They waited in the cave for weeks. Gwen's wound needed time to heal, as she was still very weak. At first it was awkward. Neither couple said much to the other. Gwen spent most of the time sleeping, and Arthur spent his time pacing back and forth. Merlin sat leaning on his chin watching him and Morgana went for long walks along the rock face.

The group found the mentality of being stuck in a cave together hard to cope with. Morgana and Arthur had the most arguments. They constantly fought, anything and everything triggering them. When it was too cold in the cave, Arthur blamed Morgana for not having made blankets, when already the king was sleeping in Merlin's bed, while the two magicians slept on the cold stone floor. Morgana blamed Arthur for Mordred's attack on Camelot. 'If you had just stopped punishing people for using magic you would've never had this problem!' she yelled at him one cold morning.

'It was only outlawed before because people like you couldn't learn to control themselves!' He retorted.

'What the hell is that meant to mean, people like me?'

'Weak people, who'll follow anyone. All Morgause had to do was tell you she was your sister, and suddenly you were running around, committing treason!' he shouted.

Morgana bristled at the mention of Morgause's name. 'What would you know?' she screamed. 'She was a better sibling to me than you ever were.'

Merlin rushed in, stepping between them. 'Be quiet! Gwen's asleep, she's still not well.'

'You're lucky I like Gwen.' she growled at Arthur.

Aithusa flew as close to the castle as Morgana would let her. This meant leaving quite a distance, having gotten a harsh scolding for flying too close to the archers guarding the palace a few days earlier. What she managed to communicate - with limited language and a lot of miming – was that Camelot had been completely taken over. Mordred had been crowned king and the people were either cooperating or being killed for their loyalty to the Pendragons. The army they had seen marching on Camelot was still stationed outside the castle. They had put up tents and were using the area as a base. Patrols around Camelot's borders were becoming more and more frequent, as were teams of soldiers marching through the woods. Mordred was looking for Arthur and Gwen. They had been hoping he'd think they'd all been killed when the roof collapsed, although, Mordred was no fool, and the lack of bodies would've been proof enough that the four of them lived. All they could hope for now was that he might think that they had escaped into another kingdom.

Morgana was sitting on a ledge on the cliff, watching the sun setting behind a cloud of mist. It was raining lightly, and windy high up on the rocks, but she pulled the hood of her dress up, and folded her arms. Living in the cave after being on the move for so long was becoming challenging. Especially with Arthur around. She wouldn't have minded so much if it had just been with Merlin. Arthur hovered around her when he wasn't pacing up and down, or throwing stones. She'd lost her temper with him for throwing stones down into the valley below that morning. 'How stupid are you?' She'd yelled. 'If you hit someone it'll draw attention to the cave! You know they're patrolling the forests. Do you have a death wish?'

'Well if you could've healed Gwen better we could leave this godforsaken hole!' He'd spat.

'So it's my fault?'

Merlin had been watching their argument from a safe distance, analysing the situation. At that point he stepped in.

'Morgana couldn't have really done a better job.'

Arthur glared at him, furiously.

'I- um, I just mean, with the time and the resources she had, there wasn't really a better way to go about it, unless she was a healer or-'

'Well she's not a healer. She's an evil sorceress who tried to destroy all of us, on many occasions, and I will never trust her, ever again.' Arthur stormed back into the cave, leaving the two magicians alone in silence.

Merlin shifted awkwardly. 'He's just worried about Gwen.'

