A/n: I'm a bit worried that this chapter is hard to follow so if you struggled to understand let me know and I'll include a quick little summary of this chapter before the next one tomorrow so it'll make more sense. :D

Chapter 15

Merlin's nightmares continued for the remainder of the holiday, ending up so bad on a few occasions that he and Arthur had to stay behind while everyone else went out exploring. It was annoying because they'd been having such an amazing time up until then.

"You have to come and see what we just found," Gwaine said loudly one day, bursting into the kitchen where Arthur was making some tea.

"What is it?"

"Caves," Gwaine said with a grin.

Arthur couldn't help but look up excitedly, "Really?"

"There's an entrance not far from here. We went in a little way but I came back to get some torches and stuff. And you, of course. Where's Merlin?"

"Bed. He's not feeling great."

Gwaine deflated, "Will he want to come?"

"Don't know. But if he doesn't, I'm not leaving him here by himself. Go and ask."

Gwaine vanished into Arthur and Merlin's room and re-emerged a few minutes later, "He's up for it. He's getting up now."

"I'll go help him. Make it faster. Can you get the dogs?"

"You're bringing them?"

"Might as well. They need the walk."

Soon, Gwaine was leading them through the countryside, not following any particular path. Their friends were waiting for them in a hilly area, full of rocks. Killi and Aithusa immediately started sniffling around and exploring.

"It's down here."

Merlin studied the ground uncertainly, "I don't know if I can get down there." There was a little gorge leading to the cave entrance. It looked muddy, slippy and unstable. Merlin's prosthetic, despite being better for walking and exercise compared to his old one, wasn't exactly great in terms of friction. He skidded and lost his footing quite regularly.

"I'll stay up here," he decided.

"I'll stay with you," Arthur offered immediately.

"Don't be silly. You did nothing but talk about this the whole way here. Don't choose to disappoint yourself. Look, the dogs can stay with me, nothing's going to happen here. You're the ones adventuring off into caves."

Arthur clenched his jaw but nodded.

Merlin kissed him quickly, "Be careful. Promise you won't rush back for me. You know I can wait outside here for hours. Do what you want to do. Go on."

"If you're sure."

"Go on!" he called the dogs over and told them to stay while the others all made their way down to the cave.

As soon as they were all out of sight, he took the dogs on a short walk around the hills and then returned to the entrance. He knew his friends wouldn't be back yet. But the view was incredible and he was more than happy to just sit there and wait. Killi and Aithusa didn't mind either apparently. Merlin let them run around, throwing a ball to them every so often or handing them a treat.

He should have known something would happen. Something always happened. It had probably been just over two hours since the group went down to the caves when the ground began to shake softly. Merlin stood up quickly, but the quaking suddenly increased and he fell over. It stopped as quickly as it had started and Merlin picked himself up. All around him, rocks from the hills and cliffs had tumbled to the ground and he was vaguely aware of a cut on his cheek.

"Killi! Aithusa!" he yelled. Both dogs came bounding over to him pretty quickly, "Here, let me look at you." He checked over both the dogs to make sure they hadn't been hurt in any rockfalls and once he was happy, made his way over to the cave entrance.

"No," he cursed. It was completely sealed over with boulders which had been dislodged from various places and fallen into the gorge. Very carefully, Merlin picked his way down, shouting at one point when Killi bounded past him and gave him a fright. He placed his hands on one of the rocks and tried to pull it away. Nothing budged. Very carefully, he climbed up a bit and tried some of the rocks at the top instead. A few of them crumbled and fell away, making a small hole. Merlin tried shouting down it but there wasn't a response. For at least another half hour, he was clawing at the rock and dirt, ending up with raw and cut hands and shaking fingers. Eventually he managed to create a hole big enough to squeeze through.

He picked Killi up, then Aithusa, and called to them to wait. He then somehow managed some sort of contortionist act to get into the caves after them. Knowing it was going to get very dark very quickly, Merlin fumbled around for the dogs' leads and said, "Ok. Let's go and find dad, shall we? Come on. Killi, find dad. Where's Arthur, Killi?"

