"Do you think they'll have food there?" Gwaine asked Percival, who returned his question with an odd look. Gwaine shrugged. "It's a fair question. We haven't eaten since–"
"Quiet!" Gwaine and Percival straightened at the druid's voice. The girl was glaring at them. She fiddled with the broken arrow in her satchel. "We shouldn't make any unnecessary noises, understand?" Gwaine tightened his grip on the reigns of his horse before nodding curtly. The girl stared at them for a moment longer before turning around in her saddle and stirring her horse onward.
Gwaine gave Percival a look. They had been riding for hours, still following the druid girl who was riding Merlin's horse (It was decided that Merlin would ride with Arthur after several failed attempts at keeping him stable on his own horse). Gwaine glanced behind him at the prince and his servant. Merlin still hadn't woken up, even though the sun was already beginning to rise. Gwaine couldn't blame him, though. The night had been long and everyone, even the prince, was feeling the exhaustion settling in, and that was without an arrow to the back.
Arthur took a swig of water from his canteen, feeling a little cross. It was morning, yet there were no signs of any other druids or settlements. In fact, they had only gone deeper into this forest, but there hadn't been any signs of anything here besides them. There weren't any druids, animals, or even insects to be accounted for. The forest was so silent without the familiar sounds of creatures trampling through the undergrowth or the constant hum of insects that Arthur was sure that he would go mad soon. The druid girl's "no talking" rule didn't help matters either.
Arthur decided that he had enough after the girl put Gwaine of all people into submission. He spurred his horse forward until he caught up with the girl. "How much further until we reach your camp?" She stared at him the same way she had Gwaine. At this point, Arthur didn't really care. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I being too loud? Because my servant is injured, and you've been leading us at this ungodly pace the entire night without conceding any information about where we're going or how long it will take us." He took a breath. "And why is it that we have to be so silent? The forest is empty."
The girl kept her annoyed expression fixed on her face as she hissed out a reply. "My father isn't much further, and we must stay silent so that those under the curse won't find us. So please teach your men how to keep their mouths shut!"
Oh.
Hold on… "A curse?" Arthur's voice was softening to a lower volume with an undertone of skepticism. It was the same tone he often used with Merlin when the servant suggested something ludicrous, such as mandatory vacation days. The girl nodded her head slowly, mistaking his skepticism for cluelessness. "Of course. Haven't you ever heard a curse before?"
"I've had my fair share of them."
The druid made a face. "I bet that this curse is worse than any others you've seen!" Arthur found that hard to believe. Despite the magic ban, Camelot always seemed to be a centerpoint for evil curses for some strange, unexplainable reason. He would blame Merlin for all of Camelot's mishappenings, but with the servant out cold while leaning against him with a paralyzing injury, it just didn't seem appropriate. "What does this curse do to make it so much worse, exactly?"
"What do you think it does?" Kill? Poison? Disfigures oneself? At least Merlin would be safe if it was the last one… Arthur took that thought back, once again remembering that the servant wasn't awake to defend himself. "…It got rid of all of the animals?" Given the prior observations, this seemed most logical. The druid replied, voice growing above a whisper, despite her "silence" rule. "The curse corrupts anything that it comes across. A couple days ago, this sect of the forest was full of animals. But in a another few days, even the trees and ground will be rotted." She gestured to the trunks rising high above them. "The curse's starting point was contaminated first. The stream dried up, and all of the animals either fled or became diseased. The magic in the earth was also corrupted, it turned black and messes with druidic magic. It's spreading out, and it reached my people's camp." Her voice, which had been growing louder and louder, hushed down at this pivitol point. "My friends, the elders, the other children, they were all corrupted by the curse as well. It… changed them, I think. The aftermath was…" She stopped both her talking and her horse. Arthur felt his hands tighten on his reigns. "What was the aftermath?" The girl looked down, then up at the trees and shrubbery in front of them. "We're here."
She slid off of the horse, her feet sinking slightly into the dirt upon landing. She ran forward toward a cluster of pine trees as the knights (who were listening intently along with Arthur) got off of and secured their horses. Arthur needed help down while securing Merlin to the horse and making sure that the servant stayed center in the saddle. The girl directed their attention back to her. "I'd like to show you, Prince Arthur." Arthur tentatively took a step forward. "Show me what?" The druid girl beckoned for them to follow her through the pines. "The aftermath."
Arthur came up out of the prickly branches to the other side, his knights close behind him. He was staring at a druid camp, or, at least, the remains of what could have been a druid camp at one point in time. There were tents, campfires, clotheslines, all of the normalities for a camp to have... except that the tents were torn and twisted, the campfire ashes were spread around and the lining rocks were strewn in disarray, while the clotheslines were torn off of the tree branches, allowing the clothes to get in a tangled and muddy mess. However, that wasn't what caught Arthur's attention, nor what made him stop in his tracks and block out everything around him, including his knights who were softly cursing behind him.
