Unfortunately the Characters of Merlin are not mine but the adventure they go on(and a certain arrogant but sexy desert princes) Is. Review and enjoy.

P.S. This isn't set in any definitive timeline(season) but Arthur's still a prince, Gwen's father is dead, but her brothers is with her and a knight( too lazy to make up how that happened) and she and Lancelot know about Merlin's power and Morgana is evil.

Chapter 4

Merlin let out a sigh as the cool water trickled down his neck. At his side the horse seemed to sigh too, lapping up the water that flowed from the cracked spout. Merlin had lost the guards and now was in the, obvious, poor part of Sea Haven. Rundown stared at him with broken windows and wide hungry eyes peered at him from the shadows. One of them-a old women dressed in dirt and rags-approached him, her painfully-thin body leaning heavily on a crooked cane.

"You need help?" She asked in a thick accent, giving the richly dressed foreigner a gaped tooth smile.

Merlin waved her away. "No thank you, I'm fine."

The women frowned. "You don't look fine. Look like you need help."

"I am." Merlin lied, sitting down on the rim of the fountain. The beggar women sat beside him.

"You, need anything?" She asked. "Food? Place to sleep?"

Merlin let out a humorless laugh. "I need to go home. My mother, my friends, they're all probably worried sick about me."

"I help you home?"

Merlin shook his head. "I fear you can't. I wish to God you could but…."

The women took his, trembling, hands into hers. "You can't go to them, but maybe they come to you?"

Tears prickled in Merlin's eyes. "No, even if they do I'll be long gone."

"…I can help you with that!"

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Basil crinkled his nose at the smell coming off the man he held tight in his grip. "And Jauhar thought the camels stank." He held the man out further. "Where is he?"

The vagrant gulped and pointed. "That way, came tearing down the street like a bat out of hell!"

Basil dropped the man and went in the direction. From shadowed doorways the slum inhabitance of Sea Heaven watched him in fear. from his size and feral aura, and envy, from the fineness of his clothes and the mantel of power he carried.

"GEM! GEM!" Sadar squawked, circling over head.

Basil turned a corner and let out a sigh of relief. His Jauhar sat on the lip of an old fountain, using a rock to try to get out the sapphires in his headdress. The rock slip and slid across his fingers, tearing into his tender flesh.

"Damn it!" Merlin cursed, suckling at his bleeding finger.

"I could help you with that."

Merlin whipped his head up and let out a startled cry. For a moment the two just stared at each other. Basil, with restrained anger and Merlin, with stunned fear. Then, Merlin shot to his feet and ran. Basil sighed, and ran after him. The young sorcerer only went about a block before Basil caught up to him, wrapping the chain around his torso and tucking him beneath his arm.

"No! Let me go!" Merlin cried, squirming and struggling in the man's hold. Basil ignored him, strode over to a house and kicked the door open.

"Out!' He snapped to the startled family. They immediately rushed out and Basil slammed the door shut, tossing Merlin onto a bed tucked into a corner.

Merlin tried to jump off but Basil planted a knee in his back and wrapped the chain around the post. As the boy struggled with his restraints Basil bunched his robe up around his waist and pulled down the white pants he wore beneath. Upon seeing the white, round, mounds of flesh lust over took him.

"No!" Merlin shrieked as hands began to caress his end, a finger dipping between his cheeks to push at the entrance to his body. "Basil! Don't!"

"Quite!" Basil snapped, removing his belt.

Merlin's body began to quake. Though he was a virgin he was aware of how two men had sex and the damage that could happen if it was nonconsensual. "Basil, please!"

"You've brought this upon yourself, Jauhar." Basil caressed him one last time then whipped his arm back and brought the belt hard across his ass. "Never. Run. Away. Again!" He growled between blows.

The desert prince only stopped the whipping once his arm started cramping and Merlin was reduced to a sobbing mess. Fixing his clothes, Basil gathered the crying boy into his lap. "Shush, Jauhar. It's over."

Merlin wasn't crying from pain-though the spanking had hurt-but from relief. "I thought I was going to be raped!"

Holding him tighter Basil stood and left the house. As he was walking by an alley he spotted the house's owner, a women and three painfully thin children. Unhooking the purse from his belt, Basil gave it to the women. "Thank you, for the use of your home."

The women gulped and excepted the purse, the coins filling it clanking together. "You are welcome." She muttered, ushering her children back inside. The smallest, a girl with large dark eyes, watched from the doorway as the giant of a man walked away, with the snow-colored boy.

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"Do not scratch. Do not scratch." Arthur chanted the phrase over and over again, the itch growing stronger with each sentence. "How can peasant stand wearing stuff like this?" He muttered. The prince wore a muddy brown tunic, the fabric irritating his silk-coddled skin with each step he took.

At his side, Leon gave him a small nudge. "Your majesty," He whispered. "You look like you're wearing a shirt made of glass.

"I might as well be!" Arthur hissed. "This cloth is rubbing my skin raw!"

Elyan sighed. "Forgive me for saying this, my prince, but deal with it! You're going to draw attention to us."

Arthur scoffed. "I think Daniel has already accomplished that."

The Claudainian prince-or the leader of their troop-strutted before their group, dressed in a gold shirt, blue pants, and a peacock feather cape that trailed on the ground with bells sowed into the hem.

"We need to keep the attention off of you." The Claudainian had said. "Some of the people at Sea Haven can know you're faking with just a glance."

"Dressing like that has to be against the law." Percival said.

"And against nature." Gwen added. "Lance, are you alright?"

Thanks to Gaius's healing remedies- and a bit of magic-Lancelot had recovered enough to come with them.

"I'm fine, Gwen." He smiled.

"Basil had to stop here," Gaius said. "Sea Haven is the only place where he could have gotten supplies before he continued on to Namair."

"Yes, but which rout did he take?" Gwaine wondered. "He could have continued on by boat or gone straight through the desert. If we chose the wrong one it will set us back and Merlin could-"

"We'll ask around." Arthur interrupted. "Someone has to know where he went."

"But, my prince, that-"

"Arthur is a Pratt! Arthur is a Pratt! He's so stuck up and such and such a royal brat!" The group came to a halt at the song, their eyes going wide as the raspy voice continued: "He makes me clean his room! Scrub and mop the floor! Wash all his clothes till my fingers are red and sore!"

"Arthur, wait!" Galahad called. But the prince was gone, running in the direction the song was coming from.

The tune was something Arthur had caught Merlin singing to himself as he did his chores. Only those who lived in the castle knew about it. The singer was, obviously, not Merlin but an old beggar women, standing near an old stall.

"Miss, where did you here that song?" Arthur asked.

The beggar smiled. "Merlin teach to me. Say give message to blonde haired boy who recognizes it." The women cleared her throat: "Arthur, if you are hearing this then my attempt to escape from Basil has failed, and despite his insistence, you have come for me. I pray that you, Gwen and the others are fine. I am not hurt. Basil plans on making me his concubine and is traveling to Namair through the ebony road, a desert rout that will take three weeks. Please, be careful and hurry. Your's always: Merlin. P.S. please reward the women who gave you this message."

Arthur took out his coin pouch and gave it all to the beggar.

"Thank you!" She grinned, as Arthur hurried away.

"Arthur where are you-"

"Camels!" The prince called over his shoulder. "They are taking the ebony rout through the desert."

The group had no choice but to follow the prince, none of them noticing the one eyed boy who'd been listening to the whole conversation and now ran to tell his master.