It's been a hectic week of sick kids and I'm exhausted but I'm sneaking away to update this story. Hope you will enjoy this chapter!

I do not own the rights Merlin; I simply enjoy imagining new adventures for the characters.

Chapter 4

"Merlin!" Princess Isolde shouted across the courtyard, and he turned around and walked back to her where she was waiting with her governess who was scolding her for shouting.

"It is not becoming of a lady to shout, Isolde. I must insist you do not yell at people. Surely you could have waited to see Merlin until after he came back to the castle." Guin was chastising.

"I understand, Lady Guin. It will not happen again." Guin nodded at her and turned her attention to Merlin quickly approaching them.

"Good morning, Princess Isolde." He bowed to her before turning to Guin. "My lady."

"Hello, Merlin. We are going for a ride; do you want to join us?" The young princess asked hopefully.

Merlin lowered himself to one knee in front of her. "Well, that does sound lovely, your highness. However, do you see this basket?" He asked her, holding up the small wooden basket. "I have a list of herbs and plants that are needed to make medicines. There are so many of them that they will fill this entire basket. I'm on my way to the forest now to begin foraging for them so I may help Gaius to make the medications we need to help heal all the ailments in Camelot. That is very important, is it not?" He asked her, looking her straight in the eye. She had her father's eyes, Merlin noticed. The young princess nodded. "I would be delighted to take a ride with you and your lady, but it will have to be another day, can we make that happen?"

"I believe I would enjoy riding with you another day, Merlin." The child looked up at her governess. "Is that a proper reply?" She asked. Merlin chuckled and Guin nodded.

"You ladies enjoy your ride and be extra careful." With that, Merlin took the princess's hand in his and kisses her knuckles lightly, earning a giggle out of her. He stood, bowed and was on his way.

"Come, Isolde. Your horse is waiting for you and that apple you have snuck out for her and hidden inside your pocket." The princess gasped in shock and Guin winked at her before leading her towards the mares awaiting them.

Arthur stood at the open window of his chamber, watching the interaction between the apprentice and his daughter taking place in the courtyard below. Merlin was so good with Isolde and the young girl was quite taken with him. The king couldn't say he blamed her; he too had quickly become fond of the young man in the two weeks he had been living at the castle. He couldn't seem to understand what it was about this man that was so captivating. Sure, he was a beautiful man. His black hair fell in waves around his comically too large ears. His high cheekbones and porcelain skin made his deep blue eyes pop. And his full lips begged to be kissed. But when he smiled; oh, when he smiled the whole world lit up like a beautiful sunrise. The people of the kingdom seemed drawn to him. His knights had quickly made friends with him and you could often find him hanging around the sidelines of the training grounds joking with them or cheering them on. The servants had already come to respect him and sought him out for medical advise and advise in general. Even the people of the lower village all knew his name and called out their salutations when he walked by. Arthur felt uncomfortable with how much he thought about the man and how protective he felt of him. It felt like he had known Merlin all his life and he struggled to see how life would ever go back to normal if he were to decide to leave. He stood at the window long enough to watch Merlin walk away from castle grounds and toward the forest, feeling a little uneasy that he was alone. His daughter on the other hand had Guinevere and two knights at her side and he had every confidence that she was perfectly safe. He turned from the window and decided to head Gaius's chambers to speak to him.

Gaius answered the door quickly when Arthur knocked. "Sire, please come in. What can I do for you?" He asked, closing the door behind the king.

"Just checking in to see how your new apprentice is doing. How is he adjusting? Is he living up to your expectations?" Arthur tried to sound kingly in his acquisition, not allowing his personal curiosity to color his voice.

"Merlin is fitting in quite nicely, sire. He is very knowledgeable about different herbs and plants as well as different surgical techniques. He was trained well in Nemeth. He still has much he can learn from experience here but I'm very happy to have him. He has been very helpful to me. He is actually out picking herbs and plants in the forest as we speak; that alone takes a great deal of strain off me."

