A/N: First full multi-chapter fiction. I do not own anything from the Merlin series, they are property of the BBC and their respective affiliates. I do however own the character of Steele.

I would also like to thank It's-Teatime-Somewhere and Loopstagirl for helping with the beta reading, you two are awesome!

Chapter 1

She walked through the darkened forest, the leaves and dead foliage crunching beneath her feet. All around her Morgana could hear hissing and screeching coming from the unseen creatures. Entering a small clearing and stopping, fear taking hold, Morgana looking around. Turning around, ready to continue on her way, she was faced with a large scorpion, larger than any should be. The creature slowly approached her, snapping its claws and hissing at her. Quickly grabbing the nearest object that could be used as a weapon, a large piece of a branch, she gripped tightly and raised it to her side. As she did so, the scorpion hissed again and began backing away.

For a moment, she was happy that it was leaving, however, that feeling quickly faded as a much louder hissing and rattling sound coupled with the noise of something cracking emanated from behind her. As she turned around, fear completely gripped her as she stared at a giant scorpion, its tail towering over her. Her eyes locked on the tail, she screamed as it arched back, ready to strike. Dropping the stick, she began to make a run for it. But not before the scorpion screeched out and struck the back of her leg with its stinger.

Collapsing forward from the impact of the creature's strike Morgana began gasping as she hit the ground, the fear now completely taken over. She propped herself up on her elbow, looking back to see where the creature had stung her. Seeing the fresh gash down her leg, Morgana gripped behind her knee as she looked up to see the giant scorpion was coming closer, screeching as it did so. She quickly turned around, hearing more crunching coming closer. Coming towards her from all directions were more giant scorpions! As they drew closer and closer she began to feel herself growing weaker, her eyelids becoming heavy.

Before they were upon her, a loud roar was heard, followed by a slightly lower growl. The encircling monsters ceased their advances and began backing away. With the last of them retreating back into the trees a large black figure slowly approached her. As it drew closer Morgana saw that its visage was that of a wolf. Slowly slipping into un-consciousness, her eyes closing and head drifting to the ground, a low growl was heard coming from the beast before her.

Lowering its head towards her the beast nudged her shoulder with its snout, flipping her onto her back to get a better look. Seeing that she was still alive, her chest slowly raising and sinking with each breath, he began pondering what his next move would be. Hearing someone approaching, he quickly scooped her up into both of his arms, slung her over his shoulder and bolted into the forest.

As he Ran through the woods with her still unconscious over his shoulder, he came to a small hovel built into the stone and dirt along the side of a pathway. Pushing through the old wooden door the creature entered the pitch black room, making its way to the only bed at the far end of the hovel. While doing so he picked Morgana from his shoulder and held her lying in both his arms as he easily avoided any obstacles in his path.

Coming to the bed, he dropped her upon it. Staring down at her, he picked up the scent of something that shouldn't be there. He took another quick sniff to determine where the foreign scent was coming from, which led him to her legs. Leaning over, he spotted a gash along the back outer side of her right leg. A closer look allowed him to pick up what the scent was: serket venom. Leaning his head down towards the wound, the beast began to lick at the wound, lapping up the blood and venom.

Certain that the wound was now cleaned and the venom removed and neutralized; he stood, looking over her once more. Moving away from the bed the creature began to shrink slightly in size as his bones cracked and moved back into place. Having reverted back to his normal self again he leaned against the nearest wall for support, slightly drained from the change. Looking around he quickly began to light the candles scattered throughout the hovel.

With the candles lit, the former beast pushed himself away from the wall and walked to a small table. Plucking the old grey and torn tunic from it, he proceeded to put it on. Once dressed, he turned to face the woman lying unconscious on the bed, grabbing some cleaning rags as he did so. Coming to the foot of the bed, he sat along the edge, the cloths being placed down next to him. Staring at the women, he looked her over from head to toe until he came to the gash in her leg. Slowly and gently, he slid the dress a little further up her leg to get a better look at the wound. Looking it over, he reached for his cloths and began to wrap it around the leg, being sure to tightly cover the gash. Pleased with his work, he stood, grabbing a chair next to the bed and put out all of the lit candles as he sat, all but the one sitting on the stand at the head of the bed. Watching her sleeping form, the unknown boy slowly drifted into sleep.

The sun had now risen, bringing what little light it could into the hovel. As it streamed across his face he slowly opened his eyes, first looking to the ceiling, then to Morgana's still sleeping body. Pushing himself off of the chair he stretched out and made his way to her injured leg. Seeing that very little blood had seeped through the make do bandages, he grabbed the remaining rag from the edge of the bed and a small bowl of water and moved to sit back down again. Dipping the rag in the bowl and wringing out some water he began to gently dab it across her forehead, attempting to cool it and cleaning away any sweat that had formed due to the sting.

As he continued to dab her forehead Morgana slowly began to wake up. As her eyes opened, slowly adjusting to the sudden light, she could feel something on her head. Looking up she was met by the face of a boy, a little older than herself, with short, dark brown hair and light blue eyes with a yellow ring around each pupil and a slightly stern grin on his face. She quickly shot up; fear clear on her face, but the boy quickly, and a little too roughly for her liking, grabbed her arms, holding her still.

"Enough, I'm not going to hurt you." He said, anger clear in his voice, still holding her arms down at her side, his grin slightly lightening.

As she struggled against him, trying to break free, she gasped as she felt a sharp pain in her right leg. Bending down to see what had caused it, she could see a bandage wrapped around her leg, blood seeping through. Stretching to remove the bandage, the boy grabbed her hand, holding it firmly in place.

"Leave it." He said while looking at her, his voice stern.

"What happened?" she asked, bringing her head up, staring him in the eyes, her hand still in his.

"You injured your leg, Stung by a serket. I... found you in the woods." The last bit dragged out, as though he was trying to hide something.

"Where am I? Who are you?" she asked, looking at him questioningly, fear and stress evident in her voice.

"I'm Fen... Steele." He said, cursing himself for his sudden weakness around the woman before him. "You're safe here." He finished, releasing her hand.

She shook his remaining hand off her arm and tried to push herself up to stand above him, Steele standing from the chair as she did so. As she put weight on her right leg she winced as the pain shot up it. Once the pain had struck, she could feel herself collapsing once again. Before she hit the ground, she felt a pair of arms catch her just above her waist. Looking up, dazed, she saw him kneeling in front of her. He was holding her up, a brief look of concern coming over his face, then as quickly as it came was replaced once again with a stern visage.

"Are you ok?" He asked, "Don't move that much."

Helping her stand again, He leaned the girl into his shoulder, slowly guiding her back to the bed. He slowly lowered her back down, lifting her leg and laying it flat on the mattress. Once she was lying down again, he opened the drawer of the stand next to the bed, pulled out a new candle and replaced the one atop the stand, which had burnt out sometime in the night. Morgana lay there, watching him as he placed the new candle in the holder and sat back down in the chair next to her.

As he sat down, she could see his eyes, the yellow centres flashing outward from the pupils as the candle suddenly lit, illuminating the space around them. Her eyes widened and her mouth hung slightly open in shock as she quickly sat up on her elbow, quickly looking to the candle then back at him. He just sat there, turning his attention away from the candle and back to her, their eyes meeting, her light emeralds to his light blues, the yellow slowly returning back to the centre of his, seeming to glow from the candle light.

Seeing the shock spread across her face he leaned back in his chair continuing to just stare at her.