Thank you guys so much for the story alerts and reviews, they were so nice! Here's the next chapter, which is a flashback to what happened! Enjoy!
"I can't believe you actually talked me into coming, Arthur. Do you have any idea how busy I am today?" Merlin said.
"Oh, shut up," Arthur said, "I can't stand going on hunting trips with just the knights for company, they can be so…boring."
"Are you calling me interesting?"
"I didn't say that, you idiot."
"It was implied," Merlin said.
"Was not."
"Was too! You think that I'm interesting, you prat!"
"I most certainly do not. Let's just get back to the task at hand, please."
"What task? We're still just riding!"
"Exactly. Focus on riding," Arthur said.
"I will not focus on riding! There's nothing to focus on!" Merlin argued.
"You should really do what I say, Merlin," Arthur said jokingly. The two bickered back and forth about the stupid argument, keeping their horses slightly in front of the Knights' ones. They hated when some stupid Knight tried to add his opinion to their arguments; it ruined all the fun. The ride only lasted for another half hour before they came to a clearing in the woods, and decided to set up camp there.
In the middle of setting up their weapons and equipment, a large, winged beast flew down into the clearing and gave a great roar, showing the Knights its long fangs. They hastily picked up their swords and began fighting the beast, but their blades didn't seem to be inflicting any pain onto it. Panicking slightly as one of his Knight's fell to the ground with a shoulder wound from one of the fangs, Arthur picked up his sharpest spear and threw it at where he thought the beast's heart was, but even his spear wasn't nearly enough to stop it.
Arthur and the Knights continued to fight the beast, but nothing they did seemed to be working. Just as the Prince was about to order everyone to run away from it as fast as they could, he felt a cold, skinny hand grab his shoulder and yank him out of the clearing. The hand pulled him behind a large tree, and he couldn't see the beast or his Knights anymore. Looking up to see who had dragged him, he saw a tall, skinny woman with dark red hair. He recognized her immediately from the last time he had been in the woods. He was forced to kill the woman's son, because he had already stabbed two of his Knight's to death, and had almost killed a third.
"You," the woman said coldly, "you're the man who murdered my only son."
"I'm sorry, but I had no choice. He had killed my Knights, and I wasn't about to let him kill any more of them," Arthur said, not breaking eye contact with the woman but itching to get back to the clearing and help his Knights.
"You have no idea what this is like; the constant pain. My son did not deserve to die!"
"Your son was a murderer! I killed him in defense of my kingdom and its people!"
"You need to feel the pain that I felt, you dirty scum!" the woman said with a look of disgust in her eyes.
"Please, calm down. We can discuss this in a better way," Arthur reasoned.
"Interficiam te diligis, qui maxime!" the woman said, her eyes flashing a deep gold as she did so. Arthur felt a shiver go through his body when she spoke the incantation, and his eyes widened when he realized that she was a sorceress.
"Sorceress!" He screamed, "What spell did you just put on me?"
"That is none of your business," she said simply before disappearing with a snap of her fingers. Arthur stared in the place where she was only seconds before, and stood in confusion for a few seconds before remembering that Merlin and his Knights were still up there with the beast. He could figure out what the sorceress had done to him after he defeated the creature.
When he got back to the clearing, he saw the beast dead on the ground and his Knights patting Merlin on the back. There was blood from the creature everywhere, and only one of his Knights had been injured in the whole process.
"Arthur, there you are!" exclaimed Gwaine, "Merlin here just defeated this creature! He picked up a sword from the ground and shoved it up a spot in the beast's neck, its only weak spot! He said that he'd read about them before, and that's how he knew."
Arthur looked at Merlin, and instead of feeling pride and warmth for the young manservant as he expected he would, he felt pure hatred. There was a terrible feeling welling up in the pit of his stomach, like he wanted to kill Merlin with every ounce of his being. A voice started whispering in his head, Kill him, kill him, kill him now. Grab that sword and stab him to death. But then another voice popped up, louder than the last, No, don't kill him! He's your best friend, why would you want to hurt him?
The two voices in his head started shouting at each other, and Arthur couldn't tell which one belonged to him and which one belonged to him and which one was foreign. They began to scream, one telling him to kill Merlin and the other telling him to do everything in his power to keep the manservant safe. His head started to pound with all of the confusion and screaming, and he felt like if it went on for one more second he would go absolutely crazy. He felt another shudder flow through his body, and the voice telling him to kill Merlin grew stronger and louder than the other one, filling his brain with noise.
His entire mind was suddenly filled with one objective: Kill Merlin. He gripped his sword tightly and started charging towards his manservant, screaming so loudly that he couldn't hear his Knight's shouts of confusion. He saw Merlin's terrified face come closer and closer as he ran, and the unexplainable rage he felt towards him grew stronger and stronger as he closed the distance between them.
After what felt like ages of running, he reached Merlin and shoved his sword through the smaller boy's stomach, screaming as he did so. The second the sword went through him the voices stopped, and Arthur realized what he has just done. He caught Merlin before he hit the ground, and held the bleeding man close to his chest.
His whole world was crashing around him. He had just run a sword through his best friend. How could he have possibly have done that? The last thing he ever wanted to do was hurt Merlin; he was the most important person in Arthur's life, and he had recently started to feel something much more than friendship towards his manservant. Arthur felt a terrible scream leave his own lips; this couldn't be happening.
"I'm so sorry, Merlin, I'm so sorry!" Arthur cried, feeling the other man's blood soaking him, "don't die, please don't die!" He rocked Merlin's now unconscious body back and forth, feeling hot tears pouring out of his eyes at a rapid rate. His entire heart felt like it was being torn apart by a knife, and he didn't have any idea what to do about it.
Merlin couldn't die, he just couldn't. Arthur didn't think that he could go on without him, not after everything they've done together. It wouldn't be physically possible to live knowing that Merlin had died at is own hands. The guilt and fear was clouding Arthur's head as his body was racked by sobs, and he felt himself being torn away from Merlin by one of the Knights.
On the Prince's order, they sped back to Camelot as fast as they could; Arthur determined to get Merlin to Gaius so that he could live. Merlin needed to live.
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