The moon climbed up on the sky and was right above them and the transformation started. It was both terrifying and fascinating. A few seconds later the bastet stood in front of him, growling lowly from the throat. When he changed to a more comfortable position it twisted its head towards him and fixed him with its yellow eyes and the growling rose to a roaring.

"It's okay, it's me, Merlin," he said soothingly with his arms stretched out. Uncertainly the bastet stepped closer and sniffed on his finger and then pressed its head into his palm, just like an ordinary cat does. He laughed and scratched it behind its ear and it started humming and it took Merlin several moments to realize it was purring, but because of its size it was much deeper and louder than a cat's purr.

"The necklace seems to work," Merlin commented, feeling a little proud over himself. He wandered what Gaius would say if he knew he had managed to create a magical amulet. Probably he would call Merlin mad for taking such risks, dealing with such powerful magic. They had talked a little about magical amulets and how they were created after the visit of the witch hunter Aredian and when Morgause had given that bracelet to Morgana that had stopped her nightmares. Gaius had warned him about trying to create magic amulets, because if created the wrong way, the results could end up devastating.

The bastet fluttered impatiently with her wings.

"It's okay, you can take a fly if you want," Merlin smiled. "I'll wait here until you come back,"

The basted roared gratefully and with a few powerful hit with its wings it was up in the air. It looked so happy and free as it flew around there, its roar filling the air. He watched as it flew in loops, made narrow dives only to shoot up like an arrow again, just before hitting the ground, and chasing a flock of screeching bats. Merlin wasn't particularly worried if it flew out of his sight. It was big and could defend itself and he knew Freya wouldn't leave him.

When time was up the basted landed and transformed back to Freya. She had the brightest smile he had ever seen pasted on her face and she literally flung into his arms kissing him all over the face.

"That was the one most amazing thing I ever done. I've never felt so free in my whole life! You should have seen the view. The world never seemed to have an end and everything looked so tiny underneath me. Oh Merlin thank you so much!" She was so happy that she cried and laughed at the same time and Merlin found that incredibly cute and her laugh was so contagious he couldn't stop himself from laughing too. He hugged her tightly and kissed her back, her lips salty from her tears and also a hint of iron taste from blood; she must have caught some bats or birds while flying around.

"You have done so much for me, how can I ever return it to you?"

"Seeing you so happy is more than enough," he said and kissed her again.

"Could we maybe go to Ealdor now?" she smiled shyly. "It's a bit cold."

"Oh yes, of course!" he quickly rewrapped his jacket around her. She had taken it off during the transformation and then he also wrapped a blanket around her.

"It's not that cold," she giggled but tucked the blanket tighter around her body. He quickly gathered their things and then they mounted the horse and trotted the way down to Ealdor.

The village was as Merlin had said, empty. Everyone was inside sleeping, but here and there a cat passed their way. They dismounted outside Hunith's house and Merlin tied the horse at the inside of the fence. He unsaddled the mare and laid down saddle and bags on the ground beside her. No one was going to steal it anyway. All the villagers here knew each other and stealing never passed anyone's mind. They stuck together, which meant helping each other, not stealing. Carefully he opened the door and Freya nervously clasped his hand in hers.

"Who's there?" a voice whispered sharply as he closed the door behind them.

"Mother?" Merlin whispered at the same time as something hit him at the back of his head, not very hard and the thing didn't feel hard either, behind him Freya gasped and dug her fingers in his arm. "Mother, it's us,"

"Merlin?" Hunith quickly lit some candles and light filled the room. In one of her hands she held a long loaf of bread.

"You're hitting me with bread?" he chuckled. "Not very effective if we would have been burglars, would it?"

She looked down at the bread and with a blush she laid it down on the table. "I grabbed the first thing, hoping it would be something heavier," she explained. "And what's going on? I've been so worried! Arthur was here this afternoon searching for you, claiming that you were with a druid girl, and when I heard noises outside, I thought…" then she noticed Freya hiding behind Merlin.

"Mother, this is Freya," he took a step aside so Hunith could see her better and gently put a hand on the druid's back, just between her shoulder blades. She looked a split second on Hunith before looking down her hands that where now playing with some fringes on the blanket that she still wore around her shoulder.

"Hi there," Hunith smiled warmly, "I'm Hunith, Merlin's mother and I don't have a habit hitting my son, but he doesn't have the habit stamping inside in the middle of the night either," she gave Merlin another look, saying that she knew something had happened and wanted to know exactly why Arthur was looking for them and why Freya was with him in the first place.

"Come and sit and tell what have happened. I'll make you some tea." Merlin led Freya to the kitchen table and sat her down at the sofa. She nudged his shirt arm as to say that she wanted him to sit next to her, which he already was about to do. Curiously she looked around while Merlin lit some more candles on the table and he felt she started to relax a little again, but was still a little tense.

