Good Sunday! Today I bring Chapter 26. This one, Morgana's perspective, is for more or less ubicate better in terms of what is happening in Morgana's mind. You will see it.

I hope you like it.

I'm not own from Merlin.

The web of narrow, wet caves loomed everywhere Morgana passed by. She did not know where Merlin had headed, and it was difficult to find a concrete path. In fact, she was doing nothing but walking where her heart told her, undeterred if she was on the right track.

In the meantime, she kept thinking about what had happened to Merlin. Red eyes... malevolent smile... No, that wasn't Merlin at all. She did not know what could have happened for Merlin to suddenly become such a way. There'd be some reason, for sure.

She also remembered her vision. The vision that basically led her to where she didn't know. Something was in Merlin, something that didn't quite fit. Who was Merlin really? Was Merlin just a clumsy, ungainly servant boy as he claimed? No, there was something else in it all. Something he kept hiding and didn't reveal to anyone.

In addition, the vision gave her more reason to know that Merlin was not someone simple. In the vision, she had seen again those dreams that she had had the last days, in which all came out something referred to Merlin. Apparently, all the rivers ended up in the same sea...

And then there was the black crow with red eyes that had appeared... Exactly what did it mean? She didn't quite understand what that crow had to do with the other dreams, but from what the old woman had told her, she had to do something, and apparently important. She? Since when? Since when did she, a simple lady who, instead of doing something, messed things up, had an important business to do? She, the painting of the castle to look at, the King's Ward who was in hands of a full-hatred king that treated her like a daughter? She didn't quite understand where all this would go, or Merlin's, or what he was going to do, nor her dreams, nor the crow, nor anything. Nothing made sense to her.

She just went where her heart looked convenient.

Turning a corner, she gave an instant scream in reaction to what she was seeing. She had been for minutes, even hours, who knows, going back and forth through claustrophobic and dark caves, and then encountering a room too big for her taste, which loathed in the depths. For a moment she thought that place was the one she was looking for (or rather the one her heart was looking for since she didn't really know where she was going). But seeing what was in that room, she flatly refused.

The smell that room gave off was like burnt incense with a dead and old aroma, which made Morgana look disgusting.

First of all, the hall looked more like a cathedral than anything else, because its roof was located very high, forming black cross vaults, in which arches crossed each other in a way of the strangest and somewhat disturbing and threatening. Columns emerged from the ground like buildings covered in blackness and without any grace or decoration in them. The walls were decorated with half-point arches chiseled on the wall, forming an endless wave of arches, in which underneath were unintelligible drawings, which Morgana dared not observe more closely. All in black. Why black?

But what really caught her attention of the hall, and what would not make it just a kind of giant chapel in the middle of the depths with nothing special, were the gigantic stone statues that covered the whole center of that room. Hundreds of statues of terrifying beasts, with claws, horns, fangs, and so on.

Not knowing why, Morgana approached one of them, a manticore-like one, and watched it closely. They were perfectly carved, with very real curves and chiseled with lots of detail. Who would have done all that?

She went to touch the statue but relented as she looked at that frightening, lion-like face of the statue, in which its open jaw showed its large, sharp fangs. She didn't know why, but it seemed to her as if that statue had the eager desire to pounce on her. It was as if those statues were alive.

It was to think about it when she looked at its eyes and saw that, suddenly, they moved to where she was located.

Morgana widened her eyes, completely stunned from what she had just seen. She went to scream when a knotty hand covered her mouth tightly. Morgana, terrified that it might be one of those stone figures, suddenly turned around with such force that if she had had a sword she would have unexpectedly killed the one who had perched behind her.

But seeing that the one who was behind her was an old woman, of low stature, and gender expression, she relaxed. And she relaxed more when she realized she knew that woman. It was Hilda. What was Hilda doing there? It would have been the typical question Morgana had asked herself, but at the time she didn't care too much, so, as if she was her own grandmother and hadn't met her a few hours ago, she slapped at her and gave her a hug.

She was going to talk when Hilda put a finger on her lips and pointed the same finger at the statues.

"We'd better go," she whispered as she held on to her arm with extreme force and carried her through the statues to get out of that crypt.

Then she remembered. Hilda had commented in her story about stone statues that at night came out of his curse and came out of the depths to the Eóten Gorge.

She also remembered that night in the gorge... The howls and roars that rumbled all over the gorge like dying and desperate animals. Now she was much more afraid of that town and the gorge she had been through after she knew the truth. And she had the feeling that it was only a small part of all the truths that that place kept.

When they crossed the stone statue room, surrounding and traversing each of the terrifying statues that loy over that dark place, Morgana finally wondered why there Hilda was, in the dark depths of the Cursed Town.

"What are you doing here, Hilda?" she asked, looking her in the eyes as if she could reveal her truth in that experience emanating from her.

Luckily, Hilda answered her with an indecipherable smile.

"I think the same thing you're here for, dear."

Morgana shot her a confused look, tilting her head.

"I suppose you have seen Merlin isn't the same as always."

Morgana nodded, still confused.

"There is something we must do."

And for the first time, Morgana saw the true power and decision emanating from that woman.

And that's it. What will happen with Sigan, Merlin, Hilda, and Morgana? What will Hilda and Morgana do? What is planning Hilda? What is Morgana's role in all this? What will Sigan tell Merlin? Will Sigan tell something about his father? And what about the Cursed Town? And Arthur and Gwen? What are really that monsters and why do they only go to the Gorge of Eóten?

All that will be seen in the next chapters. I really hope you liked it, and see you next time!

Next Chapter: Merlin-Sigan conversation.

LegolasHV