Chapter 4

The group decides to stay the night in their cave after finding no signs of Wilddeoren. Arthur agrees to take the first watch and let his men get the rest they need. Arthur knew he wasn't going to be able to sleep that night no matter what he did. His mind was racing with thoughts of magic.

Leon was the least likely to be using magic in Arthur's mind. Leon had been a knight for many years and was loyal to both Uther and Arthur. Leon had always showed compassion but never had broken the law. He never argued with Uther when he would have magic users put to death. Leon was a good man as far as Arthur was concerned and he felt there was no way he could be using magic.

Gwaine was Arthur's next consideration. He didn't like to talk about his past much to Arthur or his other knights. No one knew for sure where Gwaine was from or who his family was. Could he be hiding the fact he comes from a magic family? The more Arthur thought of it the more he wondered about Gwaines past. Of course, if Gwaine did have magic, he probably would have said something one of the many times the pulled him out of a tavern. When Gwaine was drinking he would say or do anything to impress the girls around. Arthur was sure if he had magic he would have probably slipped up and shown off. Gwaine was a show off after all with the ladies and with fighting. In fact he often got lucky in a fight and won many competitions. Was he using magic in his fights to win?

That made Arthur think about Percival. Arthur realized he knew next to nothing about the gentle giant of a man. He knew the Cenred had attacked Percival's village and killed his family but that was all. Percival had always been loyal to Arthur and didn't think twice about fighting Morgana to win back Camelot. He had no fear when going against an immortal army, was that because he had magic on his side? Arthur didn't want to believe that, Percival seemed to distrust magic users. The few occasions that they had encountered sorcery since Percival became a knight he seemed to be weary of the person. Would he be so if he had his own magic? Or was he scared that he would be exposed? Arthur did not want to believe that someone that would stand up for him in his hour of need would break Camelot's laws in such a way. Then again Percival wasn't from Camelot.

Merlin wasn't from Camelot either, Arthur thought. A lot of strange things began to happen after Merlin arrived to Camelot. The number of magic attacks on the kingdom seemed to skyrocket after Merlin's arrival. Was Merlin somehow involved with all the magical attacks on Camelot? Arthur notice Merlin had a soft spot for druids and he always seemed to disapprove of the execution of magic users. Merlin had been very distracted during the battle though, he was useless with a sword and was having to hold off a skilled fighter. There was no way in Arthur's mind that Merlin could have fought off an attacker and used magic to protect Arthur. Merlin wouldn't have had the time to use the magic that Arthur had seen. He wasn't smart enough to use magic either. Merlin was a complete idiot … except when he wasn't. Arthur remember all those times Merlin gave him advice and almost seemed wise. Could Merlin be smarter then he lets on?

Arthur didn't know what he was going to do. The only person he was sure didn't have magic was Leon. But then if any of the other three was able to hide magic from him for this long who is to say that Leon couldn't as well. The more Arthur tried to think about it the more worried and paranoid he became. Could he trust any of the men he had hand chosen to become knight? Perhaps his father was right about allowing commoners to be knights of Camelot, their loyalty could be divided. Arthur eventually came to the decision that he could not worry about this now. He had to stay focused on the quest. He would put it out of his mind until they had returned home, then he would question his men.

In the morning the group got ready to head out again. Merlin was sure that he could find the way to a different cave opening then the one they came in it. He has something about growing up around caves and knowing what to look for. To be honest Arthur wasn't paying attention but the others seemed to trust him so off they went with Merlin leading the way, Arthur just knew this was a bad idea. After hours of walking Arthur was positive that this had been a bad idea and that Merlin had gotten them lost.

"Merlin, do you have any idea where you are even heading?" Arthur was frustrated with his manservant.

"Yes, it's this way" Merlin started to head one way then stopped "no, this way" he turned and walked the other was, holding his torch above his head "no…"

Arthur felt like he was going to strangle the young man "Well, which way is it!"

Right after Arthur yelled at Merlin a light breeze came thru the cave, visible in the movement of the flames on the torches. "This way" Merlin said with more confidence and headed the way the wind had come from.

Merlin had been right this time, thankfully, and after a few more minutes they were out of the cave in sunlight again. They came out miles from the fight before which was good, it meant that it was be difficult to track them down. They could see the treetops of the forest in front of them, it was still almost a half day's walk to get to the edge of the forest. They started heading into the direction, still on high alert for another attack. It was dark before they were to the forest but they continued on, feeling getting to the forest edge would be a safer place to make camp then out in the open. It was the night of a full moon so they had plenty of light to guide them it was just very cold.

The moon was high in the sky when they reached the edge of the forest. Merlin quickly got some firewood and they all gathered around the warmth. None of them had intended to fall asleep but once they had warmed up they all dosed off with no one keeping watch.

They got lucky and no one attacked them during the night. Arthur was the first one to wake up and he was surprised by what he found in camp. Curled up by the now dead fire was a little boy. The child could not have been more than five or six years old. The clothes he wore looked very thin and he must be cold. Arthur check to make sure the boy was still alive but didn't wake him. He then woke Merlin and had him go get more wood to restart the fire. He covered the boy with his and Merlin's blankets and woke the other three men. No one wanted to bother the sleeping boy. Percival and Gwaine went in search of something to eat while Merlin started a fire. They only woke the boy after they had some fish from a nearby stream cooked up. They had also found a few remaining berries that were still good to eat.

The boy jumped away from them when he woke up, looking terrified. He had a mop of blond hair and green eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean … please don't hurt me"

"We won't hurt you" Leon explained, getting down on the boys level, trying to not look intimidating. "We just wanted to know if you were hungry." He smiled and held out a cooked fish to the child. It seemed to do the trick as the boy relaxed and took the fish slowly, taking a small bite.

"Thank you so much. I was just so cold and I saw the fire and I was cold." The kid tried to explain.

"We understand. Where is your family?" Leon asked

"I got lost. We live on the other side of the trees but I'm scared to go myself"

Arthur knew of the village the boy was talking about, it was only a few hours walk from the other side of the forest. They talked with the boy as they ate their breakfast. The boy's name was James and he had been out picking berries with his father when he got lost and scared. He had heard that "the trees make people go away and not come back" and didn't want that to happen to him. All the knights vowed that they would help James get back to his family safely. Merlin didn't seem too sure about this however and pulled Arthur to the side to talk to him.

"What if this is a trap?" He questioned "Sarrum caught Morgana somehow and she is a very powerful sorceress. She has a weak spot for children, what if this is how Sarrum did it?"

"Merlin, really, this is just a little boy who is lost." Arthur brushed off his worry.

"Then how did he trap Morgana?"

"He has many strong men, we almost had her captured with just a handful of men. He could have used a whole army." Arthur didn't really care how it had happened, he was just glad Morgana was locked up.

"Arthur, please I have a bad feeling about this …"

"Oh shut up Merlin. He is just a young child what harm could he possibly do?" Arthur didn't know at that moment just how right Merlin was, but then again Merlin usually was about these things.