Arthur could be called a lot of things; prideful, arrogant, egotistical, but one thing you could never say about Arthur is that he doesn't care about his people. The first thought that went through Arthur's head when he heard the bell was my people are in danger! The next one was far more rational; he needed to find someone who knew what had happened. Arthur took off running down the hall towards where his best, and closest, hope of getting information would be: the prison guards. Before he arrived, he noticed three other guards running down the hall to his left, towards him.
"Stop! Explain the reason behind the warning bell" Arthur commanded the guards. They immediately stopped in their tracks and turned to the prince, at attention.
"Your highness, one of the prisoners has escaped. The prisoner in the dungeon." the guard in between the other two stated. He was slightly taller and stood tall and confidently. He was the oldest of the three guards; age showing in his brown eyes but with no visible gray speckling his similar colored hair. Arthur remembered the man from a trial not so long ago. Will, the man's name was. Will Leeth.
"Do you know of his location?" Arthur asked calmly, though he was panicking on the inside. Merlin was the only prisoner in the dungeon, and Arthur knew that the order for escapees was to kill on sight. They may not be friends, exactly, but Arthur wouldn't want him dead. The older guard nodded.
"He hasn't been gone long. The guards stationed at the dungeon were following suspicious activity down the hall when he escaped. They had only been gone for a second before they heard a crash and came back to find the dungeon door open. He couldn't have gone far on foot with the whole castle on alert"
"Then we're wasting time chatting. We must search in the area surrounding the dungeons." Arthur said to the two other guards, who seemed to be itching to keep pursuing the escapee. The two younger guards immediately turned and jogged in the direction they had been going before Arthur had stopped them. Arthur followed nervously.
Merlin is a thief. He is a criminal, a lawbreaker, a delinquent. He is thebad guy. Arthur thinks as he blindly follows the guards. He steals things from hardworking people, affluent or not, and he continuously escapes me, he taunts me, and no he's broken out of the dungeons just for the thrill!.. Except… it's not just for the thrill. Arthur recalls Gwen's blushing, smiling face when Arthur asked about her necklace. Arthur remembers the grieving widow and the woman who can now see her daughter's wedding. Arthur has always been taught not to think from the criminal's point of view. A criminal is a criminal, and a criminal needs to be punished. "Merlin is the bad guy…" Arthur mentally repeats to himself over and over, like a mantra, though he believes it less and less each time.
Arthur was so deep in thought that he almost ran over the guard in front of him.
"We believe him to be around here, my lord. There are about five other guards looking for him also." The one in front of Arthur whispered. The shorter guard had a crooked nose, like he had been in a tavern fight, and a smattering of hair about his chin. He was obviously younger, he seemed very uneasy speaking to Arthur. There really was no reason for him to whisper, they had made enough noise on their way up.
"You three take the hallways to the left and right. I'll see if I can find him down the main hall." Arthur whispered back, clearly and confidently, leaving no room for argument. "Yell if you see him."
Splitting up would be useless, with all the other guards around. If they had stayed together, there'd be less chance Merlin could slip by them unnoticed. Arthur knew this, but for some reason he didn't want to be with anyone while looking for Merlin.
The guards took off silently down their respective hallways and Arthur prepared himself for his own search mission. Arthur closed his eyes, took a deep breath in, and took one step. And then he took another. Soon Arthur began walking at a normal pace and reopened his eyes, automatically scanning the area around him.
There was probably no need for Arthur to even about what to do when-if he catches Merlin. Arthur has seen Merlin in action. Merlin was probably out of the building long before Arthur got here. Merlin could make a field mouse seem like a tournament crowd watching two of the best fighters face off. These thoughts put Arthur's mind at rest, even making him smile a little, so he kept on. Merlin could've walked right in front of a group of guards and started singing "Tom Tom the piper's son" and they'd look right through him. Merlin could creep past a-
CRASH!
Would this be Sod's law, or Murphy's?
A familiar pale-as-the-moon, stick-thin body came crashing onto the floor about three feet in front of Arthur from around a corner. Along with the body came three bags of silver and a candle stick (which was probably what actually made the crashing sound) scattered in front of the male's outstretched arms.
Merlin was groaning in pain on the floor as he tried to get back on his feet, making no effort to be quiet or careful and gathering the goods from the floor. He seemed to have sensed Arthur, but he didn't think Arthur a threat. Arthur made no move to help him, hand instinctively gripping the handle of his sword, too in shock to think anything out.
"Arthur?" Merlin said, now fully upright, and looked into Arthur's eyes. Merlin visibly paled even farther once he really saw Arthur "Arthur?" Merlin repeated weakly, nervous at what he had seen in Arthur.
Only chance. My only chance. I can get him. Arthur didn't know what to do. He had his father's voice and his own conscience battling in his head. Kill Merlin? Help him? Run away and pretend he never saw him? Call the guards? Call the guards. Call the-
"GUARDS!" Arthur yelled at the top of his voice, setting off an avalanche of running feet growing louder as they got closer. Arthur's mind automatically brought him back to the first time Arthur had called the guards on Merlin. Was it really only a few days ago? Subsequentially, Arthur also remembered how he felt the following days. He had betrayed Merlin. He is betraying Merlin, right now. There had to be some way to fix this, to make it right. The footsteps were only seconds away.
GUARD POV
Michael Harps had been searching the halls near the dungeon since the prisoner's cell had been found empty. Every sound of descending footsteps, every whispered word he had heard during that time all belonged to other guards. Michael was starting to lose hope. Not that he was all that intent on finding the escapee anyway, and he had only been looking for a few minutes. It would just be nice to get some credit once in a while.
Michael was barely looking anymore. His eyes were starting to droop, aware of the late hour. It didn't help that he was just hitting the crash after the adrenalin rush of an escaped prisoner. The criminal could've walked right in front of him and he wouldn't notice. He didn't even glance up at the black haired boy that had bumped into his side just a moment ago. He won't notice that the silver won in the earlier poker game is missing from his pocket until the next morning.
Michael's footsteps were slowing and his eyes flickered closed for a moment until…
"GUARDS!"
Michael's eyes snapped open and his veins started rushing with adrenalin for the second time that night. That was Prince Arthur's voice. Had Michael been fully awake at the time, he would have noticed the panicky undertones in the cry.
He immediately turned down a hallway, sprinting towards the noise.
Along the way, Michael had noticed other guards on his same path to the prince. They would all get there at about the same time. Not because they were equal distances away, but because no one wanted to be first or last. There was safety in numbers.
The guards were all too busy to take notice of a door slamming. When they turned the last corner, they saw their prince standing still in the middle of the hallway.
"What happened, Sire?" the guard in the front of the group asked the slightly nervous looking prince.
"He ran that way" said the anxious prince, as he pointed down an empty hallway. No one took notice of Arthur's odd behavior, too caught up in the thrill of the chase. They all ran down the mentioned hallway, trying to catch the escaped prisoner.
Twenty minutes later, they gave up the search. They never found Merlin.
A/N Sorry for taking so long, completely my fault. I hope the slightly longer chapter makes up for it. Now to orders of business
1. Anyone want to beta? I need someone to make sure my story is congruent with Merlin (ex. I had to look up where Guias lived)
2. I found an error on CH4, no one knows of Merlin's powers: he was imprisoned for thievery alone. I fixed it.
3. Howdo you like the POV change? I'm working up to Merlin's POV
4. Do you want Mordred included? He would be a young druid, and not evil with a less imporrtant role, or should I just keep him out?
Thanks! I'll try to write over the weekend
