AN: Still don't own Merlin!
However, I do have some questions at the end, if you could answer them about a few aspects of this piece and what direction to take it...

I'm going to try and update this and Broken Past at least once a week... Try being the operative word. I can't promise which will be updated when, because my muse switches between the two...

Merlin was whistling happily as he made his way towards Ealdor. It was his first day of holiday and so far everything was wonderful. He frowned briefly, he really shouldn't be this excited that he had gone a whole morning without any problems. It really shouldn't be that big of a deal. But it was true. He hadn't had any goblets thrown at him, any insults hurled his way, any chores listed out, and there had been no threats to deal with. It was all in all rather delightful.

He wasn't stupid though. Merlin figured that he would begin to miss Arthur and the knights at some point. They were his friends after all, despite their… well despite the fact that they all were rather insensitive to the fact that he was a human being at times. But again, they were his friends. There was probably some unspoken rule that they had to be a bit insensitive.

Merlin wondered what he should do first with his new freedom. He had several ideas floating around in his head… Of course he was going to spend a few days with his mother before he began his trip, and then… Merlin hesitated. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to do what he was planning.

He shrugged it off. Yes he did want to do this. He was going to go to Balinor's cave. Balinor had lived there for several years and he hadn't brought anything other than the wooden dragon with him when he had come to join them to stop Kilgharrah. Which meant that there had to be more in that cave, there had to be things left behind by Balinor. Of course someone could easily have found anything left behind in the years since Balinor had left… But Merlin had to look. He just had to check to see if there was anything left to tie him to his absent father. He also figured that while he was there he could talk to Kilgharrah to see if there was anything more that he could do for Aithusa. He was still haunted by the broken, speechless dragon he had seen in the caves at Ismere. And now that he had reestablished a bond with dragon their had to be a way to help her.

Of course he was also going to take some time at Freya's lake. And perhaps a little time with some various druids. Or he supposed he could even venture to the Perilous Lands and see if the Fisher King had left anything else interesting behind. He was starting to get excited. There was so much out there he could do… Maybe he could meet that strange bridge man again… He had seemed like an interesting fellow, and he had seemingly known more than he had said. He should probably also take a trip to the isle of the blessed, he had never really had a chance to look around there, always much to busy getting in and out of life and death situations. He wondered if Anhora's maze was still up, that would be another interesting place to visit. It would be nice to see another Unicorn, and if not it would be neat to talk to Anhora, when Anhora wasn't out for Camelot and Arthur… Although that was Arthur's fault.

Although Merlin was fairly certain that he would NOT be going to the crystal caves… probably… and if he did decide to go and talk to Taliesin he would not look into the crystals. He repressed a shudder before going back to pondering what all he could fit into his holiday.

He was brought out of his musings by four men blocking his path. Merlin gave a small sigh… Really? He wasn't even with Arthur and he still had to deal with idiot bandits. At least this time they hadn't seen the need to shoot him from the trees. Which now that he thought about he would definitely need to think of some sort of protection in case someone did try something of the sort. He tried to cast out his magic to see if there were any more men besides the four in front of him. He would really need to improve this skill, it would be rather handy. But he didn't think there were any other men laying in wait.

One of the men took a menacing step forward (or at least Merlin assumed it was supposed to be menacing) "Give us your supplies and no one need get hurt."

Merlin snorted, loudly, "Why don't I quite believe that?" He responded sarcastically.

The man just leered at him "You can either give us your supplies and take the chance, or you can refuse and we can make your life very difficult."

Merlin pretended to ponder this, inwardly thanking Gaius for the excellent idea of wearing a cloak. "And what if I fight back?"

Two of the men guffawed loudly. "Yes, because a worthless thing like you could put up much of a fight."

Merlin just grinned, although the cowl of the cloak probably hid that from the idiots in front of him.

"Well, I certainly won't just up and give you that delicious apple pie the cook packed for me." He did love his apple pie. And the bandits would probably love some apple pie too. Well, if they hadn't been such idiots he might have been willing to share…

The first man took another menacing (supposedly) step forward. "Well ain't it a shame you don't really have a choice in the matter."

Merlin gave a small sigh. "I really would suggest that the four of you leave me alone. I have no desire to deal with you." Except he sort of did, because if he didn't stop them they would just continue to terrorize that random traveler, so it was really in his best interest that the idiots make an attempt on him.

Two of them men began to circle so they were behind him. Merlin just watched them wearily. Oh, this really was rather boring. Arthur would probably have already done something rash to annoy them… well more than Merlin had already annoyed them. Of course four bandits really weren't that difficult for Arthur to deal with, and hopefully there weren't any idiots out there who would attack a Knight of Camelot when there were just four of them.

