"Ready, are we?" The gleeful man asked.

Merlin looked anxiously between all of his friends, however he only managed to catch Arthur's eye. He tried to tell him not to bother, and that this whole thing could be a trap to kill them all, but Arthur's look outdid his- too much determination and…anger? Merlin could see a raging temper within his king which confused him. He changed his message to match his king's anger with pure determination, showing that they would do their part and he would do his- staying alive.

That idiot, Arthur mused to himself, stupid self-sacrificing dollop head…

Since when had he started copying Merlin's insults? That didn't matter right now, he reminded himself as he broke eye contact with his manservant and addressed Eernseth.

"Let me just get this straight- we have 1 hour to gather ingredients. What ingredients, and where are we gathering them?"

"Well, right here in the castle grounds, of course, young king- as for ingredients, you will need: ONE- a rose with petals as black as death. TWO- blood as silver as ice. THREE- scales as pure as gold." The man proclaimed dramatically, holding up three fingers- one for each ingredient. "I think that's all you need to know… and we shouldn't keep Merlin waiting any longer… I hope you can keep your time, boys. " He proclaimed with much sarcasm "The game starts… NOW" With a flick of his hand the sand spewed forth into the bottom half of the timer, the 3 knights sprinted across the hall and Eernseth laughed wickedly. It had begun.

They hadn't really thought about what their plan was. Instead, they just sprinted for a good 5 minutes before Arthur yelled at them to stop.

"We can't just run and hope we bump into some of the ingredients. This man's being tactical, so we need to have a strategy ourselves."

"I agree sire- I just don't see how we are going to get all 3 in just an hour."

"I do" Gwaine spoke out "Split up."

"Gwaine- this is a foreign place to us, we have no idea what we could run into!" Arthur reasoned.

"And we also have no idea how Merlin's faring in that timer… if we want to save him we need to split up."

"And if we all end up collecting the same ingredients?" Leon asked.

"We divide them up- Gwaine can take the blood, Leon take the scales and I'll take the flower." Arthur ordered.

"Aww, don't strain yourself, will you, princess- you know, with your flower picking?" Gwaine teased.

"Shut up Gwaine" Arthur smiled, and paused for a second.

"Right- just make sure you go back to Merlin within the hour." He finished "I believe in you both." With nods of respect shared, each person sprinted off in a different direction.

10 minutes gone

The sand was neither pleasant nor irritating. Although, it had been hard at first to find a good place Merlin could stand without it falling into his eyes, mouth and nose. So far, the sand had only collected as far up to his ankles. He was feeling confident that he would get through this, if only there weren't the continuous effects from the poison beating down on him from the inside. He figured the trick was not to think about it, so he took to counting the grains of sand.

"Bored, Merlin?" A voice came from behind him.

Without turning around Merlin replied coolly "A little, not much to do in here."

"What a shame." Eernseth remarked, walking round to face Merlin, placing his malformed hands on the glass "Just think- I won't be able to even see you soon- all that sand would've trickled down, bit by bit, covering and coating you completely until you won't be able to breathe" The details of Eernseth's talking had chilled Merlin to the bone, and he couldn't help certain pictures of what that would feel like corrupting his mind.

"Ah, but don't dwell on that- your friends are searching for your survival right now. Shame it won't be easy for them." Eernseth whispered breathily.

"What did you do?" Merlin demanded.

"My games are never easy Merlin, and this one is no exception. They will each have their challenges."

"I believe in each of them. You will be the one to lose this game" Merlin spoke defiantly.

"We'll see" The man replied before sauntering away.

15 minutes gone

Arthur's eyes stung. He had held them open and concentrated for what felt like a while now. So far, he had managed to find the kitchens and then a servant room- searching every drawer he only found emptiness. After kicking at an unfortunate shelf in anger, he was just calming down when he heard a shuffle. Strange- there was no one around… There! He spun around. The noise- it was moving. Unsheathing his sword, Arthur's senses prickled with tension at the sudden silence that had formed. Feeling every hair on the back of his neck stand on end, he took a step forward before CRASH.

What looked like a demented, jet black dog jumped out from behind a table. It was one of the largest dogs Arthur had ever seen, and it was viscous, leaping toward him like a magnet. Arthur only had time to roll towards one side as the dog- if the creature could be described as such- wedged its teeth into the chair Arthur had been in front of. The king, after scrambling to his feet, side stepped his way closer to the door. As he watched, the dog tore itself from the chair. Once again, it came at him, biting down on his sword this time, and Arthur wrestled it side to side, attempting to bat the dog off however he could. With paws and claws swiping everywhere, Arthur had no choice but to retreat. Walking backwards, the dog came towards him again, stalking him. It was only a matter of time before- POUNCE- the dog leaped into the air and came down hard on Arthur. Managing only partly successfully to block himself with his sword and arm, Arthur could feel claws in his skin, but he only relented by shoving the dog off him. Sword now in position, his stance ready, he faced down with the dog. As he swatted once more and manically fought, the dog sprinted at Arthur whilst Arthur took to jumping over him. With this jump, Arthur raised his blade above his head and brought it down hard on the dog's body. With a final whine, the dog relented and fell down- dead.

Leon was sweaty. He had run for a good while now, only finding miles and miles of endless corridors. Every door he tried was locked. This game was making no sense, and there seemed to be no gold scales anywhere either. However, he knew he couldn't give up; Merlin was the one man who had changed all of their lives and he wasn't even a noble or knight. Class- what a stupid concept, Leon pondered as he tested another locked door. He didn't think class should be something that was relevant in society- someone like Merlin deserved to be respected, but apparently that's not how the rules worked. He would never understand it. A breeze broke Leon's thoughts, and jolted him back to the present. It was cold- too cold. That meant there had to be something up ahead. Speeding up a little, he came towards the next door, but again only found it locked. However, he knew there was something here. Just as he looked away, a darker section of wood on the door caught his eye- it looked like this part had been covered over. Taking his dagger out, he chipped away at the darker wood- finding it amazing when his arm broke through into a hole just big enough for his hand to reach in and fish out a note. It was weird- this note looked centuries old, and the hole was covered in cobwebs, and yet hadn't this game had only just started? He rolled out the paper, revealing only two words.

"Look Up."

After a few second's consideration, the wild-haired knight raised his head, taking in a breath as he saw that there was some kind of trap door on the ceiling… that was where he needed to go… the only problem was- how would he get up there?

25 minutes gone