I live!

I know, I know! I'm sorry. Yes, yes, sorry doesn't cover it. "You said you'd update soon!" you cry. The only response I have is sorry...

Go ahead, throw me in the stocks and throw rotten food at me until Camelot experiences a food shortage, I deserve it!

You know what, I'm not gonna say when the next update will be because well... who knows? I'm not promising anything other than the fact that providing this chapter gets reviews proving people still know this thing exists then there will be another chapter.

all rights are reserved to the BBC

Chapter 11

Merlin watched from a distance as Arthur gave his best attempt to train the villagers to fight. Despite how hard Arthur tried, it was clear that they wouldn't ever be good enough to go up against Kanen and his men.

'We could take them,' Morgana said after Merlin confessed his worries to her that evening.

'We can't risk Arthur finding out... If anything happened to you, Morgana... And Arthur needs me..."

'You and your destiny, Merlin,' Morgana chuckled, shaking her head. 'These people will surely die if we don't do something...'

Merlin sighed. 'I don't think we have any other choice that to try our best fighting.'

'I'm certainly better off than you then,' Morgana chuckled.

'Hey, it's not my fault I haven't been brought up with sword fighting lessons!'

Morgana smiled, jumped up, grabbed two swords and threw one at Merlin who floundered to catch it. 'I'll teach you what I know, if I'm half as good a teacher as you've been to me then you'll be fine.'

Merlin held the sword timidly in his hand and looked up at Morgana uncertainly. 'I don't know...'

Morgana rolled her eyes and swung at Merlin who automatically raised the sword clumsily to block her.

After some time of clumsy attempts at attack and shoddy footwork practice, Will sauntered over to them, laughing. 'You're getting sword fighting lessons from a girl?' he laughed.

'Oi,' Merlin warned. 'That's the Lady Morgana you're talking about.'

'I noticed,' Will replied, pulling Merlin out of her hearing distance. 'What's going on between you two?'

'Nothing,' Merlin said, a little too quickly. 'Nothing's going on.'

'Merlin,' Will sighed. 'I know you, just tell me.'

Merlin just shook his head and changed the subject. 'I have sword practice to get back to; don't you think you should do the same?'

'I'm not going to fight for some stuck up prince, he's just here for the glory and nothing else. I don't know what you see in him to make you so complacent in joining him.'

'He is a stuck up prat,' Merlin agreed. 'But he has the people's best interests at heart; he's not in it for the glory.'

'He's going to get us all killed,' Will persisted.

'I trust Arthur with my life,' Merlin replied, almost as a reflex.

'Oh, so he knows your secret?'

When Merlin said nothing, Will shook his head and walked off, not wanting to fight with his best friend. Merlin sighed and went back to practicing with Morgana who thought it best not to ask what had happened.

The next day was the day of the battle. Arthur gave his speech to the villagers telling them that if they didn't want to fight then they should leave but all of them had the right to fight for their village and their right to live. All of the villagers had backed Arthur and joined him in his chants of "For Ealdore!"

As the people chanted, Merlin sat quietly at the back of the room, the words that Will had said the night before haunted him. What would Arthur do if he knew his secret? If he knew the truth would he go straight to his father and have him killed? Or would he be the friend he thought him to be and keep his secret?

'Merlin, they're preparing to fight,' Morgana said, pulling him back into reality.

'Right...' Merlin replied, jumping up and heading for the door to get his armour.

Morgana caught his arm and turned him to face her. 'Merlin, what's wrong?' she asked.

'Nothing,' Merlin said and tried to pull away from hr to get ready for battle.

'Merlin,' she persisted.

'It's just something Will said - it's nothing...' Merlin offered.

'You can talk to me, Merlin, what's troubling you?' Morgana said, not allowing him to leave until he told her what was wrong.

Knowing she would give him no opportunity to leave her sight until he explained his problems he told her, 'You were right Morgana, we can't win a fight against Kanen and his men without magic but what would Arthur do if he saw?'

'No, you were right Merlin, we can't risk it. If Arthur knew about either of us having magic, he'd surely go to Uther because that's the way he's been raised – to fear magic.'