'You think I don't know that?' She snapped, regretting it immediately. 'Sorry. I need some space. I'll be back later.' She gave him a quick kiss, smirking as he blushed furiously, then slunk away into the landscape. She'd spent all afternoon putting distance between herself and the cave, until she'd finally found this ledge to sit on. As she glared out at the darkening sky, a pebble fell down from the clifftop and bouncing off her head then falling down into the valley far below. She stiffened, and stood silently. Through the sound of the howling wind and intensifying rain, voices floated through the air towards her. She couldn't make out words. Calculating the risk, she climbed towards them, stopping and starting, as she realised the voices weren't moving. She reached as far as she could go without being seen, and raised herself up enough to see the group of knights assembled at the top of the cliff. To her horror, the nearest of them was less than an arms length away from her. She could've reached out and touched him. Some of them were wearing the same armour as the knights of Camelot, but those uniforms looked faded and threadbare. From where she was balanced, she could even see gaps in their chainmail. But the majority of the soliders wore new, shiny armour. Their crest was identical to the symbol on her necklace. It was a grey triskelion on a black background. She had no doubt that Mordred would've chosen it for his army. It was a symbol of magic.

'-Camp here for tonight, get a move on before dawn.' One of the soldiers was shouting. It seemed he was the group's leader.

'Aw, but it's pissing down rain, and it's cold, we'll freeze to death out 'ere!' One chubby looking knight complained. A couple of his friends nodded, and made noises of agreement.

'Do I look like I care?' The leader roared. 'Do you think it matters to me if you die of hunger or cold? Do you really think you're that important?'

The chubby soldier looked like he was about to burst into tears, but he shook his head, and quickly began unravelling a blanket with shaking hands.

'Damn right you're not! There are a thousand other soldiers ready to replace you.'

The soldier nodded, whimpering quietly.

'Anyone else got a problem?' the leader yelled again, looking around at the group of men gathered in front of him. Morgana quickly ducked down. There was silence. 'I didn't think so!' his voice boomed. 'Now set up my tent!'

She took that moment to slip away. She scaled down the cliff, without a problem, jumping the last few feet down onto the track, letting the leaders angry yelling fade away into the wind. It wasn't until two hours into her trip that she had any troubles. She was just beginning to tire from walking, and was thinking about taking a break, when she rounded a corner and walked straight into a patrol. They were camping too, it was dangerous to travel at night, but they were gathered around a fire, blocking the path completely. At first she thought they might not have seen her, and she began backing away slowly into the darkness, but as her eyes grew accustomed to the light, she saw twelve astonished faces looking straight at her. Finally one of them came to their senses. He stood, drawing his sword, walking steadily towards her. Soon the others stood, some drawing weapons, others cracking their knuckles, loudly. Morgana threw those ones a less than impressed look, and then quickly weighed up her options. The cliffs above her were at least twenty feet high, and the stone was too smooth to climb. Below was a drop of at least the same amount height, if not more. There was only one path, and it was one woman against twelve men. She abruptly came to a decision. She stopped backing away, and raised her hands, slowly. She had just enough time to see the man with the sword, smirk, and turn to his friends, perhaps to boast, before she swept all twelve soldiers off the cliff, with a wave of her hand. It surprised her that they weren't swept as far out as she had intended, one even managed to grab a hold of the cliff face, and tried to haul himself up. She ran over to him, and stamped on his hands hard, watching as he fell, but turning away before she saw his body hit the rocks below. She'd gotten out of the way of doing things like that. It worried her. She knew it was because of Merlin. She realised as she began to walk again, hastily wiping her eyes on her sleeve – convincing herself she wasn't crying, it was the wind in her eyes- she realised that the longer she spent with Merlin, the more like her old self she became. She was feeling more compassion towards those who'd turned her away, and even towards the soldiers who she had killed on the road. There was no doubt in her mind that they'd recognised her, and she knew they would've taken her to Mordred, where he could use her to get to her friends. Or maybe just kill her. She didn't want to know.

She continued along the path with a lot more caution, slowing down before she reached corners, and climbing up the rocks where she could. But she was becoming more and more desperate to get back to the dragon's den. It was much more dangerous for them to be there now, they would have to have left within a few days at the most. A patrol going missing on the cliffs would arouse suspicion, which would lead to more careful patrols. Thankfully, the den was well hidden, unless you knew about it you wouldn't think to look. At least- that's what she thought. As Morgana rounded the final twist in the path, she arrived above the entrance to the cave. She waited, listening for a moment, then desended the slope hurriedly. It was only when she entered the cave, she realised something was wrong. It was silent. And cold. 'Merlin?' she called into the blackness. 'Gwen? Arthur?'

