Life Outside of the Shadows

by TreeOfLife1997

Based at the end of series four. When Merlin reveals his magic to save the life of Isolde, has he just sacrificed Albion's golden future? Or has he just began the new age? Arthur and the knights must come to terms with Merlin's magic. So with a little help from Taliesin, they watch Merlin's adventures. And with a new form of dark magic rising, will all be learnt before all is lost?

21. Chapter 20

Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin.

Chapter twenty: You can't fight what you can't see part 1.

The wood was perfectly still and silent. No birds sang and no leaves moved in the trees. A deer lay torn to shreds at the base of a large oak tree, its bark stained crimson red.

Along a path not far from the tree two people walked, Merlin and Terrance. They, like the wood around them. were silent, their footsteps not making a sound. The two of them had been walking for the best part of the day. First they had been to see Gwaine's mother, after that they went to the crystal caves. Now they were heading back to the perilous lands, they were only a couple of miles away from the bridge.

Merlin stops as he sees the dead deer, he had seen his fair share of gory deaths, but this sight made him want to throw up his lunch. Beside him Terrance did throw up, in to the undergrowth.

"Terrance," Merlin mutters. "I want you to run ahead to the bridge and send for some help. This has not been done by any creature I know."

Terrance nodes and quickly runs off. Merlin covering his face with a hand, to bloke out the smell, knelt beside the dead deer and studied the tree. Claw marks run deep, through the bark, each scratch longer than Merlin's forearm. There were four claw marks in total, but there was no way this had been made by a bear or any animal of that sort. The marks were massive, whatever did this was incredible large.

Merlin turned round and looked at the ground, the damp soil clearly showed the tracks of the deer. It had been standing still no far from the tree, no doubt eating grass or berries off the nearby bushes. They was no sign what's so ever that the deer had been chased, it was like one moment it had been standing there the next it was lying dead in pieces. Merlin quickly got to his feet, the deer tracks were the only ones here, apart from the tracks Merlin and Terrance had left. Merlin quickly rests his hand on the hilt of his long knife.

"Terrance said you needed some help." A voice behind him greets.

Merlin spins round to find Gilli standing there. "Come look at this."

"I would rather not," Gilli mutters, looking away. "I've just had lunch, I would rather keep it that way."

Merlin rolled his eye. "No really come look at this, it's important."

Gilli quickly makes his way over trying not to look at the dead deer. "What's so important?"

Merlin points to the claw marks on the tree. "Those are."

Gilli quickly pushes past Merlin to get a better look. "What the hell made these?" He exclaimed.

Merlin shrugs. "I have no idea. I have never seen anything like it. And I've been hunting with Arthur…. Some of the creature he hunts…."

Gilli quickly glances around the clearing. "I'm guessing you noticed there are only deer tracks."

Merlin nodes. "I have."

"I'd hate to meet what ever did this," Gilli mutters. "I have never heard of a creature that can tear an animal apart in such a way."

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Alator stood in the council hall, he simply watched as the other member of the council arrived. Merlin and Gilli were sharing worried glances, since they had returned with Terrance they had gone to the library to research something. When asked they had said little about it, Alator feared it was something serious. He knew if something worried Merlin Emrys, everyone should be worried.

To say the least he had been surprised when Merlin had told him Terrance was his new apprentice. He was even more surprised when Terrance told him about the spell Merlin had used on the Camelot patrol. A spell of such skill and power, he hadn't thought Merlin would know, he didn't really have any reason for knowing it and wasn't a spell you found in your standard spell book. An army made of wood and ash could do very little damage, many sorcerers could conjure and often used them to make their armies look bigger. Finally the council were all present.

"I'm sorry for summoning you at such a time," Merlin quickly speaks up. "But I fear this is important. And I pray to the gods I am wrong."

"Why is it you have summoned us here?" One council member asks.

Merlin holds up a book. "I have been doing so research, I have found a creature, which if not caught and killed, will do us a great deal of harm."

"How do you know this creature is even alive?" a second council member ask. "Creature from that book have not been seen since Mordred the dark was trapped in the mountains."

Merlin nodes. "I know that, but as we all know, Morgana had released Mordred. He is still weak but he has some power. When I was returning from my trip today, my apprentice and I came across a dead deer. Its body had been torn to shreds. In the tree next to where it was killed, were claw marks, the likes of which I have never seen."

