So, this chapter went a wee bit longer than intended, by that I mean a lot longer. So long in fact that I needed to chop it up into two chapters and this one is 3,511 words so yeah. I will post the next chapter likely tomorrow and yeah enjoy! Also I want to dedicate this chapter to my brother who just got back from South Korea. Also my brother and brother-in-law (one currently military one ex) helped me a little with the fight scene though I did end up only using bits of advice.

*IMPORTANT* *IMPORTANT*P.S. I went back and changed Merlin's age at the beginning of it all, I decided he was 13 when he left Aria, making him 21 now which is still young but not too young and not too old so yeah.

P.P.S. So guys in this chapter and the chapter with Merlin's uncle there was a very subtle small hint that leads to another hint, it looks like a mistake however, first person who discoveres this hint gets an answer to one question, or they can request one thing to happen (though I may say no in which case you can ask for something else). That is all.

"Sire," Robert said, dropping to one knee, and bowing his head, his fist to his heart. "Forgive me, my lord, I didn't know it was you." When Robert knelt a confused murmur swept through the group of men, many of whom had never seen the prince or even a painting. At the older knight's words however whoever hadn't already figured it out quickly did so and everyone laid their weapons on the ground and knelt.

"Stand up," Merlin said, his voice strong and commanding. His order was immediately obeyed and the Camelot Knights watched in awe, still getting used to the idea of Merlin as a royal. "I am surprised at you Sir Robert, I am surprised that you would talk to someone in the manner that you talked to me and I am horrified that you would threaten someone so quickly and for such a simple reason." He said, frowning at the knight.

"My prince-" Robert began but Merlin cut him off.

"Quite honestly Robert I don't particularly want to hear what you have to say right now. We will discuss this later when we have more privacy. For right now, however, I have not been home 8 in years and I think it is high time I get there, don't you?"

"Yes, my lord." Sir Robert answered, ashamed of his actions and ashamed that he had jumped to conclusions so horribly. It was then that Merlin realized that the feeling of danger in his gut had not gone away. He frowned but chose to ignore it, thinking that maybe it was just him being wary of Robert.

*Random Enemy soldier POV*

"We need to strike now." The soldier hissed to his companion. He and thirty other soldiers had finally found the young warlock and were hiding in the woods around them and the Arian knights and soldiers, waiting for a time to strike.

"Are you insane?" replied the other, "if we strike now we'll all be killed, there are over forty of them and 30 of us. Plus at least 20 of them are knights, and surely some of them have magic. We don't stand a chance."

"Oh? And what do you propose we do? Go back to the king and tell me are too cowardly to follow his orders? Do you know what will happen to us?! He will feed us to his beasts you idiot, trust me I've seen men die that way, this is much better." The other said, trying to keep his voice as low as possible.

"We could run." Suggested the other, the first man scoffed in response.

"So that the king can let his beasts loose to hunt us down and then eat us, or maybe," he suggested, false excitement in his voice "Maybe they'll take us back to the King who will slowly torture us before making us dinner for his precious pets? No," his voice turned serious again "At least right now we have a chance, that foolish boy king is separated from the others and all the men around them have laid down their weapons. We strike now and we strike fast, we should be able to get a few before they even know what hit them and then you never know, we could succeed, after all, we have sorcerers too. Either way, dying fighting is far better than to die tied up as dinner." He finished, the other man who had looked sickly pale after the first part of what he said now seemed to have a bit more color and nodded.

"Alright," he agreed "we strike now. But I have an idea if we sneak closer while they are distracted we have of a chance of killing more of them."

*Merlin POV*

When Merlin saw the enemy soldiers the first thing that popped in his head was that maybe Arthur was right, maybe he really was the trouble magnet, not Arthur. The second was that he really shouldn't have ignored his gut and the third was that oh shit his men's weapons were still on the ground.

"Arm yourselves!" he yelled but it was still too late for some as they were struck by the enemy soldiers. Some of them also carried crossbows and one bolt whizzed towards Merlin.

"Merlin duck!" he heard Gwaine call and he quickly obeyed, letting the bolt whiz over his head and into a tree. By now everyone was armed again, including Robert and the fighting was going strong. Richard was back to back with Robert fending off soldiers that were trying to get to Merlin. Merlin's soldiers and knights were trying desperately to get to him to defend him, others fell behind the horses so that the mounted knights were more able to attack the enemy on the ground. While Merlin was firing spells left and right, cursing he grabbed the Sidhe staff from the back of his pack and used it to hit men who got too close and fire spells at others. One knight fell to the ground, wounded and Merlin quickly flung his attacker backward into a tree. The man nodded to him in thanks before picking his sword up to continue to fight.

