A/N: Thank you GuestM, Guest, Buckhunter, SnidgetHex, and leyapearl for reviewing! I'm glad you enjoyed the twist. :D The griffin was a nice callback for Lancelot in the show, but it's also part of the German fairytale "The Lady and the Lion" where the evil enchantress kidnaps the prince and the lady's griffin and flies away on it.

Chapter 9

Lancelot tried to shift his cramping limbs, but he was chained so tightly in the castle courtyard that he couldn't move, and the chain links were pinching some of his feathers and fur painfully. Feathers and fur. Nimueh had more imagination than Uther when it came to turning mortals into animals. Lancelot hadn't escaped that fate after all.

Clomping hooves caught his hearing, and Lancelot flicked his gaze toward the gate. He couldn't see well at first, but gradually the visitor came into view—a familiar white horse with a young man riding bareback. The boy swung down before the horse came to a complete stop and hurried toward Lancelot. Lancelot cringed away from him.

"Shh," the boy soothed. "It's me, Merlin."

Lancelot blinked at him in confusion. The boy's eyes were the same shade of blue as Arthur's talking cat…

Merlin looked around the empty courtyard, then he whispered something under his breath and his eyes flashed gold like Nimueh's. The chains broke in several places and slid off Lancelot. And while he was much bigger in size as a griffin, Lancelot still scrambled backward in fear of the sorcerer.

"Hold still for a minute," Merlin instructed, raising his hand.

Lancelot tensed, muscles twitching with the urge to take flight and flee, but Merlin's familiar voice stayed him. The young sorcerer cast another spell, and Lancelot once again felt magic course through him. He braced himself for excruciating pain, but it didn't come. Unlike Nimueh's magic, Merlin's cocooned Lancelot in a blaze of warm light that swirled around him. The next thing he knew, he was sitting on the ground, human again.

Lancelot patted himself down, dazed, then looked up at Merlin. "Thanks," he said shakily.

Merlin offered him a hand up, and Lancelot nervously took it. "Come on, we have to save Arthur."

The white horse neighed sharply and pawed at the cobblestone.

"Yes, I will turn you back into a man too," Merlin said. "But after we deal with the evil witch."

The horse snorted indignantly.

"Just stay here and stand guard, please," Merlin asked.

The horse looked disgruntled but didn't gallop off.

Lancelot gaped at Merlin as he beckoned for Lancelot to follow him into the castle.

"Um, how…?" Lancelot started.

"It's a long story," Merlin replied. "One I'll tell later when the time is right."

Lancelot was burning with questions, but he fell silent as they crept into Nimueh's castle. Like Uther's dwelling, she didn't seem to have any people around, but also no statues that might come to life and attack. There was no sign of her or Arthur either. Lancelot wanted to ask how they were going to search the entire castle without getting caught, but Merlin seemed to know where he was going. Cat's sense, perhaps? That was another thing Lancelot was trying to wrap his head around. Why had Merlin never said he could change into a human? Or that he had magic? Although, Lancelot supposed it shouldn't be surprising that a talking cat was magical.

They made their way through the corridors until Merlin pushed open the door to a bedchamber, and there on the bed was Arthur. Lancelot hurried over and shook the prince urgently, but he didn't wake. Nimueh must have put another spell on him.

"What do we do?" he asked Merlin. "Can you wake him?"

Merlin's mouth set into a firm line as he stepped up to the bed, but before he could cast a spell, the door swung open behind them. They whirled to find Nimueh standing on the threshold.

"Merlin," she said tightly. "What are you doing here?"

"This has to stop," he said.

She scowled at him in derision. "I saved our people from Uther's reign of terror."

"You punished many innocent for it too," Merlin countered. "And what you're doing to Arthur?" He gestured at the unconscious prince. "Stealing his will and soul to make yourself a queen?"

The sorceress's eyes blazed with fury, and the air began to crackle. Lancelot backed up against the wall as the tension built to palpable levels.

Nimueh suddenly cast a spell without warning that sent Merlin flying over the bed and crashing to the floor on the other side. She whipped toward Lancelot next, but Merlin popped back up and blasted her with a similar spell that threw her out into the hall. A fireball came shooting back through the door and Merlin dove out of the way. It crashed through the window to fall to the ground outside.

Merlin spun and cast a burst of wind at Nimueh. She must have cast a counter spell or something because the magical attacks collided mid-air with a concussive force that shook the castle walls. Lancelot threw himself over Arthur to shield him as loose granules fell from the ceiling. Nimueh shrieked in fury and cast another explosive spell. Lancelot knew he was way out of his league with magic, but he couldn't just sit by and do nothing.

There was a decorative sword mounted on the wall, and Lancelot went for it. He slid the blade from its case just as Nimueh threw Merlin into the wall again with such force that he crumpled to the floor in a groaning heap. Lancelot came up behind the sorceress, but she must have sensed him because she whirled, and with a flare of golden eyes, sent the sword flying from his hand and clattering across the floor. In the next moment, his windpipe closed up, cutting off his air.