"Well," Gwaine said, "That is a bit of a problem."

They'd found a huge, open cavern which must have been near an opening because there was a lot more light. They also thought it must be a lake or river nearby because they could hear running water and the ceiling was dripping water. Elyan had managed to take some really amazing photos there.

"It's your fault," Morgana said bitterly, "You were jumping around hitting the walls and the ceiling."

"I wasn't the only one!"

"It was still your idea!"

"Deciding whose fault it was isn't going to magically change the fact we're stuck!" Gwen screeched.

"Has anyone checked out where that light is coming from?" Lancelot asked.

"I did before," Leon said, "It's a series of tiny, tiny cracks. Impossible for anyone to get through. As is, I doubt a butterfly would get through it."

"Amazing," Lancelot groaned sarcastically, "So I guess we're moving these rocks then."

"We can squeeze through the gaps," Elyan said confidently, "There weren't that many turns, it was basically a straight path here so we won't get lost."

"We'll go in a single file line," Leon said, "Choose an order that makes sense and we'll call out every so often to make sure everyone's still there."

"I'll go first," Morgana said, "I'm smallest and I'll be able to get through gaps to see what's ahead."

"I'll go after," Percival volunteered, "If there's something that needs moving out the way, I can do it."

"Can I go somewhere in the middle?" Gwen asked timidly, not necessarily scared but definitely unnerved by the situation.

"I'll go after Percy and you can go after me," Lancelot took her hand and smiled reassuringly.

"I'll go behind you," Elyan said to his sister.

"I don't want to be at the back," Gwaine said, "So I'll go next."

Leon and Arthur shared a look, deciding between them who would be last.

"I'll stay at the end," Leon had realised that something was distracting Arthur and didn't want him somewhere he might get left behind if his mind wandered.

"Ok," Leon nodded, "We all have to be able to pass messages back to each other so make sure you're always listening closely. Morgs, you have to be able to shout back at everything. A loose rock, a big step down, if the space is tight, anything. You tell Percy and Percy, you tell Lance and so on."

"How are we going to be carrying stuff? Torches and water bottles."

"How many people have rucksacks?" Arthur asked, "We can fit everything in the bags we have and keep swapping so no one's carrying for too long."

They squeezed all their stuff into Elyan's, Morgana's and Gwaine's bags and were just about ready to set of when Leon asked them to wait for a second and pulled Arthur to one side.

"Are you ok?"

Arthur nodded, "Just a little shaken," he said.

"Sure? Because this isn't going to be safe."

Arthur tried for a smile, "I'm just worried something might have happened above ground too. Merlin's by himself."

Leon's eyes softened, "I doubt it has," he said honestly, "But if I'm wrong, most of the damage would have been in the gorge. Merlin would never have been down there, he'd be on solid ground."

"Yeah, I know."

"We have to work together, Arthur," Leon said, "Stay focused. No one would get through this on their own."

"Ready?" Lancelot called over to them.

Leon waited for Arthur's eyes to harden in determination before replying and re-joining his friends. They set off in their assigned order. Within minutes, their knees were scraped and their hands were starting to hurt. Gwaine kept trying to suggest songs to sing but would be cut off every time by Morgana pointing out something that might be dangerous.

They all knew it was going to be difficult but it proved to be hundreds of times more difficult than they'd imagined. When the tunnels had collapsed, the damage had gone a lot further back than expected. They'd all been hoping that it would only last a short stretch but it looked like the entire cave system had fallen in.

"Rest here for a bit!" Morgana shouted back, "There's an opening and enough space for everyone to sit down."

Percival helped everyone down into the area and they all shared out some water.

"We have to be nearly there now," Gwaine moaned.

Leon checked his watch, "It's probably still quite far. We're moving a lot slower now than we were on the way in."