'That's the way you were raised too,' Merlin replied.

'And had it not been for you I would have hated and feared myself,' Morgana told him. 'Now stop worrying, I'm sure everything will work out.'

Merlin nodded. 'Good luck,' he said.

'You too,' Morgana replied finally letting him go.

While putting his armour on, he decided that now was as good a time as any to tell Arthur his secret, better now than on the battlefield. 'Arthur I need to tell you something.'

'What is it?' he asked. 'Stop trying to be interesting, spit it out!'

'I...'

'Arthur,' Morgana walked into the room and told Arthur the villagers were ready, interrupting Merlin. Once Arthur had left, she turned to glare at Merlin. 'You were going to tell him weren't you?'

Merlin nodded, not meeting her eyes.

'What would I have done if he had killed you for it? What about your mother, Gaius? Anyone who loves and cares about you, what would they have done if you'd gotten yourself killed by blurting out your secret?'

'I thought that...' Merlin desperately tried to explain.

'I know,' Morgana smiled warmly. 'I know.' She pulled him into a tight hug and told him to be careful before following after Arthur.

-0-

Merlin knew something was wrong when the fire Morgana was supposed to set off as a signal didn't light. Despite Arthur's warning, Merlin ran across the field to go and find out what was going on. When he got there he found Morgana close to tears as she tried to start the fire.

'What's wrong?' Merlin asked.

'I can't do it Merlin, I panicked and now I can't even start a fire. What hope do we have if it's gone wrong already?'

'Calm down, Morgana, everything's going to be okay,' he did the spell that started the fire and pulled Morgana to her feet. 'Forget about magic, concentrate on fighting and leave the worrying to me. Everything's going to be okay.'

Morgana nodded and ran off to go and fight.

'There's too many of them,' Will shouted over the sound of clashing metal and cries of pain.

'Not for me there isn't,' Merlin said, finally deciding t throw caution to the wind and just take his chances. As the winds created by Merlin's magic reached their full force, Kanen's men began to retreat and the villagers ran after them angrily. Morgana met his eyes, not knowing whether she should be angry with him of impressed.

Once Kanen and his men had all fled or been killed and the winds had died down, Arthur yelled 'who did that? Winds like that don't just appear from nowhere; I know magic when I see it! Which one of you was it?'

'Arthur I...' Merlin began when a soldier previously considered dead used his last strength to fire an arrow at Arthur. Will jumped in front of him, pushing him to the side and taking the arrow for him.

'You saved my life,' Arthur said with gratitude.

'That's twice now,' Will said, sending a meaningful glare at Merlin.

'Twice?'

'I'm the sorcerer,' he said. 'What are you going to do, kill me?'

'No,' Arthur replied quietly. He told Merlin to do what he could for him before turning to leave.

At Will's funeral, Hunith told Merlin to be careful when it came to Morgana and that he must keep his powers hidden. He promised her that he would before bidding her goodbye and leaving for Camelot.

On the journey home, Morgana was being very quiet. 'What's wrong?' Merlin asked her, making sure they were out of hearing distance from the others.

'That could have so easily been you with the arrow in your chest,' she replied, barely holding back a sob.

It wasn't like Morgana to show emotions that made her appear weak and Merlin felt compelled to comfort her though he was limited in his ways of doing so, being wary of Arthur's frequent glances in their direction. 'But it wasn't.'

'And had it not been your friend to die today, it would have been your neck on the chopping block,' Morgana said.

'Arthur didn't find out about anything, Morgana, everything is fine and I'm not going to let anything bad happen. Everything will go back to normal, you'll see.'

Morgana sighed but allowed herself to be comforted by his words. 'The thing is, Merlin, our normal is being in danger.'

Merlin chuckled. 'You have a point I suppose.'

So it seems I wrote myself into a corner of non-creativity and zero motivation with the previous plot line but that big even has now come to a close and providing I get some reviews on this chapter, hopefully future chapters will be more and less between.

thank you for reading and sticking with me through all this. If you're reading thi you're truely my favoritest person in the whole world. Stay strong Merlin fandom.

It's never over if you believe it's not so.