Gwaine was the first to make it to Merlin, his horse shoving through the crowd. He swung at one of the men trying to get to Merlin, cutting into the man's neck. Gwaine wrenched his sword at the man before turning to one who was trying to yank him from his horse, Gwaine quickly killed him before finding another target. Merlin ducked a spell that was sent at him from one of the enemy soldiers.

"Ástríce" he cried, shooting the spell and the man jumped to the side, dodging it. Merlin narrowed his eyes, not many men could dodge the young king's spells.

"Forbæne! Ácwele!" he shouted, sending a large fireball at the man, this one hit him and sent him flying back into a tree. Merlin winced in slight sympathy, remembering how that spell had felt when Nimueh had hit him with it, but the man would survive, he had after all. Just as he was about to loose his magic on some other poor unfortunate soul a ball of fire shot past his head and hit a man who had been aiming at Merlin with a crossbow. Merlin nodded at the man who had shot the fireball and then noticed that he looked pale and shaky, apparently the spell had taken a lot out of him. Merlin made a note to himself to check up on the man when the fight was over. Merlin looked around at the fighting, his men falling periodically and his Uncle's men dying even quicker and wished he could do more powerful magic but feared his own men getting in the way. He silently cursed Robert for bringing these men into a fight that could have ended much more quickly. Suddenly a crossbow bolt whizzed past him, grazing his arm. Merlin didn't have time to worry about the wound as from behind him he heard a grunt and he turned to see Elyan, the bolt sticking out of his side, blood pouring onto his hand that was now clutching the wound. Merlin watched in horror as the bolt knocked Elyan off balance and the knight fell to the ground, hitting his head on a rock and knocking himself out.

"Elyan!" Merlin cried, trying to get to the fallen knight but an enemy soldier suddenly separated them and tried to pull Merlin from his saddle. Merlin glared at the man and his eyes flared gold as the man was thrown back, one of Merlin's soldiers quickly finished him off and Merlin turned his attention to Elyan. He didn't want to dismount and lose the advantage of a horse but at the same time Elyan was hurt and needed someone to protect him and Merlin couldn't take his horse over to him without running the risk of trampling the knight. Then he saw one of the Knights of Aria, the one who had first realized who he was, run over to the fallen Elyan. The knight began defending the fallen man and Merlin nodded to him in thanks, he simply nodded back before killing another enemy.

Finally when the fighting was over and the enemies dead Merlin hopped off his horse and ran to Elyan. The prince quickly knelt beside him and carefully lifting his head with both hands, inspected the wound. The knight who had been defending him knelt beside him.

"Is there anything I can do to help sire?" he asked and Merlin nodded.

"In my saddle bag there are some bandages, get them and my water." The knight nodded before getting up and running to the horse. "Gwaine," Merlin said, speaking to the knight who had just run up. "have any wounded brought to me, the more severe their wounds put closer to me so I can get to them next. Also get me more water and clean bandages, tear up shirts if need be. Also see if anyone else has medical experience, the more help I have the better." He ordered, as he carefully inspected Elyan's wounds. The rouge knight quickly ran off to get the things Merlin needed. Soon the first knight arrived with bandages. Merlin took them without a word and quickly bandaged Elyan's head. The knight began to stir and tried to sit up but Merlin quickly pushed him back down.

"Don't move Elyan, you're wounded." He said, moving to look at the bolt again. "Do you have a clean dagger on you Sir…?" Merlin questioned.

"Sir Alaric my lord," he responded, handing the prince the requested weapon.

"Thank you, Sir Alaric," Merlin responded, taking the weapon, and cutting through the bolt before pulling it out of the wound, Elyan groaned in pain as he did this. "Calm down Elyan, there are worse wounds to suffer." Elyan glared at him.

"Right Merlin, like you've ever had a crossbow bolt in your side." He said, his voice filled with sarcasm. Merlin just raised an eyebrow at him.

