"My Choice" (Rose)

I would be lying if I say Merlin staying behind does not hurt me. Every fiber in my body wanted me to turn back and ask him to come; but I didn't. Life is a series of little choices. He made his, now I'm making mine. I am deciding to press on and do what I know I should. Our destinies may intertwine, but that does not mean every part has to.

I hear thundering hoof beats coming up after me. I heed their slowing as well. "Rose!" Merlin's voice calls out to me- music to my ears. I turn around and take in his face. He has a determined look creasing his brow.

"What are you doing here, Merlin?" I question.

"I'm coming with you," he states like it's obvious.

"I do not think that to be such a great idea," feeling the threat of an outpouring of emotion.

"What do you mean?"

So many different things, I think, but tell him my main reasoning, "I mean, that perhaps this is something I should do alone ... You wouldn't understand."

"You're looking for your family. What's not to understand?"

"How did you know that?" I peer at him. I hope he can't read my mind!

"It's what I would do, so I just assumed," he says with a bashful twinge.

"I see," I nod, "What about Gaius?"

He cocks his head in confusion, "What about Gaius?"

"Oh, I don't know ... his concern?" I raise my eyebrows, "I was hoping you would cover for me. He will surely wonder where we are."

"Oh," he brightens, "Don't worry about that. I've become good with excuses. We'll just say I got carried away with the tour and lost all track of timing."

"That does sound like something you would do," I admit.

He smiles, "So?"

I sigh, "Fine then, Merlin. Come along."

Maybe, I shouldn't be letting him come, but as I said before, life is a lot of little choices that play out to make our individual lives. He made the choice be there for me, and my choice is to trust him with that burden.

"Signs of Life" (Merlin)

She allows me to help her. This makes me smile to myself, but I quickly recall the severity of the situation. I become extremely solemn at this and offer her my hand to help her back up onto my horse. We ride on a straight course for a short while. "Here," she cues me to stop. When I do, she hops down and gets right to work.

In a serious tone of voice I don't usually use, I ask, tying up the horse to a nearby tree trunk, "So where are we looking?"

"Anywhere and everywhere," she says with a blank expression, but deep concentration.

"Okay, better question- what are we looking for?"

"Any signs of life- broken branches, footprints in the mud, things like that."

"So we're tracking."

"Basically," she nods tromping through the brush ahead of me, "Also, a tip: open up your senses. Feel the forest around you. It is very still. Try and detect movement by opening up your mind."

I relax and focus on my surroundings, moving forward all the while. She is right. This place is tranquil. It is so much so that it might lead one to believe, other than the obvious scattered plants and trees, that there was no other life in the woods at all.

I stop dead in my tracks when I nearly bump right into Rose who is at a standstill directly before me. "Whoa," I gasp, "That was a close one." She doesn't answer, doesn't move. "Rose?" I whisper.

She turns her head to face me as best as she can. She looks as if her very blood has run cold, "Merlin ..." Her eyes are wide with horror, almost wild looking.

"What is it?" I ask, then survey our immediate surroundings. I do not see anything of note, so I relax. Right when I do, I see them. Lifeless bodies spread around the forest floor, stained with their own dry blood. I peer further and see the remains of their homes. Their tents look like beasts have shred them. I become sick with agony and with remorse.

What I'm seeing is the very death of innocence. Here I stand, a sorcerer who lives in Camelot and still practices magic, and here they lay, beings that have not let any spark of magic out of them for at least twenty years. I, truly guilty, still live, while they, wholly blameless (in this aspect) are wiped from the face of the earth.

Rose begins to shake violently the way she did the night Gaius excavated her from this very scene. I cannot now bear to think of her meeting an end such as this. Yet, I have not the words to say that she needs to hear at this moment. However, I feel that the time for talking has passed us temporarily.

She takes a few timid, sorrowful steps forward, before breaking out into an all out run.

I call out her name, dashing after her.

I'm on her heels when we burst into a small clearing. She shoots out to the near center, falling to her knees next to a man's motionless corpse.