Merlin cocked his head, momentarily distracted, actually they probably would attack, these men didn't exactly sound like the brightest bunch.

"We'll give you one more warning, give us your supplies or face the consequences." Merlin just stared at them. He was still on his horse. If he hadn't been planning on stopping these idiots he could easily have escaped by now.

"Hmm, I'm afraid I enjoy apple pie far to much to part from it without a fight." Mary's apple pie really was to die for. Not that he planned on dying.

"Fine." The lead guy made a gesture, Merlin spared a moment to wonder whether that gesture was supposed to have been subtle. If so the man had rather failed at that.

Merlin just sighed as they started towards him. His eyes flashed gold and he muttered softly under his breath.

One of the men tripped and found himself face first in a mud hole that hadn't been there a moment earlier. Merlin's eyes flashed again and two of the men found themselves hanging upside down in the middle of the air. The fourth man hesitated momentarily before lunging towards Merlin. Merlin merely let his eyes flash gold again to slow time and moved out of the enraged man's path. He allowed time to speed back up and the man lunged forward to find himself flailing at the suddenly moved Warlock. Merlin flashed his eyes again and forced the man and his muddy compatriot up so they to were hanging from the air. He really didn't want to kill the men. He suppressed a shudder. No, enough men had met their deaths at Merlin's magic. He had no desire to add any more. Instead he magicked up some rope and used magic to tie the still levitating men up. He ignored their threats and curses, it really wasn't very intimidating when they were hanging upside down and turning red in the face.

He set them none to gently back on the ground and frowned. Then used magic to tie them to a large tree. He used another spell to ensure that the men couldn't free themselves. He stared there looking thoughtfully at the men. It really wouldn't do to let them stay there tied up for to long, because he really didn't want to kill the men. But again, he didn't want to let them kill any other random travelers. He tried to remember when the patrol was supposed to pass through this area. He nodded to himself in satisfaction. One of the patrols was supposed to pass within the next day. Maybe a day and a half. That really was quite fortunate. He'd have to think of an alternative if he met any more bandits.

He magicked up some paper (why hadn't he been using this spell before? He hadn't really tried it since he had failed to magic up strawberries.) He pushed that thought aside and quickly wrote a message to the patrol.

Dear Camelot Patrol,

How goes your fine afternoon? I am sorry for bothering you alright so maybe Merlin wasn't really that sorry, but his mother had always told him to be polite… but these idiots thought that it would be excellent fun to terrorize me and demand my possessions. Of course I wasn't happy with the idea, and I quite firmly told them so… you see, I had apple pie with me, I do NOT just give up my apple pie That really wasn't necessary for him to add, but it would both confuse and annoy whoever was in charge of the patrol… Of course I decided to ensure that they would leave me be, however I do not have any actual authority to deal with these men Not that that had ever stopped Merlin before… So I decided to leave them for you to deal with.

A Citizen of Camelot

P.S. I fear the men might be a bit delusional… kept blabbering on and on about magic and what not. Hopefully that would cast just a seed of doubt into the patrol when the men accused him of magic… He really didn't want to deal with patrols looking out for him… Not that they would know they were looking for him.

He took the note and wrapped it around a stick before shoving the stick into the dirt with the note nestled around the top. It was in front of the bandits and hopefully someone from the patrol would have the sense to actually read it… He had his doubts. Some of the things that got past those men…

It was a mockery of a hunting trip. And all of the Knights knew it. They just pretended that it wasn't a big deal that they weren't actually hunting, rather remaining on the path away from Camelot instead of creeping through the woods.

After all, the Knights had no problem acknowledging that they were actually going out to see if they could find Merlin, none of them were sure what they were going to do when they found Merlin, he was after all on Holiday. Actually that was a lie. Gwaine knew exactly what he was going to do when they found Merlin, he was going to join Merlin on Holiday. A few of the Knights had pretty much figured that out, they were just choosing to ignore the fact, after all the King had said that Gwaine was a Knight of Camelot and had duties to do, and just couldn't go and take a Holiday. Gwaine had a tendency to ignore the King at the best of times, and would definitely ignore the King if he thought it was in Merlin's interest.

They all knew it, it was just one of those things that got left unsaid. Like the fact that Arthur and Merlin were friends, or that Percival would procrastinate his duties to talk to children in the streets. They all had a similar case that was left unsaid.

