I (still) don't own Merlin.


Merlin woke to a drizzling rain outside. The sky was slate grey, and what light made its way into the cave was thin and pale. With some difficulty Merlin pushed himself out of the sleeping bag and slowly picked his way around Arthur's form to the opening. He sat down and stared out at the dripping trees. It was still early in the morning, and he'd been woken up by a jumble of strange dreams. Pressing his hands to his eyes he struggled to remember. He got the feeling that the dreams had been of memories from long ago. Fifteen hundred years was a long time, much of it had faded from his mind. The outlines, the essential details, had stayed, but large spaces were fuzzy. It was something about when he'd first come to Camelot. Or was it when he'd returned after a trip? He remembered Gaius and Gwen, but he couldn't place Arthur in a way that made sense. It must have been after Camlann. How old had he been? The more he strained to remember the details the more they slipped away. There was something important though, he knew it...

The thought eluded him and he gave up. Sighing, Merlin turned back to the cave and started looking for breakfast. Moving as quietly as he could, he placed a small pot under a rivulet of water, pulled out a small bag of oats, and stood deliberating at the edge of the woods. Just as he was muttering words to summon wood from the forest floor, he heard a scuffling from behind him. He finished the spell and then glanced around. Arthur was sitting up in his sleeping bag.

"Good morning."

Arthur rubbed his eyes, "Morning."

"I'm getting breakfast. Hungry?"

"Not for gruel." Arthur reached for his jacket and shrugged it on.

"It's oatmeal or porridge or... I don't know, just not gruel. That makes it sound disgusting."

"Then it's very fitting."

Merlin turned to the wood piled at his feet and began arranging it just inside the cave.

"That's too wet to light."

Merlin grinned and held up his hand. The firewood dried and slowly began to light. Merlin carefully kept his eyes on the fire as he set up the pot, held over the fire on a large, flat stone. When he turned around, Arthur was watching him with an appraising look. Merlin ignored him and started rolling up his sleeping bag. Arthur got up and pushed his own towards Merlin.

"How much longer to Camelot do you think?"

Merlin paused to push Arthur's sleeping bag back. "I'm not sure. A day or two maybe, if we don't run into any more trouble. As far as I know the route we're taking isn't too occupied."

"And yet we were attacked yesterday."

"Well, the armies are moving, apparently. I can't be expected to know everything." Merlin finished rolling the sleeping bag.

"Apparently."

Merlin peered into the pot and stirred it, sighing, "We'll have to be more careful, just do something constructive and roll up your sleeping bag."

"I thought you were doing that."

"I'm cooking. Would you rather do that?"

"Merlin, you don't really expect me to do that, do you?"

"Yes. In case you missed it, you're not any better than me right now and I'm not about to run around doing whatever you say!"

Arthur raised his eyebrows, "You know, I don't think getting old suits you. You're far too impertinent."

Merlin ignored him. Instead he continued to attend to the pot. After a few minutes, Arthur roughly rolled up the sleeping bag, making as much scuffling as possible. When the oatmeal was finished cooking they ate quickly and used the rivulet of rain water to rinse out the dishes. It was still drizzling as they left the shelter of the cave and moved slowly over the slick leaves of the forest floor. As they walked, the trees grew increasingly thinner and Merlin had to check the way ahead more and more frequently as they twisted through ever-steeper rocks. The rain had left them slippery and the pair moved slowly not just to avoid detection but for caution of slipping. After about an hour they reached a flatter area and paused for a rest. The area around them was quiet. The rain had stopped; the only sounds were occasional plops of droplets off sodden trees and a faint whispering from the grass around them. The sun was just starting to peer out, its rays catching the beaded rain on the grass. Merlin took a deep breath and leaned forward with his hands on his knees.

"Toughen up Merlin, it wasn't that bad."

"Then why have you stopped?"

"To wait for you to waste precious time, moron."

"You stopped at the same time I did."

"Well-"

"And it looks like you're catching your breath."

"Just... Shut up. Let's keep going." Arthur set off.

"Alright, turnip-head." Merlin grinned and followed. He was starting to get used to being around Arthur again. He was still somewhat astounded, but it was feeling more natural, even if just a little.

The rest of the walk was easier. Though they heard noise from a few different camps along their way, they didn't run into anybody. Merlin covered their footprints with a spell whenever he paused to look ahead, each time taking less time to glance at Arthur. Once or twice when he paused to cast these spells he thought he heard something following, and he tried looking at the path behind as well as ahead, though he never saw anything. The sun was getting lower in the sky as Merlin and Arthur approached the edge of the trees they were walking through.

"We should probably start finding a place to stay for the night", Arthur said.

Merlin nodded, "As far as I can remember we should be able to make it to Camelot tomorrow night. I'll just have to take a look at the path."

"I don't think that's necessary." Arthur stopped as he emerged from the trees.

Merlin looked at Arthur as he joined him at the tree line, "It'll just take a minute, and I'll need to do it anyway since we can't just stop here..." as he spoke, Merlin turned his head slightly and did a double take.

The trees gave way to a sloping hill, and in the area at the base were amassed a huge number of tents, densely packed, with the glow of camp fires and gas stoves just visible here and there in the evening light.

"Oh."

"Oh? How did you not see this, you compete dolt! I thought you were supposed to be watching the path ahead, shouldn't this have at least registered?!", Arthur hissed.

"I can't see everything, I was just using it for short range, I had to focus on clearing our footprints too." Merlin took a step back.

"Really, because it seems you've been missing quite a bit?"

"I- I don't know why, there's something else going on, I think." Merlin let words blunder forth, hoping they would solidify the thoughts floating in his head. "There's... something else at work, something I can't figure out yet. There's just been this - I don't know - feeling, or-or power in the air..." Merlin cleared his throat, "I think it's interfering with my magic" he finished weakly.

"We've run into a massive army and all you have is a... 'feeling'...?"

Merlin swallowed, "Yes."

Arthur's jaw tightened, and he threw up his arms in frustration before sighing heavily and turning to walk along the top of the hill. With some trepidation, Merlin adjusted his backpack and followed.


Acknowledgment time! Thanks to all of you for reading, and thanks to anyone who has posted a review (keep it up!). Also, thanks to my beta dmcmeel412 for persisting through technical difficulties.