"Dis one" Arthur pointed to the movie he wanted to watch.

"Arthur we watched that one this morning. Don't you want to watch something else?"

"No" Merlin groaned as he put Disney's The Sword in the Stone in and pressed play. It was quickly becoming Arthur's favorite. Mainly because it had a wizard named Merlin, a boy named Arthur, and talking animals. Merlin should have been happy, this was only the second time they'd watched it today. Yesterday he was forced to watch the movie five times.

At least he'll be entertained for a while. Merlin thought as he pulled yet another old book from it's shelf and began skimming the pages for an answer to their little problem. He couldn't shake the dream he'd had the night before. After he'd put Arthur to bed he found a spell for hindsight and thought it might actually help him figure out why Arthur had changed or better yet who had changed him. It didn't appear to do anything at least not at first. It wasn't until hours later when he'd finally given up and decided to go to bed.

He couldn't quite remember the dream. He knew that something important happened and it was right there under the surface but he couldn't remember it. Two people were talking and he knew he should be paying attention to what they were saying but he only caught bits and pieces. He went over what he did remember trying to piece things together

". . . we need an innocent soul to complete the spell."

"Why did it have to be him though? We could have chosen any child. Why go through the trouble of turning Arthur Pendragon into a child?"

" . . . He killed Jeff!"

" . . . we only have three days . . . Not with that barrier he's got up."

"Why do you even have magic if you don't know how to fend off one old sorcerer?"

Thanks to his spell Merlin now knew that Arthur's sudden change was not an accident and there were two people behind it. One of them was clearly a woman bu the other he couldn't tell. The voice was scratchy and muffled. He also knew they needed a child for whatever they had planned and it didn't necessarily have to be Arthur. This sounded more like vengeance than anything else if they thought Arthur killed this Jeff person. Which was ridiculous Arthur hadn't killed anyone, at least not in this life. But they knew who he was so maybe they weren't from this life. Maybe Jeff was a sorcerer that Arthur executed back when he still believed magic to be evil. But then how would they still be alive? Well the woman does have magic.

Merlin's head was starting to hurt from the mental discussion he was having with himself. He only had three days to figure this thing out and could find nothing in any of his books. His attention was suddenly drawn to the screen as the cartoon Arthur pulled the sword from the stone. The real Arthur was happily following along, pulling his plastic sword from between the couch cushions. Merlin smiled fondly at the boy while rolling his eyes at the inaccuracies in the film.

"How about some lunch Arthur?" The warlock asked as he stood up. He needed to take a break and eat something or he'd have a full blown headache for the rest of the day.

There was a knock at the door and Merlin walked hesitantly towards it hoping that it was just Mrs. Finch coming to check up on him. He didn't really have many friends and Mrs. Finch was the only neighbor he ever talked to. So if it wasn't her then that didn't leave many options and one of those options were the people after Arthur. He remembered something about only having three days so he figured if he and Arthur stayed inside and didn't open the door to strangers for the next three days they'd be safe. He silently cursed his door for not having a peephole so he could see who was on the other side. The person knocked again and this time he heard Mrs. Finch's voice call his name. With a sigh of relief he opened the door to see his neighbor with an envelope addressed to him.

"This was left on my door this morning. They must have made a mistake." She smiled sweetly as she handed it to him.

"Oh, uh, thanks Mrs. Finch." At this point Arthur had come to investigate the visitor. He had half his body hidden behind the warlock and one chubby little arm wrapped around his right leg.

"Oh, Who's this?" She smiled at the toddler.

"He's uh, Arthur's nephew. His mother just dropped him off a few hours ago she needed us to, uh . . . watch him for a bit." He said hoping Arthur wouldn't correct him and reveal that he'd lied. Anyone who's been around young children knows that when you lie in front of them and they know you're lying they will correct you. But, luckily for Merlin, Arthur was too shy to speak to the stranger.

"Well hello. What's your name?" Arthur mumbled his name into the back of Merlin's leg while refusing to make eye contact with the woman.

"Arthur, his name is Arthur." Merlin translated.

"Oh, how sweet his mother named him after his uncle? They must be really close."

"Yeah, they are." Merlin said with a tight smile. "Well we'd better let you go. Arthur was just in the middle of a movie that I'm pretty sure he wants to get back to and I need to make lunch."

"Alright, I'll see you later dear. Goodby Arthur and you tell your uncle hello for me." She waved and then turned back to her door.

"Glad that's over." Merlin murmured as he opened the envelope. A mysterious yellow dust poured out as soon as the flap was lifted and surrounded the warlock. He choked on the dust and his vision became blurry. The last thing he remembered was hitting the floor and Arthur's scared voice calling his name.

. . . . . . . .

"Grab the boy Alodia, we only have a few minutes before Emrys wakes up."

"You grab him Elswyth, he keeps kicking me." She groused.

"Oh you're useless." She grumbled as she tried to grab hold of the struggling toddler. "Shut up or I'll give you something to scream about you little brat." That only succeeded in making the child cry louder.

"Make him stop! He's going to draw attention." Alodia said as she covered her ears.

The older woman, Elswyth, finally got a firm grip on Arthur and quickly covered his mouth to silence the shrill screaming. Within seconds they were out the door leaving an unconscious Merlin behind. Arthur's tear filled eyes stayed locked on the warlock until he could no longer see him.