"What and you suddenly think one of Mordred's creature are responsible?" A councilman laughs. "There are a great many creature you are yet to see Emrys. There is no need for you to spread panic among our people, because a deer was killed."

"NO!" Merlin yells, throwing the book down on the table with a large bang. "I do not wish to spread panic. I wish to protect our people. In this book there is a creature which hunts, kills and slaughters animals in a way I have seen, not a two mile from the bridge."

"What proof do you have?" Someone yells. "An animal was killed in a way you have never seen before, which just happened to match a creature in a book. That is not proof."

"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO WHAT MERLIN IS TELLING YOU!" Gilli yells. "I have seen what Merlin has seen and it matches what is in that book perfectly."

Merlin smiles slightly. "If you would just let me explain you would see the reason why I fear these creature have returned. The deer that was killed was not chased, it was grazing at the time it was attacked. The deer tracks where the only tracks there, whatever attacked did not leave any tracks. The only proof that it was there, were the dead deer and the claw marks in the tree. In this book there is a creature that kills in a way Gilli and I have seen…. Here I will read a passage from the book:

'Change-wings are often mistaken for dragons, but are in no way related to the dragon family. Change-wings were created by Mordred to destroy his enemy, they are horrifying creatures feared by all. When Change-wings hunt, they rip their prey to pieces often leaving most of the animal. Change-wings only eat the heart of the animals. It is near impossible to hunt change-wings, they leave no tracks and are able to fly.

'The only form of tracks Change-wings leave are four claw marks. But the reason Change-wings are so hard to hunt is because they are able to camouflage themselves into any environment and are almost impossible to see. They can only be killed by blades forged by the magic of the old religion magic. Change-wings can only be killed by humans when newly risen. When a change-wing reaches it's full power, only creatures of magic can kill them.'

"So you see," Merlin explains. "We have good reason to believe that Mordred has sent these creature. It explains why the deer never saw what killed it coming."

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Merlin collapse to the ground on the training field.

"The council hate me." Merlin mutters.

Gilli shakes his head. "They don't hate you…. They just hate what you are trying to tell them."

Merlin sighs. "I should have guessed they would never listen to me, no one ever does. I just hope and pray I'm wrong about this. Because if it is true a Change-wing could be standing behind us right now and we would never even know it was there until it attacked us."

"Alator believed you." Gilli pointed out, glancing round.

Merlin sighs once more. "One person believes me…. Without the support of the council we cannot send people out to try a d kill these things."

Gilli is silent for a moment, then grins. "I have a plan."

"I'm not going to like this, am I?" Merlin mutters.

Gilli glances at Merlin. "Well you might, I mean it can't be a worse than one of Arthur's plans, I mean he does uses you as live bait."

Merlin snorts. "He did. How I never died, I don't know!"

Gilli grins. "Well why don't we hunt down these creatures ourselves, I mean you said yourself if they enter our kingdom, we would have no way of knowing until they killed. At the moment we know they are close to the border, it shouldn't be too hard to find a fresh kill and track them down from there."

Merlin glances at Gilli. "There are two of us and gods know how many of them. We cannot do this alone. We don't even have weapons that can kill the creatures!"

Gilli shakes his head. "We don't need enchanted swords, all we need is magic and metal. I'm got the metal and you have the magic, what could possibly go wrong?"

"Everything!" Merlin exclaimed.

Gilli looked at him. "The plan wasn't that bad."

Merlin sighs. "If we are going to track these creatures down and kill them we need to do it right. And we need a team, the two of us alone isn't going to do much. We'll be killed in seconds, if we are on our own!"

"Well how many people would we need for this 'team'?" Gilli asks.

"I would say six more people," Merlin smiles. "After all, it was only me, Gaius, Lancelot, Gwaine, Percival, Leon, Elyan and Arthur who took back Camelot from the immortal army."

"So we need six more people. Well I petty sure Daegal can take the place of Gaius, after all they both know a lot about healing. You can be Merlin, the all-powerful warlock, because you are Merlin. I can be-"

"Gilli we don't need to be like them we just need six more people. Are you sure Daegal is a wise choice? I mean he can treat and heal wounds, but can he defend himself?"

