Arthur felt his face pull into a nervous frown as he glanced around the courtyard. They shouldn't be entertaining guests now. He doesn't think his father understands how badly this could turn out for them. Nevertheless, he regained eye contact with the approaching Lady Victoria and forced a smile upon his face.

"Lady Victoria," his father said, reaching out his hand to assist the woman off her horse "We are honored to have you here, while you rest from your journey". Lady Victoria responded to him, but Arthur was no longer paying any attention. His eyes swept over the crowd of people scurrying about the square, attending to their duties. Not that it would matter if Arthur did see who he was looking for; he had never seen the young man before.

There had recently been a series of robberies around the castle. It started out as an emerald necklace going missing from Morgana's chambers, but it quickly escalated. The king himself would be walking to dinner and suddenly notice that his small bag of gold is no longer in his pocket. A guard would report that a dagger they kept on his belt had disappeared sometime during his shift. The thief seemed to enjoy stealing from right under the nose of his chosen victim. This had been going on for about a month now. Curiously, though, the theft increased only among the highest-class citizens of Camelot.

Arthur heard a commotion around a nearby corner. Thankfully, Lady Victoria had already been escorted to her chambers by a servant. As he turned to see what had happened, three guards burst out, eyes scanning the crowd like they were looking for someone they had lost.

"What happened?" Arthur commanded the guard closest to himself, who now looked like he gave up on searching the crowd. The guard turned to look at Arthur.

"Excuse me, my lord" The guard started "but we believe we found the thief." The thief was well known by now, so it was obvious who the guard was talking about.

"Well, where is he?" Arthur stated, glancing at the other guards who were also empty-handed.

"He… managed to evade us my lord. But we now have a description of him. He is a young man. Dark hair, blue eyes and fairly lanky." Arthur bit back an exasperated sigh and let the guards go. After a minute of silently noting to tell his father and Morgana of the new information, Arthur started walking back to the castle.

That is, until he noticed a dark-haired, blue-eyed lanky young man rise from behind a few barrels near where the guards emerged. Arthur's face morphed into one of surprise, eyebrows raised and jaw just slightly lower than it was a minute ago. The young man had a large, lopsided grin on his face, like he was in on some hilarious joke no one else knew about. The young man started walking towards Arthur and casually brushed past him. Arthur turned to look at the young man now behind him and walking away while simultaneously checking his pocket for the bag of silver coins he was planning on gambling with later. The raven-haired young man turned his head toward Arthur and, still with that overly large smile on his face, winked at him. Arthur patted his now empty pocket and stood, dumfounded, for approximately half a second before breaking into a run towards the young man who was headed to the gate.

"You! Stop!" he yelled to the thief, who was already running towards the forest. Arthur was faster than the young man, but he had a head start. By the time Arthur had caught up with him, he was already a good distance into the forest. Arthur tackled the young man and they both fell to the ground. The prince quickly got up, drew his sword and pointed it at the thief's chest.


"Hello. I'm Merlin." The young man beneath the point of his sword said. No fear was present in his face; just an amused sparkle in his eye and his goofy smile had turned to a smirk. He wasn't pleading or trying to convince Arthur of his innocence. Just "I'm Merlin". That wasn't what Arthur expected, and it definitely threw him off guard.

"Prince Arthur" he responded, regaining his bearing. "You stole my silver"

"Yes. Yes I did. Do you want it back?" Arthur thought he could no longer be surprised by this young man; "It's in my pocket" He said. Arthur ignored Merlin and kept the sword pointed at his heart.

"Do you admit to all the robberies of the past month?" Arthur questioned, a firm look on his face. If this man thought stealing from his castle was funny, then maybe he'd enjoy a month in the dungeon.

"Not all of them, of course. But I'd like to believe the majority was my doing." The goofy smile returned. He seemed to be having fun with this, not many people would laugh at the sharp end of a blade, especially when Arthur was on the other end of it. Arthur had to give him some credit. He admired his bravery, even if it was the bravery of an idiot.

"Then you will return with me to Camelot to await your punishment"

"No, I don't think that's going to happen. I'm having fun out here" Merlin retorted.

"You have committed a crime against Camelot. You will answer for your behavior. Rise" Arthur backed his sword away gently, giving Merlin room to stand. Merlin stood up, eyes glancing down to Arthur's sword and back up at Arthur. He could've sworn he saw Merlin's eyes flash gold, but the handle on his sword turned blazing hot and he had to drop it. He reflexively looked down at his burnt hand and immediately heard Merlin take off running. When Arthur looked up again, Merlin was long gone. He swore. Arthur picked up his newly-cooled sword and replaced it in his belt, already forgetting about the burn in favor of pondering the strange young man he met.


AN- This is my first story so pointers and critiques would be lovely. Also, a good title suggestion would be nice. PS- I took the idea from another Merlin story on here called "The Thief". Check it out if you have time, I liked it