You all have been so amazing and have reviewed so much so I've decided to give you yet another chapter today. Plus, this was pretty fun to write.

Arthur had been walking quite prattishly—as Merlin would call it—back to his chambers when a servant had stopped him with a message from his father. It was just a reminder about some sort of procedure at the dinner that night. Arthur had listened and then tried to get on his way when his mind finally registered a sound it had picked up a few moments ago. The sound of falling armor.

It wasn't that unusual for Merlin to drop things, especially when he was expected to walk and carry them at the same time. Apparently the boy couldn't multitask. But for some reason Arthur felt uneasy, he wondered if maybe it was because it really wouldn't hurt him to carry a few things.

Despite his constant complaints about Merlin he was occasionally impressed with his abilities to do things quickly. Sometimes he would often give the boy a ridiculously heavy load of chores just to see if he'd fail. But the servant never did. And, of course, he'd always feel guilty afterwards when he would see the bags under Merlin's eyes from working too late.

But that really was a lot of armor for anyone to carry on their own, not to mention for a boy of his size and strength. Arthur knew that he could help out at least a little bit, but pride and his previous experience with servants made it hard for him. Plus, he just liked to give Merlin a hard time.

But Merlin was right and he really should help him out sometimes, it's not like it could really hurt.

Arthur had spent a couple of moments dithering about whether or not he should lend a hand when he finally realized that Merlin would probably be half way to the armory by now. And so once again as he was about to turn around he heard a sound that, though he'd never heard it before, he knew had to have come from Merlin.

He spun around and headed in a dead run towards the sound. The scream had been long and drawn out, but then had stopped abruptly as if its owner had run out of air. Arthur raced down the corridors, praying all the while that it had not been Merlin's scream and that it hadn't been full of the pain that he had heard.

As he turned a sharp corner he came to a complete stop when he saw a scene that was more horrific than any bloody fight he had ever been in. Merlin was curled up on the ground and was whimpering slightly, shaking uncontrollably, and breathing heavily. In small puddles all around him blood was pooling slowly, and his clothes were covered with it. For the moment Arthur couldn't really see anything of his skin and was grateful for it. He didn't know if he could handle what he might see.

Standing a few feet away from Merlin were four guards, the same four guards Arthur faintly remembered passing just a few minutes ago. They all had horrified and shocked looks on their faces. Arthur would almost have thought that they had just arrived on this scene like him and were stunned, but one look at their bloody clothes and fists and he knew that that wasn't the case.

"What have you done?" Arthur yelled, his voice nearly breaking a couple of times. He looked from them to Merlin and back again. He rushed forward and knelt beside Merlin and put a hand on his back, intending to roll him over slightly to see the damage.

But as he felt his friend's harsh and ragged breathing and knew that only one kind of injury could cause that he stopped himself. He turned to glare up angrily at the men and said with a lot more venom in his voice this time, "What have you done?"

The men still seemed too shocked to respond so Arthur decided not to waste his time on them right now. He carefully rolled Merlin over so he could see how bad it was, mindful the entire time of the one or more broken ribs he must be sporting.

He gasped at what he saw. Merlin's face was covered in bruises and blood, as was the rest of him. His shirt and his coat were soaked in it. What little of his skin that wasn't tinged red was pasty and pale. His eyes were fluttering, but he barely seemed conscious. Conscious enough, though, to cringe when Arthur turned him around, in a way that made the prince think that he was expecting another attack. The action seemed to hurt his ribs, though, and he groaned.

Arthur knew that he had no way of knowing for sure how bad Merlin's injuries were with all the blood covering him, not to mention the fact that he was hardly a physician. He had to get him to Gaius.

He slowly, and with as much gentleness he could muster, lifted Merlin into his arms and stood up. Once again the boy groaned but Arthur hoped, and prayed, that he was still too out of it to feel much.

He looked at the men that had did this, who all seemed to be slowly coming back to their senses, and spoke quickly and harshly, knowing that he had to hurry with Merlin.

