A/N: Wow. Thanks guys for the awesome reviews! I was seriously joking about taking the last chapter hostage... but seeing that everyone must have taken the joke seriously, I think I will take the next chapter hostage unless you review =P Merthurtilidie, how dare you blackmail me! I'm the only one who's allowed to blackmail here. Hmph! Anyway, here's the next chapter. It's actually longer than I expected, so please, please review! It took an entire day to write. The next chapter will hopefully be updated perhaps tomorrow night. Enjoy!

If Merlin wasn't lost before, he sure as hell was lost now. There was no time Merlin could ever remember travelling so deep into the forest, especially in these conditions. At least there was a bright side to all this, though, it was no longer raining.

Although this was a good thing, Merlin was still freezing cold as his shirt was completely torn and in shreds, while his pants were lined with tears from the thorn bushes he had to run through a little over an hour ago.

Merlin couldn't help but obey what that woman said, even right this instant her voice echoed repeatedly in his head. Why had she left him go? It was a question Merlin puzzled over, but sure as hell didn't want to find out which was an even better reason not to stop running.

But unfortunately even he had his limits. Eventually Merlin had run out of adrenalin not to mention breath, so he gave into his body's needs and took a quick break. Even though he had run far away from the woman and her servant, Merlin could sense their presence nearby, as if they were just waiting for the right moment to attack him.

How he knew though was weird, it was almost as if he could sense her magic. But if that was the case, then no doubt she could sense his and use it against him.

For now, though, Merlin was hiding in a small cavern located in a cliff wall. It wasn't that big, well, actually it was insanely small, but he managed to crotch inside of it giving him some sense of security as he was no longer out in the open.

Merlin's stomach rumbled abruptly indicating it was hungry, if only he could comply too its wishes and feed it some nice food. Looking beyond the small save, Merlin searched for anything that might be even remotely edible. Of course, naturally there was nothing except for a few pine trees, and there was no way he was going to even try eating pine nuts. The last time he had was when he was little and ended up breaking one of his front teeth, accidentally swallowing it. It was only when he realised it was missing that Merlin had panicked thinking someone had stolen it.

It was then that Merlin noticed a two baby rabbits bounce past followed by their mother. As much as Merlin found himself dying for food, he didn't have the heart to kill the innocent animals, not after seeing one getting ripped in half and clobbered against a rock.

Sighing, Merlin rested his head against the back part of the cave and thought of Arthur. All he could think about was what Arthur possibley could be doing right now. No doubt he had forgotten all about him, and was most likely already looking for a new manservant to replace him. But if he wasn't, there was no way Arthur would ever be able to find him, not now. He didn't even know himself which was a comforting thought in its own.

Arthur... it was so stupid of him to leave the city alone. He needed Arthur with him, but there was no way of contacting him. It was just another hopeless situation. Even now Merlin regretted never showing Arthur how much he truly loved him, honestly, he was such an idiot in waiting so long to admit his feelings, and now that he had everything seemed lost.

It was almost as if everything that had happened was just a dream now, it never really happened, it was just all in his mind. Merlin knew he was lying to himself though; of course what had happened was real.

A flicker of movement in the bushes to his right caught Merlin's attention, forcing him to press his bare flesh up against the cave wall. Moments later two figures appeared from between the foliage and Merlin knew instantly who they were.

Her black veil was unmistakeable as she prowled the area, limping every now and again. Merlin could still picture those clear jelly eyes staring straight into him almost as if she could burn right through his skin just by looking at him.

"There's no use hiding, I can sense your magic," she sneered lifting her veil revealing her revolting facial features. So far she hadn't looked over in his direction, thankfully the small cave was well hidden due to large boulders as well as vines and roots that crept from the ground up the cliff.

"You can't hide forever, I will find you," the woman spoke musically as if the entire thing was just a game to her and nothing more. "If you don't come out on your own accord, I will do it for you."

Silence. Merlin didn't say a word let along dare to breath in case she heard.

"No?" she asked to thin air. "In that case..." All of a sudden she began speaking magic that Merlin had never even heard of before, and gasped in horror as an invisible force gripped him by the throat and pulled him out of his hiding place. Struggling did no good whatsoever, it just made him choke even harder until he was standing directly in front of the woman, her skin still moving as he stared at it.

"Can't... breathe...." Merlin croaked, instantly the sensation of suffocation ceased allowing his lungs to fill up once again with air.

"Honestly, I thought you were going to be a much more exciting hunt than this, but no matter," she shrugged as she flicked her tongue in Merlin's face, brushing the slimy muscle over the side of his face.

