Chapter 18
"You know. It's been nearly two months since anything has happened at Camelot. I think Arthur is starting to run out enemies," Merlin notes. We ride at the back of the hunting group which includes the warlock, Castor, Leon, Arthur, Harris and another knight I don't know the name of.
Leon and Arthur are engrossed in conversation, leading the group to the hunting grounds while Castor, Harris and the other knight make small talk about women. I watch Leon sit comfortably on his destrier, the black stallion. Leon had immediately taken to the horse (thank heavens) and the horse seems perfectly content with his new owner.
"Thanks, Merlin," I deadpan. "You've just jinxed us. And while Arthur hasn't got many enemies just as yet, Uther's had a whole reign of them."
"Well…at least we've got a small break," he defends, wrinkling his nose as he looks at Arthur up the front. "How are you and Leon anyways?"
"We're fine," I answer, tightening my grip on the reigns. "Why?" Merlin shrugs, trying to look casual.
"I don't know. It's just that you've never mentioned anything about your future with him. You tell me everything, but you never talked about marriage," he explains. I exhale slowly, watching Leon's back. His head is turned slightly, looking at the Prince and there is a smile on his lips, a short laugh escaping them.
"I don't know really. We've never really discussed it ourselves. I mean, he did insinuate he wanted to marry me, but I think we're both just living in the now if that makes sense."
"Yeah," he nods. "I didn't mean to worry you or anything. It's just been, what, a year and a half?"
"I think so, maybe two now," I think. "What about you? Still caught on Morgana?" I tease, my grip on the reigns loosening again. Merlin blushes, shaking his head.
"No. I mean she's beautiful but…" he trails off.
"Gwen then?" I offer. "You're friends with her and she's pretty, nice. Good heart."
"Gwen is all but in love with Arthur," Merlin counters. I shrug, looking up at the sun peeking through the trees.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean you can't like her. Unrequited love. Tragic but makes for a good romance story," I ramble.
"Well, I don't like Gwen," he laughs, "Not like that."
"You'll find someone one day, Merlin. Someone who won't leave your mind even when you're sleeping," I tell him. Merlin watches me intently and I smile at his wonder.
"I think I know what you mean," he says eventually, and we fall back into riding in silence.
For the rest of the day, we spend on our feet and I finally get to use a bow again. I miss wearing my trousers and shirt, the material so much lighter than that of the dresses. I almost shot a stag, Arthur, right by my side ready to take a possible shot as well but Castor was being a child and found it joyful to scare the life out of both of us, causing my arrow to shoot into a tree and Arthur's barely missed my neck. Needless to say, both Arthur and Leon gave him attitude for not causing us to lose our hunt but nearly killing me. Merlin just continued grunting about how he hates hunting. Harris and the other knight kept mostly to themselves, splitting off from the main camp.
Night has come and we sit around a small campfire as Merlin cooks a stew. I would help but I am rather terrible at cooking, so I went and got the firewood instead. I sit between Arthur and Merlin, slurping up the stew.
"Ugh, this is awful," I gag, wrinkling my nose and looking at Merlin. Merlin is shocked and his mouth opens to say something, but I laugh, giving him a light punch in the shoulder (much lighter than the ones Arthur gives). "I'm kidding. Thank you, Merlin. Without you, they'd all starve to death."
"No we wouldn't," Arthur scoffs somewhat offended. My eyes dart to the others in the group but they keep their mouth shut.
"Arthur," I begin. "Do Merlin and I have to remind you about the chicken?" Merlin snickers from next to me, covering it up by eating a spoonful of stew. Arthur's face scrunches.
"What chick-?" he wonders but then the realisation pops on his face. "I thought we'd never speak of that," he hisses but the entire camp is listening and hears it, soft laughter filling the air.
I laugh, letting the subject drop and finish my dinner. Castor and Leon sit next to each other, talking in hushed whispers. I raise an eyebrow wondering what they're discussing as their faces are frowning and Leon agitated. I let them be, engaging in conversation with Arthur again, discussing our route tomorrow, when Castor saunters over, a child-like face planted on him. He sighs, looking between Arthur and me.
"I just want to say that I'm sorry for making you lose the stag and nearly getting you guys hurt," he says, sighing again dramatically at the end. Arthur and side-eye each other in wonder.
"Ah, it's fine Castor but you owe us a deer," Arthur says. Castor nods, going back to his spot and Arthur leans up close to me. "He was like a child."
"You're just noticing?" I hush back but my eyes wander over to Leon who is smiling at me proudly. "And I have a feeling that Leon was behind that little performance of his," I add. Arthur follows my gaze towards his knight and chuckles quietly.
"That man would do anything for you," he muses. I hum in thought. I would do anything for him as well.
As we settle in for the night, I move my bedroll over next to Leon on the opposite of the camp.
"Thank you," I whisper, the cover tucked in under my chin as the rest of the camp is sleeping.
"What for?"
"Castor." Leon nods in understanding.
"He needs to grow up sometimes. He thinks life is all fun and games, but he's got to learn to take responsibility. He nearly got you killed today, and I felt like strangling him at how stupid he was." His eyes narrow, falling on something behind me which I'm guessing is Castor's sleeping figure.
"Please don't," I giggle but my words are serious. I shiver under my roll, the night air seeping through even though we are next to the fire. Leon opens his arms which are outside his thin blanket.