"How do you know I haven't? I've ridden into battle with you countless times and ridden out on missions with Arthur even more and you think I've never been hit with a crossbow bolt? Besides I was hit with one during my escape from Aria, remember? I told you that story only a few days ago, I certainly hope you haven't forgotten already, maybe that head wound is more serious than I thought?" Merlin asked, hands going to Elyan's head to inspect the wound again. The knight swatted his hands away as Sir Alaric looked at the young royal in concern.

"Yes yes, I remember," Elyan said, finally succeeding in fending off Merlin.

"I need to use magic to heal you Elyan, otherwise it will take a while but you will survive." He said and both knights tensed, Merlin wondered at why Sir Alaric would be wary around magic but didn't pry into it. Finally, the wounded Knight nodded.

"Alright Merlin I-I trust you." Merlin grinned at the man before holding his hand over Elyan's wound and he prayed that his minimal ability with healing magic would be enough.

"Þurhhæle dolgbenn" He chanted, his eyes glowing gold as he did so. Elyan watched in wonder as the skin sealed itself back together. He reached down to touch it but Merlin swatted his hand away.

"Leave it alone, it's still healing on the inside, and just stay here, I need to look more thoroughly at your head later, right now though I need to help others." Elyan just grumbled as he lay back down on the ground. Merlin stood up just as Gwaine ran back to him, holding several flasks of water and what looked to be a torn up shirt.

"The wounded men are over there." He said, pointing to where about 8 men lay on the ground and Percival and Owen were gently laying down another man. "Only serious wounds are over there, figured everyone else can wait till later." He said and Merlin nodded in response.

"Thank you, can you check if any among my Uncle's men are still alive? If so bring them to me." He said and Gwaine ran off to do so. Merlin walked to the fallen knights and soldiers, Sir Alaric right beside him. When he got to the men he immediately knelt beside the man who looked far more serious, his hands were on his belly and covered in blood.

*Alaric POV*

Alaric watched in awe as his prince knelt beside the wounded man and began talking softly to him.

"I need you to move your hands." He said gently, drawing the soldier's attention to him. The man looked at him in fear and shook his head. "Please, I want to help you." He told the man kindly, the soldier reluctantly lowered his hands and Alaric nearly retched at the sight but managed to school his features to neutral.

*Warning Graphic scene ahead: Scene may exceed rating of this story, by this I mean to say that my sister who is a nurse at a children's ER and has wound experience wrote this, do not feel bad for skipping I will make another note when it's safe.*

The stench nearly brought him to his knees as he attempted to remain expressionless. The sides of the man's flesh were separated, with fat, muscle, and bowel emerging from the wound in a heaping, bloody mess. The poor injured was merely keeping at bay the 20 feet of small intestine, feebly attempting to return it to the abdominal cage from whence it came. Meanwhile, his liver threatened to become separated from the mesentery designed to hold it in place. The patient was becoming increasingly pale, with a far-away look in his eyes. He looked up at Merlin with an expression of pleading and desire for mercy.

*It is now safe, we were merely discussing disembowelment*

"Swefe nu" Merlin chanted, his eyes flashing gold and the soldier's eyes closed and his hands dropped to his sides. "There's nothing more I can do." The prince explained, his voice filled with sorrow. "The least I could do was to let him die peacefully." Alaric nodded and the young warlock bowed his head for a second before standing up and moving to the next wounded man, this one a knight. The man had a deep wound to his side and was bleeding profusely, his face pale. Someone had tied a hasty bandage on the wound but it was now soaked through with blood. The young prince carefully peeled the bandage away and revealed that the wound, while deep, had missed any vital organs and the biggest danger to the man was blood loss. The knight had luckily passed out already, from blood loss or pain he wasn't quite sure. Alaric watched as his prince tried to stop the bleeding with the rags he had but when the bleeding only slowed the young prince turned to him.

"Come here." He ordered and Alaric hastily knelt beside the wounded knight "hold this down, put as much pressure onto it as you can." He said, moving to the side slightly so the knight could take over. As soon as he took his hands away from the rags Alaric replaced him and applied as much pressure as he could without hurting the other knight further. He focused on his task while the prince held his hands over the wound and began chanting. He did his best to ignore the feeling of needing to run away as the prince chanted the unfamiliar words next to him.