"You've had your fun my lady, just finish him off," Quentin said emotionlessly shifting uncomfortably on the spot.

The woman hissed sharply causing Merlin to frantically search around him to see of anything that he could use to protect himself. There of course were boulders that were way to big, trees, also to big and a puddle of water beneath them.

Water... surely not. It was a stupid idea. But it was his only idea. Closing his eyes, Merlin concentrated deeply before snapping his eyes open quickly as they flashed gold. Instantly the water began creeping up the woman's legs as it tightened itself around her, pinning her to the spot.

"What are you doing?" Quentin shrieked pushing Merlin aside as he began to help his mistress.

The water was alive. It had a mind of its own now as it climbed further and further up her body, encompassing itself around her as she struggled against the force of nature.

Merlin watched as she found herself unable to move, but for how long? How long would the water be able to hold her until she managed to break free? The murky water swelled and dropped over her as it clamped itself around her chest, spreading over every extremity of her body.

Taking the opportunity to get away while he could, Merlin dashed through the tree's as far away as possible. After a few minutes he found himself at a riverbank, stones and pebbles scattered along the ground in both directions like a path.

Great, so now he had to face the hardest choice for mankind. Left of right? Some people would say it's quite an easy decision, but when death is following closely behind and you have no idea where you are or going, it can be a reasonably difficult task.

Left Merlin finally decided, sort of, there was a loud shriek from the direction he'd just come from which prompted him to start running anywhere. A sudden thought dawned on Merlin, everything that had happened to him, the wounds, his head, they all would have happened to Arthur also. Gaius's words rung inside his mind.

'You two are somehow connected.'

But then if that had happened then maybe he could communicate with him. Send for help, anything. It was worth a try anyway. Picking up the sharpest rock off the ground, Merlin pressed the jagged edge of the stone against his skin on the back of his hand. Taking a deep breath he began scraping lines into his skin, painfully biting his lip as the stone scraped away the first two layers of his flesh.

"Help me," Merlin muttered to himself, throwing the rock on the ground once he had finished with it and started running again.

*

Quentin watched as his mistress muttered ancient words, her lips moving and forming vowel's and syllables that he had heard many times before. Instantly the water, that was no up to her throat almost suffocating her, evaporated into a cloud of white steam.

Ever he had to admit his mistress looked quite distress and terrified from the event. He never expected a skinny servant boy to possess such powerful magic, not even she had that much power and that said something. But she was still quite a match for the boy, a simple parlour trick, that's all it was to her, nothing more.

"Are you alright?" he tried to say feeling no sympathy whatsoever for her. It was a shame the boy hadn't managed to kill her then and there, ending the terrible things he had to endure whilst travelling with the mistress. The things she had made him do. The people she had forced him to kill. Even to this day he could still remember the faces of every man, woman and child he had been ordered to slaughter for the mistresses' needs.

"No," she croaked gravely, gripping onto her throat. "Where did he go?"

"I believe that way," Quentin replied pointing in the direction Merlin had run off to after hurting the mistress.

Without saying a word, she paced quickly in the direction he had just pointed.

"What do you intend to do with boy now?" he asked knowing that she was now no longer in the mood for games. The mistress now knew what the boy could do, and without even uttering a single word, even she couldn't do that.

"If you say one more word I will rip out your tongue and devour your soul for my very survival," she hissed reaching out placing one of her sharp finger nails against the lump on his neck.

Taking heed of her warnings, Quentin found it wiser to stay silent. He knew she wouldn't even think twice about doing it either, he had once witness her clawing a guys eyes out, so her threat was nothing compared to the other things she could do.

Swiftly following the mistress, he made sure not to disturb her as she paced unbelievably fast across the forest floor until they reached a river.

"Which way?" he asked only to receive a warning glare from those clear eyes of hers, the tiny specks of green almost gone now. How she managed to see was beyond him, you would think it was clearly impossible but obviously not.

Her nose flicked upwards as it inhaled massive amounts of air, slowly turning around in a circle sniffing every direction until she stopped looking downstream, towards their left.

"This way," she snarled and began walking fast towards the left, limping the entire time. Usually she didn't have a limp, but as her power weakened the mistress's body weakened along with it. It was what made her and her son so different; she collected souls for the hunt, the pleasure. Althalos on the other hand was more interested in power, the more souls he collected the more powerful he became as he aimed for the heavens to become one of the gods. Quentin had only met Althalos on a few occasions, but the moment he saw him, he knew that he was as evil as his mother, if not worse.

Sooner or later, though, the mistress will fall. If not, then many people would die, including Merlin.

*

Both of them stared blankly at the words written into Arthur's flesh. Thoughts raced through the prince's mind faster than he thought possible.

