A/N – Good to see you all again!

By the way, if any of you were wondering, a vole is a small, mouse like creature, and it wasn't just a misspelling of mole! ;)

"Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters." ― Stephen King, The Shining

Morgana came staggering towards Merlin, teeth bared. He steeled himself and directed a fireball at her chest, but it simply extinguished when it touched her. Her skin rippled as it turned into a rough grey pelt and her limbs lengthened. He could see all of her ribs through the rips in her ruined dress.

She was slow on her feet as she was still transforming – Merlin had read somewhere that it took three minutes for the full change to take place. That gave him about half a minute. Merlin raised his hand again, whispering spells frantically. He tried everything. First fire spells, to try to at least injure her. Then pain spells, cutting spells, transformation spells, even levitating spells... Nothing worked.

The wolf simply swung its arm at him and knocked him to the ground. Merlin felt the wind knocked out of him and looked up at the monster towering over him. She opened her mouth, baring sharp fangs. Merlin caught a glimpse of her eyes, which were still an icy blue, but had turned more feral and wild.

Just as she was about to strike, Ignitrus ran in front of her attempting to snatch the amulet from around her neck again. His fingers wrapped around it and he tried to tug it away before she lunged at him, and... ugh. Merlin shuddered as the limp body of Ignitrus was flung to the ground. Morgana leapt towards him.

He was back to that dungeon, before they retook the castle. The sword was swinging towards him-

Suddenly, Morgana stopped and an ear-splitting shriek pieced the air. Merlin's forehead creased as he tried to work out what was wrong. He finally realised when he looked down at her feet, where drops of blood spattered the stone floor. A sword-tip protruded from her heaving chest. Arthur's sword.

She collapsed to the ground, and Merlin saw that it wasn't Arthur, but Gaius holding the sword, with his arms braced in a two-hand grip. The huge sword almost dwarfed him, especially as Merlin was used to seeing it in the strong, capable hands of Arthur.

"G-Gaius?" Merlin stammered.

"Oh, hello Merlin," he replied, peering at the body of Ignitrus behind him. "I thought you might have needed a hand. I don't think there's much hope for him is there?"

Merlin almost laughed. "... H-how? How could you even? Gaius, you just killed a werewolf! And no, to answer your earlier question, he's dead."

From behind them, Arthur groaned and sat up.

"Did I miss anything? Hey, who took my sword?"

Tarrian strode quickly down he steps and along to the dungeons. He had been told to check the kitchens but, as always, his guards took priority. Holding the hilt of his sword firmly, he rounded the last corner before the cells and breathed in quickly as he realised that there were no guards.

The door that Ignitrus had blown off, what seemed like years ago, had been removed, leaving an empty cell. Quickly unlocking the box used to store the keys when there were no guards on duty and grabbing the heavy, silver keys from inside it, he went to open the door of Morgana's small cell.

She wasn't there.

That's why there were no guards on duty. There was no-one to guard.

Merlin, Gaius and Arthur sat around the table in the middle of the room.

"So," Arthur said, "what happened while we were away?"

Gaius thought for a moment before replying. He rubbed his eyes, and Merlin noticed that Gaius looked a lot older and more tired than the last time they had met. "Well, all seemed fine at first, but we upped the patrols just in case. Then, on the second day, we heard a strange tapping noise echoing through the stone walls. As you know, the pipe from the kitchen pump passes by the cells."

"Ah, yes. My father had it installed so that the pump could be used in the kitchen even though the well was in the caves below the castle," said Arthur.

"Well, it seems that Morgana also knew of it. She found a small sharp stone in her cells and used it to make a hole in the pipe. When they used the pump, they found that no water was flowing and eventually had to check the pipe. She waited behind the door of the cell and when they came in to check the pipe she locked them in and made a run for it."

Merlin and Arthur looked at each other in shock. Morgana has seemed too physically and emotionally unstable to do anything like that when they left.

"What happened next?"

"Well, I was up on the balcony – up there!" He pointed to a cupboard full of supplies just above them, "She came in and I saw her so I hid. I wanted to find out what she was doing. Morgana walked straight over there and grabbed an amulet. I thought it was strange that she knew exactly which one she wanted."

"She must have remembered it from when she was a child," murmured Merlin. It must have been awful, having her true form taken from her, forced to live as a normal human. He couldn't help but see reflections of his life in hers. Still, that would not repay the lives that she had taken.

"Indeed. She stood there and looked at it for quite some time before Ignitrus came running in and tried to snatch it. She quickly forced him to kneel with her sword and that was that. A few moments later, you arrived, and you know the rest."

Arthur sat and contemplated this for a second, before looking around and asking "where is everyone else?"

Merlin was about to reply before Tarrian, Percival, Leon and Gwaine came bursting through the door.

"Sire! Morgana has escaped! We can't find Ignitrus, but it's possible they are in league together. We have to go, n-" Gwaine stopped talking as he noticed the two bodies on the ground.

"What happened?" Leon gasped.

Merlin sighed.

Okay, see you next week guys!

Feedback, as always, is appreciated a lot. :)