Disclaimer: I stilldon't own Merlin. Can you believe it?
A/N: Guys, I love you all. Though, if you still love me that's entire matter in its own. I'm afraid things aren't getting quite yet... but the following two chapters will be the climax of the story, and soon following Nimueh and Valian't death! Not really, I decided not to kill them, but what I have in mind I think most of you will be quite happy about. Anyway, I hope you enjoy... "hope". Reviews are love.
The scorching heat that filled the cabin forced Valiant to wake up, as the great ball of fire rose from the horizon towards the sky.
Climbing down the ladder, Valiant grabbed a fresh pair of clothes before leaving the cabin silently, making sure he didn't wake Arthur up from his peaceful slumber.
One of the reasons he was out of bed so early was so he could talk to Nimueh. As soon as she found out that Arthur had demanded to his father that he wanted Merlin out of his cabin, she had begun scheming ways to emotionally traumatise the boy even more. He wouldn't have minded so much as at first it was just a bit of fun, but now it seemed she was making it more personal.
When Uther had told him about the cabin swap, he volunteered. He saw it as a perfect opportunity to find out more about how Arthur ticked, but Nimueh had other ideas. She saw it as a of way of getting close to Arthur, a way to get really close, which was something Valiant had no intention of doing. She wanted him to kiss Arthur, hell, she even suggested trying to have sex with him just so that whenever Merlin walked past he would become torn up inside. Obviously the fact that he was straight seemed to bypass her mind entirely. Although she had managed to seduce him into doing it in the end, not that he was happy about it, but there was something about her that was persuasive, almost magical.
Lightly knocking on Cabin Six's door, Valiant waited until Nimueh opened the door up enough so she could squeeze through the gap. Without further delay, the two walked off the dirt path into the trees where no one was likely to see them.
"Did you do it?" Nimueh asked, rubbing her hands together with anticipation.
"I tried," Valiant admitted before tugging at his shirt collar.
Nimueh seemed to glare at him before raising her arms in the air in frustration. It was quite clear she wasn't very happy about it, not that he could blame her in the slightest, but to be honest he was glad Arthur didn't want to have sex. Just the thought alone made Valiant turn around and throw up onto the foliage along the path.
"Well obviously you didn't try hard enough," Nimueh spat, completely oblivious to his current state.
"Believe me, I did, but he didn't want any of it. No matter how hard we try, Nim, the fact still stands that he loves Merlin," Valiant wiped his mouth with his sleeve as he began to feel slightly better.
"Oh please," she giggled slightly. "Who in their right mind would love such a scrawny thing like Merlin?"
"Arthur, that's who," Valiant leaned his back up against a large tree before stretching.
Nimueh groaned in frustration as she began pacing lividly back and forth on the spot, causing Valiant to feel nauseous again. After she finally calmed down, she turned to Valiant with a smug look that plastered her entire face.
"Can you imagine how devastated Arthur would be if he saw someone else kiss Merlin?" her blue eyes twinkled in the slithers of morning sunlight that managed to force its way through the treetops above.
"Don't you think we're going a bit too far...?" Valiant asked reluctantly. He was all in for making Arthur and Merlin's life miserable, but things just seemed to be escalating and getting out of hand.
"Of course not," she chuckled before pressing her body up to his in a seductive manner. "Why? Is that what you think?"
"No," Valiant decided with a wide grin as she kissed him on the lips passionately.
"Good, that's what I thought," Nimueh pulled away and looked over towards the cabins. Everyone was beginning to head to the dining hall for breakfast.
"So what did you have in mind?" Valiant said as the two quickly jumped back onto the dirt path, and began walking towards the dining hall.
Whispering into his ear, Nimueh explained her scheme. By the time the two reached the dining hall, Valiant couldn't help but smile wickedly at the plan that had been formulated. All they needed now was to put it into place.
*
Entering the dining hall, Merlin couldn't help but notice that Valiant was smiling at him. The slithering bastard continued on staring at him until Merlin sat down next to Gwen, who was eating a bowl of Fruit Loops.
"Merlin..." she started off, after swallowing her mouthful of Fruit Loops. "You know I care about you right? As a best friend, that is."
"Of course I do," Merlin couldn't bear to look her in the face, so instead he poured his own bowl of cereal.
"Then please explain to me what happened last night. You scared me, I've never seen you so emotional before," Gwen placed a hand on his shoulder, which caused him to look her directly in the eyes.
"I... I can't," Merlin responded, almost wishing he could tell her, but couldn't as Nimueh was glaring down the table at him.
"Merlin, you can trust me," she continued, as she attempted to get the information out of him, but it wasn't going to work.
"Seriously, I can't tell you. I wish I could, really I do... but if I did..." He didn't say anymore than that, mostly because Nimueh was leaning over the table waving to him politely. Oh she was up to something, he was certain of it.