"Come here," he commands lightly. I shuffle over, using my legs to keep my arms and upper body under the cover. One of his arms opens on the ground, letting my head rest against it and the other wraps around my chest.
"Aren't you going to be cold?"
"No," he shakes his head. "I've got a lot more meat on me than you do."
"Merlin is probably freezing to death than," I chuckle. In sync we lean up, looking over to the other side of the fire. Merlin is wrapped in his blanket, shivering and has moved his bedroll as close as possible to the fire without catching it on fire. "Poor thing," I say, lying back down in Leon's arms. I can feel his breath against my hair as I sink into him, relishing the moment.
The following day we follow the route Arthur and I discussed last night (who had been rather surprised about my knowledge until I reminded him of my eight months travelling). We leave the horses at a new camp and go on foot silently hunting again. Castor wisely stays silent except when needed. I think that he actually feels bad about yesterday. I mean, the arrow was quite literally less than an inch from my neck. I felt its wind.
The day is a success and we lug back to camp with much more than we had yesterday. Tonight, we are to camp again then head back to Camelot in the morning. Picking up our same routine from the previous night, Merlin begins to cook the camp some dinner.
"I'll go get the firewood," I say. "It's already getting dark."
Castor hops up, jumping over a bedroll to walk next to me.
"I'll help," he decides. None of the party argues or request his help elsewhere so I agree, and we wander around, picking up any sticks of decent size.
It's quiet, unusually for being in the company of this certain person. He's thinking about something and I don't want to break his thought. Maybe he left camp for some peace. My arms are soon full, and we are quite a bit away from camp.
"We should head back," I note, glancing up at the dark sky. It's just past sunset, barely any remnants of light left. "Don't want to get lost."
"Ok," he agrees quietly, and we start walking back the way we came. "I am sorry by the way. About yesterday. I didn't think that Arthur was aiming so close to you."
"It's alright Cas," I smile. "I'm fine. Arthur's fine. Don't stress yourself over it." He huffs, kicking a stone away.
"Leon was pissed at me though. I don't blame him. I saw the arrow near your neck."
"Leon is just being Leon. He won't be mad at you for long," I assure him. "Your one of his closest friends." He doesn't respond to I decide to take to conversation somewhere else. "Cas, why don't you ever try and settle with someone? Is there a reason or you just don't like the idea of settling?"
"I suppose I just always had this mindset that stopped me," he says. "I was taken from my original home in the blink of an eye and I always figured that it would happen again. I mean, you were in your time for what, nineteen/twenty years before you were pulled here? What's to say it won't happen again. One day here and the next we could be walking with cavemen or somewhere far into the future. I don't want to fall in love and constantly be scared that one day I'll be taken from her."
"I…I've never thought about it like that. I suppose I gave up on the idea of going back home so I never really thought about it," I mumble.
What if that happens? What if one day, the man finds me again and takes me away from everything I know here. I've found a home in Camelot; one I belong in more than I ever did in the future. Could it really be taken away from me so quickly? To die is one thing, but it is another to be forced to leave it, remembering for the rest of your life what you left behind.
"Shouldn't we have reached camp by now?" Castor wonders, breaking me of my thoughts. I look up from the ground and notice he's right. There is literally nothing around us that resembles where we came from.
"Did we go in the wrong direction?"
"I don't think so. This is south and we went north when we left."
"Well, where the hell are we then?" I snap, dropping the sticks to the ground. I run my fingers through my hair, grating them across my scalp. I didn't want to be lost. Anything but lost. "They'll notice when we don't come back. They'll look for us," I ramble aloud, more for my own sake than Castor's.
"We're fine. Arthur is an excellent tracker and trust me, we weren't exactly graceful," he laughs, dropping his own pile. I roll my eyes and glance around our surroundings. The darkness and shadows dominating the forest creating a quite eerie atmosphere. I look back at Castor, about to suggest we retrace our steps, but I freeze as I see a figure covered by the shadow standing behind a clueless Castor.
My heart thumps against my chest loudly as I take the moment that I have to spare to think about what to do.
"Castor!" I shriek. His face snaps up to me at the sound of terror in my voice and I point to the figure behind him. Castor jumps backwards in surprise and unsheathes his sword. I reach for my bow, but I've left it at camp, leaving me defenceless.
The man raises his hand towards us, but he has no weapon in sight. There is, however, the well-known golden glow of his eyes through the shadow. Castor flies back through the air by a hidden force. Magic. He lands on the ground unconscious, his sword lying next to him.
"Castor!" I cry out again, falling down next to him. To my relief, he's still breathing and there are no wounds on him; physically at least. The man, whose face is still covered walks forward slowly. I grasp Castor's sword but we both know how useless it is against magic, but I won't go down without at least trying to hold my own. "Who the hell are you?" I snarl, raising to my feet.
"Someone you shouldn't have said no to," he speaks for the first time. Not wanting to hear anymore, I swing the sword up, preparing to strike but his words are quicker than my actions and before the sword can even swing down, his eyes flash gold. The sword drops my hands as I lose feeling in them. Next, I drop to my knees and my eyes begin to flutter close. I barely feel my head knock against the leaves, a blurry Castor in front of me. The world spins like I've been spinning on a chair far too long.
Then absolutely nothing.