I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, it was a lot harder to write than I thought it would be. Maybe because I imagined it so many times in my head that I got bored of it. Who knows? I hope you all like it better than I do. And thank you for all the reviews that I've gotten; they've all been wonderful.

Arthur woke up with a throbbing headache, though, not nearly as bad as the last one he'd had. He opened his sluggish eyes to look blearily at the face of a man.

"Leon? What are you doing here?" he asked, not entirely sure that he was actually seeing the knight.

"It's alright, sire, you've taken a nasty blow to your head, just relax."

Arthur shifted slightly and realized that he was lying on a cold stone ground, which puzzled him since he had been standing up the last that he remembered. Yeah, he had been chained to a wall for hours on end and forced to stand up, which had probably was why he could remember his feet starting to ache painfully. Painfully.

Suddenly he sat up quickly and shouted, "Merlin!"

Well, it really wasn't much of a shout since the throbbing in his head got worse and he began to see black spots; something like that can really silence a person. Arthur felt a hand on his shoulder gently pushed him back down.

"Sire, please, you need to rest; you may have a concussion." Sir Leon said looking very worried.

Arthur lay back down as he was told but didn't give up. "Where's Merlin?" he asked.

Leon hesitated. "Some of the other knights are seeing to him."

"And how is he?" Arthur pressed. He was still a bit discombobulated, but that didn't stop him from asking about the servant that he knew was more than willing to give up his life. Which he had to admit worried him; he was afraid that that was exactly what had happened while he was unconscious. He needed to know that Merlin wasn't dead, even though he had the strangest feeling that he wasn't.

For some reason Arthur had always felt since meeting the boy that he would know the second he died.

Leon hesitated again, this time for longer, and Arthur began to wonder if his not psychic hunch was wrong. But that must have shown in his face because Leon seemed to come to a decision about what to say.

"He's…bad, but I don't think that he's in any life-threatening danger at the moment. I believe that if we get him back to Gaius soon he will be just fine."

Arthur wanted to know if there was any new damage to the young idiot that he didn't know about, but he wasn't sure if he could even handle hearing about the wounds he had seen. If Leon mentioned the lash marks then that would make them real, and Arthur didn't know if he could deal with that. As long as it was only in his own memory or he even saw it with his eyes then it just might all be a nightmare.

Arthur sighed. "Help me up, please," he said to Leon stretching out a hand for him to take. Normally he would try to stand up on his own because his pride wouldn't let him ask for help, but lately his pride hadn't seemed to matter, that and he knew that if he stood up on his own then he would most certainly fall over again. Never let it be said that Arthur Pendragon doesn't learn from his mistakes.

"Sire, are you sure? I don't think it's w—" Leon began but Arthur cut him off, knowing what he was going to say.

"Just waiting around here isn't going to help my concussion and Merlin needs to get to Gaius as soon as possible."

Leon didn't seem to like Arthur getting up so soon, but he obviously saw the logic in what he was saying. He helped Arthur up and then the two made their way over to the other side of the room. What Arthur saw when he got there nearly made him want to throw up. Merlin was lying face down on the cold stone floor as three knights patched up his back as best they could.

Knights weren't trained very much in medicine; all they had to know was how to keep an injured person alive until he could be got to a physician. So Arthur knew that the bandages that were being applied weren't meant to last very long.

The three knights had covered up almost everything so the prince didn't have to see what had been inflicted on his servant again, but just seeing him lying there all pale and hurt; knowing what he had gone through seemed almost more than Arthur could bear.

The knights turned to him and he saw their faces and smiled a little.

There was Sir Kay; a skilled warrior with a natural kindness that becoming a knight had repressed for a little while.

Sir Osric; a big and rather beefy man who was a knight of Camelot to the core, and yet over time he had learned to think for himself.

And Sir Owain; a man with a kind and noble heart who stayed quiet most of the time, but you could always tell what he was thinking since it was clear on his face.