"We might not even be going the right way," Elyan muttered.

"Don't say that," Arthur scolded, "We're fine."

"Well it's true, we-" Elyan was cut off by a deep rumbling and the rocks started to shift. Gwen let out a tiny squeak and shuffled closer to Lancelot instinctively.

"Get down!" Leon shouted, "Cover your heads!"

"Is everyone alright?" Arthur called out when the movement subsided. The damage had been minimal but they were definitely more sealed in now than they had been before.

"What's that noise?" Percival asked.

Everyone fell silent and listened closely.

"That's a dog barking," Morgana noted.

Arthur's face fell, "It's Killi." His heart started racing.

A shout soon started accompanying the barking and Arthur scrambled to his feet and tried to poke his head into the tunnels to listen.

"Arthur!" came the voice, "Arthur! Lance! Gwen!"

"Merlin," Arthur breathed before yelling as loudly as he possibly could, "Merlin!"

Both Merlin's voice and Killi's barking stopped for a moment so Arthur shouted again. His friends watched and listened with mixed emotions on their faces. Relief, confusion, fear.

"Arthur!"

"We're here, Merlin! We're all here!"

He heard some mumbling so guessed Merlin must be saying something but not loud enough for Arthur to make out properly.

"I'll come to you!" Merlin called.

"No!" Lancelot shouted before Arthur could, "Stay where you are, we'll come to you, we have light. What are the tunnels like?"

"The entrance is completely destroyed!" Merlin's voice yelled, "But once you get past it, it's clear until now. I walked most of the way. I can't see a thing but I think there's a huge wall of rock where I am now, though. I don't know how you'll get through it."

"We'll figure it out when we get there," Leon said, "Let's get moving. Same order as before."

Merlin was a lot further away than he sounded. They'd been clambering and crawling and squeezing through gaps for twenty minutes before Merlin called out again, sounding no closer. "Arthur!"

"We're coming, Merlin!" Arthur yelled back, a little distracted by the area he was passing through.

"Killi's on his way to you," Merlin said, "I think he's found a route."

After another ten minutes, Killi appeared in front of Morgana, yapping and wagging his tail, his white fur covered in muck. Hearing the barking, Merlin called through to find out what was going on.

"He's fine, Merlin," Morgana informed him, "He's with us!"

How Killi had got to them so quickly, none of them knew, because it took about half an hour to reach the wall Merlin had spoken about. The rocks seemed to have come from nowhere and moulded together perfectly. It took up the entire length of the tunnel and went what they guessed was about a meter back. Merlin heard the footsteps and movement and heavy breathing so called out, "Arthur?"

"He's coming," Morgana assured him, "He's at the back." They could hear each other perfectly now.

"Is anyone hurt?"

"No, we're fine. You?"

"I'm ok."

Arthur and Leon joined the rest of their friends and Arthur immediately went as close to the wall as he could get. "Merlin?"

"Arthur," everyone could hear the smile in his voice, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. We're coming."

"How do we get across?" Gwaine asked, looking the wall of rock up and down.

"Merlin? How did Killi get through?"

"There must be a little gap, see if you can get him to come back through it."

"Would we be able to fit?"

"I don't know. I can't see it, I don't have a torch."

"Killi, go find Merlin," Arthur said to his dog. But Killi only sniffed around the area.

"He won't do it," Lancelot said.

"I'll try and get Aithusa to go to you but she's scared."

"Don't bother," Arthur said, "We'll see if we can find it."

"I could try and get through."

"Don't you dare," Arthur warned.

"Where abouts was it?" Morgana asked.

"He went off to the left, I think. Well, my left, so-"

"Our right. We'll look."

After at least ten minutes of looking for a way through everywhere and finding nothing, Gwaine cursed loudly and made to punch the wall but Percival caught his arm, "Best not. Just in case."

"Arthur!" Merlin shouted, "There's a gap at the top, I can see your lights over it. It's definitely big enough if you can climb up. I'll help you down on the other side."

