"I'll get the horses. You distract the guards." Arthur ordered as we crouched near the drawbridge and I nodded before realising what he'd just told me to do.

"What? How do I do that?" I called back, watching the irritation on his face as he stopped to look at me.

"I don't know. Do I have to think of everything?" I let out an irritated sigh as he ran off before looking around for an idea. Hmm…

"Binne tófléon." I whispered, watching in pleasure as a barrel began to roll towards the two guards on watch duty. It stopped about a foot away and the guards began to approach it cautiously with their spears at the ready. I smirked. "álíese." I ordered, the barrel righting itself and I almost laughed as one of the guards jumped back.

"Whoa!" He cried, the other guard leaping back as well before they both slowly started to advance again. My shoulders were shaking with my suppressed laughter. Why didn't I do things like this more often? Watching these guards' reaction's to a barrel was hilarious! Unfortunately, my fun was to be short-lived if I ever wanted to rescue Gwen and the guards may have been distracted but they were still right by the drawbridge. No way we would be able to sneak past without them noticing and Arthur was sure to be back very soon with the horses.

"Swéor þá." I finished, intending for the barrel I had already enchanted to begin leading them further away but I was too distracted, rushing in case Arthur came back, and accidentally enchanting the other four that had been left standing to speed towards the guards, taking their feet out from under them and knocking them out in the process. The sounds of clanging rang through the night and I winced at the ruckus. Whoops. Still, they were out of the way so… I supposed it had worked. Arthur sped around the corner, reacting to the sudden noise and stopped dead when he saw me standing and the guards… not.

"What did you do!? I told you to distract them! Not knock them out!" Honestly, I would have thought he'd be impressed that I'd managed to knock them out.

"There's just no pleasing you sometimes." I uttered; the look he gave me in return showed that he most definitely wasn't pleased with my statement, either.


The sun was getting higher in the sky and I felt myself unwillingly beginning to drift off in the saddle, yesterday's worries and the lack of sleep catching up with me. Surely if I just closed my eyes for a moment… not to sleep but just to rest them… THUD!

"Ouch!" I cursed, my back complaining at its impact with the forest floor. How the…?

"What are you doing, Merlin?!" Arthur asked as he hurried to grab Raven as she went to go past him, startled by the sudden sound of my crash.

"I must have fallen asleep." I admitted begrudgingly. This had been my idea after all and now I was acting like a bloody Princess! And not in a good way. My body didn't want to co-operate though when I told it to get up and my head just fell back against the floor. "Ugh. I'm exhausted." I complained to myself as my eyes began to drift closed again. Get up! "I can barely keep my eyes open." I whined, not at the fact that I was tired and being made to carry on but because my own damn body was betraying me! Come on! Just get up! I felt something cold and wet falling into my face and my body shot up from the ground. Finally! Hang on…? What the…? I looked up to see Arthur glaring down at me with his wineskin in hand.

"Thank you. I feel so much better." Safe to say my voice was more than slightly sarcastic. He didn't look like he felt guilty.

"Your friend's life is at stake and you want to take a nap? This was your idea, so get the hell up off the floor and back onto your horse!" I nearly screamed at him to bugger off back to the castle if it was that much of an inconvenience to him but the truth was, I did need his help and I would be lost if he left me there. Literally. I still didn't know where we were going. I did as he said without complaint. He was right, after all. Didn't mean I was letting his remarks go, though.

"Really? My idea? From what I recall you insinuated to the Lady Morgana that you would have been going even without me badgering you."

"Of course I would have." His admission stopped me as I made to re-mount Raven.

"What? Why? I mean… she's just a servant."

"So are you." He replied, stating the obvious.

"Obviously. That's not what I meant Arthur." Like I thought her life meant less than mine? Yeah right, she was a much nicer person than I was. She was worth a hundred of me, in that sense. The only thing that made me special was a gift I'd been born with and would die for if anyone found out. As a person? She was much better than I was.

"Then what did you mean?"

"That she's a servant and you're a Prince and a Prince doesn't go into battle to save one lowly servant." My life was worth risking. His, however? That was a different story entirely.

"I got you the antidote to that poison. Why is this any different?"

"Because you thought you were just going up against one creature. This time, you're going into what is likely to be a full on battle with people that kill for a living. So why are you doing this?" As far as I knew he hadn't had much contact with Gwen, a little during the jousting competition but otherwise? She actually kind of avoided him. Maybe it was because of Morgana? She loved Gwen and was practically Arthur's sister, it would make sense for him to look out for her and those she cared about. Like me.

