Chapter Eight

Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin.

"I'll do a lot for you, Hal, but I am not sleeping with that lizard!"

Emerging from a nearby patch of woods with an armful of wood and catching Elen's exasperated proclamation, he turned to Gwaine wide-eyed. "Um...What am I missing?"

Heidi, perched on a rock, petting the dogs , and watching the drama unfold, spoke up cheerfully before Gwaine could. "Malachite is cold, so Hal thinks he should sleep with him and Helen."

"Okay…" Leon blinked. "Haven't we just been giving the iguana his own blanket at night?"

"It hasn't been warm enough, even with the spring winds."

Gwaine stifled a laugh as his sister brushed past him, muttering, "At least the wyverns were useful."

"Malachite can stay with me!" Elwin called from over by the small campfire. "I like him."

"In that case, you're not sleeping anywhere near me," Everard said, wrinkling his nose.

"Fine." His twin elbowed him. "You snore, anyway."

"I do not!"

Gwaine smiled and turned back to sorting their remaining supplies. They had been traveling for almost a week now, and considering the circumstances, spirits were, in general, quite a bit higher now that they were going somewhere. Even Everard hadn't been at all unpleasant for days.

However, the lightness among the group could probably also be attributed to nervous hysteria. Just the other day, for instance, Leon had burst out laughing while looking over their best map. In response to everyone's questions, he'd said, between snorts, "It just occurred to me that...that the heart of the Perilous Lands...where they used to be...It's Liverpool." He'd dissolved into laughter again, and they hadn't gotten another sensible word out of him on the subject.

We're getting close to York now. We'll get there tomorrow, most likely. So far, they had avoided towns and only come across three groups of people. The first was an older couple on a farm who only wanted to be left alone. The second was a half dozen friendly uni students traveling from Hull to the Isle of Anglesey by a more direct route than the Barclay group; they'd shared a camp for the night and bartered information and some supplies. It had been nice to talk to other people, honestly, and Gwaine for one was sad to see them go.

The third group of four he and Elen had encountered while scouting ahead just the day before the lizard's bed situation came up. Those strangers...bandits, rather...had attacked without provocation; they hadn't lasted long against Elen.

"I need a damn sword," Gwaine had said after the metaphorical dust settled. "Then I could help. You're not going to be able to battle all our enemies at once forever."

"Well, if we see a medieval sword shop, dear brother, we'll raid it."

Gwaine thought about it again as they all settle down to sleep with Leon taking first watch. Dad's dagger collection and the bandits' knives we all have won't be enough if Elen's not around and we're attacked by something bigger than a dog...I haven't felt the faintest inkling of magic in myself so far.

He kind of missed a time when decent swords were easy to find. In ruined castle armories, for instance...There were so many around... He fell asleep dwelling on that.

They didn't need a very high hill as a vantage point to be able to see that the center of York had become another giant sinkhole.

"Well, shit," Gwaine said.

"The suburbs look mostly intact," Leon pointed out with some optimism. "I'm pretty sure Gaius lived and practiced in the suburbs."

"They look intact...where they're not burnt," Everard corrected.

A lot of the town around the sinkhole does look charred. "Well, can't hurt to look, eh?"

The looking lasted the rest of the day, and by the end Gwaine wished he'd made someone stay back and keep Heidi as far away from the rubble of York as possible.

It was the first time they'd seen a lot of human bodies since the apocalypse began; many were charred by the fires that had swept the streets months ago or mangled by hungry animals, or both. The spring thaws hadn't improved the condition of the corpses, either.

"Don't look, Heidi," Elwin said early on, hugging his sister to him. "Just close your eyes if it's too much and I'll guide you."

The girl nodded and complied, but her face remained a shade of green as they continued. Hayden seemed veer close to a panic attack every hour or so, and Elen actually started retching a few times. Gwaine knew that he, Leon, and Everard weren't doing much better.

"It's useless," Everard announced eventually. Evening drew close, and everything around them remained devoid of life...other than several groups of noisy crows and distant howls that set everyone on edge. "There's no one here. Unless Gaius moved on, he's dead, too."

"Why is it so important to find him, anyway?" Heidi whimpered, but no one answered.

What would we say? She thinks he's just a friend of Leon's.

Said former knight chose that moment to come back from a very brief scouting mission. "There's a church up ahead, bit drafty but it's intact and empty. We can stay there tonight."

They did, and in the morning Gwaine awoke with the others to find Hayden missing. The initial rush of panic from everyone faded when they found him on the church steps, standing still and silent as a stone.

"What's going on?" Elen asked, stepping close to him. "Are you okay?"

"Do you hear that?" was all he said.