Everyone took a step back and looked up. Merlin was right. The top of the cave was free of any rock or rubble.

"Alright," Leon said, "Time for some teamwork, then. How are we going to do this?"

"I'll go first," Lancelot said, "I'll climb up and make sure it's stable enough then be on the other side somewhere to help Merlin."

"I'll give everyone a leg up from here," Percival said, "I'm the tallest and probably the strongest so I'll get able to get up without help from the ground."

"Lance, go up now and see how much space there is at the top. If there's enough, Gwaine and I can stay there and pull people up," Arthur suggested.

"Right," Lancelot looked at Percival, "Ready to give me a leg up?"

Percival studied the wall and found a large, flat boulder which he climbed up onto and knelt down before finding a comfortable, steady position and nodding to Lancelot. Lance stepped forward and stood on the boulder too. He placed his foot on the bit of Percival's leg just behind the knee, "Good?"

"Yup. Go on."

Finding his own foot and hand grips, Lancelot careful scaled the wall and heaved himself onto the top. He twisted himself around so he could see everyone, shone it torch and grinned down at Merlin then looked back to the others, "There's plenty of space for you to sit," he told Arthur and Gwaine, "But you have to bend down quite far. The ceiling is close to the top of the wall."

"We can work with that," Gwaine said.

"Throw your bags up," Lancelot said. Soon, he had Gwaine and Morgana's bags beside him and his arms outstretched for Elyan's.

"This one has the camera in it," Elyan warned, "Be careful."

Lancelot nodded in understanding and caught the bag with ease. He turned around and called to Merlin, "Catch!" He passed the bags down to Merlin one by one, then climbed down about halfway where there was a sort of platform.

"Alright! Arthur, Gwaine. It's clear!"

It was a few minutes before both men were sitting at the top of the wall, facing each other. Then, between them and Percival, they helped Morgana up to the top. She turned around and picked her way down to Lancelot with him telling her the best places to put her feet.

"You have to jump this bit," he advised, "But I'll catch you."

Morgana lowered herself to stand beside Lancelot. "Alright?" he asked.

"My arms are going to hurt tomorrow," she laughed, "So, shall I jump down this bit and land like a superhero?"

Lancelot laughed, "If you want to end up with a broken leg, go for it."

"Merlin would catch me, wouldn't you, Merlin?"

Elyan and Gwen got over in much the same way as Morgana. Percival pushed them off the ground, Arthur pulled them to the top, Gwaine lowered them down the other side, Lancelot guided their movement from his position and whoever was waiting at the bottom helped them down to solid ground. They then hugged Merlin and waited for the next person. The dogs barked most of the time, so they had to shout encouragement and advice to each other. There was also a lot of changing who was holding the torches and how they were holding them.

"Before I come up," Percival yelled when he was the only person left on that side, "What are we doing about Killi?"

"Try and call him through, Merlin," Arthur encouraged, "He might do it now there's more light."

Eventually, a combination of Merlin calling, Aithusa wining and the rustling of the treat bag, got Killi back through the tiny tunnel he'd found. No human ever would have fit through it. Merlin attached Killi's lead and told him to sit calmly beside Aithusa.

They waited for Percival to climb his way up to the top.

"Come down one at a time," Lancelot suggested, "We've found a good route now."

Arthur went first. Aithusa had lost her mind when she'd seen him at the top so they thought it best to get him down to calm her. He wrapped Merlin up in a hug when he got there before picking the dog up.

"You look awful."

"Thanks," Merlin laughed, "You don't look so great yourself."

"Why are you here?"

"I couldn't leave you down here after that collapse. I thought you might all be dead, I had to come and look!"

"It's dangerous, Merlin. You should have stayed where it was safe and called for help."

"With what phone? I didn't bring mine, you all have yours with you and there aren't any in the house. The nearest village is miles away, it would take half a day to walk there. I was hardly going to sit there and twiddle my thumbs."