"Because she's your friend and I know you would forever remember that I didn't try to help her. That you would likely hate me for it. I already got your best friend killed. I'm not about to let you lose another when I can help it." His voice was quieter now, less sure of itself. I didn't think he'd really considered the reasons he was doing it before and that the answer had surprised him. Almost as much as it had me.

"You're doing this… for me?" My voice was a whisper as I stared up at him in awe. He would risk his life to save my friend… for me.

"And because Morgana would make my life a living Hell if I didn't." He tried to shrug it off, looking away from my eyes but I didn't find it easy to laugh off like I normally would. I knew things had changed between us but this? This I would never have expected.

"You really care about me, don't you?" My voice was just as quiet as before, I just wished he would look at me again, that I could see an answer in his eyes.

"What I care about is not wasting any more time talking. Come on." He ordered, still refusing to meet my gaze but I allowed myself a small smile as I climbed back into the saddle. The Prince of Camelot cared for me.


"We'll set up camp here for the night." Arthur declared, already dismounting his horse.

"No, we have to carry on." I urged.

"Merlin, the horses are exhausted. And so are you." It was true, the awakening spell I had been using throughout the day was beginning to wear off again and I felt ready to collapse but… what if we were too late? Arthur must have seen the worry in my gaze because he came towards me, helping me down from my horse and keeping his hands on my arms when I was safely on the ground. "Merlin, there are three possibilities here; either Hengist is keeping her ransom, hoping that Morgana will convince Uther to pay it, or Hengist believes that Gwen is Morgana or…" or she's dead. I finished the sentence for him in my head. "Either way he would know it would take time for someone to get there with the ransom. We have time." Arthur paused a moment, waiting to see if I would give in and continued when he realised I still wasn't convinced it was worth the risk. "We need to rest or we'll be too exhausted to even stand a chance of defeating Hengist's men." I sighed, accepting that he was right. I couldn't risk his life like that. Not when he was already doing this for me. I nodded before beginning to unpack my saddle bag, leaving Arthur to begin making a fire. He was a lot quicker at it than I ever was. Well, apart from when I used Magick anyway.

I sat across from the burning fire when he was done, beginning to release my hair from its braid and attempt to pull out the leaves and twigs that were stuck in it from my fall.

"Come on, just get out you stupid thing." I growled, wincing as I tried to pull out an entangled twig.

"Need a hand?" Arthur chuckled, finding my irritation amusing.

"No." I lied, wincing again as I tugged a little too hard. I didn't fight back as Arthur moved my hands away and started to gently pull my hair away from the incessant twig. He didn't hurt me, not even a little. I hadn't known he was even capable of being so gentle until now. I released a content sigh, struggling not to lean into him. It had been many years since someone had done my hair for me, memories of my mother's gentle fingers combing through it almost too long ago to remember.

"There. That wasn't too hard." Arthur smirked down at me and I gave him a gentle shove, nearly toppling over when he returned it.


"GWEN!" I screamed, my voice ringing through the forest as my heart pounded in terror from the nightmare that had plagued me. Images of all the possible deaths Gwen could have suffered at the hands of this faceless Hengist who held her captive. If she was not already dead.

"Merlin? Merlin?! Merlin! It's okay. It was just a nightmare. It's okay." My body was shaking as Arthur held me close, trying his best to comfort me as I struggled to get my breathing back under control and let him remind me that this was reality, not what I had just seen.

"Oh, Arthur… it was awful." My voice was small and Arthur held me tighter as I fought back sobs at what I had seen. It was just a nightmare. But… it had felt so real.

"I know but it was just a dream, Merlin. We will save Gwen; you have my word but for now… you need to rest." He was right. The night was dark which meant there were many hours before the sun would rise and the nightmare had left me even more exhausted than when I'd finally fell asleep. I nodded into his chest, missing his warmth when he released me to return to his sleeping roll. He didn't go straight back to sleep though, instead, watching me from across the fire as I struggled to let go of the bad dream enough to rest. After ten minutes of my eyes refusing to stay closed he sighed and stood up again, grabbing his sleeping roll and carrying it closer to me. Laying it right beside mine he lay back down, placing an arm around me and letting me huddle closer to his warm body. His even breathing and heartbeat lulling me into a dreamless sleep.


