Okay, so I have already gotten something like 15 reviews and it hasn't even been 24 hours since the last update, so I thought that I would reward you all with another chapter. This one is fairly short BUT it DOES have WHUMP! I hope you all likey. Thank you to everyone who reviewed because I probably would have updated in like four days or something, so thank you for the encouragement. Keep it up and I might do another quick update.

Warning: Violence but nothing too graphic.

Merlin was more than a little bit stunned and terrified when he saw the four big men rush towards him. He wasn't an idiot like some people believed, he had known for a while now that many of the castle guards were less than friendly when it came to him. He assumed that it was because of the way he treated Arthur, of how he wasn't a bootlicker. Considering the conversation that they had just overheard, Merlin thought it was a pretty safe bet that that was the reason.

But Merlin wasn't really concentrating on why they were doing this. All thought left him when it felt like all the air he'd ever had was driven out of him. In surprise and physical shock he dropped all of the armor he was carrying and fell to the floor. The pain that had mercifully decided to wait for a few moments finally surfaced and his stomach felt like it exploded in pain.

This wasn't the first time he'd been punched, no not at all. But this was quite possibly the hardest and most painful.

Merlin didn't even have a chance to draw much breath into his already aching lungs before the angry men above grabbed him by the back of his coat and pulled him up. He looked blurrily into the face of a man he recognized, Hemlock.

"This is so you never forget your place. You're a servant, nothing more." Another painful punch landed in the same place as the previous one, making the whole of Merlin's torso seem to blossom in agonizing pain.

Merlin realized that he should probably struggle and try to get away from this man, but before he could so much as twitch a muscle the other three men descended on him.

The man he recognized as Gerald targeted anything he could, with feet and fists according to availability. The one named Tymund focused on hitting his face as hard as he could. And the one he knew to be Michael held him against the wall and delivered a few punches of his own, though, they weren't as painful as the others. And hemlock devoted all his strength to his abdomen.

Each hit or punch that landed felt like it tore the breath from him. It felt like he was being buried by a hundred falling stones. He felt acutely aware of all the damage that the punches were causing. The first one had hurt something fierce, but now, not long after they had all joined in; Merlin couldn't even tell where he was being attacked from. The pain was everywhere. If he had the air to scream he would.

The fists and feet rained down on him and Merlin tried to curl up in a tight ball to protect himself but couldn't because of the hands pinning his arms. Another punch to his face and his head whipped to the side and hit the wall making both sides of his face sear in agony. He was faintly aware of the tiny whimpers that were coming from him, and of the horrible warm wetness that he could feel in several different places on his body.

He couldn't see anything. Excruciating pain was engulfing his entire being. And every hit or kick seemed to be twice as painful as the previous one. Merlin wanted desperately to scream, in the hopes that that would make the pain go away, and soon he got his wish.

As Hemlock delivered a particularly strong punch to an area that was already greatly damaged, a sickening sound wrenched the air. It was the sound of a bone breaking.

Merlin would forever wonder how it was possible to scream with next to no air in his lungs. But scream he did as the pain that overshadowed anything he had ever felt before blossomed from his chest. It felt as if liquid fire was boiling his blood and pure agony was consuming him.

The guards, meanwhile, had stopped when they had heard the horrific scream come from the boy they had been beating. They all seemed to stumble back as they began to realize what had just happened. Merlin curled in on himself and didn't seem aware or even mostly conscious. The four guards stared in shock at the bloody mess that they had reduced the boy to.

Michael, as he looked at Merlin, remembered his dream once again and realized that image of the servant lying broken and bleeding was almost identical to the real thing. Only this was worse.

They were dimly aware of the sounds of someone running towards them, but not one of them had to turn and look to see who it was.

"What have you done?"

There you go. I shall have bromance in the next chapter so don't worry. Review and make my day?