"Are you hungry?" Hunith asked when she placed three cups of tea on the table. Merlin looked at Freya and she shook her head. "No, we're fine," he said. So she sat down at the chair opposite to them. She regarded them for a moment with a little smile. Freya had snuggled up against Merlin with her tea in her hands.

"It's nice to see you again, and to meet you too Freya," Freya looked suspiciously up by the sound of her name but dared to smile shyly back at Hunith. Then she yawned and snuggled up tighter against Merlin. Her hair tickled him on his chin.

"Want to tell me what happened? It scared the wits out of me when Arthur came here with what looked like half of all knights of Camelot and looked here for you. He never said what the problem was, just that you had freed a druid girl he claimed being dangerous."

"Freya isn't dangerous, they just thinks she is, because she's a druid," Merlin thought it was better to not tell about Freya's curse, for everyone's sake and he thought it would be a little too much information for his mother at the moment, but in other circumstances he knew she would have taken in pretty well, "It started a few days ago, when some kind of hunter came to Camelot with a cage and Freya was in it. Gaius explained that Uther is paying men for capturing druids," he cast an uncertain glance at Freya, but she had fallen asleep.

"Come, I'll help you put her to bed, poor girl is exhausted."

"It's been a long day," Merlin said.

In silence they put Freya to bed and made sure she was comfortable enough and retreated to the kitchen table. Without any more wait he picked up from where the conversation was interrupted. "So Uther pays men to capture druids and God knows what he does to them. He probably tortures them until they tell him about the druids' hidings and then kill them, and I couldn't let him do that to Freya..."

"And you saved her even if you knew the trouble you would be in if you got caught." Hunith said with warmth and proudness in her voice. "You have always had a good heart,"

"She's innocent, she hasn't done anything wrong. I can't just sit and do nothing while Uther does all these things against her."

Hunith tilted her head. "But that's not the only reason you rescued her?"

Merlin hesitated, "It could have been me, in there, in that cage. Terrified with no idea on what was going on. And…" he hesitated again, casting a look towards where Freya was sleeping.

"You like her," Hunith said with a warm smile. She didn't seem angry at all that her son might end up with a druid. He himself had magic after all. And people in small villages, like Ealdor, had never shared the point of view on magic that most people in Camelot have. They didn't see magic as something evil, but nor did they see it as something good. Because they couldn't fully understand it they were therefore a little suspicious against it.

"It took time to gain her trust," he confessed.

"She seems to trust you now."

"A little at least, I don't know if she trusts me fully yet. But then, I don't know exactly what happened to her before Halig arrived at Camelot, but I doubt it was very luxurious and her suspiciousness is nothing but understandable."

"She's lucky to have you," Hunith said which made Merlin blush a little, followed by silence, so he decided to continue the story. "Things went for the situation pretty smooth, but Halig was suspicious and he actually got very close on our heels. I was lucky to have Arthur to save me from him, but," he stopped for a split second, not sure if he should mention Freya's curse, but decided it was better not to, "things escalated and Freya got wounded. It's okay, She's fine now I healed her," he said at the shocked expression on his mother's face, "and we fled Camelot with Arthur and his men after us and it took some time to shake them off, we would have been here earlier if it wasn't for that."

"How did you get rid of them?" When Merlin didn't answer, Hunith sighed. "Where are you going now? Uther would want both your heads and it's too risky to stay here. Ealdor is too close to Camelot. You shouldn't even have come here in the first place. Arthur could be waiting for you to come here and catch you when you're far enough away from here,"

"I'm not sure yet. I think we'll follow the boundaries for a while until we're enough far away from Camelot. We'll leave directly after breakfast tomorrow, and euhm…. But the reason we stopped by, Freya needs clothes. It wasn't enough time to get her proper ones back at Camelot and we couldn't risk stopping and steal something anywhere else."

"No of course. And I think I might have something that will suit her. Is it anything else you need?"

"Thanks, I don't think so. We have food for a couple of days more, so we should be fine."

"You should get some sleep too. You look like you haven't slept for days,"

Merlin nodded and gave his mother a goodnight hug and went to creep down underneath his blankets next to Freya. In silence he regarded her sleeping. She looked more peaceful than he had ever seen her. He blew out the candle he had brought with him and made himself comfortable and closed his eyes. Since he was exhausted in both mind and body sleep came quickly and he slept dreamlessly through the rest of the night.


A/N: So here's chapter 4, a little happier than last chapter. And I have to admit, this fic is not going to be 4 chapters as I had said in the beginning. it's going to be 6 chapters, the last one will be sort of a short epiloge. I don't know if I'll publish both at the same time or stick with the one chapter a day.