All three men, like the rest of the knights, had objected to the way Merlin had talked to Arthur, at first. The four nobles with Arthur at the moment had had looks of dislike on their faces when they heard Merlin address Arthur with almost no respect in his tone, and Osric had even looked as if he had wanted to give the boy a beating at the time.

But it hadn't been long before they had all warmed up to him, though, it had probably helped that Arthur rarely ever made good on his threats to the manservant. For one, the boy was just so silly and clumsy that anyone would have trouble not laughing good-naturedly at his ridiculousness. And for another, he had a kindness and loyalty that only ever endeared himself to people.

He had even helped each of the knights out with something at one point in time without needing to, without even being asked. Arthur knew that Merlin just wanted to help people whether or not he was told to, and he believed that the knights had finally begun to see it as well.

Of course, any of the men that had been skeptical about the boy had had their minds changed when he had drunk poison for Arthur; the prince knew about some of the respect that simple act had earned.

These knights, who had all once hated or at least disliked Merlin, now were the ones taking care of him, and that was why Arthur had smiled. Merlin was surrounded by his friends, by the people he had changed.

Arthur was brought out of his thoughts when he realized that the very same men he was thinking about happened to all have very guilty looks on their faces; it took him a moment to realized why.

Normally the a knight's first priority would be to look out for the prince, but instead of them all congregating needlessly around Arthur, three of the four there had gone to take care of a servant; something that Arthur knew his father wouldn't approve of. But the prince couldn't have been much happier with their arrangement.

Leon, who had been hovering by his side in case he needed help, interjected on the men's' behalf. "Sire, we made sure that you didn't need their assistance, and we decided that Merlin needed much more attention."

He looked like he was going to continue defending his men but Arthur stopped him. "It's alright, Leon, you all did the right thing." Even though his brain was no longer very foggy his body was exhausted. "Let's go back to Camelot."

It wasn't until they were on their way back home that Arthur voiced the question that had been burning in the back of his mind since he had woken up. Actually there had been several.

He had wondered what had happened to Arcturus, but that question was answered when he emerged from the underground dungeon and saw a few more knights securing the sorcerer's limp form to a horse.

The outside of Merlin's and Arthur's prison just looked like another part of the forest. But he could see that lying on the forest floor was a big metal hatch that seemed to have been blown off its hinges. The once safe-house had a square opening and from there one would descend a small flight of stairs and then they would find themselves underground. Arthur assumed that the metal slab had once been the door to this place, and now looking at it he could only wonder how the knights had found them. Arcturus hadn't lied; all you'd have to do would be to cover up the door with leaves and moss and it would look like ordinary ground. It would become almost impossible to find this place even if you did know what to look for. So how had the knights managed it?

And that is exactly what Arthur asked. "How did you find us?"

Leon, who was riding alongside Arthur, looked over at his prince and couldn't help but smile slightly at what he saw. Arthur had insisted that he ride with Merlin; the boy couldn't ride alone and the future king had wanted to do it. Despite how tired he was and all he had gone through, Arthur Pendragon refused to let anyone else take care of his servant.

The boy was unconscious, thank goodness for small mercies, and so he couldn't feel the pain that the bumping and jostling of riding a horse would inevitably cause him. He was resting his head, and indeed his whole upper body on Arthur's chest, which they had managed to find a shirt for. They had even found a shirt for Merlin so that his all too cold skin could start warming up.

Arthur didn't seem to mind taking care of his servant, in fact, he seemed to feel better just being able to know where he was at all times. The prince didn't even seem self-conscious of the fact that his servant was laying on his chest.

Leon couldn't help but feel proud at this display of selflessness and lack of pride, he just wished that it hadn't come now; at such a high price.

He answered the question. "Well, when we were out on a patrol yesterday we found yours and Merlin's horses tied up in a clearing. They didn't look like they had been there for very long. So when we realized that you couldn't or simply weren't coming back for them I guess we realized that something was wrong. I went to your father and he told me to set up a search party for you since he believed that the sorcerer might have attacked you."