"Why can't you tell me?" Gwen asked, following his line of sight until she saw Nimueh.
"Can you just stop asking? Please?" Merlin shoved an excessively large amount of Fruit Loops into his mouth to prevent himself from talking anymore. Why couldn't everyone leave it be instead of asking so many questions?
"Fine, but I hope you realise I'll find out eventually," Gwen stated before smiling at Lancelot, who had just walked into the dining room.
For the rest of breakfast, Merlin didn't speak another word. Instead he found it easier to be quiet whilst putting up with Gwen and Lancelot flirting with each other – he only barely resisted rolling his eyes at the two.
Even though he wasn't looking towards Arthur, he could still feel the blonde's eyes focusing upon him, almost as if he was trying to burn a hole straight through him.
Merlin tried his best not to look at him, mostly because if he did he would probably end up bursting into tears. It wasn't fair. This entire camp wasn't fair, all Merlin wanted to do now was to just go home and forget all about this place.
"Why don't you talk to him?" Lancelot suggested, but Merlin only shook his head in disagreement.
"I... I don't want to," he lied before pushing his breakfast aside. There was nothing on this Earth he wanted more than to tell Arthur everything, that he still loved him. That he'd always loved him. But the only problem was that two things stood in his way, Valiant and Nimueh.
Why would Arthur kiss Valiant? There was no rational explanation to why he would do such a thing, none whatsoever. Maybe he was tricked into doing it? Even better, he might have been drunk! No, that didn't seem likely, although the thought of a drunken Arthur caused a smile to appear on the young boys face.
As Merlin finished his Fruit Loops, he walked back to Cabin Three to grab a bottle of water for the forest walk that Morgause was taking them on for the day. It didn't sound very exciting – all they would be doing is walking around in the forest, occasionally looking at any interesting plant and animal life that they came across.
Once inside Cabin Three, Merlin began searching through his bag until he found his drink bottle. Eventually after a few minutes he was able to pinpoint the transparent container.
Filling his drink bottle up with water from a tap outside, Merlin waited patiently for everyone to arrive back at the dining hall.
Half an hour later, everyone had gathered in the dining hall except Gwen, Morgana and Lancelot who hadn't arrived yet. Merlin was beginning to wonder what was taking them so long. Perhaps one of them got hurt? If that was the case then surely someone would know by now. His worries were soon put to rest when all three of them entered the room together.
"Now that we're all here, I would like all of you to double check that your drink bottles are full as you will not be able to refill them during the day," Morgause waited patiently while a few people quickly ducked into the kitchen to fill their bottles, once they had she continued.
"Today we will be walking through rough terrain, so I trust all of you will look out for your fellow campers if anything goes wrong," she took a quick glance at Merlin. "We will also be visiting one of the nearby caves, so please try not to wander off."
With that final note, Merlin followed Morgause as she lead them outside and down a dirt path that lead away from cabins and towards the opposite side of the lake.
During the walk he couldn't help but notice Nimueh who was chatting happily away to Freya, which was strange, as the girl never really spoke to anyone. Shrugging this off for the time being, Merlin decided to catch up with Gwen who was talking with Lancelot and Morgana.
"...and then he said - Oh, Hi Merlin," Gwen said, quickly changing topic with whatever they were talking about beforehand.
"What are you guys talking about?" Merlin queried. The three all exchanged worried looks, it was only then that Morgana answered.
"We, uh... We're discussing the weather," Morgana replied with a confident ambience around her which Merlin didn't believe for a second.
"Sure you were!" Merlin laughed as they continued walking along the dirt path that was now leading up the side of a hill. By now they were deep within the forest, and so far he had seen not one animal. A lot of trees perhaps, but that was it.
"Fine," Morgana said glaring at Merlin intensely. "Do you want to know what we were talking about?"
By the tone of her voice, Merlin was very reluctant to find out. He had a sneaking suspicion that he didn't really want to know.
"Not really," Merlin admitted truthfully, stumbling slightly on a rock that was in the middle of the path.
"Well I'm telling you anyway, so you better damn well listen," Morgana warned, and instantly Merlin shut his mouth and listened. "I know that you still love Arthur, but do you have any idea how hurt he is? As unbelievable as it may sound, you were my stepbrother's first boyfriend, which makes it even worse."
Merlin's mouth gaped open. He was Arthur's first boyfriend? Does that mean that he was also Arthur's first kiss as well? If that was so, he was an amazing first time kisser, but it also made Merlin feel worse about the entire ordeal. Opening his mouth to say something, he found himself unable to speak as Lancelot placed a hand over his mouth.
"Let her finish," Lancelot said, removing his hand from his face. Merlin sighed and let Morgana continue her lecture, hoping that eventually he'd get a word in edgewise.
