Merlin landed roughly in the bottom of the cell. These old bones were hard and stiff, he would be very happy to be his proper age once more. Waiting until the guards left he muttered the counter spell.

"Edniwe min geoguð"

Nothing happened.

"Edniwe min geoguð!"

Again, nothing. He was stuck. He'd never been so frightened, what if he was killed? Burnt at the stake for something he didn't do? By his own father. He didn't want to burn...

After a few hours he heard footsteps, Gaius was in front of his cell looking concerned.

"Merlin!" He hissed, "What happened? Why are you still here?"

"I can't break the spell Gaius" Merlin sobbed, "The magic's too powerful"

"Try again!" The physician implored

"I have tried it's no good" Merlin replied woefully, "I'm stuck like this..."

"Not for long" Gaius whispered, "Uther will have you burnt at the stake!"

"Please Gaius, there has to be another way to break this spell!" Merlin begged, "Please help"

The few seconds Gaius took to think were amoung the longest in Merlin's entire life.

"In the book of Gaala, there is a remedy for such spells" Gaius began, "But it will take time"

"Please" Merlin repeated

"Buy as much time as you can" Gaius ordered, "I'll do my best to get it to you in time"

...

That night Merlin spent most of his time trying to stay calm, however when the bells tolled for morning he had no succeeded. He was going to die, Gaius wouldn't get there in time. The guards were going to be there any second, he had to try and stall.

"It's time"

Only Merlin would detect the tremor in Arthur's voice. Of course he had been charged with bringing him to his death. He turned to face his brother, Arthur was doing his best to keep up appearences however the younger could tell he was failing.

"Wait!" Merlin tried despretly

"What is it?" Asked Arthur a little too keen to help the sorcerer stall

"There are...other crimes I wish to confess" Merlin tried adding an evil laugh

If Arthur could of he would of rolled his eyes.

"Alright but we can't execute you twice you know" Arthur replied

Merlin spent the next five minutes stamering out 'crimes' anything he could think of really, everything from stealing sheep to turning people into newts. That last one got some funny looks from the guards. Evetually though he ran out of ideas and was lead outside and through the castle towards to courtyard. He caught Gaius's eye as he came round the corner, tiny bottle of potion in his hand, oh if only he could of stalled longer!

The corwd was large, why people gathered for this sort of thing always confused him. Who wanted to watch as a person writhed in agony in a tall tower of fire? Slowly being burnt to death. He gulped, he could feel Arthur's palms sweating as he kept a loose hold on his arm, his brother was walking as slowly as he could manage, his eyes begging Merlin to make some great escape.

"You have been found guilty of using magic and enchantments!" Uther announced from his place on the balcony

"They are the same thing!" Merlin yelled, he'd been dying to tell Uther that for years.

"In accordance with our laws you will be burnt at the stake" Uther growled with a little more passion, ignoring the man, "Let this be a lesson to all those who seek to destroy Camelot"

Merlin stopped listening to the speech, he'd heard it a hundred times anyway. What had his attention was Gaius, standing in the crowd a few feet from him, holding a spell bottle half concealed in his sleeve. Merlin had an idea.

He easily slipped out of Arthur's grip, the prince stumbling backwards pathetically to act as if he had used great strength. Merlin quickly grabbed Gaius by his colar, discretly grabbing the potion as he did so.

"A curse upon you all!" He screamed, "I will have my revenge!"

The guards pulled him off the physican, dragging him up to the pyre which had just been lit, this ould require some tricky manuvoiuring.

"Intend lig, intend lig!" He yelled, eyes flashing yellow. As he commanded the fire sprang up, huge and hot, the guards let go on him to shield their faces from the heat. Merlin took his chance and ran through the crowd, it was fairly easy as most people simply dodged out of the way of the crazy old man.

"After him!" Arthur yelled, barely jogging after his disguised brother.

Merlin made it to the corridor where his rooms were, hiding in an alcove, quickly un corking the bottle and downing the clear blue liquid. The taste was vile! He could feel it taking effect, his bones seemed to break and reknit together, it was awful. He ripped the red cloak off himself barely able to hide in behind a near by wall hanging before Arthur and the guards turned the corner. Uther in tow, that he hadn't been expecting.

"Where is the sorcerer?" Uther asked

"He went.." Merlin coughed trying to clear his throat, his voice was still creaky and old, "Um, that way?"

"You let him run right past you?" Arthur raised his eyes brows

"He was, uh too, too fast for me" Merlin slurred, his head felt foggy from the potion and the fact that a lot of long white hair just recessed into his skull.

"Are you drunk?" Uther accused

"Umm.."

"You know just cause we're fighting doesn't mean you need to drink yourself stupid!" Arthur laughed, "I'm not angry anymore"

"Right" Merlin nodded dizzily

"Merlin go to your rooms and sober up!" Uther ordered before he and guards ran off to look from the 'evil old man'.

The two brothers looked at each other. They laughed.

...

Gwen walked down the hall nervously, after the week she had she would be jumpy for a month. Suddenly somebody grabbed her arm and swung her behind a pillar, she gave a short scream. Stopping when she realised it was Arthur, smiling at her.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you" He teased, "Now, my father believes my feelings for you are the result on an enchantment"

"But we both know that's not quite true" Gwen teased right back

"We must be careful" Arthur implored seriously, "If he gets any idea that we are together, he will banish you"

"What you said to yoru father" Gwen started, "About giving up your right to the thrine, did you mean it?"

"Ofcourse, I'd still do it" Arthur replied without batting an eye lid.

"Your place is here in Camelot"

"My place is with you"

"What about your people?" She asked, "You have to stay for them. You will be a great king and you will change all these laws and customs"

"I promise you, when I am king things will be different" Arthur told her with completely honesty, "we will be together"

"I'll count the days till then" Gwen smiled, Arthur kissed her.

Sorry this took so long but I have this story "The Irregulars" which is really popular and as shallow as it is, the more reviews I get the more I want to write a story and that story gets TONNES of reviews every day. So when I get the chance I end up writing that instead of this.

However next up is the coming of Arthur! Which I have been planing FOREVER so the next up date should take so long.

Thanks for sticking with me!