"How?" Morgana looked bewilderedly at the wound, examining every inch of it. "What's going on?"

Arthur seriously couldn't think of an answer, he had no idea in the slightest. All that he knew was that somehow Merlin had figured out a way to communicate with him, which meant that he would be able to find him!

"I'm not sure," he lied. If he told Morgana the truth about him and Merlin sharing a soul, then no doubt she would freak out.

"Don't lie to me Arthur Pendragon," Morgana glared deeply at him as she mentally backed him into a corner.

"Fine," Arthur snapped as Morgana placed the bandage around Arthur's hand. "Do you want the long story or the short one?"

"Make it the really short one," she replied with her arms crossed.

Taking a deep breath Arthur prayed hoping that what he was just about to tell her wouldn't freak her out.

"The sorcerer from the other night stole Merlin's soul in the forest, I exchanged my soul for Merlin's," Arthur was talking faster than he thought, but at the moment he couldn't really care less, "which in turn caused Merlin to split his soul sharing half of it with me."

For a few moments Arthur tried to regain his breath while Morgana gathered her thoughts together, she appeared to be thinking extremely hard at the same time avoiding his gaze.

"So Merlin's a sorcerer...?" Morgana said quietly.

"Yes," Arthur cringed hoping she wouldn't try and kill Merlin also.

"How long have you known?" she asked biting her bottom lip.

"Not long, a few days..." he replied kicking the ground with his foot.

"And you don't care that he's a sorcerer?" Morgana inquired as if she expected him to say he did care that Merlin was sorcerer.

"Maybe not everyone who practices magic is evil," Arthur said still unsure how Morgana was taking it all in. "I mean, as much as Merlin is an idiot, he's not evil. Perhaps my father had it wrong the entire time."

"Arthur..." she began, but stopped to take a deep breath. "What would you do if I told you I'm a seer? Would you have me killed? Hypothetically of course..."

That was a tough one to find a response. Morgana was like a sister to him, and there was no way he could bare seeing her being killed.

"Well, hypothetically I wouldn't believe you if you told me. But if I did believe you, I wouldn't care. As much as I hate to admit it, I care about you," there was a slight chuckle from Morgana that caused Arthur to shoot a look that welded her mouth shut so he could continue. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason," she replied helping Arthur back onto his own horse.

"Okay..." Arthur said confused but let it pass seeing no point to argue.

Arthur looked down at the bandage wrapped around his hand and began thinking what to do. If Merlin had managed to talk to him by writing on his own skin, perhaps if he did the same then would happen to Merlin if he did the same.

"Hand me your knife," Arthur said pointing to Morgana's waist where she had a knife concealed.

"What for?" Pulling out the knife, she reluctantly handed it to Arthur.

"Finding out where Merlin is."

Pressing the tip of the knife against the back of his forearm, Arthur began imprinting "Where are you?" into his skin. The sharpness of the knife slid across his skin with ease, cutting the flesh in straight lines and angles, almost pushing too hard at one point causing him to wince in pain.

Morgana just watched in horror as he continued writing in his arm, at one point Arthur thought she was about to grab the knife out of his hand to stop him from continuing, but thankfully she stayed back until the last line was complete.

"What now?" she asked glancing down at his arm as it began to bleed heavily, the red substance oozing down his arm.

Arthur honestly didn't care about the pain he was in; all that mattered was that he could find Merlin before it got too dark to see. The sun was already setting as the yellow ball of flame began to disappear below the horizon.

"We wait I guess," he replied allowing Morgana to use the last bit of material to cover the wound on his arm.

It wasn't often that Arthur prayed for a miracle, but right now that's all that he could think about. He needed Merlin back in his life, if he were to die, then who knows what might happen to himself. Would Arthur die as well? If so, then at least that was he wouldn't have to bear living his life without the sorcerer.

No, he shouldn't think like that. Merlin wasn't going to die, not when Arthur was still alive. He would find him, and no one was going to get in his way to save the person he loved.

A surge of pain on Arthur's opposite line caught his attention quite quickly almost as if he'd be prodded with a hot iron rod. The lines weren't as straight as before, they were awkwardly placed almost as if it took some effort to write them. Eventually, though, the two worded response was all Arthur needed to know where Merlin was, or around about anyway.

The River

"Let's go," Arthur said quickly nudging the horse's sides as he set off into the direction of the river. It wasn't that far away, but it would take maybe a good while to reach it as the final speck of sunlight disappeared beyond the horizon leaving the two in pitch blackness.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" Morgana said as the horses weaved in and out of the foliage and stones that laid the ground.