Arthur was already awake when I woke up, his belongings packed away and the fire smothered. I had slept surprisingly well on the forest floor after falling back asleep. I was under no illusion that it had been because of Arthur and I felt myself blushing when I remembered the scene I had made the night before. I must have scared the shit out of him with my screaming.

"Erm… Arthur?" I called; unable to spot him.

"Yes?" He answered, walking from where he'd begun to untie the horses.

"Nothing, just… thank you. For last night."

"Don't mention it." His voice was gruff and I struggled not to take it personally. It wasn't unusual for him to act this way after doing something kind. "Come on, we need to get moving." I didn't bother to argue. He was right, after all. I just rolled up my sleeping bag, hurriedly tying it back to the saddle and mounting. I think that had been the quickest I'd ever moved after waking up and Arthur's raised eyebrow showed he'd noticed.


The sun was at its highest point when we stopped, Arthur dismounting to get his bearings and check the map.

"The ransom was supposed to be delivered to the Veil of Danaria. If they're holding Gwen anywhere, it has to be there. Which means, it'd save a day's riding if we cut through the tunnels of Andor." He pointed out the tunnels that lay below us. I wouldn't have been all that fussed about going through the tunnel, it wasn't like I was claustrophobic or scared of the dark, but the trepidation on Arthur's face had me wondering what dangers we'd face inside.

"Oh no. I know that face. I'm not going to like this, am I? What's in the tunnels?"

"They're… infested with Wildren."

"What are Wildren?"

"Well, they're like giant…" He paused at the sight of my face. "baby rats." Phew. I didn't particularly like rats but baby ones? I could deal with that.

"They don't sound so bad."

"They feast on human flesh." Oh Hell no!

"Maybe we should go over the mountains?" I was all for saving time but it would be kind of pointless if we died before we even got there. Arthur didn't dignify that with an answer, ignoring me in favour of a bush to our left. "What are you doing?" I asked, irritated at him ignoring me.

"Wildren are completely blind, they hunt by sense of smell. Gaia berries will put them off the scent. So, if we smear ourselves with them, perhaps we can pass through the tunnels undetected." Huh. Not a bad idea. I picked a few before squashing them in my hand to release the juices and almost gagging when the smell hit me.

"Oh! Oh, these stink!" I went to put them on my face, forced to lower my hands when the smell intensified and I felt my breakfast fighting to come back up. "Oh, they're really bad."

"Perhaps you'd prefer to be eaten alive." How did I always manage to get myself into these sort of situations?

"Pass me some more, will you?" I asked, holding my breath before even attempting to smear them on my exposed skin. I stunk!

We were forced to leave the horses behind, trusting that they would wait for us. Well, he trusted and I chanted. They would not leave unless we died. It was all I could do if I didn't want to walk all the way back.

The tunnels were so dark that even our torches were struggling to light our way and I nearly screamed when I stood on something. Expecting a Wildren to begin chomping on my leg.

"Ah! I just stood on something." I warned Arthur, my eyes darting around for an attack.

"That was my foot." Arthur informed me and I felt my cheeks flaming in embarrassment.

"Sorry." He didn't reply, just continued on and I hurried to keep up. "How much farther is it?" Arthur quickly grabbed my torch and extinguished it along with his own, pulling me into an alcove.

"Shh! Wildren coming this way. Whatever happens, keep completely still." I nodded, barely breathing as I saw the shadow approach. Surely they weren't as big as the shadow made them look. Right? I mean, Arthur had said they were baby rats! Before I could look to Arthur for reassurance I was faced with the biggest bloody rat I'd ever seen! It was the size of a friggin' horse! Baby my arse! I felt his hand holding tight to my arm as it began to sniff me, ready to pull me away if it attacked. The size of its yellowed teeth had me seriously regretting letting him convince me to take the tunnels and I swore to the Gods that if I ended up dying by being eaten alive by a big ass rat I was going to throw one heck of a tantrum when I got to Avalon! Finally, the Wildren lost interest and began to shuffle off in the other direction. I barely stopped myself from collapsing in relief.

We continued our way through the tunnels in silence, neither of us wanting to risk drawing more of those creatures to us by talking and I practically ran to the nearby stream when we emerged, I couldn't wait to wash away the smell of the vile berries! No wonder the Wildren hadn't wanted to eat me covered in these. Ugh!

"Gaia berries worked. Huh." Arthur said in amazement as he began to wash himself. I just looked at him, my mouth hanging open.

