AN: Chapter 10! Woohoo! tbh, these chapters are coming rather quickly. though watch, uhghh, now that i've said that, it'll take me weeks to finish the next chapter. oh also! KYHD (Keep Your Head Down) (my other currently updating story) is going on unofficial hiatus, due to a bit of writers block/need to research and outside forces working against me. This story though will continue onwards!

Also! this chapter has Merlin and Arthur's first bits of actual interaction! they still don't exactly know each other though, but hopefully this won't seem too OOC. Hope you all like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin

Enjoy!

Arthur felt as if someone was poking him, sharply, in the temple. He grumbled and ran a hand through his hair, ignoring the pain in his head and trying to focus on path forward as the hill they sought out loomed ever closer. The ground, surprisingly, did seem to vibrate and increase in intensity the closer they were, and it was causing the horses to become jumpy and nervous. Not to mention it was causing the people to become jumpy and nervous as well. Aredian just looked smug the more the ground beneath their feet shifted around, Pellinore was pale but stoic, Leon looked extremely worried, and Hunith - wrists tied and rope attached to the back of Pellinore's saddle - looked as if she were walking to her own death. Arthur had no idea what expression was on his face, but - another jab jolted through his forehead - he imagined it might be one of pain. His collapse in the tent had left him with a pounding headache and the sensation of being pulled, as if his entire body was wrapped with rope that was being strained in the direction of the shaking hill. Arthur had caught himself swaying in his saddle on Hengroen's back many a time due to the disorienting feeling, and each time he tightened his grip upon the reigns in attempts to keep himself grounded.

After a while of riding with his head pounding though, Arthur was fed up. Unaware of Leon's concerned looks that would flicker to him ever so often, he mentally pushed and worked against the pain, however ridiculous or fruitless that action might be. The prodding, however, retreated almost instantly. Feeling as if he had just climbed up a cliff face and pulled himself over, Arthur allowed his grip on the reins to slacken slightly, and breathed a sigh of relief at the sudden cool emptiness behind his eyes.

"HHhhHhhhhhello?"

The whisper was haunting and emerged slowly as if it were trying not to startle Arthur, sounding like an echo of many voices all crowded into a hollow place, and Arthur blinked into the forest around him. None of the others in his troop had seemed to have heard the voice, all of them continuing on toward the hill with their gazes directed forward. Falling silent, Arthur listened in case he had simply been imagining things, and for awhile, the only sounds he heard were the heavy clop of horse hooves and the metallic clang of Aredian's cage.

Then, the voice spoke again, and this time Arthur was able to pinpoint its origin. "Whhhho are you?"

As frightened as he should have been at the prospect of a voice inside his head that wasn't his own - the entire thing just screamed of sorcery - Arthur fought back the rising fear that would surely overwhelm him, straightened his back, and experimentally pushed against the voice. It would do no good for him to become panicked and frightened with apparently no source. Perhaps he was just imagining it, and it was just a product of his headache. But no, he thought, remembering the odd moment in the tent, he likely was not just imagining it. He pressed harder against the presence.

"HHhey!" The voice squawked, "Stop! Don't be afraid, ok? I just wanna talk."

Arthur's face twisted into a frown - Leon watched worriedly as his prince made faces at the air, Pellinore now having taken notice as well - and he released the pressure that he had been holding onto in his mind.

"Thank you. Now, are you going to tell me your name, or are you just going to keep being rude and not tell me?"

Arthur didn't respond, and instead stared directly ahead. The hill was closer now, the ground shaking a ridiculous amount. It was obviously the product of magic, as was the voice in his head, and so nothing good could come from either. Though the voice seemed to sound oddly familiar - as if from a dream - thankfully, Arthur had been told enough times by his father of the evils of magic to not trust it so easily.

"C'mon, stop being such a prat and talk to me!"