"Not only were you his first kiss, but you broke his heart! You're lucky I'm your friend otherwise I would have seriously hurt you by now," Morgana seemed to calm down before speaking again. "Look, all I want to know is what happened between you two..."
"I can't tell you..." Merlin stuttered as he saw Nimueh looking back at him with a smug grin.
"See?" Gwen stated they strayed off the path and began walking up a steep hill towards a large black hole up ahead. "I told you he wouldn't tell you."
"Why does it matter anyway? Arthur doesn't love me anymore, he has his precious Valiant to drool over now," Merlin snapped unintentionally.
"What are you going on about?" Morgana said with a puzzled look. "Arthur doesn't love Valiant..."
"Actually," Lancelot cut much to Merlin's relief. "We sort of... accidentally saw Valiant kissing Arthur last night from our cabin."
"What?!" Morgana stopped walking looking horrified. "Arthur would never do anything like that!"
"Sorry, but he did," Lancelot confirmed. Merlin examined the expression on Morgana's face; it was somewhere between bewildered and nauseous.
"You can't tell him I know, okay?" Merlin pleaded, but Morgana didn't appear to be listening, but instead she was staring directly at Arthur, who was now standing just below the cave along with most of the class.
"Morgana?" Gwen asked, placing a hand on her shoulder, but Morgana only brushed it aside as she began walking up the hill once again.
"Fine," she agreed reluctantly, although Merlin had a feeling she wasn't just going to leave it alone. But for the time being, she didn't bring up the subject again.
"Hurry up!" came the voice of Morgause from the cave's entrance, her voice amplified by the hollow interior around her.
The four quickly trod up the hill until they reached the entrance. Merlin found himself panting rather heavily, finding it difficult to catch his breath once he reached the cave.
"Welcome to the Dragon's Den," Morgause directed their attention to the darkness in front of them. "Well, it's not really called the Dragon's Den, we just can't be bothered finding out it's real name."
"How big is it?" Nimueh asked, squinting into the darkness ahead.
"To be honest, we have no idea. It just goes on and on and on... if you get my drift. Now, don't wander off too far because it's quite easy to get lost in here. We'll be heading off in about five minutes," Morgause said, sitting down on a large rock at the entrance as everyone began examining the pictograms decorating the walls.
No wonder they called this place the Dragon's Den, half the walls were covered with pictures and carvings of dragon's in the wall, all baring their teeth and breathing fire on villages.
"They're quite nice, aren't they?" a voice beside him said. Merlin turned and faced Freya brushing her hand up against the cave wall.
"Um, yeah... They are," Merlin agreed.
"Please forgive me for this..." she said, looking at the ground before lunging at Merlin and kissing him directly on the lips. Almost everyone in the cave turned and gasped, all except Nimueh and Valiant who were gigging to themselves.
He couldn't move. Merlin had no idea what to do. He wasn't just going to let Freya continue kissing him, but it was as if his body had betrayed him and was letting her. As she pushed him up against the cave wall, Merlin willed himself to push her off him, but he couldn't, it was almost as if all his strength had gone.
She eventually parted, leaving a very shocked Merlin with his back against the wall. Looking around the cave, there were a few coughs as people turned away, pretending what they had seen had never happened.
Merlin's eyes sifted through the cave until they reached Arthur, who was staring at him with wide eyes. For a second, Merlin was almost certain he'd seen a tear running down the blonde's cheek before he rushed out of the cave.
"I... think we've seen enough here," Morgause coughed as she stood up. "Come on everybody, we still have a long day in front of us."
Nimueh and Valiant were both laughing hysterically now, and Merlin couldn't help but feel as if they had something to do with Freya kissing him. Clenching his fists in anger, Merlin stormed out of the cave as he followed Morgause back down the hill.
Taking an uneasy step, Merlin almost lost his balance as he made his way down to the bottom of the hill.
"Better watch were your stepping," Nimueh mocked as she dashed past him, violently bumping into his side causing him to trip on a rock in front of him. With no way to regain his balance, Merlin began to panic as he tumbled down the hillside, tiny rocks and sticks cutting into his skin like knives as he rolled over them.
Merlin didn't have enough time to manoeuvre himself as his head collided with one of the trees, and almost immediately he felt dizzy as he slipped in and out of consciousness.
"Oh god, Merlin!" came a familiar voice as it ran towards him. Lifting his head off the tree, the person began cradling his head gently. "Stay with me, you can do it."
Just before slipping into unconscious, Merlin realised who the person was.
"Arthur..." he croaked out before everything went black.
To be continued...
A/N: Don't kill me! It's not as bad as it seems... Well, maybe, but that's not the point! I don't know when I'll get to update next as my grandparents are giving me hell at the moment, and it's driving me insane. I hope to in the next few days, so bare with me people!