"You didn't know if they worked?" My voice was deadly calm as I waited for him to admit that he'd recklessly endangered both our lives.

"Not for sure." He admitted, refusing to look me in the eye.

"Now you tell me?! Oh! Oh, what's that Wildren eating? It's all right. It's just Merlin. Are you trying to get us both killed?" My voice went higher in pitch the angrier I got, it was one thing to endanger my life, as if that weren't bad enough, but to risk his own over the sake of a day? If I didn't love him so much I would have killed him.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have risked your life like that." He admitted and I nearly shoved him in the stream I was that pissed off. The only reason I didn't was that I didn't want to waste time whilst he dried off, not after going through that ordeal to save it.

"Forget me! You are the crowned Prince of Camelot! You cannot risk your life so foolishly! It's one thing to risk your life saving people, it is another when you act rashly and take stupid risks! What do you think it would do to me if you were to die helping me save Gwen?!" The guilt would kill me. Losing him would crush me but knowing it was my fault… I wouldn't be able to bear it.

"Be careful Merlin, you almost sound like you care." He said it like a joke but I didn't find it funny at all. Not when he could have gotten us both killed only moments before!

"You know I do! You know how I feel about you!" I screamed, the thought of losing him still haunting me.

"No, I don't. How do you feel, Merlin?" He began to stalk closer to me and I backed up, turning away from him. "Why won't you admit it?"

"Why won't you?!" I shouted, turning back to him. My eyes burning but whether it was with tears or anger I wasn't sure. It was him who had made his feeling so unclear! He who had admitted to not knowing what he wanted! I may not have said the words out loud but my actions had spoken volumes.

"Because I can't! How can I admit that I think about you all the time? Or that… I care about you more than anyone? How can I admit that I don't know what I'll do if any harm comes to you?" He took a step back himself then, shocked at his own outburst. My mouth hung open.

"Why can't you?" I whispered, my heart pounding beneath my ribcage as I so desperately longed to close the gap between us. I shook it off as best I could. Don't dream too far… Don't lose sight of who you are… Don't remember that rush of joy… I was a servant and a Sorceress. It would never be. No matter how much I dreamed for things to be different, we were who we were.

"Why can't you?!" He demanded.

"Because I already know that nothing can ever happen between us! I've accepted that. But to admit my feelings knowing that...hurts too much." I admitted, my heart breaking as I accepted that truth all over again.

"If things were different, Merlin… if I wasn't a Prince… would you want to be with me?" No. Don't wish... don't start… wishing only wounds the heart.

"Don't ask me to answer that. Please." I begged.

"Why?" Did he honestly think I only loved him because of his title? Was he that unsure of me? Of us?

"Because it only makes it hurt more when I remember that it can't be. Whenever I think about what could be… it kills me every time reality comes crashing down and… I can't bear it." I just wished… Still… I had to know. "If you were King, would you change the laws? Just to be with me?" Would he really consider marrying a servant? Marrying me? I knew that he would never love me if he knew I was a Sorceress and maybe I was just a glutton for punishment in asking but… I had to know.

"It doesn't matter. I would never expect you to wait for me." He thought I'd move on? The thought of me falling for another would have been laughable in any other circumstance but the sadness in his gaze… he didn't think I'd wait for him. I couldn't help but make him one promise even knowing the chances of him accepting me when he learnt the truth was slim enough, the thought of him still wanting to be with me was unimaginable.

"Arthur… there's no one else. There never has been. There never will be. Whatever you decide I'll be there, even if it's just as a friend if that's what you want, but… I don't want anyone else." I felt my heart beginning to pound anew as he stepped closer to me, as he placed a hand on my waist, the other lifting to cup my cheek, guiding my chin up so I was forced to meet his eyes. His thumb stroked my lower lip and my mouth opened at his touch, my breath coming faster under his penetrating gaze. When he finally lowered his lips to mine the tears I had been holding back began to fall, I couldn't stop them. The things we'd said… it was all talk and that was all it could ever be. Loving him… knowing that he felt something for me too… and that it would never be. That when he knew the truth about me he'd likely hate me was slowly breaking me. When he pulled away I could see tears beginning to shine in his eyes, as he too accepted the impossibility of our situation. But I knew one day it wouldn't hurt him like this, that he would meet another; someone beautiful and kind and brave… and with a title. That he would forget how he felt for me and I… wouldn't.