Loosing control

Merlin stood in the entrance to the tent, she was shaking from the effort of standing, her broken arm was aching with a burning pain, her face was stinging and painful and it hurt to breath. She had dulled the pain a bit with her magic and worked a little bit of healing on her broken bone - not enough to be suspicious, but enough to help it heal back into the right place. But she still felt exhausted and aching from the beating and lack of food or water. Khal was sitting at the table in the centre of the tent, it had been laid out with plates and dishes of delicious smelling food. The smell of roasted meat was strong enough to make Merlin's stomach growl, she felt light headed with it all.

"Come, sit down." Khal said with a smile that must have meant to have been welcoming, but just looked sinister coming from him. "You must be hungry." he motioned to the low chair opposite him, she hesitated for a moment before deciding that she would be less likely to collapse or shake if she was sat, that and the fact that her legs were really sore. Merlin lowered herself onto the chair, trying to sit straight backed and maintain her icy cool façade - it helped her feel more in control, even though she really wasn't.

"Eat, little bird, you're practically skin and bones." Khal pushed a plate of charred meat towards her, it smelt good despite the amount of fat and the fact that it was a bit burnt. Her mouth watered as she eyed it, but her better instincts stopped her from reaching out and devouring it instantly like she wanted to. "You think I want to poison you?" Khal asked with a chuckle. "If I wanted to kill you little bird I wouldn't poison you - I'd beat you to death with my bare hands or perhaps run you through with my sword, maybe string you up from a tree. But not poison, that's a noble's weapon - for cowards like your prince." Merlin stared up at him in worry, but he smiled and leaned back in his chair, sipping from his wine goblet.

Merlin tentatively picked up a piece of meat, sniffing it before eating, the taste was so good that she grabbed another piece and another, quickly the plate was empty. Merlin chewed and swallowed the last piece before saying. "If poison is a noble's weapon then, what does that make you? You attack innocent people on the road and spring traps on men like Arthur who are just trying to save those people. Surely that makes you worse than them?"

Khal`s smile vanished, replaced by a look of frustration and irritation. "I only attacked those people to draw out your prince, he is renound for his idiotic love of dangerous quests and helping those in danger. And I don't think that its your place to question my actions or motives, little bird."

"Why? Don't like having to justify yourself?" Merlin asked heatedly, she hated it when people suffered needlessly and from the reports she had heard from Arthur and the other knights, this bandit clan was responsible for more than thirty deaths and had raided from at least ten caravans. She rose to her feet, shaking with anger.

"You claim that you're not a coward, but you kill innocent people and abuse those in your care - even though Arthur is your ransom, you still decided to beat him to a pulp! You're nothing but a coward!" Merlin stood, staring daggers at Khal, all traces of humour had gone from his face now, replaced by a blank, flat, scary look as he too rose to his full and considerable height.

"Little bird, I told you not to aggravate me, I don't care about the little agreement I made with your prince anymore, I think that he should thank me later for teaching you some respect." Khal reached over the table and grabbed Merlin by the throat, she gagged and tried to pull herself out of his grip, but he dragged her over the top of the table, sending plates and cups crashing to the ground. Khal threw her across the tent as if she weighed nothing, she flew, crashing into the bed frame, knocking all of the air out of her lungs. Khal grabbed her by the throat again, shaking her, she glanced looking for something to levitate at him, her eyes fixed on one of the fallen goblets, in a flash of golden irises the goblet struck the back of Khal`s head.

The bandit leader cursed, clutching at his head and staggered away from her, Merlin took the opportunity to leap to her feet and try to dodge towards the exit. She was nearly there but then a hand grabbed hold of her neckerchief, pulling her to a choking halt, Khal growled and used his leverage to drag her back. Merlin was thrown back onto the bed and despite however much she fought, he was just so much stronger than she was - she wasn't strong enough. Panic flooded through her as Khal pulled at her breeches, trying to work them off her hips. "Stop!" she cried, her brain numb with fear.

Khal chuckled nastily and pulled down her breeches, exposing her underclothes and the skinny expanse of her pale legs. "Get off me!" she screamed, his hands were all over her, pushing up and under her shirt, fondling and defiling her skin. She did not want this, she did not want this! Khal was pulling down his own trousers now, she knew what was coming and she did not want this! Khal began to pull at her underclothes. "STOP!" And suddenly Merlin was strong enough to fight him off, she pushed at his chest, her eyes glowed golden and Khal went flying back with a loud crash into the table.

Merlin could feel her magic boiling underneath her sweaty skin, begging to be released, she stood, eyes blazing gold, raven hair floating in the sheer power of the aura of her magic. The young witch tried desperately to fight her magic, she was scared that she would do something that even she wouldn't be able to explain her way out of. Merlin didn't think there would be any possible excuse that she could come up with for killing Khal and possibly burning down the bandit camp single handily - not even Arthur was that stupid.

Her magic was too volatile anyway, she could end up hurting Arthur and that was something she knew that she could never allow to happen. She wasn't well trained enough, she knew it, either spells didn't work, they worked too much or things happened that she didn't mean to. Merlin scrunched up her eyes, trying to force the magic back into submission, she clutched her head. But then all choice was taken out of her hands when something heavy hit the back of her head and she collapsed.

Thank you for all the great reviews guys! I hope you`re enjoying this fanfic, i have others too, i`m very mean to Merlin but at the end of this one is a bit of Merthur slushy happy bits! Thank you especeiall to Natalia Sunny! I hope that i took on your advice well!