AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ack! This is late, and I'm sorry, but here you guys go~ See, my web browsers kept getting infected, so I had to get rid of them and redownload them. But Google Chrome was being stupid and I couldn't uninstall it, so I had to get Mozilla, and then Mozilla wouldn't let me edit this thing, and yadda yadda yadda. Anyway, please enjoy this chapter~

When the morning sun hit Lancelot's eyes, he squinted to keep them closed. However, the sun eventually won and he rolled over, looking at Merlin.

Except that Merlin wasn't there.

"Merlin?" Lancelot asked, sitting up abruptly. He glanced around quickly and spotted the boy on a few rocks by the stream, a spear in his hand. "Merlin!" He shouted.

"Shhh," Merlin hushed, then struck the water with his spear. "Breakfast?" He asked, holding up the speared fish with a smirk.

"But... You're supposed to be dying," Lancelot incredulously exclaimed.

"Urm... Sorry," Merlin replied with a not-too-apologetic smile. Lancelot let out a breathless laugh. "Here," Merlin offered, tossing Lancelot the other spear.

"What's this for?" Lancelot asked, catching it with impressive reflexes.

"You look like you're about to fall over. I thought you might want some support," Merlin retorted with a smirk.

Lancelot glared at him for a second, then swiped at him with the spear. Merlin ducked easily.

"You're not as fast as Arthur," Merlin taunted, jumping off the rocks.

"Oh yeah?" Lancelot replied with a competitive smile.

"Come on. We need to catch up with the others," Merlin said, disregarding Lancelot's competitive reply.

"No, we're going back to the Cornucopia," Lancelot said slowly.

"You might be," Merlin countered.

"Merlin."

"Say hello to the Gamemakers for me."

"Merlin!"

Merlin stopped and turned around. Lancelot grabbed the backpack and stomped out the fire.

"They need us, you know," Merlin said.

Lancelot sighed, defeated, and began walking the way they had come, back to the Careers.

Along their trek to catch up, dorocha attacked.

It was unsuspected and they didn't have any torches. While Merlin whispered fireball spells, there were way too many of them. There were maybe fifty now, all chasing after two boys.

"Merlin!" Lancelot shouted. "We need to do something! We can't keep running like this forever!"

"I know," Merlin breathlessly replied. He could feel an ache in his gut appearing. He looked up in the sky, then sighed.

"O drakon, e mala soi ftengometh tesd'hup anankes! Erkheo," Merlin shouted, feeling the words flow from his mouth effortlessly. He barely had to dig within himself to pull them out. It was nice. No memorization of the Old Religion language like with spells.

A few seconds later a dragon's roar could be heard and Kilgarrah landed, looking around the scene he'd been called to. Merlin dragged the surprised Lancelot behind the dragon's arms. Kilgarrah knew what to do.

The Great Dragon began breathing fire, his chest and neck becoming very hot for the two boys standing beneath him.

A minute later the dorocha fled from the scene. None of them wanted to try their luck with a fire-breathing beast.

When Merlin lead Lancelot out from under the dragon, he was stunned. He couldn't say anything.

"But... You... It's... Dead..." Lancelot choked out. He was speechless.

"Nope," Merlin said with a laugh. "I may have fudged a few of the stories to leave out my magic."

"As in, all of them?" Lancelot asked, staring wide-eyed at the monstrous beast before him. Kilgarrah lowered his head and glared at Lancelot.

"Who is this?" He asked, giving Merlin a sideways glance.

"He's a friend. I trust him with my life," Merlin added after a look from Kilgarrah.

"Very well," Kilgarrah reluctantly muttered. "What do you need?"

"We need a ride," Merlin said with a smirk.

"I'm not a horse, Merlin," Kilgarrah snapped.

"Well, right now you are. We need to catch up to the others."

"I am not going to be used that way!"

"Well, we kind of need you right now..."

Kilgarrah tutted and lowered himself to the ground to let Lancelot and Merlin hop on his back.

"If you fall off, it's not my fault," Kilgarrah warned, then flapped his wings powerfully and took off.

Kilgarrah set them down a little ways behind the Careers. If Arthur knew Kilgarrah was still alive, it'd be hell for Merlin. If Arthur saw Merlin and Lancelot riding on a dragon... Well, let's just say that it'd be worse than hell.

They eventually caught up with the Careers. All them were just as stunned and surprised as Lancelot when they saw the good and well Merlin jumping around.

"But... How?" Arthur asked, pinching Merlin's warm cheek.

"I'm not as weak as you think," Merlin replied, wrenching himself away from Arthur.

"Yeah, but..."

"What does it matter?" Lancelot asked. "He's here and he's well, so now we can go close that veil!"

"He has a point," Gwaine supported. Lancelot gave him an appreciative smile.

It was sunset by the time they saw a dark light emanating from the top of a hill.

They approached it with drawn weapons and caution, unsure of what they'd find there. Getting up the hill was difficult - it was pretty steep and very tall. But, once they got on it, they were rewarded with a pleasing yet scary sight: the open veil between the worlds.

Gwen and Gwaine carried torches and fought off the dorocha hanging out around there. While they inspected the place for anymore dorocha, hollow-sounding footsteps caught their attention.

Arthur turned around first and recognized the person there as the face they'd seen in the sky the night before.

"You're... You're dead!" Arthur shouted, pointing at the Calleich.

"I am not dead. Morgause is. I'm simply using her form," The Calleich informed him.

"Then who are you?" Gwaine asked, stepping forward with his torch threateningly.

"Ooh, be careful with that. You might hurt yourself," The Calleich said with a chuckle. "I'm not scared by fire."

"You avoided his question," Merlin snapped.

"So we're defensive, hmm? Very well then. I'm the Calleich, the gatekeeper between the two worlds."

"Great! So you can close the veil?" Arthur asked.

"I could, but I'd need something."

"Such as...?" Lancelot asked.

"A sacrifice."

Her words rested on the group for a bit before they looked around each other. They formed a group huddle and began murmuring to each other.

"We can't sacrifice anyone," Arthur mumbled.

"But we have to," Gwaine replied.

"He's right, we have to," Merlin said.

"I'll go," Gwen offered.

"Oh, no you won't!" Elyan growled.

While they fought, no one noticed Lancelot slip away and begin walking toward the veil. The Calleich smirked at him. He walked bravely into the veil and it wasn't until he had two more steps to go that Merlin noticed.

"Lancelot, no!" Merlin shouted, running toward him.

But it was too late.

Lancelot looked back at Merlin right before the veil swallowed him up, his screams being the last thing Merlin remembered of his friend.