What stopped and made he and the knights stare were the bodies strewn all over the forest floor.
It looked like there had been a fight. Arthur felt like slapping himself. That part was blatantly obvious, it wasn't even worth mentioning. Of course the most obvious thing would be his deduction, but it was pretty hard to ignore. Most of the bodies were bloody, and those that weren't still had bruises on their figures or torn clothing. The strewn about campfire rocks were suddenly making sense. However, the scorch marks in the earth that he just noticed didn't, and neither did the giant fallen tree that had human limbs sticking up from underneathe it.
Arthur had to remind himself that they were druids. They could and most definiteley did use magic here. The conversation with the little girl came flooding back to him. Was this her camp? They were all corrupted by... the curse? Is that why they killed each other? Druids were widely known as a peaceful people, so Arthur was having a hard time of thinking of another excuse.
"What happened here?" Percival finally asked. The girl looked at the giant man. "The curse turned them all mad and some got–"
She was suddenly distracted, now looking just past Percival. Percival and the others turned to see what she was looking at, and found Gwaine at the center of her gaze. His sword was drawn and he was glaring right back at the little girl. Arthur spoke up, "Gwaine, what is it?" Gwaine looked at each of his comrades each in turn, then back at the girl. "She's saying that they were corrupted by this curse because they had magic. We saw her use magic on Merlin, and this was where she lived." His fingers gripped the hilt of his sword tighter. "How do we know that she hasn't also been corrupted?"
Arthur couldn't believe that he was hearing this from Gwaine. She did shush him earlier though, so maybe he had a grudge. However, Gwaine wasn't one to hold grudges. His words were sensible enough, which in itself was quite unbelievable. "Gwaine, she's been helping us since she found us. She healed Merlin!" Gwaine replied, "I don't like it either, princess, but I'm not going to put Merlin at the mercy of someone who very well might have shot him!"
"Gwaine!"
"She is the only living thing we have encountered here, and all of the other druids are dead, as we now see. She says that she has no use for arrows, but that arrow that almost hit you and the one that hit Merlin that is in her bag have druidic symbols etched into them! Who else could be a suspect? The trees, maybe?"
"Gwaine!" Arthur put his foot down. Gwaine lifted his chin, eyes dark. Arthur opened his mouth to reprimand him, to tell him that everything that he was saying was absurd. His mouth stayed open for a good five seconds before he closed it. He turned his head to the girl. She remained silent. Arthur understood that everything Gwaine said was plausible. He cursed silently to himself; why was it now that Gwaine had to be so profound and cautious? Arthur was pretty sure that a week without alcohol had something to do with it.
He continued to stare at the girl, lost in Gwaine's accusations. The thought of her shooting Merlin made his blood boil, but he repressed that anger. Arthur recognized that Gwaine had made a valid point in his rantings. "How are you not corrupted by the curse?" The girl opened her mouth to reply, but a whinnying of a horse interrupted her explanation.
The knights looked at each other upon hearing the sound. Arthur realized what it meant first, and bolted back through the trees to where they tied up their horses with the knights trailing right behind him. They reached the horses, and found that they weren't alone. Eight druid men were untying and gathering the steeds together, including the one Merlin was on. One of the druids noticed Arthur's entrance and raised the palm of his hand. Arthur immediately dove for cover in the pine branches to escape the blast of energy that took out a good section of the pine beside him.
He saw the knights catch up to him in the cover of the pine trees, but focused his attention on the druid girl under question. "I thought you said they killed all of each other!" The child looked agitated. "I was trying to get to that part! The more ruthless ones survived!" Elyan's mouth was drawn into a thin line. "More ruthless ones, you say?" Leon sighed. "Great. But why would they steal our horses?" The girl replied with a groan, "It's not the horses! It's Merlin!" Lancelot was the only one who looked genuinely worried at first. The rest just looked bewildered at the interest in Merlin. Gwaine's bewilderment was quickly replaced with determination for his friend. "I'd like to see them try." He gave his sword a practice flourish, and proceeded to run out of the ferns with a war-cry.
True, the sudden abruptness of a man charging with a sword did startle the druids, but Arthur knew that Gwaine had no chance at chasing off eight malevolent sorcerers under the influence of a curse. That is, no chance alone. "Come on." He unsheathed his sword from his scabbard, and followed Gwaine's line of action with the rest of his knights following in suit.