Percival didn't think they would actually catch up with Merlin, Merlin had left early that morning, the Knights hadn't left until after training, although training had gotten cut off early… just because. Although it was possible, Merlin probably wasn't moving all that quickly while the Knights were keeping a rather quick pace. Arguably they would travel fast enough to catch up, but only if Merlin actually stayed on the path and didn't leave it, they wouldn't actually be able to tell if he left the path because there were already to many different tracks. And Percival knew Merlin. There was no way he would stay on the path the whole way. He would leave it to collect herbs, or help some poor soul, or just because he felt like leaving it. That was just Merlin.

But it wasn't like that mattered… this was a hunting trip after all, it would just be happenstance if they actually found Merlin. Yeah… right.

They hadn't traveled very far before Arthur called a halt. They stopped and could faintly her the sound of men yelling curses ahead of them. Arthur gestured at Gwaine and Leon to sneak through the back to see what was going on and report.

Leon and Gwaine nodded and moved off their horses and into the wood. Leon took the lead moving quietly. At least now they were sort of acting like it was a hunt. Almost.

They moved silently until they were even with the yells. They moved closer to the path, Leon couldn't see anyone on the path though, although he could still hear yelling.

Gwaine nudged him and pointed, Leon followed the path of his finger. Across the path there were several men tied to a tree. Two of them were yelling, another one looked as though he were about to strangle the other two, except he was tied to a tree, and the fourth looked as though he were taking a nap. Good man that, always smart to get some rest when the opportunity arises.

The two knights moved back to the rest of the group. "Four men tied to a tree Sir." Leon reported. Arthur gave a sigh. And the whole group proceeded up the path to where the four men were tied.

"What happened to the lot of you?" Arthur stared at the men.

They traded looks for a moment before one of the men finally spoke up. "I'm afraid that we were attacked by magical bandits sir, demanded all of our things and then when we refused to give our things up they hoisted us into the air without so much as touching us. It was terrifying, first being threatened and then being abused by magic! Of course, even with their magic it still took seven of them to take care of us!"

Gwaine snorted. These men were absolute idiots.

Mordred sent him a grin, he agreed full heartedly. Of course, he believed them about the magic. But that was only because he could feel the magic on the ropes keeping them from untying themselves. And since the magic felt strongly of Emrys it was fairly obvious that there weren't any magic bandits. Magic yes, Bandits… looking at the men, yes. But magic bandits? Not so much.

Arthur sighed and began to move towards the men. He wasn't sure that they were telling the truth, but he had no evidence to the contrary.

"Sire, wait!" He glanced back at Elyan who was moving towards a stick shoved into the ground.

"What?"

Elyan removed a piece of paper from where it was wrapped around the top of the stick.

"Someone's left a message!"

Arthur noted that the men shifted guiltily. "Well what does it say?"

Elyan cleared his throat.

Dear Camelot Patrol,

How goes your fine afternoon? I am sorry for bothering you, but these idiots thought that it would be excellent fun to terrorize me and demand my possessions. Of course I wasn't happy with the idea, and I quite firmly told them so… you see, I had apple pie with me, I do NOT just give up my apple pie. Of course I decided to ensure that they would leave me be, however I do not have any actual authority to deal with these men. So I decided to leave them for you to deal with.

A Citizen of Camelot

P.S. I fear the men might be a bit delusional… kept blabbering on and on about magic and what not.

Gwaine snorted out loud. "Oh I like this man, do you reckon that if we catch up with him he'll share his apple pie?"

Mordred nodded, "That would be rather kind of him, he seems like a nice man."

Arthur sent an exasperated look towards Gwaine and Mordred before turning back to the men tied to the tree. "So are there magical bandits or are the bunch of you the actual bandits?"

The men glared at Arthur but didn't say anything. Finally one of the men spoke up. "We are NOT delusional. There really was magic."

Arthur just sighed. There went the search for Merl… the hunting trip, this was a hunting trip. Now he had to deal with idiot bandits. Although, if they were a part of a larger group of bandits this would end up being very fortuitous.

He turned back to the rest of the knights to tell them to secure the men for transportation to Camelot, to find that they were now all discussing whether or not they would share apple pie if they had some.

They were all idiots, they had four men who appeared to be bandits and could very well give them information about the larger group of bandits, and they were all standing there talking about apple pie.

Idiots.

AN: I'd like some apple pie myself...
Anyway 2 questions- 1-Where do you want Merlin to go during his holiday?
2-Do you want Merlin to take action with Aithusa, bring her back to the "light side"? to be honest Aithusa sorta broke my heart and I want to save her... but, I'd also like to know what you think...

So let me know what you think about both questions, and well, about this chapter and story in general... Twould be kind of you!