"You four will wait here until I come back. You are not to leave or run away. Once Merlin is taken care of I'll deal with all of you. And you had better pray as hard as you can that he is not to badly damaged or you will all wish you had never been born." With one last fiery glare that could melt through solid rock Arthur turned and walked as quickly as he could to Gaius' chambers, careful the entire time of Merlin's injuries.

Arthur rushed Merlin into Gaius' room without knocking, calling as he did so for the wise physician. Gaius was at a table mixing some sort of potion, but quickly turned around when he heard his name. He gasped much like Arthur did when he saw the state his ward was in.

"What happened?" he asked, rapidly closing the space between him and Arthur.

"He was attacked by some guards. He's already lost a lot of blood and has at least one broken rib," the prince explained in a rush.

"Lie him down on the bed," the physician said, gesturing to the cot reserved for patients, as he bustled to a cabinet and began gathering supplies. He returned a moment later and gave his charge a visual once over.

"I need you to help me take his coat and shirt off so I can see what needs to be done." Arthur held Merlin up and the old man proceeded to rid him of his bloody and sticky clothes. Both men gasped again when they saw what was underneath.

There seemed not to be a single inch of him that wasn't covered in bruises and places where brute force had broken the skin. And even through the blood they could both make out the horrible, deep bruising on his left side, no doubt where the broken ribs were.

Gaius recovered faster than Arthur and began cleaning all the blood off him so that he could get to the wounds. Merlin seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness and was mumbling slightly.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Arthur asked, not realizing how pleading his voice sounded because of how desperate he was to help his friend.

Without looking up from his task Gaius said, "I need more clean water."

Arthur nodded and quickly picked up a bucket, not even noticing the absence of his usually present pride. But just before he left the room, however, he heard his name being faintly called.

"Ar…thur? Please d..on't be an..gry with the-em." Arthur stared stunned at the nearly unconscious boy who had just read his mind. For he had just been thinking about what he would do to the bastards that had did this when Merlin had spoken.

For a long moment Arthur just stood still, then left.

The entire time he was getting the water Arthur thought about that strange request. Merlin had just been beaten half to death and had asked that Arthur not be angry with them, which was basically the same as asking him not to hurt them. And the prince couldn't understand it.

If he had just been beaten to a pulp he would be furious with the ones who did it, and would want to get at least some small measure of revenge. But not Merlin.

Of course, it was also possible that Merlin was simply delirious and had no idea what he was saying. But somehow Arthur didn't think so, that was just Merlin.

When he returned Gaius had removed the boy's pants as well, though he had a thin blanket covering him. And Arthur wanted to run away and puke when he saw that the damage was hardly less severe on his legs. Did they leave any bit of him alone?

The prince set the water down and knelt next to Merlin's cot.

"I've given him a painkiller which will also allow him to sleep," Gaius said, "Most of it is just bruises, though; I believe he has two broken ribs. But I don't think he's in much danger since I've bandaged his ribs and most else is superficial." He gave Arthur a smile. "He's going to be fine, sire." Arthur heaved a great sigh of relief.

"Thank you for bringing him to me as quickly as you did. I no longer need your help and I believe you have a dinner to get ready for, sire."

Arthur didn't want to leave Merlin but he knew Gaius was right. But before he got ready he had a few guards to deal with.

So Arthur left and made his way back to where he had last seen the condemned men. He turned a corner and saw that all four of them were leaning against a wall and were looking decidedly uncomfortable and ashamed. Good, he thought.

"You four," he barked at the men, "come with me."

It seems that I am very susceptable to bribery. I have another Merlin fic that I've been working on for a while now and I really want to finish it soon. But I've deccided to give you all a bit of a say in which one I write. If I get more wonderful reviews for this then the chances are that I will spend more of my time of this one then on the other, and, of course, the other way around. If I get more reviews for "Hidden Knowledge" then I'll update that more. So, it's up to you all how many reviews you are willing to give me as bribery.