Gilli shrugs. "We need a healer, we are bound to get injured if we get cuaght by these creatures."

Merlin nodes. "After all we are bound to get hurt, you cannot hunt what you cannot see."

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Daegal stared at Gilli and Merlin for a moment. "Are you two insane?" He finally ask.

"It's quite possible," Merlin answers. "So will you help us or not?"

Daegal thinks for a moment. "I'll help, I never been on a hunt before."

"But can you defend yourself?" Gilli asks.

Daegal nodes. "I can throw knifes quite well."

Merlin grins. "Excellent, we'll be leaving soon so make sure you are ready."

Daegal nodes. "I will start preparing herds and bandages."

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Merlin and Gilli quickly make their way out of the tower. On the training field stood the young man Merlin trained with, 'the knight' as Merlin called him. He could fight as well as any knight Merlin knew and had quickly become a close friend of Merlin's. Merlin was one of those people, he befriended people quickly and gained the trust of many even quicker. He was one of the few people Merlin knew in this kingdom that wasn't from a magical family, but had made it his mission to protect those with magic.

"Hey," Merlin yells. "Bercilak!"

The man, Bercilak, turned as they approached. "Merlin, Gilli." He greets.

Merlin grins. "I need to ask you a favour."

"What is it?"

"Me, Gilli and some others, are planning on hunting down some creatures which are close to the borders. We were wondering if you would be up to help us."

Bercilak looks between the two of them. "This about the change-wings isn't it?"

Gilli nodes. "Yeah, but how do you know?"

"Let's just say I overheard what the council spoke of." Bercilak answers.

Merlin grins. "So will you help?"

"Of course," Bercilak grins. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Be ready we are leaving soon." Merlin warns.

Bercilak nodes. "I'll be ready."

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Gilli grinned as he knocked on one of the doors in the town surrounding the tower. Merlin simply stood next to him glancing round, trying really hard not to be noticed by the druids passing. He really did hate it when the bowed to him, he was lucky not many people realised who he was and he was glad, he hated all the attention. The door before them was suddenly thrown open, a girl with bright orange hair stood there, her green eyes studying them. She was a witch and practiced the Wiccan form of magic, her mother had taught her all she knew and her magic was not to be messed with. She was also quite good with a sword.

"What do you want, Gilli?" She snapped.

"We were wondering if you would be up to helping up track down and kill some change-wings?" Gilli asked.

"Who's your friend?" She demanded.

"Oh, I'm Merlin." Merlin grins, holding out a hand.

"I'm Eira." She answered, shaking Merlin's hand.

"Pleasure to meet you," Merlin mutters. "So can you help us?"

Eira thinks for a moment. "Sure why not, I wouldn't miss a chance like this to show Gilli up."

"Like you could beat me, Eira." Gilli mutters.

Merlin rolled his eyes. "Well, be ready we'll be leaving soon. Meet us on the training field."

Eira nodes. "See you soon, then. And Gilli I can beat you." With that she slams the door shut.

Merlin glances at Gilli. "Are all the people you know that moody?"

Gilli shakes his head. "Me and Eira are friends."

Merlin glances at Gilli. "You wouldn't believe it."

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Sefa stood yawning as she set down the basket of bread she was carrying. She had just been to the market to get the bread for the druid council. The druid meeting often lasted a long time and they often had a meal during the meetings. So bread, cheese, meat, fruit and water had to be plentiful during the meeting. Ruadan her father, was one of the druid leaders.

"No," A voice behind her sounds. "We can't ask Sefa for help!"

"Why not?" A second voice asks. "You and Sefa are friends."

Sefa turned around to find Merlin and Gilli standing not far from her.

"Yes me and Sefa are friends," Merlin answered. "But her father would kill me if she got hurt. I really don't want to be hunted down by an angry druid leader."

"You king of the druids, Merlin." Gilli answers. "He has to follow your orders."

"Have you ever meet Ruadan?" Merlin asked.

"No…."

"Well then you have no idea how scary he is, when he's in bad mood. And no one messes with his daughter…. He has vowed anyone who harms his daughter will die a slow and painful death and I believe him."

As Merlin and Gilli talked Sefa walked up to them, without them noticing.