"You can stop applying pressure now, the wound isn't healed completely but I stopped the bleeding. I can't close a wound this deep, I am not skilled enough at magical healing, we need to get him to a proper healer soon." He said, grabbing the flask of water beside him and pouring some on the wound, cleaning it. Next, he grabbed the bandages and wrapped them around the unconscious man's torso before rising again to move onto the next patient. The prince continued this way, cleaning and healing wounds as best he could before wrapping bandages around them, his long fingers gracefully and gently working to help as many as he could. Half-way through the patients, another, older knight had come up. The knight was a little older than even Sir Richard and had a short gray beard, his hair was to his ears and was mostly gray with some black hair in places.

Alaric knew this to be Sir Oswald, one of the knights from the beginning of King Balinor's reign. The knight was trained in the healing arts from his father who was a physician, the knight supposed this was why the older knight had come over.

"Sire." He said, drawing the prince's attention. The prince looked up and smiled at the sight of the older knight.

"Sir Oswald!" he said in way of greeting.

"Prince Merlin," the knight responded, nodding back "I cannot begin to tell you how pleased I am that these old eyes were allowed to set eyes on you once again."

"Come now Sir Oswald, you're not that old." The older knight chuckled and shook his head "Unfortunately I didn't come over here for catching up My Lord, as much as I want to. I came because I wish to aid you in helping the wounded." Merlin nodded and turned to the next patient. This one was a young knight who Alaric was friends with that had taken a sword across the chest, there was a deep gash that ran from his left shoulder to his right side. This was the second one who was conscious in the line of badly wounded, Alaric took this a good sign.

"Hey Aren," he said kindly, kneeling beside him, and taking his hand comfortingly. "How are you feeling?" The other man was pale and sweaty and looked at him angrily.

"Oh, I'm doing just fine Alaric, just a giant gash on my chest. And how are you today?" he said snarkily.

"Oh, come on Aren you don't have to be rude, besides it's only a scratch, I've had worse from a bar fight." He replied, grinning at his friend.

"Bullshit Alaric, you know you're terrible at lying and if I die I'll haunt you for the rest of your life." He said and it was obvious that the man wasn't truly angry, simply trying to distract himself, Alaric happily complied.

"Sir Aren!" he said in mock horror "Watch your language around the Prince!" The man in question who had until this point been working quietly, laughed aloud.

"Not to worry Sir Alaric, I assure you I've heard far worse, and don't worry Sir Aren, your wound is easily survivable with proper care and rest." He said, rubbing a salve from his bag onto the wound. The wounded knight blushed when he fully processed that he had cussed in front of his prince. "Sir Oswald please hand me those bandages." Prince Merlin said, pointing to some bandaged beside said knight, as the man handed him the requested item Alaric couldn't help but notice that his shirt pulled back from his wrist slightly and as it did it revealed scars on his wrist. Scars that could only be caused by manacles. Oswald seemed to notice this too and before the prince could pull his arm back he grabbed the Prince's wrist and pulled it towards him.

"Sire, what is this?" he asked, inspecting the scar. The young prince tried to pull his hand back but the older man was having none of it. "These look like scars from- from manacles," he said, looking at the prince in concern, Alaric and even Aren looked at him in concern. The young prince finally managed to pull his hand from the older knight's grasp, which had loosened in his shock.

"I was in Camelot for six years Sir Oswald." He said, his voice hard as he quickly bandaged the man before him "and unfortunately Camelot has had quite a bit of trouble the past six years, scars are to be expected." He said, finishing the bandages, and rising to his feet, leaving the stunned Knights in silence as he went to the next man.

*Sir Oswald POV*

Oswald stared after the prince in concern and shock, not only did the prince have scars that had to have been caused by manacles but he also said scars as a plural, how many did the young man have? What caused them? What all had the prince been through in the past six years? And where was he during the first two? These questions and more whirled around his head as he turned back to the patient and stared in shock at near perfect bandages and yet another question popped into his head, where had the prince learned the art of healing and how had he gotten so good at it?

I hope you all enjoyed, sorry about the violence and yet another attack on the group but it needed to happen for reasons. Sorry they still haven't reached Aria, I want it to happen just as much as you guys and I promise that by chapter 23 they will reach Aria so again, sorry. Please review!

P.S. Enough people liked the idea of Richard's story that I will be writing it, however popular opinion seems to be that I shouldn't write it till this one is finished, what does everyone else think? I should mention that I have already begun an outline as well as writing a few bits and pieces.