"I don't know," he replied unsure as he wondered where Merlin could be along the river. There was really only one river in this area of the kingdom, and it stretched out for miles. Either way though, Merlin had to be nearby, he could feel it.

The further they got closer to the river the more and more darker their surroundings became, after a while Arthur could no longer see any further in front of him than the horse's head.

The sound of rushing water got Arthur's full and undivided attention. Stopping the horse, Arthur hauled himself off the animal allowing his feet to land neatly on the hard ground.

"Get off your horse," Arthur called out as he made out the vague outline of Morgana still upon her horse. Morgana hopped off her horse and tied it up to a nearby tree.

"What are you doing?" she whispered finally getting into Arthur's line of sight.

"If Merlin is being chased or captured, we don't want the attackers knowing where coming. The horses would give away our position. It will be easier to travel by foot."

It was true, though, if their position was compromised then they had little hope in getting to Merlin in time. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into, all that they did know was that Merlin was somewhere along the river.

Leaving the horses behind them, Arthur pulled out his sword as the sound of water got closer and closer until he found himself on the rocky riverbank.

There was a fair distance between this side of the river and the other, typically it appeared to be the widest part but other than that it looked quite shallow.

Something on the other side of the river caught Arthur's attention, two dark silhouettes creeping out from between the trees. He couldn't make out their whispering, but they did appear to be heading downriver.

Arthur made a silent gesture towards Morgana as they quickly hid on the forests edge to stay out of sight. Who in their right mind would be out this late at night, especially after the extreme wet weather?

"This way," Arthur hushed moving slowly in the same direction the other two figures were moving, downstream.

Morgana and Arthur silently paced through the tress avoid all sight with the two dark shapes on the other side of the river. Passing between two large boulders, there was a loud cry of pain from up ahead. Immediately Arthur felt his side ache in pain just in time to see a flash of dazzling green light from the other side, illuminating a woman's face; or what would be considered a woman's face.

As the green light left her, it fired further down the river until it stopped in front of an extremely large tree root that had climbed a small cliff. In front of the root was Merlin.

Arthur felt another surge of pain that knocked the wind straight out of his body, knocking him to the ground.

"Arthur!" Morgana pounced down at the ground to assist Arthur up. It felt like someone had charged into him with a jousting stick, the pain distinct but bearable.

"I'm fine," he groaned pushing her aside as he looked through the trees as the two shadows loamed over where Arthur had seen Merlin. "We need to get over there."

"We can't, they'll see us straight away. There's not exactly anywhere to hide once we leave these trees," Morgana momentary looked over in the direction of Merlin.

"I don't care..." Arthur felt another harsh blow, sending him flying backwards into a boulder. "If we don't do anything now, he could die!"

Morgana didn't reply, instead she took one glance at Arthur and another to the other side of the river to where Merlin was cornered and sighed.

"Come on," she gripped him by the arm accidentally apply pressure onto the bandage causing Arthur to wince in pain.

Without hesitating, Arthur revealed himself from behind the tree line and onto the riverbank. He was out in the open now. Anyone would be able to see him now if they looked in their direction.

Taking a step into the river, Arthur and Morgana waded out into the water. The freezing liquid went all the way up to his chest, wrapping him in the free flowing body of water. For a moment Arthur thought he was going to be swept away by the river, but his feet stayed solid on the streams floor.

Morgana wasn't far behind him, but it appeared she was having trouble staying in a straight line as the current threatened to push her further away.

Arthur could now clearly make out the two figures, one appeared to be a rather large man with a similar build to himself, whilst the other was even more horrible to look at closer rather than far away. So far neither of them appeared to have noticed them closing in behind them as they were too busy surrounding Merlin.

He watched as the woman slapped Merlin across his face, and immediately Arthur felt claw marks burn into his face.

Trying to ignore the pain as best he could Arthur drew nearer to the opposite bank but froze when the woman began turning around. Seeing no place to hide himself, Arthur took the deepest breath he could and submerged himself underwater.

He couldn't see a thing. The murky darkness was the only thing visible, beyond that there was nothing. Water tried to force itself down Arthur's throat but he wouldn't allow it, he wasn't going to give in to nature, not after coming so far.

As the dampness began to fill his nose, Arthur began to choke as the need for oxygen grew stronger. It was the most excruciating pain he'd ever experienced until he could no longer stay underwater. Using his feet, Arthur pushed off the river floor and surfaced, gasping for breath.

It was a grave mistake though. Arthur felt his throat tighten as a pair of transparent eyes stared directly at him, and to make things even worse Morgana was nowhere in sight.

To be continued...

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