"That's exactly what you should have done! You idiot! If there had been another fall, it could have crushed you! You can barely walk normally, why on Earth would you try caving?"

Merlin's eyes flashed with hurt.

"Maybe save it for later," Leon suggested awkwardly, "Let's get out of here first. How far did you say it was Merlin?"

"About half an hour. Then there's another bit that's collapsed but it's not loads and it leads out," Merlin tore his eyes away from Arthur sadly.

"Right. Do we want a break or are we all good?"

"Erm," Lancelot voiced guiltily, "Just to let you know, I may or may not have twisted my ankle jumping down the last bit of the wall."

"Well which one is it?" Morgana asked, "May or may not?"

"I did," Lancelot admitted.

"Can you walk?" Leon asked.

"Yeah. But I'll be slower."

"Wrap it up tightly," Leon ripped off the sleeve of his shirt, "Anyone else need anything?"

"Can I have a bit of someone's water?" Merlin requested.

Gwaine tossed him a his bottle out his bag and Merlin took a few gulps of it, thanked him and handed it back.

"Let's go," Morgana suggested, "We'll be home for dinner."

"I'm not cooking," Gwaine said immediately.

"I'm sorry, Merlin," Arthur said to him quietly as he took his hand and they walked, "I'm just scared."

"It's alright."

"I would have done the same thing," Arthur assured him, "And I'm glad you're here. So glad."

"Really?"

Arthur squeezed Merlin's hand, "You can't blame me for being a little bit angry, though. You're not well and you only have one leg and you don't have any light and the dogs-"

"I know, Arthur. You're right. But I had to find you. It was bad enough outside and I didn't know if you'd been squashed or killed or hurt."

"So your plan was coming to save us, were you? On your own, half-dead with exhaustion and without a torch?"

"I wasn't on my own. I had my lovely canine tour guides with me."

"Is that how you got here?"

"Yeah," Merlin said, "Killi found a route and I followed the way the lead was being pulled."

"Killi is very good at saving my backside," Arthur said, "Must love me more."

"Must do."

"So am I forgiven?"

"Of course you are!"

"You know," Arthur mused, "All this teamwork has done wonderful things for me."

"Feeling better? Finally appreciated how much everyone loves you?"

Arthur chuckled, "Yeah. Apparently we just needed to all be stuck in a possibly fatal situation that we could only get out of if we worked together to make me feel better."

"If only we knew that after the ferry crash. Would have saved a lot of time for Lancelot giving you therapy."

"I feel stupid," Arthur admitted, "For doubting everyone."

"You can't control how your brain works or what emotions you have. Especially after what you've been through. It was just a little glitch and I'm glad you're ok now."

"Even if you had to crawl through pitch black and crumbling tunnels for it to happen?"

"I don't care how it happened," Merlin said, "Only that it did."

"Arthur," Morgana said, slight fear in her voice, "Did you feel that?"

"What?"

"The caves," Morgana said, "They're shaking again."

"Why does this always happen to us?" Gwen cried, eyes fixed on the ceiling as it shook and crumbled.

"I blame Arthur and Merlin. They bring so much bad luck with them, I don't know how there's space left in their suitcases!" Gwaine offered.

"Now's really not the time," Lancelot suggested, "What do we do? It's going to collapse again."

"The same as last time," Arthur said, "Stay down, cover your heads."

He whistled Killi over and bent down, covering the dog with his body. Merlin did the same with Aithusa and huddled into Arthur's side. All around them, their friends were heading to the edges of the tunnel and squatting down, throwing their arms over their heads.

The destruction was considerably worse that time. Huge rocks were dislodged from where they'd been previously and fell around them for several minutes. The dogs barked in distress. Merlin and Arthur tried to comfort them, but they could hardly comfort themselves.

"The entire thing's going to fall in!" Leon shouted from somewhere, "The ceiling isn't strong enough!"

That was the last any of them heard.