She peeped around the corner of the bedroom. Gwen lay in the bed, asleep. Morgana breathed a sigh of relief. Merlin and Arthur were out on the rocks somewhere. They must be. Mustn't they?

Aithusa landed on the ledge outside. Morgana rushed out to meet her dragon. Her heart sank as she looked at the bawling dragon, crying its eyes out in front of her.

'Aithusa?' The dragon blew its nose into its hand noisily, not accounting for the jet of flames that came rushing out of its nose. The fire burnt her claws and she howled even louder, shaking her burnt hand.

'Aithusa what happened?'

'MERMUM! WAAART' she cried.

'What happened to them?'

'Aaaahhhhh.' The dragon sobbed, pointing towards Camelot.

'They caught them?'

Aithusa nodded.

'But…Gwen's still here.'

'She too sleepy.'

Morgana turned away from Aithusa. The dragon had explained it well enough. They had come for them while she was away. The two men had been in the front room; the bedroom was further back in the cave. Mordred would've assumed Gwen had not survived her injuries, and either hadn't bothered to search the rest of the den, or had done so lazily. They hadn't found the queen, who had slept through the whole thing. Morgana felt a twinge of anger at the thought of Gwen sleeping through the entire ambush, although she knew there wasn't much the queen could've done in her current state. She sat quickly on the floor, staring into nothingness, deep in thought. She knew they couldn't stay here. Mordred hadn't found her yet. But he might come back here to look for her. The longer they spent here, the more danger they were in. Standing again, she went back to where Gwen lay. She paused awkwardly in the doorway, the moved over to the bed.

'Gwen.' She shook the woman's shoulder. 'Wake up. Gwen!'

The queen stirred opening her eyes slowly. When she saw Morgana she sat up abruptly, recoiling from her touch. She blushed faintly. 'Sorry.' She mumbled. 'It's habit.'

They didn't have time to be offended.

'You have to get up, we have to go now.' She said urgently.

'Wh-what's the matter?'

'Merlin and Arthur were taken.'

'What?'

'It's true, Mordred found us, come on.'

Gwen didn't move.

'What are you waiting for, come on!'

'You're trying to trick me into going with you.' She said.

'What?'

'Arthur and Merlin have just gone out, and now you're trying to trick me into going with you.'

'Why would I do that?' Morgana cried.

'So you can kill me, or use me to get what you want! People don't just change like you did.'

'I changed before, now I've changed back.'

Gwen didn't reply. She sat, biting her lip.

'Why would I heal you if I was going to kill you anyway?'

'Because you-' Gwen faltered. 'Well you…you were trying to impress Merlin.'

Morgana smiled. 'See? I haven't changed so much since we first knew each other.'

She saw the corners of Gwen's mouth lift, slightly.

'Please. We have to go. I'm telling the truth, please come with me.'

They stared at each other for a long time, until finally Gwen sighed.

'All right.'

'All right?'

'Yes. But I want a weapon.'

Morgana bent down and pulled a knife from her shoe, handing it to Gwen, who took it awkwardly gripping the handle. She managed to fit it into a loop in her belt.

'Where are we going?' she asked, following Morgana through the cave cautiously.

'We're going to save Merlin and Arthur.'

'How are we going to do that? We don't even know where they went.'

'Aithusa knows.'

The rounded a corner to find the dragon whimpering and snuffling, huddled up on the ledge outside.

'Are you sure about this?'

'Absolutely.' Morgana said, trying to sound confident, not taking her eyes off the dragon.

'Aithusa?' she called gently.

The dragon sniffed loudly.

'You can show us where they took Merlin and Arthur, can't you?'

At the mention of Merlin the dragon burst into sobs again, but nodded her head.

'See?'

Morgana turned to Gwen. She looked even paler than she had before.

'How are we getting there?' she said faintly.

'We fly of course.'

•••

It's been a while since I've written, but hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to review!