"Merlin for the hundredth time don't do this!" Arthur huffed as he galloped after Merlin, sure Merlin was a good rider but Arthur's horse was faster and the elder prince was only few paces behind.

"Father tried to kill me!" Merlin yelled, slowing mercifully.

"He didn't you know he didn't" Arthur soothed quietly riding alongside Merlin now.

"Yes but...he is scared of me" Merlin muttered dejectedly

"You know asking about magic put him on edge, just pretend you are not interested" Arthur insisted, "Come on, where are you even going?"

"I don't know" Merlin chuckled honestly

"So, we are just going to ride around all day and make father sweat aren't we" Arthur grinned

"That's my plan now I guess" Merlin agreed as he slowed his horse further, giving the poor creature a chance to rest.

The princes rode further into the forest before coming across a quiet glade to rest and practice their various skills in. Merlin went about trying to change the colours of various leaves with magic while Arthur started to set up a target using chalk on various boulders and trees to shoot his crossbow at.

All in all the day was going well, it was relaxing to be out of the castle and away from their duties, even if it was only for a few daylight hours. They both knew they were going to cop it big time when they returned, Merlin more so than Arthur. The latter could claim he was simply trying to return his brother to the city.

However unbeknownst to the brothers they were not alone in the forest, they were being watched. Somebody was about to strike.

-BREAK-

If Uther did not have such a huge sense of pride he would of screamed in frustration by now. He had been riding around the forest with a majority of the royal guard trying to find his sons. He was beginning to wish they were not such skilled hunters who knew how to cover their tracks, there was virtually no sign of the boys.

"Sire!" Came the call of one of the guards "We found something"

What greeted him made Uther's stomach churn nervously. Both the princes had obviously been here, practicing their archery and swordplay. Several targets were marked out on rocks and trees i chalk and cross bow bolts were stuck in some of them. What made his stomach churn was the number of messed footprints all over the glade. There had been a fight here. Several bodies of bandits lay on the ground, the princes had not gone easily, but they had gone.

"Why do they always find trouble..." Uther mumbled, from the look of things neither of his sons had sustained bad injuries, they had most likely been drugged or clamped over the head. He would receive a ransom demand soon enough. Just incase he sent his guards off to search the forest, the king went off through the deeper part of the woods, it was the most common place for bandits. He would give them hell.

-BREAK-

"Arthur? Arthur are you here?" Merlin whispered through the darkness his blindfold so kindly provided. As far as he could tell since waking his hands and feet were chained as was his neck for some reason. He pulled himself forwards to try and stand and was pulled back by a force on his throat. Great he was chained to a wall like a dog, this was just humiliating.

"Arthur!" Merlin hissed again, still nothing.

That frightened Merlin. He couldn't see or hear anything. No voices, not in muffled sounds, just silence, a horrifying realization hit him. QUickly he began to shake his wrists up and down, he could feel the chains hitting one another, but he couldn't hear them.

Not deaf.

Not deaf.

Pleasenot deaf!

Arthur hated this, he really hated it. Sitting all chained up and blindfolded in a stupid stone cell. He couldn't believe somebody could of actually knocked him out in the heat of battle. How humiliating, plus this chain around his neck! He was not a dog!

What really had him worried was the fact that Merlin was obviously wasn't with him. Arthur felt on edge trying to think of where he could be. Where he was too.

Bandits don't have stone bases, that was obvious, so this was obviously an abandoned manor or castle, if only he knew how long he had been out he could figure out which one and how far from Camelot they were.

"Ey you're awake!" Came a happy voice pulling down his blindfold and revealing a scared face, grinning with very few teeth.

"Who are you, where's my brother?" Arthur yelled

"He's fiiiiine" The man growled lifting Arthur up and pushing him out the door, "C'mon"

Arthur did his best to look at his surroundings and try to find something to tell him where he was. The first thing he noticed was the deep blue colour of the sky, the sun must of only set less than an hour ago so he had been unconscious for a significant amount of time.

The corridor lead into a hall much the one in his own castle, except not nearly as grand. The whole place seemed cracked and derelict. It matched the dirty, badly dressed men who inhabited it.

"Merlin!" Arthur called happily, his brother was kneeling in front of who Arthur suspected was the head of this group but at least he looked unharmed. For some reason Merlin didn't react. Arthur was pushed down next to Merlin who as it seemed was not unharmed, a large bloody patch stained his hair just above his ear, it would of hurt but it had stopped bleeding. Arthur assumed he had a mark similar since they had both been knocked out. What worried him more was that Merlin didn't even seem to know he was there.

"Merlin" Arthur nudged him, making the young prince jump then smile.

"Arthur!" Merlin exclaimed happily

"Don't worry, we will be out of here in no time" Arthur reassured him, though Merlin didn't look like he understood.

"You two are going to fetch a high price" The leader interrupted, Arthur sneered at him.

"Your ransom will not be paid" Arthur replied simply

"Who said anything about ransom, King Cendred will pay much more than your father" The leader laughed, "That doesn't mean we can't have our fun"

Arthur spun his head around at the sound of a cracking whip, what worried him was that Merlin didn't. Jumpy, nervous and obviously scared Merlin didn't even blink at the sound.

Quickly Arthur shuffled back a bit so he was out of Merlin line of sight.

"Merlin can you hear the whip?" He asked, nothing. Oh dear.

He could see the man with the whip advancing, the whip glinted with shards of metal, Arthur had a plan. He waited, the man raised it above his head, ready to bring the weapon down on the eldest prince, Arthur turned, hands pulled apart just in the nick of time as the chains keeping his wrists together were snapped by the wrist. He reacted quickly tackling the first man he could.

Soon Arthur couldn't even find Merlin in the battle he was waging, he hoped he had somehow managed to get away, there was no way that Arthur could win this fight but the least he could do was give out a few black eyes and give Merlin time to escape.

After a few minutes of brawling he felt himself being dragged out of the room by a grumbling guard and thrown into yet another dark room. A few seconds later Merlin was thrown in with a yelp. He had gained a new cut on his cheek but otherwise he looked ok. The key word being looked.

"Merlin" Arthur called, Merlin didn't face him, Arthur quickly soot and knelt down in front of him.

"I..." Merlin trailed off.

"Gods Merlin can't you hear?" Arthur moaned

"I, I can't hear you Arthur" Merlin chocked out "I don't know why, I can't hear anything"

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