Hey everybody! I'm so excited about all the positive reviews I've been getting! I'm so glad you all like the story. For all of you who have been waiting to here some of Merlin's backstory and his time as Wolf well the wait is over! The first part of this chapter is a memory of the past. Anytime you see a bunch of paragraphs in italics in future chapters that will be Merlin's memories! This chapter was fun to write(especially the torture) and I hope you like it as much as I did!

Merlin's POV (age nine):

The summer I turned nine was unusually hot. The air was sticky and wet and I felt as if I was being boiled alive.

Not far outside of Ealdor there was a small lake that the young children would flock to to escape the heat. They would swim and play all sorts of water games or sit in the shade of the large trees that surrounded the lake. All in all it was an oasis.

It was on a particularly scolding day that summer that my life would take a terrible turn for the worst. I had just gotten out of the water and I had walked over to my best friend Will. We had a small lunch of bread and more bread. Everything had been going fine all the kids from the village were there.

Suddenly there was a bone-chilling roar coming from the thick woods and all the kids bolted out of the water and started running back towards the village. I was running too but I hadn't gotten far when I tripped over a root and fell hard on the ground. Will hadn't noticed my fall and continued running. I tried to get up but my ankle had twisted. I heard a growl from behind me. Whatever had been in the woods was maybe feet from me now coming in for the kill.

I turned to look into the face of a large lizard-like creature with horns and two tails. Instinctively my magic reacted and threw the creature back. I could see a small dagger a few feet away, I recognized it and knew it belonged to a boy name Charlie who was fourteen and liked to go hunting with his father. He must have dropped it when he ran, I thought.

Again my magic coiled ready to attack. It used the dagger as its weapon this time and it flew through the air, piecing the creature's body and went straight through the other side. It gave a painful agonizing cry and then fell down dead.

"Well, well," said a voice from behind me, "look what we've got here, Alex. The kid's a sorcerer, and a good one at that!"

I turned to see two men in armor watching me from the edge of the clearing. The man who had spoken had leathery skin like he'd spent too long in the sun and a disarray of grey hair on top of his head. The other man, Alex, was ordinary in every way. Forgettable in any crowd.

"We should take him with us," Alex said, "Jal will want him."

The leathery man laughed cruelly. "I know that," he said, "Poor boy!"

Alex looked at him. I wanted to ask them who they were and tell them that there was no way they were taking me anywhere but it's like I was frozen. I was more afraid now than when I had been facing the creature. Alex muttered a few guttery words in a foreign language that sounded vaguely familiar and his eyes turned gold. The last thing I remembered was the wicked laughter of an aging lizard-man before the world turned dark.

When I woke up I was in a large cage. I wasn't alone there were three other children there; all of them older. The forest was unfamiliar around me. Wherever we were it was nowhere near Ealdor.

"Where are we? Where are you taking us?" I asked Alex, who was closest to me.

"Quiet boy, speak only when spoken to," he snarled.

"No! Take me back!" I yelled right back.

"If he won't cooperate then put him back to sleep, Alex," leather-man said.

"Yeah, yeah, fine Calder," Alex said and muttered some more guttered words.

The next time that I woke I found us riding up to a sinister fortress. The manacles on my wrists dug in painfully and cut my skin. The cage was opened a minute later and the four of us where dragged inside and led to a throne room.

"Well what do we have here?" the man in the throne asked.

"We found this lot on our way back from Mercia," Alex said. "The girl's a seer. These two boys don't have any magic. And this one here defeated a Bynrwn with his powers. He's strong but untrained."

"Well, well," the man said, "Bynrwn's aren't easy to kill. You may turn out to be very useful. Tell me, what sorts of magic have you been studying?"

"I haven't studied, not really, I was born this way," I told him.

I could smell death and darkness in the air and it made me afraid. I really just wanted to go home.

"How interesting," he said. "Well welcome to your new home-"

"No! This isn't my home, Ealdor is my home and I really want to go back now!" I screeched.

"Well this one's got a spirit on him," he said. "We know how to break spirits around here. Alex, take him to the dungeon and do with him whatever you want. Don't stop until he agrees to the enslavement spell."

Arthur's POV:

We rode west without stopping for the rest of the day. By the time night fell we were at the base of a small mountain. On the other side were the mercenary lands. In all my years as a warrior I had never willingly enter such a dangerous place with so many dangerous people. I was worried about what we would find and what trouble Merlin had gotten himself into.

You better be alright you idiot, I silently thought as if he could hear me.

"Sire, should we stop and rest for the evening or keep going?" Leon asked.

I looked around at my most faithful knights and noticed how exhausted they were from riding all day. Except for Gawain who looked more worried that tired.

"We should rest," I decided, "We might not have time once we're in the mercenary lands and we want to keep our wits about us if we want to rescue Merlin."

They nodded and began to set up the camp. Soon we had a roaring fire and a couple of rabbits cooking on a spit. Usually when we were out on a quest or on patrol the camp would be filled with laughter and the atmosphere would be light. Tonight we were somber and the deafening silence was a constant reminder of who we were missing. If Merlin were here and saw our melancholy he'd be able to lighten the mood just with a goofy smile and a snarky comment or just tripping on air. It's like Merlin emitted an endless supply of happiness for all to have. Like it was his life goal to make everyone smile. Without him the world was just too dark.