Lancelot's eyes blew wide and he shot a hand up to his throat. Nimueh stared down at him as he desperately tried to suck in air. His lungs burned and he dropped to his knees. Across the room, he saw Merlin struggling to get up. The young man met his eye with fervent resolve, and then looked toward the sword lying on the floor. Lancelot's vision started spotting, but he let his other hand drop down to the floor.

Merlin's eyes flared amber and the sword slid across the room and into Lancelot's grip. With his last ounce of strength, he thrust it up into Nimueh's chest. She gasped in shock, the gold in her eyes winking out. Air whooshed back into Lancelot's lungs with the next hitch of his chest, and he yanked the blade out as he swayed backward. Nimueh fell to the floor, dead.

Lancelot rocked back on his butt, the hilt slipping from lax fingers. His chest heaved with desperate breaths, both from the oxygen deprivation and the adrenaline.

Merlin pushed himself off the floor and came over, looking down at Nimueh remorsefully. He then shifted his gaze to Lancelot and nodded. "Well done."

Lancelot was still in a bit of shock, but a sound from the bed drew his attention. Arthur made a muffled noise of waking. Before Lancelot could get up to go to him, Merlin suddenly transformed back into a black cat with a poof of magic. Lancelot quirked a confused look at him.

"Don't tell Arthur yet," he asked. "Things aren't over."

Lancelot didn't know what that meant, but he pushed himself off the floor and staggered over to Arthur, who was squinting and looking around in confusion.

"What… Where are we?"

"What do you remember?" Lancelot asked instead.

Arthur's face scrunched up in thought. "My birthday celebration. A woman barged in…" He looked around the room again. "How did I get here? And where is here?"

"Nimueh—the sorceress—kidnapped you." Lancelot hesitated before adding, "I came after you."

Arthur swung his legs over the side of the bed in alarm, only to stop when he saw Nimueh dead on the floor. He blinked when he spotted Merlin, then looked between him and Lancelot. "Just the two of you?" he asked dubiously.

"And the horse," Merlin added.

Arthur stood up, looking unsettled.

"We should go," Merlin said before he could ask any questions they couldn't easily answer.

Lancelot wondered what he would say if Uther brought up the whole being transformed into a griffin thing… Not that the king would care about a servant.

They walked out to the courtyard where the white horse was still waiting, which was good. It'd be a long walk otherwise.

Arthur pulled up short. "I remember what she said about my father, about why she cursed Camelot in the first place."

"It is not because of you," Merlin said firmly.

"Isn't it? I caused my mother's death, which turned my father's heart black."

"Uther is responsible for his own actions," Lancelot carefully put in. "He let grief and rage consume him rather than being thankful for what he still had."

Arthur looked away. "My mother died because of me. No wonder my father despises me."

"He doesn't hate you, Arthur," Merlin replied soberly. "He thinks he's protecting you out of love. He can't see how fear's twisted it into something cruel."

Arthur shook his head. "All this time…I knew my father was a hypocrite when he turned enemy knights into animals." He flicked a look at the horse. "But to know his hypocrisy runs deeper than that, that he committed so much carnage and bloodshed when he used magic in the first place…"

Merlin didn't say anything as Arthur trailed off. What was there to say? Uther was who he was; he wasn't going to change.

Lancelot cleared his throat. "You're free now," he said. "You could go anywhere from here."

Arthur turned his gaze out to the horizon, a glimmer of longing in his eyes. But it quickly turned to grief. "My people aren't free, and I can't abandon them. There must be a way to break the curse, and I will devote the rest of my life to finding it if I must."

Lancelot nodded sagely. "Then I'll go with you."

Arthur's brow furrowed. "Lancelot…that means more to me than you will ever know. But I cannot ask you to give up your life and freedom for a kingdom that may be a lost cause. Not when you're free now too."

"You're my friend, Arthur; you don't have to ask," Lancelot replied. "I will gladly stand at your side wherever you lead. You taught me the values of being a knight, and while I can never be one, I want to live my life by that code."

Arthur looked taken aback and slightly touched with emotion. He nodded and held his hand out to clasp Lancelot's forearm. Lancelot returned the grip fervently.

"Alright then," Merlin piped up. "Back to Camelot?"

Arthur took a deep breath and nodded.

They turned to continue toward the horse, who immediately shot Arthur a dirty glare on his approach.

Merlin darted over to him. "We have need of your services just once more," he said beseechingly. "Please take us back to Camelot?"

The horse shook its mane and snorted in refusal.

"I haven't forgotten," the cat promised. "There's a purpose for everything," he said cryptically.

The horse eyed the cat skeptically, but then snorted again and turned to the side so they could mount. Lancelot climbed up on his bare back first, then Arthur behind him. Merlin jumped into Arthur's arms. Lancelot barely had time to grab a fistful of mane as the horse leaped into a canter. Arthur grabbed the back of Lancelot's coat with one hand as he tried to hold on and not squish Merlin between them.

The horse loped out of the castle, taking them back to Camelot and whatever fate awaited them there.