The appearance of not just one, but six knights took the druids by surprise. Arthur would have been pleased with the shock on their faces and irritation in their eyes, but he was too preoccupied with getting to Merlin. Four of them were with Merlin's horse, one of them even had the nerve to clutch his shoulder. Arthur bared his sword and teeth, and spun the blade to pierce one of the druids. The older man easily sidestepped the blow and took out a knife from his robes. He slashed the knife at Arthur, who just barely jumped back to avoid the attack. Arthur maneuvered his sword to catch the druid's second attack with the knife. He twisted the hilt out of the man's grasp with a clean pivot from his own weapon. Arthur sidestepped as another blast of raw energy grazed him. He thrust his sword forward, but was sent flying backwards by the second sorcerer.
Arthur hit a tree with a thud. He would definitely be bruising the next day. A groan escaped from him as he slowly got up. He surveyed the scene. His knights were fighting bravely, as always, but they didn't have magic to back them up. Gwaine was fighting with one beside the pines, and Arthur was certain that the druid was toying with him. However, Arthur did spot an unconscious druid next to the pair. It looked like Gwaine really did come in with the element of surprise. Percival and Lancelot were surprisingly holding their own against two others. They were using a clever technique that involved dodging and striking that wouldn't work unless there were two of them working together. Arthur had a feeling that they had practiced this before. He turned to the horses. The two druids that he had been battling before were no longer interested in him. They were joining the other two beside them in the fight against Elyan and Leon, who had somehow retrieved their horses and were fighting from horseback now.
Arthur raised his sword to rejoin the fight. Just as he made his way to the fight, Elyan's horse was roughly crippled by a spell, which sent all of the other horses into a frenzy, racing off into the forest and successfully trampling one of the druids. Leon managed to get the one he was seated on settled, but the chaos also sent Arthur's horse rearing up. Merlin's saddle restraints were snapped, and he tumbled to the ground as the horse raced after the others. Arthur quickly reached the site and knelt to check on Merlin while Elyan recovered from the fallout and attacked the druids from the ground.
Arthur swiftly brought his hand to Merlin's neck and checked Merlin's pulse. It wasn't necessary, though, as Merlin was opening his eyes a moment later. "Ow... that hurt."
"Merlin!"
Merlin grumbled and rasped, "Why do I always have to be in pain when I wake up..?" Arthur would be more thrilled that Merlin was finally coherent again if not for the current situation. "We can discuss your need to throw yourself into danger later, but right now you need to stay out of it. Just stay on the ground like that and don't do anything."
"...Does this count as a vacation?" "Merlin, you're not allowed to have vacations. This is a temporary excused rest. Stay down." Merlin watched as Arthur rose up and fought something out of his frame of vision. He closed his eyes. There was now only a dull ache when he lied on his back. Compared to before, it felt like being on a cotton-stuffed bed with feather pillows lining his frame. He saw no reason to disobey Arthur's commands for once. After all, how often did he get ordered to lie on the ground and do nothing while Arthur fought off an enemy? Merlin's thoughts pricked up. What was Arthur fighting?
Contemplating this began to stir up Merlin's thoughts. Arthur is fighting an enemy. It's probably bandits, or at the most, a magical creature of some sort.
Magic. Arthur can't fight against magic. He doesn't have to, though. Magic can be used for good. It can build, help, heal...
Heal. Magic can heal. His back no longer hurt, which meant that it was healed. It was healed with magic. The druid girl healed his back with magic. The druid was the one who was targeting them with the ambushes! Merlin's thoughts finally stopped running round and round, and centered on this thought.
He wondered if the druid was still with them, or if the others had figured it out by now. Merlin was conflicted. She had confessed to hunting them down and trying to kill them, but she had healed him. That was controversial, it didn't make and inkling of sense. Merlin opened his eyes and took in a gulp of air as he lifted himself into a sitting position. It didn't hurt as much as before. It was tolerable. The girl really had healed him fairly well.
A yell brought Merlin back into reality. He looked up and saw Gwaine crash against a tree trunk. Merlin winced as his friend fell to the ground. The person that had sent Gwaine flying was... a druid..?! Merlin wasn't expecting that. The person that Merlin thought belonged to a peaceful and pacifist civilization turned toward Merlin's direction after making sure that Gwaine was knocked out cold. Merlin then noticed other druids that were much closer who were battling with Leon, Elyan, and Arthur. He turned back to the druid that had incapacitated Gwaine, who was now raising his hand in the direction of the three battling knights. The spell was cast, and Merlin attempted to raise his right arm to block the unfriendly magic.