"Arthur, he's going to be alright," Leon said, "he always is. The boy has the luck of the devil, you'll see. When we find him he's going to be perfectly alright and then he's going to laugh at you because you were so worried."

I smiled. It certainly seemed like something he'd make fun of.

"I hope so," I said. I was quiet a moment before realizing there was nothing more I could say, nothing any of us could say, to make us feel better. The only person who'd ever had a talent for that was Merlin. I sigh and turned in for the night. A few minutes later and the knight's did the same.

Merlin's POV:

I was dragged through the dungeon to a large room at the back. The Torture Room was the same as ever: sharp tools were carefully spread out on a table, shackles lined the walls, and the smell of despair perfumed the air. I was thrown hard against the cold stone floor, Hawk and the bear-man loomed above me.

For the first part of the evening I was brutally beaten by both of them. Hawk, especially, seem to attack me with a ferocious enthusiasm, his fist landing on any body part he could reach with violent force.

"Do you remember, old friend, the last time we were in this room together?" he asked with a manic glee. "I was seven, and you were what? Twelve? Tell me do you remember all the pain you caused me? Do you remember how I begged you to stop?"

He paused as if expecting an answer and when I refused to answer he screeched and punched me in the face.

"Wipe that pitying look off your face!" he screamed. "You don't get to pity me! I am in control this time! And I will make you beg for death, just like you made me! I will take away any hope you ever had!"

"Henry," I croaked. It was the name he had first come here with before he had been forced into Jal's service. The name he gave up the day he killed his first man.

"Don't you call me that!" he screamed. "You don't get to call me that!"

He hauled me off the floor and with the help of the bear-man took off my shirt to reveal my bruised and battered body and chained me to the wall facing away from him. I heard him grab something off the table. Seconds later I felt the whip tear open the flesh on my back. My body shook slightly at the sudden stinging assault but I refused to cry out. I had promised myself long ago, after I'd gone on my first mission and killed for the first time that I would never cry again. Tears would do no good anyway. No I would not cry, I was Wolf the greatest mercenary that Jal had ever trained, made to never feel pain. I was Emrys, greatest sorcerer that has ever or will ever live with a destiny that had been written since the dawn of time. The future of five kingdoms rested on me and I was not about to be broken by a psychotic boy with a grudge. So I did not cry, beg for mercy, or show any weakness and as the night dragged on he got angrier and tried to dig the whip deeper into my body as if he hoped to see bone.

I blacked out a few times, when the pain was too great. Hawk was screaming in frustration. I felt bad for him. I even understood why he was being so brutal. I remembered the day he was brought here.

They didn't have time to break him right away, Jal and his men had just been hired for a big job that would require a large group of seasoned mercenaries so we were short staffed. They brought him to the barracks where I was living. He was a small boy, for his age, grey eyes, and a kind smile. He was afraid to talk to anyone in the barracks; most of the kids there were a lot older than him. But for some reason he opened up to me. We became instant friends and spent the rest of the day together. At dinner I even gave him my food because where he had come from it didn't look like he'd gotten enough to eat. It was a small gesture, but the boy wasn't use to people being kind to him, and I supposed it earned me his trust. It wouldn't be long after that I proved unworthy of it.

In fact, it had been one week later. Jal found me on the training grounds and took me down to the dungeon, which I hadn't been in since the night I had been brought to Jal, and found Hawk tied up on the floor. It seems there was another part of my training I had to complete. Beat him, Jal had demanded. When I refused he ordered me to and the dark magic within me pushed me forward. That day I learned how to torture a man to the brink of insanity. That day I destroyed the life of a seven year old boy, my first friend in that hellhole. And I never forgave myself.

"Why won't you scream?" he shrieked, his insanity ringing out. "What is wrong with you? You think you're tough, don't you? You thought you were invincible? Well, you're not!"

He came towards me and hit me hard over the fresh whip wounds.

"You know everyone use to idolize you," he said. "They whispered your name with reverence! They feared you almost as much as they feared Jal!"

Another harsh blow to my back.

"Well who's afraid of the big bad Wolf now?" he screamed.

The room was silent for a while.

"I hate you, you know," he said, "For forcing me into this nightmare. For being Jal's favorite, even after you left him you were still the only one he talked about. You were the one he compared the rest of us to, and he hated us for not being as good as you."

"Henry-"

"Don't call me that," he barked. "Henry doesn't exist anymore, Henry is dead!"

"I'm sorry," I finished quietly.

"That isn't good enough," he said, his anger rising once more. "It will never be good enough! You were the only person I ever trusted and you betrayed me!"

"I didn't mean to-"

"Oh you didn't mean to?" he said, disbelief in his voice. "That is the biggest fucking lie I ever heard. If you didn't mean it then why didn't you stop beating me after Jal said you could stop?"

Silence. That was all I could give. Because he was right, I should have stopped. God why didn't I stop? I asked myself. I had hated myself that day, and the feeling of self-loathing stayed long after that. Why I didn't stop I don't remember. Maybe I had been so focused at that moment that I didn't hear Jal say I could stop. Or maybe I had been so tired of it all that for once I just wanted to force my pain on someone else. Regardless of the reason, this innocent boy had paid the price. What he became was my fault.

Hawk apparently couldn't stand to be in the same room with me anymore. He left taking the bear with him.