Arthur's patience and hold on his anxiousness that had been steadily building broke, and before he knew what he was doing, he accidentally disregarded nearly half of his father's teachings, and responded to the voice in an angry tone, "I'm not a prat!"

"He speaks!" The echoing voice crowed triumphantly, and Arthur's face went red. "You know, you sound young to be a knight of Camelot."

"I'm eighteen summers." Arthur hissed mentally back. He was having a conversation with a voice in his head, nothing strange there. Not at all. "And I don't have to answer to you! I shouldn't be talking to you at all!" Arthur tightened his jaw so as to not allow the rocking of the ground beneath his feet to cause his teeth to chatter together. Ahead of him, Pellinore's horse was jerking its head against its reins, and Leon's horse too was shuffling its hooves sporadically. They would have to dismount and walk the rest of the way should it continue.

"Oh, you're not much older than me! I'm sixteen summers." The voice said, conveniently ignoring the other half of Arthur's statement as it stated its age which Arthur didn't really believe, "Still though, I thought knights were at least twenty summers."

The blasted voice was still trying to make conversation with him. It was likely a Dragonlord or a sorcerer employed by the Dragonlords, trying to bring Arthur's guard down and place an enchantment on him from inside his own mind, or simply distract him from his quest.

"Shut up, I'm old enough." Arthur growled, not realizing he had made a grumbling sound out loud as well. At this point, Leon wasn't even being subtle anymore in his observation of his prince, and Aredian too had taken notice. Aredian was looking at Arthur with thinly masked interest, his eyes dark beneath the brim of his hat. "What even are you. What are you trying to do? I won't let you succeed you know."

"Woaah woah, calm down there Sir Knight. I just want-"

A particularly violent shake of the ground cut the voice in Arthur's head off, and even if it had continued speaking Arthur wouldn't have paid attention. Hengroen let out a sound of panic as Pellinore's horse in front of them reared up on its hind legs, sending the knight toppling backwards into Arthur and his stallion's path. Hunith was jerked forward by the stallion's erratic, frightened movements, hitting the still rocking ground with a cry of pain. Pellinore, the only one actually on the ground, got up quickly, ignoring whatever bruises or injury he had in favor of pulling his sword with ridiculous speed and cutting the rope clean through just before his horse rocketed away. Hunith slumped to the ground in dual parts shock that she had survived and relief for the same reason, looking for all the world like the older peasant woman she was, her shoulders still shaking even as the ground calmed from its tantrum. Arthur felt guilt flash through him for only a moment.

"We shall go on foot from here." Arthur commanded, not letting his voice shake, as Pellinore helped Hunith to her feet and took the rope into his own hands. Leon was staring off into the forest where the other knight's horse had disappeared, but at Arthur's words he wasted no time in dismounting from his steed. They would find Pellinore's horse later. She was trained for battle and to return to her knights just like any other horse in Camelot's stables, and so no doubt they would be seeing her again.

"Sorry."

Arthur blinked, pausing in wrapping Hengroen's reins around his fist so as to have a firmer lead on the horse. The voice in his head had sounded truly apologetic, and Arthur's suspicions of it being a sorcerer trying to mislead him only grew, now paired with suspicions as to this hill they were seeking out that seemed to hold the Great Dragon. If Balinor's son was not there with the dragon though - well, Arthur didn't think about that. Instead, he pulled himself to the front of the group and lead his men the short final distance towards their destination, speaking to the mysterious and dangerous voice as he did so.

"What are you sorry for? Got a guilty conscious have you, sorcerer?"

The voice did not respond right away, and that hesitation was enough for Arthur to pull himself away from the odd prodding presence and shut the voice from his mind, though he still had no idea how he naturally knew how to do such things. The odd nudges at the edge of his consciousness ceased, and for a time, Arthur and his men walked on in silence.

