Title: Out of the Ashes
Disclaimer: All characters are fictional and are not of my creation. They belong to BBC Merlin.
Golden
Arthur and his men set up a camp and spent the night there. At the break of dawn, they packed everything up again and moved on. If the peasant's instructions were right, then they would arrive at the camp in just a few hours.
"Rise and shine, Morgana!" a voice called.
Morgana stirred in her uneasily sleep. She hadn't gotten much sleep the night before because of the meeting. But at least they'd organized their plans. Everything was together. All they needed was the right time to set it into motion, and then there would be no stopping them.
Gwen opened the curtains, letting in a healthy ray of sunlight.
"Did you sleep well?" she continued as she got some of Morgana's clothes out of the closet.
Morgana blinked a few times before her eyes adjusted to the light, and sat up.
"I slept ok," she voiced discontentedly.
"Had another bad dream? You could have asked me last night to get you your sleeping drought. I'm sure that Gaius-"
"-I'm alright, Gwen. See?" Morgana interrupted and gave her a huge smile. "I'm great. Nothing's wrong," she added cheerfully.
"Alright then." Gwen continued to pick clothes out of the closet. "Which would you prefer? This one or that one?" she asked, clutching two lovely dresses in her arms.
"That one," Morgana pointed out.
"Thought you'd prefer it," Gwen smiled as she put the other dress back into the closet.
It felt great to be back.
Emrys sighed as he stood up on his unsteady legs. Sweat still covered his body, and besides that and just a few minor bruises, he was alright. A little inclination of someone coming nudged at the back of his head, but Emrys couldn't think of anyone else who would know the location of their village or who would want to target him- besides Merlin, and Emrys was going to make sure that Merlin wouldn't come back. Not just yet.
At that exact moment of seeing smoke rise from a distance hill, Arthur felt a heavy weight fall down in his chest. He didn't want to be killing any more sorcerers. He just didn't. One of his best friends was already dead, and now, not even a week later, his father ordered him to rid a camp of angry sorcerers. Arthur couldn't even blame him because he was a broken man, consumed and blinded by his grief.
Arthur and his men moved on.
Emrys thought that he better find Sylvia before she got worried about him again. He stretched his legs for a few minutes and then walked out of the tent and headed towards the group of playing kids. Sylvia was in the middle, and she looked so happy. And she was smiling, and her golden locks bounced around her shoulders as she ran around the camp without a care in the world.
He noted that ever since he had been with Sylvia, the kids weren't making fun of her anymore.
With pleasure, Emrys stood and watched the children play.
Everything looked so peaceful. Everyone looked so happy.
Emrys didn't want this moment to end.
After Gwen finished helping Morgana, she went over to Gaius's place. She had made a practice of going over to help Gaius since Merlin was gone and Gaius refused to find a new helper. She did the best she could to finish all her new chores plus her old ones, but could never really finish them all. She couldn't figure how Merlin could have possible have done them all and still get a good night's sleep.
Today, Gwen found Gaius sitting at his desk. He was not doing anything in particular, just piling papers and organizing some books.
"I've got to put that book away," he grumbled, unaware of Gwen's presence.
"Gaius?" Gwen said and Gaius looked up.
"Ah, there you are. You're late, just like Mer-." Gaius stopped and his eyes dropped back to the pile of unorganized papers, looking for something that was not there. He continued to ramble on, "Please get some honey from the market. Oh, and before I forget, please go to Wilson's place and give him this medicine." Gaius fumbled around the room and found the potion. "He's says his eyes are bothering him again," Gaius completed as he placed the potion into Gwen's hands.
"Gaius. Gaius, just slow down. I wanted to talk to you about Morgana."
Gaius's face fell. "She was out again last night, wasn't she?"
"Yes."
"I was afraid you would say that."
Arthur saw a village just ahead. He noted that smoke was rising in the air, perhaps enough to attribute to the burning of many campfires. From behind a tree, Arthur could see that all of the people were wearing the usually Druid cape. He took a deep breath and painfully exhaled.
"On the count of three." He said, with a determined expression on his face.
Lancelot adjusted his stance.
"One."
With clammy hands, Gwaine gripped his sword tighter.
"Two."
A large bird overhead cast its shadow upon the ground.
"Three," Arthur whispered.
From behind the trees and bushes, the Knights ran. Arthur's surprise tactic worked, like it always did. The Druid's, unaware of their presence, began to run everywhere. Women gathered their children and ran with their children into the woods. The men stayed behind, buying their wives enough time to get their children out the village.