"So what was it you wanted to ask me?"

Merlin and Gilli both jumped and quickly smiled.

"Sefa," Merlin greets. "Well…. We wanted to know if you would help us hunt down some change-wings."

Gilli nodes. "We are trying to form a team, so we can go and hunt them down before they cross over the bridge into our home."

Sefa raises an eyebrow. "Sure why not."

"Your father will be okay with this?" Merlin asked.

"What my father doesn't know, won't hurt him." Sefa answers. "As long as we are back in time for the druid meeting tonight he will be none the wiser."

Merlin grins slightly. "Okay, meet us on the training field."

Sefa nodes. "I look forward to it."

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Tyr was brushing the horses down in the stables. He practices animal magic, he could speak and communicate with any type of none magical animal. Horses were his favourite, his father had breed horses before he died. He had fallen ill a couple of winters ago and he had not reached the druids in time to be healed.

Tyr and his mother had stayed with the druid, where Tyr had practiced his magic and become quite skilled in it. He was also a good friend of Merlin. Merlin had stayed in the druid camp he was with for a couple of weeks after he had got into some trouble, he never said what kind of trouble though.

"Hey," a voice behind him called. "Tyr!"

Try turned round to find Merlin and a young man he had never meet before walking towards him.

"Merlin!" Tyr greets with a huge grin. "How can I help you?"

Merlin smiled. "Well firstly, this is Gilli," Merlin waved a hand in Gilli direction. "Secondly, we have come to ask if you would be willing to help is hunt down some creature we have found just outside the borders."

"The change-wings?" Tyr asks.

Gilli jaw dropped. "How did you know?"

"All the animals have been speaking about them. All the animals are living in fear of them, since they have been reawaken. It would be an honour to help you kill them, they are nothing but pure evil."

Merlin grins. "Meet us on the training ground, we'll be leaving soon."

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Kara walked up the steps to the tower, she was helping to prepare for the druid meeting later on. She herself was a druid and had been consumed by hatred until Merlin had saved her from execution in Camelot a couple of years ago. He had promised her one day magic would be free, it wasn't until he had taken her to Iseldir, that she found out he was Emrys.

He alone had saved her from a life filled with hate and vengeance. She had been so over joyed when Merlin had created the land she was now free in. He had kept his promise, magic was free here and all those with magic had come here from all the five kingdoms. Some had even come from the lands beyond the five kingdoms to offer their skills and knowledge and to be free and among their kin.

There were many here who didn't have magic, but had family who were or had been forced to flee their homes after being accused of sorcerer. Merlin really had saved the lives of many and the kingdom even though it had been created only a couple of days ago, was in order and stronger than would be believed.

Kara suddenly crashed into someone, only for them to grab her arm to stop her from falling.

"You should really watch where you are going, Kara." A voice laughs. "I may be skinny, but I'm not that hard to miss."

Kara looked up and grinned. "Merlin! How are you? I heard you have an apprentice now, Terrance I believe his name was."

Merlin smiled. "Yeah, Terrance is with my mother and Alice at the moment. He wasn't feeling to well after seeing the killing of the deer."

Gilli shudders. "I nearly lost my meal after seeing that. I'm surprised Terrance hasn't gone into shock."

Kara smiled. "I will go and visit him later. Once the druid meeting is over, I'm surprised you are not getting ready, Merlin. You are the druid king after all."

Merlin shook his head. "No, we are about to set out and hunt down some change-wings. We were wondering if you would be up to helping us?"

"I would love too," Kara smiled. "Change-wings are evil creatures. It would be a great good getting rid of them before they can do any real harm."

Merlin grinned. "Meet us on the training field. We'll be leaving soon."

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Hey all, hope you liked that chapter. For all of you who wanted to see Merlin meeting Gwaine's mother, Merlin will be returning to see her where he will hopefully get some blackmail material on Gwaine 3:). So Merlin has got himself a new gang to hang around with and go out on adventures with. As you may know change-wings are a type of dragon from 'How to train your dragon' in this story they are not dragons! Some of the Merlin new friend are people from Merlin series 5 but none of them are evil nor are they like the people from the series, I'm just using the names. Well hope you liked that, until next time,

Blessed be,

TreeOfLife1997.