It wasn't until then that Arthur realized that the man that had kidnapped the two of them and had tortured Merlin must've been the very same sorcerer that his father had warned him about. It seemed like such a long time ago, now.

Before Leon had a chance to continue he asked, "What day is it?"

The noble looked slightly worried at that but answered anyway. "It's been about two and a half days since you and Merlin left."

It's still the third day? I must have been unconscious for only a little while.

"Anyway," Leon continued, "we really had no idea of where to find you and I honestly don't think we would've if..." he trailed off.

"What?" Arthur asked, a strange excited feeling in his stomach telling him that he may already know the answer.

Leon still looked hesitant but he answered anyway. "We knights were in the forest when we all heard a rumble; it sort of sounded like thunder. And then in the distance we saw this...light."

"You saw a light?" Arthur asked skeptically.

"I don't know if 'light' is the right word to describe it, sire. It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It was white, and golden, and a lovely blue color. It seemed to originate from somewhere in the forest and shoot up into the sky. Imagine multi-colored lightening coming from the ground and going upwards.

"Anyways, we decided to follow it; thinking that that's where you and Merlin might be. When we got close to it the light seemed to fade away and all that was left was that hatch; blown off. So we went inside and found all three of you as you were; face down on the ground and unconscious."

Arthur had been thinking about the light and whether or not it came from the same person that saved him in that cave when he heard the last bit of what Leon said.

"Wait, we were all lying on the ground when you got there?"

"Yes, you, Merlin, and the sorcerer were all on the floor and looked like you'd been knocked out by something." Leon looked confused; as if he didn't understand what Arthur was asking about.

Arthur had purposely tried to avoid thinking about what had happened before he had woken up with Leon staring down at him; he didn't want to remember. But he knew without a doubt that what the knight had said made no sense.

"Leon," he said slowly, "before I was clubbed on the head none of us were unconscious. And we were all standing. Forget about the sorcerer, Merlin—" he involuntarily winced, "—and I were chained to a wall. We couldn't have lain down if we had tried."

Now Leon looked even more confused. "Then, what happened? When we arrived no one was chained up, though, I suppose you and Merlin were lying underneath some chains."

Arthur wasn't sure what this all meant. He looked down at the servant that was sitting in front of him and leaning on his chest. He felt better knowing that merlin was there, that no harm could come to him. He wondered if maybe this strange boy who always seemed to have an answer when no one else did might be able to tell him what had happened.

They had been riding for several minutes when Arthur heard Leon tell a knight to ride ahead and warn Gaius about his ward's condition; they were nearly home.

The prince sensed the knight's eyes on him and turned to look at his second in command.

"If you don't mind me asking, sire, what happened?"

Arthur sighed; he'd had a feeling that this was going to come up, but unfortunately he simply couldn't handle repeating it just now. Especially since he'd have to tell both Gaius and his father soon enough.

"Something that never should've," he answered. He turned his head to stare at Leon; a man who had been his mentor since he was one of the few knights that was more than a couple of years older than him. "Something that will never happen again."

And as the future king rode with his knights and best friend into the castle courtyard and he saw the anxious looking physician and the other worried looking people, he bent his head slightly and whispered into his servant's ear,

"I told you I'd get you back home."

Little did Arthur know that even though Merlin's body was home; his mind and soul weren't. They were still on the battlefield fighting to survive; fighting to get back to Arthur, to his family.

So, here's the thing: this story is almost done. Because everything I write ends up being a lot longer than I planned can't give you an exact estimate, but I'd say somewhere around four more chapters. Obviously I want to get started writing the sequels to this, let me tell you I have a lot planned, but I have some other stories I want to write as well. On my profile I've got an ever-growing list of my ideas. So, if any of you want to go and check them out and vote or PM me as to which ones you think I should write next I'd be very happy. I've got a lot of ideas, so I want your input. Just vote on the poll that I'll be putting up soon or message me as to what you would like to read and I'll get to work on it. I like all of my ideas so it's really up to you guys as to what you want. I hope I'll update soon! Please review! It helps! I don't know why I'm doing so many of these "!"