A/N- Hi! We're really close to the end of this story, only a couple chapters left! Part of this was from an idea by llLethell, so thanks to you, it came out better than I thought! And I also forgot to give credit last chapter to the mixed ideas of curlybean and xXMistressMadHatterXx.

"Freak!"

"Shove off, Marcus," Merlin said, but lacked the confidence behind it for the comeback to make a difference.

"'Shove off Marcus!' Ha, is that the best you could come up with?" Marcus and all his friends laughed at the boy's expense. He had always been the freak, the odd one out. As Marcus looked at him, he just got the feeling that something was different about Merlin, and different just didn't cut it in Ealdor.

Merlin tried to push past the boys, but with no success.

"Where do you think you're going? Off to hang out with your new friend? What? Are we not good enough?"

"Just leave me alone," Merlin again tried to run, but the boys cut him off quickly. Soon he was being pushed between two of the other boys, Benjamin and Peter.

"Come on. Fight back!" And so Merlin tried to. He struggled against the pairs of hands shoving him back and forth. He threw a wild punch, but hit nothing. Back and forth. Back and forth. If it didn't stop soon, Merlin was going to be sick.

"Hey! What's going on here?" Merlin had never been so glad and embarrassed to hear someone's voice before. He looked up to see Arthur approaching the group, a look of indignation on his face.

"What's going on here is none of your business, outsider."

"If it involves my friend, then it is certainly my business." Merlin just stared at Arthur. Were they really friends? He supposed they were. Sometimes he had felt a sort of, connection to Arthur. But that's not the only reason he was staring at Arthur. Arthur just looked so…so… regal. So commanding. He was standing there, looking every bit in control when he was clearly outnumbered and on the losing side of the argument.

"Really? Fine. If he's such a good friend of yours, I'll tell you what. If you can get to him, he's yours." Instantly the group of five boys surrounded Merlin.

"Look. Just let Merlin go, and I won't kick your sorry butts. However, if you refuse, you leave me no choice." He shrugged as if either option was okay with him.

"'Leave you no choice'? Yeah right," Marcus retorted. Marcus through a punch at Arthur and quickly found himself with his arm behind his back. Arthur then proceeded to give him a little rap on the head which knocked the boy onto his knees, a little dazed.

The rest of the boys started to shift from foot to foot until Benjamin, the largest of them all, stepped forward. The remaining boys smiled and cheered him on as he approached Arthur.

Merlin watched in apprehension as his friend regarded what was probably going to be his downfall rather calmly.

"Arthur, watch out!"

"Shut up!" One of the boys gave Merlin a hard shove, knocking him to the ground. Merlin let out a cry of pain and shock as he hit the ground. This cry seemed to spur Arthur into action. He quickly and swiftly came running toward Benjamin, fists up. Benjamin met him with his own fists swinging, but Arthur rapidly changed directions, dodging each blow. When he was close enough, he swiped his leg toward Benjamin, hitting him behind the knees causing the larger boy to fall to the ground with a resounding "umph". The remaining boys looked at their fallen peers, then at Arthur, and wisely ran away.

Arthur hurried over to Merlin, and helped him off the ground.

"What was that?"

"What?" Arthur tried to act innocent.

"That! Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"Oh, just some things I picked up on at home."

"You 'just picked up on' that?"

"Yeah, there are always a lot of fights where I'm from."

"Oh… okay then," Merlin said skeptically.

They both started to walk towards the clearing they had played at that first day. "What did you do?"

Merlin looked up in surprise at Arthur's question.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what did you do to get ambushed like that?"

"Oh. Nothing, really."

"Nothing? You mean those boys just attacked you for no good reason?"

"Yeah, I suppose so. But they've always been like that."

"Just because someone has always been a jerk doesn't give them the right to be like that for the rest of their life. Sometimes someone's got to change them."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Of course I am. So Merlin, I want you to promise me not to take their bullying anymore."

"What? How am I supposed to do that? It's me against them!"

"Sure, fighting wise. But you've got more to you than that. You've got your words, your stubbornness. Just don't take it from them anymore. Demand your respect."

Merlin pondered this for a few moments. A village where he wasn't being picked on constantly. Where he and Will, and now Arthur, could do as they please without fear of interruption or intrusion.

