In celebration of the finally reaching the end of this long, hard week (Translation: 3 days of doing absolutly nothing and 2 days of classes. Although, I did move into my apartment on sunday, and that sucked major monkey balls. It was about 85 degrees and VERY humid. It has been a long week though), I am giving you all a treat: the next chapter!

Ah, who am I kidding? It's just because I have 20 minutes to kill until I have to go to work and then my last class. *laugh*

Anyways, I got some lovely comments, people seemed interested. And I didn't have to sic Sheldon on anyone. Which is good, cuz he's really not all that ferocious.

Enjoy.

They had stopped and set up camp for the night. Arthur had built a small fire a ways away from the others, hoping to help calm the boy's nerves a bit. He was extremely jumpy around just him; on the verge of a panic attack with the rest of the group.

The boy had greedily drunk the water Arthur gave him, and ate as much as Arthur dared feed him. The boy was very weak, hardly possessing the strength to stand. He had collapsed to the ground the minute they stopped. Arthur had wrapped his cloak around the boy's shoulders to warm him from the chill of the night air. But the boy had shrugged it off, scooting away from it.

Arthur had tried to remove the leather collar from the boy's neck. He was appalled to find that the lock was welded together. It would have to wait until they could get to the blacksmith back in Camelot.

Arthur sighed, staring at the boy. They were sitting on opposite sides of the fire.

"Do you have a name?" he asked quietly.

The boy only glanced at him.

"A name? Do you have a name?

No response.

A thought struck Arthur. "Can you talk?" he asked.

The boy stared at him for a bit longer this time, before returning his gaze to the fire.

Arthur rubbed his head in frustration. "Well, I suppose I shall have to come up with a name for you then," he continued. He stared at the ground, nothing jumping into his mind. "I might have to think about it for a while."

He saw the boy glancing at him out of the corner of his eyes. Arthur grabbed his pack, digging through it. He found a jar of salve that the court physician, Gaius, had sent. He knew it would help to soothe the boy's burns and start them to heal faster.

Arthur carefully made his way over to the boy, holding the jar in sight. "Hey," he said softly. "I have this for you. Hopefully it will help."

The boy eyed the jar, a conflicted cloud of emotion covering his face. He looked simultaneously sad, resigned, and slightly happy. He slowly got to his knees, turning until his back faced Arthur.

"What are you doing?" asked Arthur, as the boy laid his elbows down on the ground, his rear still in the air, spreading his legs.

Arthur's eyes widened in horror as he realized what the boy was thinking. "No, no, no, no, no," he cried, grabbing the boy's shoulders and pulling him back up.

The boy turned to stare at him, his expressive eyes full of confusion.

Arthur held the jar up. "It's for your sunburn," said Arthur, pointing to the boy's chest. The boy glanced down, looking at the festering burns. He nodded slowly, sitting back on his haunches.

Arthur unscrewed the lid off the jar, scooping out some salve. Mindful of the numerous cuts and bruises, he reached out and began to gently smear it onto the boy's skin. He was pleased that the boy only stiffened slightly.

Arthur couldn't hold back a wince as he continued to spread the salve on. With no clothing to block the rays, the boy's entire body was covered in burns. He assumed that the boy must have very fair skin if he could be this badly burned from what little sun actually filtered through the trees. Or perhaps he had been somewhere more open to the sky recently.

"Now your back," said Arthur quietly.

The boy hesitated only slightly before spinning around. As the firelight shined off his back, Arthur felt anger flare in his gut. Faint white scars criss-crossed the boy's back. He had been whipped at some point.

Arthur finished up, wiping the excess salve off on his trousers leg. Replacing the lid, he grabbed his cloak and spread it out on the ground. "Please, sleep on it. I don't want dirt to stick to your burns," said Arthur.

The boy eyed it, glancing up at him. After a minute, he crawled over, curling up on it.

Arthur smiled, returning to his bed roll. Tomorrow, he would see if he could scrape together some clothes for the boy. At least some breeches. He couldn't bring him back to Camelot naked.

He studied the boy. For how tall he was, he could curl himself up to be very small. The firelight reflected off his eyes, lighting them a brilliant gold.

"How about Col?" he asked.

The boy's gaze flicked to him.

"For your name?" continued Arthur.

The boy simply stared at him.

"Do you like that name? Col?"

The boy eyed him for a bit more, one corner of his mouth barely quirking up as he returned to gazing into the fire.

Arthur frowned. Either the boy couldn't talk or he wouldn't. Arthur sighed, deciding to just let it go. "Good night, Col," he said instead.

The boy, now named Col, curled up tighter on the cloak, his eyes drifting closed.

Yeah, I went there.

I was just trying to come up with an appropriate name and *poof* there is was. XD

Anyway, I'm sure that if you didn't already know who "Col" is, you should have figured it out by now. Lord knows I've dropped enough hints. But, if you haven't, fret not! There will be more hints in the next chapter. *waggles eyebrows*