Gwaine had subconsciously known that he would probably wake up to the face of his concerned friends, or maybe even Gauis', if they had made it back to Camelot. Actually, he had considered waking up to a number of things. But a small child poking him was not one of them.

With a surprised yelp, he jumped up. The little boy scrambled away from him, obviously afraid.

"You better?" asked the child, after a moment, apparently not scared, but curious. " 'Ily make you better?"

Before Gwaine could ask who "Ily" was, another young child ran into the tent. Her hair was golden blonde and her eyes a darkish blue. She almost reminded the knight of the king.

The little girl squealed and clapped her hands. "I made you better?"

Gwaine nodded. Might as well make the child happy, even if he had no idea what was happening.

She squealed again and stuck her head outside the tent. "Emr's! Dat weird man's awake!"

Gwaine's head snapped up when he heard "Emr's" (which he assumed was "Emrys" in little kid dialect). Last time he checked, Morgana was looking for Emrys.

Morgana. They hadn't heard from her in years. Maybe this Emrys had gotten her.

"Emr's!" the little girl squealed again. There was a muffled sound, and then a voice.

"I'm coming, I'm coming! Do you know how hard it is to walk around when you can't see anything? Sure, I'm used to it, but it's still annoying. And now look at yourself, Merlin, you're talking to yourself…again…"

The knight's heart skipped a beat. That voice… A man entered the tent.

And Gwaine launched himself at his best friend.

"Merlin!" he cried, crushing the lithe man into a hug.

The warlock laughed. "Nice to see you too, Gwaine. Well, I wouldn't say 'see,' but…" He shook his head. "Hi."

Gwaine swallowed, a few tears of pure happiness escaping. "After five years, all you can say is 'hi'?"

"Why not? It's a good conversation starter."

Gwaine shook his head and brought him in for another hug. "Where have you been?"

Merlin rolled his eyes. "Long story. Anyways, what the hell happened? We found you half dead on the side of the river."

Gwaine thought, memories flashing back. "I was in a fight."

"With who?"

Gold hair and cold blue eyes flashed in his mind's eye. Arthur. But he couldn't tell Merlin that. "I don't remember."

The warlock raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

The knight nodded. "Really."

Merlin sighed. "Well, you really took a beating. If it wasn't for Lily, you'd probably have internal bleeding right now, or something drastic like that."

"Lily?"

Merlin nodded. "Is she still in here? And Thomas?"

Gwaine looked around, seeing that the children must have toddled away. "They're gone." He suddenly had a thought. "Are you telling me that little girl saved my life?"

Merlin made an agreeable face. "Yep. She's a pretty good physician when you get down to it, but it's mostly her magic that does it."

"She has magic?"

"Yes, she does." Merlin's voice was challenging.

"Interesting…" Gwaine acted nonchalant. "You have magic, too, right?"

Merlin sighed in an expectant sort of way. "So, Arthur told you?"

Gwaine nodded. "He needed a reason to bring magic back."

"He brought magic back for me?" Merlin laughed humorlessly. "How ironic."

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. Just that the Pendragon's a dirty hypocrite, that's all." Merlin shook his head. "God, I hate him."

Gwaine's eyes widened. "What? Merlin, you hate him? Why?"

Merlin smiled morbidly. "You would too, if the man had tried to kill you."

"What?"

Merlin took a breath, preparing for a story. "Look, do you want to know what happened? You might as well know."

Gwaine nodded, but Merlin did not respond to that, so he made an agreeable sound.

"Alright, you probably know the beginning – Arthur and I went on a hunting trip. What most people didn't know was that we were in a relationship at the time, as in more than friendship. We went on that hunting trip to, you know…" He blushed and cleared his throat. "Anyways, we were attacked. I got a nasty hit to the side of the head. Knocked me out for three days, and made me lose my sight." He brought a hand up to his temple, where there was evidence of a large white scar underneath some raven hair. "Hurt like hell."

"You lost your sight?" Gwaine asked, looking at the warlock for confirmation. He had half guessed already, seeing Merlin's blue eyes clouded over and by the way the warlock had never fully looked at him, but he never really thought that his suspicion had been right.

Merlin nodded as a female voice was heard outside the tent. "Yeah, my sight is gone. Would you like to hear the rest of the story now? I think dinner will be ready soon."