"Do you promise to stop letting people be bullies from now on?"

"Promise."

"Good. Now, let's climb!" They had made it to the climbing tree. Arthur started up first, reaching the highest, most dangerous branches quickly. Merlin, however, liked to hang around the sturdier, lower branches. They liked to play in the tree for hours, just enjoying each other's companies and talking about nothing in particular.

"Merlin isn't it time we started heading back?" Merlin sighed and looked at the sun in the sky.

"It is, let's go."

Arthur quickly and skillfully scoured down the tree trunk first. Merlin, who had been hanging from his knees, was having a harder time finding his way down. While trying to unhook his legs and grab onto the branch, he lost his hold completely on the branch.

He fell and managed to turn himself in mid air, putting some of his initial impact on his foot before his back absorbed most of the blow.

"Merlin? Merlin!" Arthur rushed to his fallen friend. He wasn't sure what was going on. Merlin wasn't breathing, but looked to be struggling with his lungs. Then he remembered the time he had fallen off his horse and hadn't been able to breath for a few seconds. What had Gaius told him it was called? The breath being knocked out of you?

Merlin looked like he was panicking, trying to fill up his lungs.

"Merlin, just calm down. Keep trying to breathe, I promise you'll be okay." Finally Merlin took a huge breath and sat there gasping for a few moments. Arthur stood up and put his hand out for Merlin to grab.

"Come on, let's go home." Merlin nodded in agreement and grabbed Arthur's hand, but when he put pressure on his right foot he let out a cry of pain and fell back to the ground, nearly pulling Arthur down with him.

"What is it? Your ankle?" Merlin just nodded, the pain it was causing him written all over his face. "Do you think you can put any pressure on it?"

"No. It hurts really bad." Tears started swimming in his eyes, but he tried to blink them away. His ankle was really killing him.

"Alright, well, can you use me for support?"

"Maybe?" Arthur helped Merlin onto his left foot, letting him put his right arm around his shoulders. Merlin, to his embarrassment, ended up putting most of his weight on Arthur. However, the older boy seemed to shoulder his weight surprisingly well, he was stronger than he looked. Then they started walking, well in Merlin's case hobbling, back towards the village.

Arthur glanced over to his left at Merlin, his faced scrunched up in an attempt of trying to suppress his pain. He really was braver than you would think; most boys his age would have crumbled under that much pain and discomfort.

When they reached Merlin's house, Arthur pushed open the front door and called out, "Hunith?" To his dismay, she was not at home. So Arthur helped Merlin hobble over to her bed, and then started to take a look at his foot.

"Now, this may hurt a little, but I need to take off your shoes and socks to look at the injury." Merlin nodded in understanding and gripped the blankets on the bed. As Arthur started to pull the boot off, Merlin hissed in pain, but did nothing else to show his discomfort. Luckily the sock came off much easier than the shoe, and Arthur started to inspect the ankle.

It looked bad. It was swollen and bruised.

"That's my ankle?" Merlin shouted in shock. All Arthur could do was nod in reply. He had seen some of the knights sprain their ankles before, and luckily Merlin's wasn't any worse than theirs had been.

"I've seen worse. You just need to rest it for a few days and keep it wrapped up. Do you have anything to wrap it in?" Arthur started looking around the room, searching for something suitable to bind Merlin's ankle up in.

"Yes, Mother keeps some old bandages in the trunk right there." Merlin nodded with his head (his hands were holding his leg, trying to steady it) toward the foot of the bed. Arthur opened the lid and found the bandages relatively quickly.

"Alright, are you ready? This is going to hurt quite a bit."

"If I said no, would it matter?"

"No, not really."

"Okay, then I'm ready." Merlin braced himself for the pain. And, gosh, did it hurt! It felt like someone was pulling on all the muscles in his ankle at once in different directions. He couldn't contain the small cries of pain the escaped his lips every time Arthur moved his ankle, even if it was only slightly.

Finally, the pain ceased and Arthur declared he was done. "You need to keep it elevated that should help the keep the swelling down."

"Arthur?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"Anytime Merlin. Anytime."

Let me know what you think, I hope this was a good chapter. It was probably one of my favorites to write :)

-princessmelia