A few children who had been playing looked up when they heard screams. Arthur saw a tall person in a green cloak grab the hands of children and lead them towards the woods. In that same moment, an arrow shot out towards the person, but before it even reached him, the person's hand shot out and the arrow fell uselessly to the ground, three yards away from its initial target.
When the person turned around to see who shot the arrow, Arthur gasped. The first thing Arthur saw were the person's eyes which were of a molten gold. Like something inhuman, they looked wild, fierce, scared. This distraction gave enough time for a Druid to Arthur with a sword. Arthur three parried and disengaged to low line, but the Druid parried and riposte to Arthur's chest. Arthur reflexively parried four and thrust to the high six line, surprising his opponent, and killing him instantly. He watched the Druid fall with a thump on the ground and his stomach turned.
By the time Arthur looked up, the person and all the children were gone.
Emrys ran with the children, towards the village he had seen in one of his visions. Mentally, he thanked Merlin for telling him the direction of the village, otherwise, he would not have known where he was going.
Sylvia and held Emrys's clammy hand and she and the other Druid children ran with him. She noted that any arrows that were directed at them or men who were attempting to kill them all fell down. Unconscious or dead? she did not know.
It did not take Arthur and his men too long to demolish the village. An hour had passed and everyone in the village was either dead, or had run away. Arthur had a few casualties, but other than that, the attack was successful.
Arthur looked back at the spot where the person with glowing eyes had stood.
Those eyes looked so familiar…
"What are you looking for?" Percival asked as he watched Arthur stare at nothing.
"Nothing. Just nothing," Arthur muttered.
Percival patted Arthur's back. "We did a good job here."
Arthur nodded and turned around.
"Let's go now," he added, sullenly.
William was feeding the hens when he noticed a group of children with cloaks on approaching his village. Druids, why would then come here? He pondered as he finished feeding the squawking hens.
"I've got these children and our village was just attacked. Please help," the boy pleaded as he neared him.
William looked hesitantly at the boy, stunned. For a moment, William thought that he was – no that was impossible. The voice was just a little different, and his eyes never glowed. He was tall and skinny enough...
He paused for a moment and then began to speak, "If this some kind of trick? If it is-"
"-They're coming," the boy pleaded. His shaking hands held fast to a little girl protectively.
The boy shifted nervously.
"Alright, alright quick, get inside."
The boy in the green cloak immediately gathered the children and followed the other boy into a house.
It was dark inside the house and the only light came from a small fire which was lit in a small stone fireplace. A woman sat in a chair, knitting as she spoke without looking up. "It's about time, William. I told you to be here five minutes ago."
"Umm, Hunith? We have a few visitors."
Hunith stopped knitting and looked behind her.
The first thing that caught her eyes were all of the children. Druid children to be exact. And then she saw the leader, and his hand was protectively holding a child's. And then his eyes. The golden eyes. The burning embers and the peels of molten gold mixed with a hint of deep blue.
"Hello," the boy meekly said.
That voice…
"We've got to hurry, please." The boy pleaded.
That tone…
Hunith's broken heart skipped a beat.
"Merlin?"
"You and everyone else can go back to Camelot. Tell my father that the mission was successful and I'll back around seven." Arthur said, as he got back on his horse.
Lancelot and a few other knights looked at him curiously. "Where are you going? And I don't think that you should be going alone. After today, I don't think that it would be too safe traveling around the woods." Lancelot said, getting up off the ground.
"To Ealdor. I need to talk to Hunith."
There was silence and then Lancelot spoke again, "Ahhh," he said, his face saddening. "I would like to come though. For safety. You know that there are dangerous people out there."
"Yeah," Arthur sighed. "Okay".
"I'd like to say hi to Hunith also. Her loss is also our loss. Merlin was a great friend. The truest, most trustworthy-"
"-I know." Arthur interrupted. "Sorry about that. It's just, well, you understand, right?"
"Yes. I do. Trust me. I understand."
Lancelot patted Arthur on the back and they walked towards the small village of Ealdor.
For about thirty minutes, Arthur and Lancelot walked through the woods. Lancelot was the first to break the silence.
"Who was that strange person you were looking at earlier by the way? You know, the one with golden eyes and the green cloak," he said, "I-I've never seen anyone's eyes look like that before. It was almost mesmerizing." Lancelot looked back at Arthur.
"It looked like you knew him." Lancelot pushed.
Arthur shook his head and continued to walk. "That's what I thought so, too. But no, I didn't know him. I don't know who he was."
"Huh." Lancelot said. And for the rest of the time, they did not say anything.
Finally, I got this chapter done. What an accomplishment! I'm so very, very sorry about the delay- School is killing me and I had writer's block. But enough of the excuses, you will get more soon!
