A/N - Hey hey!

Thank you elusivehearts for faveing and following. Thank you GuestM, Gingeraffealene and JanetM74 for the reviews! Hehe, I was happy to see if you guessed or not about Gwaine! And GuestM, Gwaine being Gwaine probably said a lot worse then just swear words! Death threats, questioning the guard's parentage, insults, you name it! Fs and Cs and a whole host of things not suitable for a BBC family programme! Even Lancelot himself probably blushed!

Anyway... on with the show!

No. 25 – Disorientation / Blurred Vision / Ringing Ears

The sorcerer crashed his staff down into the ground, sending a shock wave towards them. Merlin tripped over backwards but Arthur managed to stagger and stay on his feet.

"You'll rue this day, Arthur Pendragon!" he shouted, swirling his arm above his head.

Power and air seemed to build in a ball over him and with one sweep of his staff he sent it crashing to the earth at Arthur's feet.

Arthur was lifted into the air, the explosion of power throwing soil and leaves and rocks from a huge arcing crater. Arthur slammed into a tree, the impact knocking the breath from his lungs. His head bounced off the solid trunk stunning him and sending jolts of pain reverberating around his skull. His vision blacked out.

A kaleidoscope of colours swirled before him, narrowing and tunnelling so he couldn't see the forest properly. Blinking and shaking his head, he tried to focus but he couldn't make out anything in front of him, his vision so blurred and distorted that it looked like lights and balls of fire were flying through the air.

The forest was eerily silent, only a high pitched ringing echoing around the trees. He tried to get to his feet, his hands scrabbling against the tree behind him. The world spun and he went pitching forwards as soon as he had got up and crashed to his knees. His hands flew to his head.

It was swimming, felt like he was swaying. He realised the ringing wasn't in the forest but filling his ears, making them ache. Like a loud whining buzz.

He tried to look around, to see if Merlin was hurt, to see if the sorcerer had gotten away, but only vague shapes met his eyes. His vision was completely clouded with white. He felt the ground beside him for his sword. He found it when it sliced his roaming fingers. He slid his hand along the blade to the cross-guard, curling his fingers into as tight a grip as he could manage around the hilt.

He had to kill the sorcerer. Using his sword as a support, he tried to push himself to his feet. He wobbled, unable to think straight, let alone stand.

There was a juddering of the earth below Arthur's unstable feet. A blinding light flashed across his sight, searing his eyes. That must be the sorcerer, finishing him off. He fell back against the tree again as the ground shook, trying to raise his hands to futilely protect his head. The ringing in his ears grew louder, his eardrums felt like they would burst. He dropped his sword and put his hands over his ears, shutting his eyes and curling in on himself. A tremendous gust of wind flattened him against the tree.

Then nothing.

Just the steady whine filling his ears. He opened his eyes.

Shapes appeared before him, several pale ovals with dark black on top, merging into one then splitting into many. He realised it must be Merlin, but his face was weaving in and out of focus. He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened just one and squinted. At least that gave him only one Merlin, even if he was still blurred.

The way Merlin's mouth was moving looked like he was shouting Arthur's name, but Arthur couldn't hear him, couldn't make his eye settle on him.

"Merlin!"

His own voice sounded strange, like it was coming from a long way away, through a tunnel and underwater.

Merlin recoiled back and said something else. From his expression it looked like a rebuke. Then he frowned and leant closer, speaking again. But whatever Merlin was saying was lost. He couldn't hear anything except the ringing in his ears.

A/N - Look out for no. 27 which will be Merlin's POV of this scene!