Two days left…

"Arthur, my feet are numb, can't we go back now? Don't you think we've had enough hunting for today?" Merlin complained, dragging his feet behind his King. Arthur huffed and rolled his eyes.

"Merlin, we have only been out here for two hours and we still haven't caught anything. Whose fault do you think that is?"

"Mine? Because it's always Merlin's fault, 'Merlin, it's your fault that I missed the hare,' or 'it's your fault, Merlin, that those bandits found us.' Why is it always Merlin's fault?! I didn't do anything!" ranted Arthur's manservant.

"Last time, you coughed and ruined my aim," Arthur recounted, daring Merlin to deny it.

"There was a lot of dust in the air where we were crouching!" Insisted Merlin, his arms waving wildly in a vague gesture meaning to symbolise the supposed 'dust' responsible.

"Dust," Arthur deadpanned, raising an eyebrow in a manner eerily similar to Gaius.

"Yes! Dust! The dirt is very dry there and you were kicking it up when you were rolling around behind the bushes!"

"I was not 'rolling around'! I was keeping low to the ground so that I wasn't seen by the deer," Arthur countered, indignantly, because Kings do not 'roll around' when hunting.

Merlin opened his mouth to claim otherwise and that was when Arthur saw him.

A majestic hart* with the largest set of antlers Arthur has ever seen, was standing amongst the trees a couple of paces away from them. His ears swivelling around at the slightest rustling of leaves in the chilly autumn breeze. Arthur promptly clapped a gloved hand over Merlin's mouth to prevent his servant from ruining the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"Don't. Say. A. Word. Got it?" Arthur whispered sternly into Merlin's ear. When his servant nodded, Arthur removed his hand and carefully took his crossbow from Merlin. He was so focused on aiming the weapon at the handsome hart that he missed the strange hungry look Merlin had given his hand.

The expression on the vampire's face changed into a look of awe once Merlin turned to see the poor innocent animal that Arthur was going to kill. What a beautiful animal! Merlin couldn't prevent the gasp from escaping his mouth at the sight of such a magnificent mammal. The sound of the sharp intake of breath the servant had made caused the hart to lift his head in their direction, both ears pricked towards them. King and servant stared back at the hart until the moment was over and the deer bounded away.

"You complete idiot! Why do you always have to open your big mouth?!" Snapped Arthur as he whirled on his manservant.

"I…he…did you see how beautiful he was? I couldn't… I didn't mean to…I…" Merlin stammered, scrabbling backwards away from Arthur who was stalking towards him, fuming.

"Shut up, Merlin and get up. We are not going back to Camelot until we have got that hart. Do you understand?"

"Yes, My Lord, I understand," Merlin half-replied, half-groaned in reply before trailing behind Arthur as he led the way.

After several hours of tracking the prized hart with little luck and only a few signs to follow, the sun began sinking beneath the horizon plunging the forest into the darkness of dusk. Above them the thick canopies of the trees blotted out the light of the moon and stars, leaving them to stumble through the blackness. (Well, Arthur stumbled because he couldn't see. Not Merlin-he's a vampire. Merlin could see perfectly fine at night, thank you very much. He was just clumsy, that's all).

Following the hart had led the pair of them far up to the north, where winter's fingers had already touched, leaving the earth frosty beneath their feet and the air chilly with winter's breath. "Let's set up camp here. We shall search for the hart on the morrow," Arthur declared and Merlin released a very visible relieved sigh before doing his job. As they settled down for the night in their bedrolls, the temperature dropped to a body-numbing, teeth chattering level of freezing.

"I think I'm missing a toe," Arthur commented as he shuffled closer to Merlin so that they laid side-by-side on their bedrolls. The contact with their sides giving them little warmth, only the comfort of their companionship, yet it was still better than nothing.

"I'm missing Camelot. Missing my food. Missing my bed…" replied Merlin as he shivered, his threadbare clothes and thin blanket doing nothing to keep the cold at bay.

"Merlin."

"Yes, Sire?"

"Shut up and go to sleep," the silence remained for a moment, with only the sound of Merlin's quivering breaths to fill it, loud in the hushed forest.

It was broken with Arthur's voice, "Merlin."

"Huh?"

"You're breathing."

"Sorry," Merlin's apology was quiet as he struggled to fall asleep with Arthur's side pressed against his and with the cold clawing at his skin. Although the chilling temperature had done well to distract Merlin during the day, now when Arthur was vulnerable and close enough that they were somewhat half-huddling (not cuddling!) for warmth, it wasn't doing so well at keeping his thoughts of blood away.

Merlin listened to the sound of Arthur's heart beating, alive and well. Normally, it was a comforting sound that reminded him that his best friend, someone he considered a brother in all but blood, was safe. Now, it was an enticing beat that beckoned him closer. It flooded his mind with lustful thoughts of drinking blood. How much he would love to sink his fangs into that neck and taste Arthur's blood on his tongue. To feel that rush of satisfaction as his hunger is sated…to drink until-no he wouldn't.

Not Arthur.

The impulses and thoughts that he experiences during the time around Samhain scare him sometimes. If he wasn't careful, if he couldn't resist the temptation to bite Arthur and drink his blood…then Arthur…

If he couldn't stop drinking Arthur's blood…the thought was too painful for Merlin to finish.

Not to mention, for that to happen Arthur would have to discover that Merlin is a vampire and what would happen to their friendship? Would Arthur be scared of him? Would he be angry or disgusted? Or would he accept him? Why would he? Surely Arthur had been told that vampires were just as evil as sorcerers?

Merlin would just have to protect Arthur from himself. He can't hide himself somewhere far away from Arthur until Samhain was over because the other vampires would take that as an opportunity to drain Arthur's lifeblood for themselves.

No…he would just have to be careful and think about other things like:

'It's so COLD! Why for the love of Camelot did that clotpole, prat, turnip-headed ASS have to follow that poor hart to such a horribly freezing place?!'


*Hart is an archaic word for "stag" from Old English. In medieval times, the male of a red deer is a hart especially if over five years old (and the female is a hind, especially if three or more years old).


Author's Note:

I hope you all enjoyed chapter two! If you can, please let me know what you think! :)

This story has been pre-written beforehand. I thought it would be really cool and fun if I posted the chapters on the corresponding days, as explained in the A/N in chapter one.

So as promised I'll explain a bit more about this universe's vampires, just so that any confusion is cleared up. Vampires in this story: Have prominent canines which extend into hollowed fangs when they are about to bite into flesh. The blood passes through the fangs and into the mouth of the vampire-while drinking the vampire's saliva numbs any pain. Vampires have enhanced hearing, sense of smell and sight. They can see at night as though it is day, and can hear the heartbeat of their prey when they listen for it (which they are particularly prone to doing during thirst).

While drinking, the irises of their eyes glow crimson, like in the anime Vampire Knight. Or like how a sorcerer's eyes glow golden but vampire's glow red instead.

As for their weaknesses: they can gain an immunity to sunlight but only the most powerful can do so. Lesser vampires may die within hours being exposed to it. Crosses, silver, garlic, etc doesn't harm them.

And vampires can turn into a bat form in this story, because bats are cute and it gives the vampire a disguise and method to travel in.

Non-magical and magical humans can both become a vampire through a blood ritual which a vampire must perform with them to convert them. Being born a vampire is extremely rare.

So, to sum it all up: A mix of various abilities from various sources of information and no Twilight sparkly vampires.

Some things would be shown in the next two chapters and some may not. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask me. You can message me in a Pm or a review, however way you'd like to contact me and I'll be happy to answer you. :)

See you tomorrow!

~PurpleFlyingBird