"Very good. I'm glad to hear. He seems to be fitting in well around Camelot as well. I hear much talk about him from the servants and the townspeople seem to like him as well. Not to mention the attention he receives from my knights." Arthur wasn't quite successful at keeping the sour look off his face with that last bit but Gaius hid his knowing smirk and pretended not to notice.

"Yes, sire. Gwaine especially seems quite partial to my apprentice. He's around here quite often." Gaius said quite conspicuously.

Arthur grimaced. "Is that so? I will have to have a talk with him about fulfilling his duties more and slacking off here less. Thank you, Gaius. I'll leave you to your work."

When Guinevere and Princess Isolde returned from their ride, Isolde begged to go see if Merlin was back from the forest to come play with her. Gaius informed them that he had yet to return but was expected any time and he would send Merlin her way when he arrived.

When he had not come to find her yet by late afternoon, she asked a guard to go fetch him for her, thinking Gaius had forgotten. The guard returned by himself and let her know that Merlin had still not returned. Guinevere decided they were done with the day's lessons and left Isolde with her lady's maid to prepare for dinner. She quickly made her way to Gaius's chambers, not bothering to knock before she walked in.

"Gaius, shouldn't he have returned by now? Should we be worried?" Guin asked nervously.

"Yes, my lady. I'm beginning to get nervous. I'm wondering if we should go looking for him to make sure nothing bad has happened."

"I don't think it would be a good idea for us to go out there, especially not this late. We must go to the king and ask him to send a couple knights to find him. And we must pray that he is ok." Guin rushed from the chamber and to the King's chamber where she asked for an audience.

Arthur was going through documents at his desk when there was a knock at his door. "Enter" he said in a raised voice and a guard entered.

"The Lady Guinevere to see you, your majesty?"

"Send her in." He said and remained seated at his desk. "Lady Guinevere, what can I do for you?"

"Sire, Merlin went out to pick herbs this morning and has yet to come back home. He was expected hours ago. Gaius and I are very concerned that something might have happened to him and we were wondering if you might be willing to send a couple knights out to search for him?" Guinevere asked in a pleading voice. Arthur's heart dropped.

"He's still not back? I will grab Sir Percival and we will head out immediately to find him." He got up and immediately called for his manservant to help him into his chainmail and cloak and he had a guard summon Percy to his chamber.

"You summoned, sire?" Percival quickly arrived in his chamber.

"Go prepare our horses and one extra, we need to head out posthaste. Merlin is missing."

Percy's face fell immediately. "Right away, sire."

Guin stood on the steps of the castle and watched them gallop out of the courtyard. "Please be ok and easily found, Merlin." She whispered.

After looking for over an hour, it was beginning to get dark and Arthur was beginning to get frantic. Percival hopped off his horse when he saw some broken branches off trail and decided to investigate. Then, barely visible under the opening between two bushes he saw a boot. "Arthur! Over here!" he yelled and ran through the thicket to find Merlin. He was laying on his side, unconscious, in a puddle of blood that had dripped out from a stab wound in his shoulder.

Arthur's eyes were wide and terrified as he ran to his side. "Oh no, Merlin. Please be ok." He begged as he felt for a pulse. Sighing a breath of relief, he said "He's still alive. What the hell happened here? Who would stab Merlin? He was only picking herbs!"

"His satchel is gone, sire. I'm guessing bandits came upon him and stole his satchel." Percy said. "Do you think we can move him?"

Arthur had torn strips from the bottom of his tunic and was tying them around Merlin's thin chest and shoulder in an attempt to stop the bleeding. "Let's strap him to his horse. Help me get him up carefully." Arthur told him and they managed to gently drape Merlin over his horse and strap him to the saddle. "Grab his basket and let's go." Arthur hopped on his mare and grabbed the reigns of Merlin's horse, taking off toward Camelot.