Ok, so I told you I would update really soon when I revised the last chapter, this one's a bit of a filler really but I kept my promise. This is about five minutes later...

Enjoy :)


Howard couldn't take it anymore! He had come to Camelot in the hope of finding some work and had been beside himself when he got a place working within the royal household as a servant to the newly appointed Sir Gwaine.

He granted himself lucky not just in getting the job but in whom his master was. He had heard horror stories from other servants about some of the courtiers and the king's servant always looked dead on his feet (even if he was the only one to not seriously complain). Sir Gwaine treated him more like a friend, inviting him to the tavern, forcing him to eat enough, not punishing him if something goes wrong and inviting him to the tavern, amongst other things. "Alright Howard?" – "Let me take some of that for you" – "I've told you to cut all that my lord crap; it's Gwaine. I'm not the princess… I mean the queen."

All going great until he realised that this meant he had to go on the hunts with the knights and…

The king.

Sir Gwaine was one of King Arthur's closest friends. Meaning that all the hunting trips and all the quests that the king chose to partake in, Sir Gwaine also had to.

And when King Arthur hunted/quested/did anything that involved leaving Camelot something bad happened.

It was the unwritten rule.

Bandits, bandits, bandits, mercenaries, bandits, bandits, bandits, Morgana and some more bandits to name a few things they have faced.

He could just about put up with it though. He was never the only servant there, the king's servant Merlin was always there. Even when he was ill but Howard really didn't want to think about that time, it wasn't pretty.

He was alight though, obviously the knight's favourite but Howard didn't hold that against him. He had been amongst the group that had reclaimed Camelot after all. It was a wonder he wasn't a knight himself, he had saved the king enough times. But then again he was useless with a sword.

But he was good company and his banter with his master was always entertaining.

He had put up with all that but now! Now he was almost being accused of sorcery. He knew that out of the two of them there was no way anyone but the rather unobservant Sir Kay would dare suggest that it could be Merlin.

In short: He was screwed.

And he couldn't believe the king didn't even know his name! He'd spent enough time with him…

Either way he'd had enough. He was leaving to go back to his village, it wasn't in Camelot so once he was there they couldn't do anything.

The disturbing thing was that one of them was undeniably a sorcerer.

Howard thought he would have noticed had it been him…. But the only other person was-

No. Morgana and that druid were probably just lying, that's what sorcerers do after all.

He shook his head and continued to pack his bag. He hated leaving Merlin in the lurch like this but he couldn't stay here he just – couldn't.

Merlin sighed when he heard the news. Howard had run.

Arthur would never have suspected Merlin anyway but now he had the 'he ran so he's guilty' excuse so Howard (not that Arthur knew his name, still) would take the blame.

Also, Merlin realised with a jolt, Howard would know that he himself wasn't a sorcerer and would work out who it really was.

Great.