This chapter is called, "Man's Best Friend, King's Worst Enemy." It didn't fit in my chapter-title-space.
Gingeraffealene: :) The best stories I've read have been full of dynamic characters. I'm glad you like how I've developed mine.
Mersan123: From bad to worse, and now it's getting even more dangerous for our favourite warlock. Hopefully Merlin will manage to keep his secret safe through all this… He he he
Arthur, Merlin, the knights were making their way stealthily through the forest. Their progress was painfully slow, but Arthur was extremely aware that any extra noise they made in haste could ultimately mean their deaths. All he wanted was to find out what had happened to the others and then retreat far enough away to form a plan. They had left their horses tethered back where Arthur had stopped to think after hearing the horn call. This was because this part of the forest was unfortunately think with brambles and branches, making riding impossible. Arthur and the knights had to constantly circle around snarls of thorns and brambles instead of hacking through them as they normally would, to stay quiet. Merlin cast a few subtle spells to muffle their footsteps and part a few tangles of brambles, but was careful not to overdo it and arouse suspicion. After some of their larger detours Arthur began to realize that he was no longer sure how far away the road was, or how far they had gone. He paused, casting a glance to the men behind him. By the looks on their faces they felt the same way. Arthur couldn't believe it. They were lost.
The dogs charged through brambles, thorns, and thickets as the knights of Amata struggled to keep up. The forest was growing increasingly more and more thick with underbrush the deeper they went. Grondin was doing his best to focus on maintaining a sense of direction through their convoluted route. His thoughts were also turning towards his knights as they struggled to move through such a constricted space, but then the dogs started howling louder than ever. Grondin grinned. They must be getting close.
Ooooowwwwww! Arthur spun around to listen to the noise. Was it wolves? Were they being hunted? Arthur would have been surprised if a pack of wolves would choose to go after a group of five knights, but when the first dog burst into view he realized exactly what was going on.
"Run!" They bolted. Arthur knew that they had a chance of escaping the notice of human eyes and ears, but none of them could hide the scent trail that would lead the snarling hounds straight to any hiding place they might find.
Grondin heard a voice calling "Run!" and knew that he had found his quarry.
"Faster men! We've found them!" The soldiers surged onwards with renewed strength, slashing and tearing through the underbrush.
Arthur ran wildly, constantly looking over his shoulder for his knights. The frenzy of their run and the thickness of the forest had split them up, despite all their efforts to stay together. He couldn't see anyone through the trees so he continued on, hoping to catch a glimpse of them further up. Finally, Elyan and Percival came up from his left. Gasping Arthur stopped running for a split second and grasped Elyan's hand. He grinned and then they resumed their race through the entangling branches. Arthur squinted as he looked up ahead. Light! There was light ahead! That must mean the branches would thin out! They went on, faster than ever.
Arthur burst out of the dense forest into the light, Elyan and Percival at his heels. He closed his eyes for a moment but Percival's dismayed cry startled him. The forest had thinned out indeed, and so had the ground. They were at the top of a sheer cliff.
Arthur couldn't believe his luck. It seemed that since he had left Camelot it had seemed that everything that could have gone wrong had gone wrong. From where he, Elyan, and Percival stood they were about fifteen meters away from the edge of the cliff. The forest circled the small opening like a net. In all it was an effective trap. In seconds the knights of Amata were upon them, swords and maces whirling while savage dogs snarled and lunged at their legs. Arthur sliced one of them in the muzzle, and it backed down with a whimper. Just as quickly another knight appeared in the dog's place and Arthur started fighting two men at once. All Arthur could see around him was the onsurge of warriors quickly filling the tight clearing. He thought of Merlin, and hoped beyond hope that his manservant had managed to escape somewhere back in the forest. Gwaine and Percival were also fighting multiple men at once, their swords slashing and whirling, but they all fought a losing battle. None of them had a chance against these kinds of odds. They were outnumbered more than ten to one and Arthur was quickly being pushed back against the cliff's edge. In a sneak attack two knights jumped on him from behind, their combined effort wrestling Arthur to the ground. His sword arm became twisted at a painful angle under the weight of thrashing limbs and Arthur helplessly felt it being wretched from his grasp. The knights had made a circle around him and their tall bodies were blocking out the sun. Arthur couldn't think, he couldn't breath. Is this how I will die? The thought was there and then it flickered out. Arthur wasn't sure if it was the lack of oxygen that was causing the blackness that was creeping over his vision, or just a lack of light. Faintly he could hear muffled voices shouting orders. "Bind his arms!" "Here!" "Stay away from the edge!" but they quickly faded out too.
Merlin ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Branches and thorns scraped his face, arms, and legs, but he didn't slow. Fear pressed itself to his chest and made his legs pump faster. He could hear the rabid snarling of the dogs combined with the mens' cries as he plunged deeper and deeper into the forest. Eventually the sounds had begun to fade and Merlin let himself slow for a second. He stared at the forest around him from where he stood, panting, and searched for any king of landmark, or indication of the direction of the forest's edge. Merlin tried to feel around the area near him with his magic, trying to sense anything that might give him a clue to his whereabouts, but all he could sense was more and more forest. His magic brushed something behind him that might have been an animal, but as Merlin turned to look he realized he was too late. Something whistled and Merlin felt a sharp pain in his back. He stumbled, and tried to clear his head but his vision was rapidly growing fuzzy. Merlin tried to take a wobbling step forwards but his leg could no longer support his weight and he crashed to the ground. He tried to sink his trembling fingers into the earth, to keep a grip on reality as the darkness closed in. No! Have to rescue knights, have to protect Arthur, Sarrum, danger, Arthur, arthur…
The two knights who had been chasing Merlin stooped over their prize. The first knight had rushed over to Merlin's body, excited, but when he had realized that the man wasn't the king, or even a knight, he snorted in disgust and disappointment.
"He's a servant. Might as well kill him now and save the hassle of hauling another prisoner to the Sarrum." The knight reached for his sword, but the other knight quickly stopped him.
"No! We still don't know if the king has been captured. If he does escape then this servant could prove to be valuable, for information or as a hostage. Besides, Lord Grondin said to kill no one, and I would rather not risk his wrath." The knight could see he was winning his argument, and he added one last point. "Anyways, I want to see how the poison reacts with him." The other knight conceded and the second knight plucked the needle-thin dart from Merlin's back. Together they lifted Merlin off the ground and bore him out of the forest.
"What did you hit him with anyways?"
"A little concoction I whipped up. It should have him out for half an hour with no side effects. At least… that's the idea." The two were panting through their conversation. Even though their burden was fairly light they wove a rigorous route through the brambles.
"We could have used this to bring all of them down! Why didn't you mention it earlier?"
"It hasn't been officially approved yet, and I've had no chance to test it on a human. When I heard about our mission I tucked one dart and a hollow shooting-log in my pouch before we left. I figured it would be fine to test it out on the servant." The knight shrugged as best he could while holding Merlin's legs.
"Humph. Suppose you're right. Although I'll not keep mum if Lord Grondin gets angry when he gets sick or something." The other knight looked worriedly at Merlin, trying to will him to be alright. At this point there was nothing he could do besides wait.