Closing his eyes, Gwaine listened for a minute. Oh. Of course Hayden heard that first.

"What is it?" Everard demanded.

Eyes open again, Gwaine grinned at his cousin. "Wyvern calls."

"They're hunting," Hayden murmured. "And they're frustrated by the hunt."

"I thought wyverns were fantasy!" Heidi squeaked.

"Not anymore, apparently," Elen said. "So, are we going to go see what they're hunting?"

In the middle of the overgrown ornamental gardens of a forgotten park a couple miles from the church, sat a sort of tiny model abbey made of stone. Three full-grown wyverns kept swarming it, clawing at the too-small windows and shrieking with frustration.

With Heidi, Elwin, the iguana, and the dogs left barricaded in an abandoned shop nearby, the rest of the group approached the abbey cautiously. "There's definitely someone in there," Gwaine whispered when he got a good look at what the wyverns were doing. "We should help them, whoever it is." Maybe it's Gaius. If we're lucky. I think we're lucky. Maybe.

"How are we supposed to get rid of the wyverns?" Leon asked. "We don't even have swords, let alone spears or crossbows, which I would prefer in this fight!"

"And wyverns are resistant to most magic," Elen said. "Not immune, but resistant. That'll make subduing them harder."

Gwaine looked to Hayden, who shrugged. "I can't call off wyverns I didn't raise and train. I can tell you how they will likely attack, but I think you already know all that from experience."

"So what's the plan?" Everard said. "Sit here until they leave?"

"Well…" Glancing back the way they'd come, Gwaine said, "I did see some nice bamboo plants growing back there by one of the houses. We have plenty of knives, could fashion some makeshift spears...Elen could lure them with a magic distraction, then cover our retreat…Only if you're up for it, sis."

"I don't like that plan," Hayden said. "At all."

Elen ignored her husband and didn't hesitate. "Okay, let's do it."

Thirty minutes later, Gwaine, Leon, and Everard were armed with two fairly clumsy bamboo spears...tipped with smaller daggers...each and hiding behind a strip of hedge. Across a gap in the hedge directly in front of the abbey's main doors, Elen and Hayden crouched, the latter holding the group's longest available dagger.

They all exchanged glances. Elen gave a look that seemed to say, "it's now or never," and stepped out from behind the shed, summoning a fireball in each hand with a shouted command.

It got the wyverns' attention. With piercing shrieks, they sprang off the abbey roof and hurtled towards her.

The fireballs arced upward from her hands, surrounding the creatures in flames as they swooped down to here. Vision obscured, they flailed, and Gwaine yelled, "Now!"

Things got very confusing after that. He thrust one spear at the nearest wyvern, missing the relatively soft underbelly and breaking the weapon on its tough side instead. He dove sideways to avoid being swiped by razor-sharp claws, only to be nearly crushed by another wyvern as it fell to the ground in its death throes, three spears sticking out of it. Clutching his second spear, Gwaine clambered behind the body, using it as a shield as the wyvern he'd gone after lunged towards him.

He laughed out loud as he realized This is my first real battle in over a thousand years.

With that in mind, he drew back, aimed, and threw.

The wyvern screamed and tumbled away, crashing into a patch of rosebushes and flailing weakly among them. Gwaine shouted in victory at the sight.

Then h is mind went back over the chaos, and he remembered hear ing Elen scream.

Turning and rushing through the smoke- filled air , Gwaine found Elen kneeling by the twitching body of the third wyvern. "Hayden!" she screamed, yanking at the beast's heavy legs. " Hayden! "

Leon and Everard were already beside her, and Gwaine joined them in hauling the creature off the crumpled form of his brother-in-law. The long dagger fell from his limp hand as they freed him; he was drenched in wyvern blood.

"It came after me," Elen choked out, "Hayden pushed me and went under it...it fell on him…"

"I meant to get it," Leon said anxiously. "But Everard had already used both his spears and needed help..."

"He has a pulse," Everard said, his fingers on the blond man's wrist. "It's fairly strong, but that doesn't mean he's not hurt…"

"Thanks for that, cousin," Gwaine said, carefully feeling Hayden's limbs for breaks. "Shit, that doesn't feel good…"

Elen reached over to check and concurred. "One broken arm, at least...He's still unconscious...if he was hit on the head…"

"I cannot see how he wouldn't have been," a new voice said. "Perhaps I should take a look?"

Gwaine shut his eyes for a second, thanking every single deity that he'd ever heard of for sheer improbable luck.

Elen seemed to have a similar reaction. "Please do," she said, turning towards the stooped figure standing a few yards away. "After all, you do know more about healing than all of us combined, Gaius."