The curse hit Leon and Elyan, sending them to the ground with shouts of pain. Merlin froze from shock and horror. He tried to raise his right arm again. It's only response was a tremble and then slight throbbing. His arm wasn't working. He looked at the makeshift cape-bandages that covered up his chest. The druid child had healed the outer part of the wound on his shoulder blade, but that didn't count the internal damage. His arm was numb to him, with the exception of a throb here and there. Merlin tried to raise it up again, but it wouldn't respond. Merlin attempted to move his left hand. It was completely normal, functioning as it should. But what good was as a servant with only one arm? He became worried, anxiety starting to claw its way through him. It could be healed. It just needed to be mended properly, right? It's not as if it was dead forever… right?
Maybe Merlin wouldn't be so worried about this if he was better at healing spells. Gaius would think of something, he always had a solution for everything. This would be no problem at all. Merlin tried to tell himself these things, but the unresponsiveness of his right arm seemed to overpower any of the rational thoughts he was trying to procure.
"Percival!"
Merlin ripped himself away from his inner turmoil as he heard Lancelot cry out and saw Percival hit the ground after a well-aimed spell hit him square in the chest.
Merlin looked back at Arthur. The Crowned Prince of Camelot was backed up against a tree without his sword, switching back and forth between glaring at the opposing druids that cornered him and checking around the site for his felled knights. Merlin noticed one druid pick up something from the ground before approaching the prince. It was a knife.
Merlin decided that all things considered, hand gestures weren't very important right now. He gathered up his magic inside of him as it swirled up and up into his grasp. The druid was almost upon Arthur, and was raising his knife threateningly at the unarmed prince. Merlin directed his gaze at the druids, and with a silent command, propelled his magic forward with a glint of gold in his eyes.
The magic roughly fought back, almost slamming back into Merlin himself. Merlin felt a sting as the magic retracted back, refusing to go forward. Merlin wanted to scream. First his arm, and now this. He didn't understand why his magic was acting strangely. He didn't have much time to figure out why this was, as the druid was raising his knife to pierce Arthur, who was firmly holding his stance with all of his exits blocked.
A blur of silver steel and red cape swept passed Merlin, and cut down the unsuspecting druid from behind. Merlin watched as Lancelot tore his sword out of the druid. Merlin whipped his head around, cringing as a twinge of pain strained his neck. He saw that there were two druids beside Percival who looked just as incapacitated as the knight. All that was left was the one Gwaine had been battling, who had joined the other three who surrounded Arthur. They did not look happy with Lancelot as they stared at the dead knife-wielding druid at his feet. Lancelot took advantage of their stupor and thrust his blade at the next druid. The druid gathered his wits just in time to dodge the blood-stained sword and thrust his own hand forward, barely touching the knight's chest. Lancelot fell backwards with a pained grunt, dropping his sword and clutching his chest. The druid bent down, picked up Lancelot's abandoned sword, and raised it above his head to strike Arthur in one swift and fluid motion.
Merlin didn't care if his magic was acting strangely. He could still feel it within him, and as long as it was there it was going to do it's job to protect Arthur! Merlin grasped ahold of his magic and vaulted it at the druids who were moments away from striking Arthur. Merlin's eyes burned gold, yet there was still resistance. The stinging sensation came back as his magic fought him off. Merlin refused to give up. He stood up swiftly, ignoring the sudden flashes of pain that came from his shoulder and parts of his right arm. He locked his legs in an attempt to stay upright, and once again launched his attack. His head screamed out in pain, but instead of relenting, Merlin drove past the restraints. His magic exploded out of him, ripping a hoarse scream from his throat as the pain within his head intensified. All four druids surrounding Arthur flew away from him and past Merlin in a frightening blast of wind.
Merlin released the magic, thus releasing him from the terrible pounding and stinging in his head. He gladly unlocked his legs and sunk to the ground. Lancelot, still conscious, looked at Merlin with admiration. Merlin didn't pay him any attention, as he was busy trying to recover from wielding magic... he really couldn't understand why he was having so much difficulty, or why it hurt so much.
Merlin then realized that he might have bigger problems than a little flux in his magic and headache. He looked up past Lancelot at Arthur. Arthur was staring at him, his head bent slightly at an angle. His brow was worrisome and his mouth was slightly agape, which wasn't a usual expression associated with the Crowned Prince. Arthur closed his mouth after realizing how long he had kept it open, but opened it a second later. "Merlin... What was that?"
Wow. I completely coordinated this update wrong. I forgot that I had an SAT today, and that this week was finals week x_x. However, I was able to finish this chapter by writing snippets of it on my scratch paper in between exams! My professors are going to be confused, I think... but who cares? It's summer now!
Although I do have a lot planned this summer (I think I'm going to need a summer vacation after this summer vacation), I am going to try to have faster updates! Yay!
Next update will be Monday, the 10th. Please review! (I am overwhelmed by how many people have favorited, followed, and reviewed this story! Buckets of appreciation to all of you!)