. When it was finished he spoke the incantation. After a few seconds the symbol started to gleam faintly in dark purple. He smiled for himself. Now he just needed something to attach it to. After looking around for a while he found a leather string. This time he used magic to make a little whole, big enough to run the string through it, and the necklace was finished. Proud he gazed at his work then continued finishing the breakfast.

Freya woke up just as Merlin poured up the porridge in two bowls. He smiled at her when he saw she was awake and handed her one of the bowls. "Sorry it's not the best food, but it will do," he excused with a sheepish smile.

"It tastes delicious!" she said after a few spoons. But everything was probably better than whatever Halig had given her, if he had been giving her food at all to say.

"We'll continue as soon as we finished breakfast," he said. She nodded. "And yeah," he continued, "I have something for you."

Curiously and a little suspiciously, the druid girl looked up from her bowl at the necklace Merlin held in his hand.

"What's that?" she asked, with her eyes slightly narrowed.

"May I?" Merlin made a motion that he wanted to tie the necklace around her neck and she nodded that it was okay. "It's a protection necklace. If it work it will help you control the bastet, whether it's keep you from changing or just help you control yourself while you changed, I don't know. If it doesn't work, we did I try and if it only worsened the situation you may eat me up," he explained as he tied the necklace around her neck, the last thing he said with a little chuckle.

"No, why would you say that?" She asked in a sharp voice.

"It was only a joke." He tried laughing it away.

"Why would anyone ever joke about being eaten up by a beast?"

"Euhm... the joke was that you could eat me up because I'm a stupid dollop head for making your situation worse. As a punishment, sort of… but let's hope that doesn't happen. I'm not that tasty anyway. Look just bone, no tasty fat or anything."

"You stupid," she said, but he could see a tiny smile in the corner of her lip. Then she looked down at her bowl again.

"Why are you doing this?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why are you doing all this for me? Helping me…"

"Because I want to,"

"But you have even seen me, the bastet, and you still don't see me as a monster? You're not scared.

"No, why would I? None of this was your fault."

"You healed me, even if I said it was too late, that the wound was too deep. You should have left me to die," she looked up at him again. "But I'm glad you didn't," she smiled and leaned closer and lightly kissed Merlin on the cheek. "Your magic is stronger than I first thought, I felt it when you healed me and I don't think you are aware just how powerful it is," she said.

Now it was his time to look down. The only one to really acknowledge his magic as something good was his mother and Gaius.

"It must have been hard, living in Camelot and having to hide it," Freya continued sympathetically.

"Gaius' pretty amazed that I've managed to keep my head between my shoulders," Merlin laughed.

"I can understand that, the way you're risking your life,"

"Euhm…" but he was interrupted by dog barks, it had been almost gone whole morning but now it was not too far away and Freya looked frightened towards the direction from where the barks came from.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to let them get you," in an incredible speed Merlin packed their things and Freya was still too weak from the blood loss so Merlin helped her up in the saddle before mounting behind her. With a few words he exterminated the last traces of them from the camp and then dug his heels in the horse's sides. He knew the dogs had finally real caught of their scent, Merlin had been slightly careless hiding it, and mostly focusing hiding the traces from the horse's hooves, mostly because he didn't know how to extinct one's smell, because the dogs' barks only came closer and closer. He felt Freya tense in his arms.

In an attempt to shake off the dogs and the knights from Camelot Merlin stirred in the horse on small twisty paths where vegetation grew thick. As soon as the path parted in a narrow turn he turned the horse on it. He knew it would be harder for the knights as a big group to follow them. The dogs sounded really close now but the trees grew thick so Merlin wasn't able to see much behind them.

Suddenly they came into a broader path and were surrounded on both sides by steep cliffs, half hidden by the trees. Merlin pushed the horse harder now that the ground was more even and there were more space and gave her longer reins to stretch out her neck.

"Merlin!" A voice ripped through the air. Merlin turned around to see Arthur just before the thick growth of trees. "Merlin, wait!"

But Merlin urged on the horse again and the prince set off after them. Merlin knew they were unable to outrun him so he turned around the horse by half, his eyes met with Arthur's. Then he reached out his hand and spoke the words from the old language. The cliffs around them started roaring followed by explosions. The last he saw of his prince was his betrayed expression. "Merlin, NO!" the prince shouted but the way was already blocked by the big stone blocks, but he could still hear Arthur's screams for him. With a sigh he dropped his shoulders. This was not how he wanted Arthur to find out about his magic. But not much went as he wanted. He urged on the horse again in a short gallop, it would take hours for Arthur and his men to find another way round, if they found a way at all so to say so they didn't need to hurry much now. He was going to miss that clotpole of a prat prince. The words that they were two sides of the same coin and he was the one that could help Arthur to the way of being a king and restore magic back to Camelot, to reunite Albion. That he was destined to serve him. Now neither of that would come true, magic would still be banished even when Arthur took the crown; and this because he had saved Freya.

She must have felt his wave of emotions because she placed her hands over his and squeezed gently.

"I thought we could stop by at Ealdor tonight," he said. "We have taken a slight detour and will reach it just after dusk I believe." Freya didn't come with any disagreements so on the next crossroad Merlin stirred the horse rightwards. In case Arthur may pick up their trail again they occasionally rode in circles or rode at a sideway only to ride back the same way again to create dead ends. And if they found a stream of water they rode in that a mile or so, to make the dogs lose their trace. Fortunately they didn't face Arthur again. Not even the barks of the dogs were audible. Maybe Arthur had ridden back to Camelot? But Merlin doubted that. Arthur was probably going to search for them even harder now that he knew about Merlin's magic.

They stopped for supper a few miles away from the village. The sun had now started to set and coloured the sky sapphire blue.

"If you want, we could wait here until midnight has passed so we can see how the necklace will work,"

Freya nodded gratefully, looking much relieved.

"What's in Ealdor?" she wanted to know.

"It's the place where I grew up and my mother still lives there. I thought we could get you some clothes there.

"Are you sure we should go there in the middle of the night then?"

"It's a small village and it will only raise suspicions if strangers walk in, and some of them are not so fond of my magic. Last time I was there things didn't turn out all too well. My mother won't disapprove if we come in the middle of the night and none of the villagers will be awake so we can easily sneak in unnoticed. But if we're seen and Arthur comes to search for us there after we've gone they won't tell him anything."

Freya nodded and they finished their meal in silence, waiting for the moon to rise, and to find out whether or not the amulet would work.

A/N: Here it is, as promised. One chapter a day. Next chapter will be up tomorrow :)