The hill was closer than it had appeared while they had been on horseback, and soon all five of them stood just at the edge of the land where the grass began to slope upwards. It led up to the top, forming an impressively large mound of earth large enough that should any man place a fortress on top, he would have been envied by all his enemies. Thankfully, the hill was not shaking at the moment, else Arthur was sure he would have been knocked off his feet at least once, not to mention how many times Leon, Pellinore, Aredian, or Hunith would have fallen.

"So what now?" Leon asked, jabbing his sword into the ground, as if striking it would make it begin to rumble as they had felt it doing from afar. "The hill shakes, yes, you were telling the truth in that aspect. Perhaps it is indeed under a curse to ward people away." The knight said to Aredian, "But what else can this hill do for us? How do we find what the shaking wards us away from?"

Arthur felt the prodding abruptly return, and though he fought against it, apparently the fact that he had opened his mind to its odd presence earlier made it easier now for the voice to break through. That in itself was a bad sign, and Arthur bit his lip and tried to pay attention to Aredian's and Leon's conversation. There was nothing wrong. There was no voice in his head. There was no sorcerer in his head. He could deal with this, he was Arthur Pendragon, and though he should never have let the voice in earlier, there was nothing he could do about it now but ignore its presence until he was able to find and destroy whoever it was trying to speak through his thoughts.

"The shaking of the hill, it's not to ward you away."

Arthur's shoulders jerked slightly, and he shut his eyes tight for barely a moment. Pellinore - like he thought Arthur was - was too focused upon the bickering happening between Leon and Aredian as they stood at the foot of the hill.

"And what would you know?" Arthur hissed mentally.

"Well, quite a bit I should expect. Except for your name. I don't know that."

Arthur would never give the sorcerer that type of power over him, "And you never will."

He could practically feel the disappointment echoing from the other side of the connection, "What if I told you my name first, would that help?"

"...Yes, it might." Arthur lied, not feeling bad about it at all. He watched Aredian and Leon continue their discussion of sorts, with Pellinore chiming in from the side in Aredian's favor as Hunith kept her head bowed.

"Well I'm-" The voice paused, "Oh- Oh I probably shouldn't tell you this, you're a knight of Camelot after all."

Arthur grit his teeth, "And what's that got to do with anything?"

"Other than the fact you probably want to see me burnt at the stake, nothing at all, no."

"Sire!"

Arthur turned to Leon, who was now done with his argument with Aredian, and was focused upon his prince, "Should we proceed around the perimeter of the hill?"

Arthur blinked, his mind feeling fuzzy from the sudden tuning back in to the actual conversation around him. He tilted his head to examine the hill once more, and frowned at its massive size. The perimeter would be quite a long distance, and as the sun was quickly setting, would likely take them two full days starting the next morn to fully cover.

"Yes, let's-"

"Watch out!"

The ground lurched beneath their feet unexpectedly, echoing with a roar of rage the likes of which Arthur had never heard. The prince tumbled forward unexpectedly, losing his grip on Hengroen's lead as his hands sunk into the soft torn earth beneath him. Leon's horse followed Pellinore's horse's example, and the moment that the knight's grip slipped, it rocketed away into the distance away from the hill. Aredian's horse and Hengroen stood their ground though, Hengroen staying strong and faithful to his rider even through the instinctual fear, and Aredian's horse having no other choice. It still bucked and pulled against its attachment to the heavy metal cage, but could do nothing more.

Breathless, Arthur pulled himself back to his feet, wincing against the babbling in his head of "I'm sorry"s that never seemed to end.

"Shut up!" Arthur commanded, and the voice fell silent with a sharp wave of hurt. Arthur rubbed his gloved palm - smudged with dirt at the moment, though he didn't care - against his forehead as he brought his focus back to himself. Then, he turned and addressed Leon again.

"Yes, lets go around the perimeter. Perhaps there's more to this hill than meets the eye, and we will find answers through doing that."

Arthur felt the presence in his mind - the other person he was connected to - seem to shiver as he said these words.

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