"I'll hear it now. I've been waiting five years for it."

Merlin started again. "I had no idea where Arthur was. I think he had escaped. I was a little hurt that he didn't come out for me, but I realized he probably thought I was dead." He shrugged. "After I came to this conclusion, it occurred to me that no one was coming. That I had to get myself out of this. So, naturally, I turned to my magic."

Gwaine listened more intently now.

"When I thought everyone had gone to sleep, I unchained myself and ran for it. I had no idea of which direction I was going in. I fell down." He blinked at this. "I thought, 'Well, Merlin, look what you've gotten yourself into now. You'll probably die out here, alone. Good one.' But after I was done moping, I sensed something; a presence. A familiar one. Arthur's. I still have no idea how he found me. He helped me up and held me close all night. He kept telling me how much he loved me." Merlin's eyes narrowed and his voice and faced darkened. "I should have known those were lies."

Gwaine decided to cut in there. He didn't care that Arthur had beat the hell out of him last night, the king needed Merlin back. "He does love you! After all this time, he still searches for you. He's not the same without you, everyone can see it. He needs –"

Merlin held up his hand, silencing him. "Let me finish my story," he said in a voice that was neither raised, nor angry, but just conveyed pure power. "In the morning, he kissed me awake and asked me why I wasn't looking at him. I told him I lost my sight." Merlin chuckled grimly. "He said he didn't care. That he still loved me. Those were lies too.

"We set off for Camelot after that. However, the men that had attacked us earlier were waiting for us halfway there. There were so many, Gwaine…I just…" Merlin took a breath. "I used my magic in front of Arthur. All the men scattered, and those who didn't fell dead.

"Arthur didn't say anything, until I tried stepping near him. I can still remember his voice. 'Don't touch me, you filthy sorcerer.' I tried to explain, to tell him I only used my magic for him, but…"

Merlin pressed his hands to a spot on his chest, his face contorting the memory of pain. "He stabbed me. With his sword. I'll always remember his last words to me. 'You lied to me. You enchanted me, didn't you? Really, how could I fall in love with you? A sorcerer, and now a blind freak!' He spat on me then said, 'If you ever had any real love for me, you'll stay there and die.' He walked away after that. I don't even think he looked back."

Merlin's story seemed to be finished, but there were a lot of questions to be answered.

"What happened to you after that?"

Merlin smiled, as if he hadn't just relayed his most scarring moments. "That's a story for after dinner. C'mon, I think I hear Morgana calling us already."

"Morgana?!" the knight asked, incredulously.

Merlin smirked good-naturally. "And that's another story, too."

"How many stories do you have to tell me?"

"Quite a few, actually. But, now, I think it's time we had dinner and you met your daughter."

Leon approached the king warily. It wasn't their usual "searching" time of the month, but the king had insisted that they go look for Merlin.

"Sire," the knight started. "Don't you think we should double back, then head home? Gwaine's gone missing, and it's getting dark."

Arthur's face remained emotionless. "Gwaine hasn't gone missing."

The knight's eyes widened a bit and he shot a glance back at his friends. "Then where is he?"

Arthur suddenly smiled, but not in a nice way. More like in a sadistic, maniac way. "I left him by the river a while back. He'd be lucky to still be alive."

"What?" Dread filled in the pit of Leon's stomach.

"Oh, yes. The traitor had started to question me, question my health, questioning if I was alright because I seemed to be talking to the air." The king gave Leon a piercing look. "I was not talking to the air. I was talking to Merlin."

"Sire, you do know Merlin is-"

"I know, Leon." There was venom in his voice. "I know. That is why we are out here. But then Gwaine had decided to question my judgment. He thought that once a month was enough. He even had the gall to say my Merlin might be dead." Arthur smiled insanely again. "But I showed him to watch his tongue."

Leon started, appalled at the man in front of him. He was insane.

The knight desperately hoped they found Merlin soon, because, if they didn't, Camelot was certainly doomed.

A/N: Hi. (It's a good conversation starter, right?)

Well, this was the chapter. Think of it as you will.

And HUGE thanks to my beta, TruffleHead, who is very nice and generally AWESOME!

And thanks to all you guys, too, for reviewing, fav-ing, and following! You deserve magical unicorns, but you get free air guitars!

So, hope the magics are in everyone's favor and that evil muffins don't come your way! :)