The boys took a bit eatable bread and some oats so Merlin could make some breakfast for the knights. It didn't take long before the porridge and bread was ready and the hungry knights ate it all.

"Elyan, Percival. You two help Merlin to saddle the horses. We will travel back to Camelot as soon as possible", Arthur said as quietly as he could but Merlin still heard him.

The knights nodded and rushed to saddle the horses while the other knights made sure that they were safe.

It was clear that they had no reason to go Aldora anymore. The whole kingdom would be suffering from this illness so they should really go to Camelot and warn the King. And tell about it to Gaius so he could start looking for a cure.

But there was just one problem. It had bothered Merlin from the moment they arrivet to Ehia. He hadn't said anything about it because the prince had his hands full of worrying about his own kingdom. He didn't have time to think all kingdoms.

But now the warlock couldn't just be quiet any longer.

"Arthur... I can't go back to Camelot", the boy said shakeing a bit. Arthur slowly turned to face his best friend. Merlin hadn't talked about it but Arthur wasn't stupid. Of course he knew already what was bothering his servant. He just didn't want to make Merlin worry even more.

"Merlin. I know that you are worried about your mother. But right now we can't do anything. We will help your mother by finding a cure for this disease. Eldora is about three day travel from here. We have to go back Camelot as fast as we can", Arthur said. He saw wrom the warlock's eyes how his heart broke. His mother was his only family and completely defenceless against these cannibals.

If Arthur had said that he knew how Merlin felt right now, he would have been lying. Arthur didn't have a mother. He had a father who was protected by army and Uther himself wasn't bad with swords either. It was hard to imagine how he had felt in Merlin's place.

Merlin sighed heavily trying his best not to blame Arthur by his desisions. It was true that it was the best for everyone if they thought the kingdom first and not just his mother's safety. But still he felt pain inside him. He had to turn his back to his own mother. It was maybe the hardest desision that he had ever made in his life.

The warlock bowned a little to the prinve before he turned and went to help Elyan and Percival to saddle the horses. Arthur made a mental note that Merlin never bowned to him unless he was upset or angry to Arthur. He had met Hunith. Merlin had got his selfless, lovable and innocent nature from her. Glumcyness, idiomatic and rudeness was propably from his father.

Quickly three men got horses ready. They were able to leave Ehia a long before the midday. They rode towards Camelot as fast as they could but careful not to run their horses on the exaustion. With this speed they would arrive to Camelot just before the night.

The horses' hooves soft thum against the forest floor made the knights, the prince and the servant relax. It was so hard to think that at the same time there was happening something so horrible around the kingdom. For a long time there was just the silence. How on earth would you feel scared when you had your most trusted friends around you? For hours they just rode thinking about what has happend to all their beloved once and were they okay.

The sun was already falling behind the horicont. They were close to Camelot. They knew it. Merlin felt every single muscel burning after being on horse all day. By looking at the knights he knew that none of them had as much uncomfortable feeling as him. He sighed. Of course it was easy for the knights to sit on a horse because of their fat (muscular) asses...

What happend next, Merlin wasn't completely sure. He felt his horse tense it's whole body and it jumped quickly aside and ran as fast as she could away from there. She was horrified. The warlock had almost fell of his horse but somehow he managed to hold on by holding as hard as he could from her neck. He didn't absolutely have any control over his mare. It just kept running mindlessly forward. It was terrified.

Only luck kept Merlin from falling off of the horse that was running like hell and only just didn't ran on a tree. Only luck kept the mare from falling over and kill them bouth instantly. Only luck guited the horse stay just far enough from the trees so Merlin didn't hit his legs on them.

It took a long time before the raven hair was able to sit back on the saddle and take the situation to his control again. He took the reins on his hand and started to calm the mare.

"Come on girl. You don't have nothing to be afraid of", Merlin talked to the horse and in responsed immidiately. It slowed down and finally it stopped. The mare breathed heavily and was still tense but thanks to Merlin it was calm enough not start to run again.

Merlin heard voices behind him and quickly he turned to look. The cause of the voice was Arthur's horse. It had ran after Merlin's horse the whole time. Merlin swallowed when he realiced that the stallion didn't have a rider. Stallion was jumpy and seemed to be ready to run at the minute when he smelled danger. But it didn't seem to want to run away from mare's familiar safety.

Merlin turned his mare and rode right next to Arthur's stallion and took its reins on his hand. The stallion jumped a couple of times, ready to start ran again but Merlin's mare just gave a soft neigh.

After that the stallion followed the mare without any resisting even when Merlin made them go back where they came. He had to find Arthur and the knights.

It took a long time before Merlin was back to the place where he had lost control of his horse. By trails he came to conclusion that all of the horses had ran off but other horses had ran to other direction. The trails told a story about at last four knights who had fallen off of their horses. Arthur was one of them. The most worrying thing was that there was no sig of Arthur on any of the knights.

The panic hit him like a knife. It three knights and Arthur had fallen off of their horses, they couldn't be far. They weren't able to get away as quick as possible from... what ever attacked them. The other knights were more likely been able to get away from danger on their terrified horses. Those lucky ones.

If Arthur had been there, he would have hitten Merlin. He didn't tought of that there still was many dangers in the forest. He was too consered about his friends to care about his own safety.

"ARTHUR!? LANCELOT!? GWAINE!? LEON!?..." the warlock started to scream the names as loudly as he could. He would have contiuned to do that but he was stopped by two ridiculously strong hands. He was trifted roughtly off from saddle and one hand covered his mouth as soon as he was on the ground.

Merlin fought back as much as he could as the hands tragged him away from the horses. When they were far enough the man pulled him to sit down on the ground.

"Merlin for hevens sake, calm down!" A familiar voice cursed as angryly as he could by whispering. Merlin calmed down in a heart beat. Arthur tightened his grip around him so he was even closer Arthur's strong chest. Arthur still covered his mouth by his hand. When he was calm enough Merlin realiced that Arthur had pulled him behind the trees a good way away from the horses.

He heard someone running towards them. He almost felt the heavy and cracky breathing on his neck. The warlock and the prince swallowed not dearing to move even an inch. They didn't have power to turn around and peek behind the tree to see who there was. Arthur didn't dare move even to take his hand from Merlin's mouth and Merlin was so frozen that he didn't even realiced to protest. Their breaths sounded unnaturally loud. It was more like papers that flew on the wind causing so much noise that everyone could hear them. The heavy breathing sounded like it was comeing closer and closer.

Slowly, really slowly the voice and the steps went away, leaving the prince and his servant in complete silence. Arthur finally took his hand from Merlin's mouth but didn't move any other way. They just tried to calm their breaths a while before Merlin was able to suffle away from Arthur.

"That was close one. Is it really gone?" Merlin whispered while he was peeking behind the tree to their horses. Arthur too looked at the horses and nodded.

"I think so. Let's go before it comes back", the prince said and grabbed from the warlock's shoulder and pulled him right after himself to their horses. Without saying a word they climped on their horses and followed the trails of the knights. They have to find them before they went back to Camelot.

Blood ran off from their faces when they heart a loud yell. It cut the peacefull silence of the forest. Without saying a word the boys kicked their horses to full gallop and tried to find the sourse of the scream.

It was bretty dark already, so it was really hard to see what was going on. They saw only siluettes, but they regoniced six pheasants attacking to three knights. It wasn't hard to guess that those wasn't orginal pheasants.

Arthur pulled his sword to his hand and rode to the pheasants. The sword cut easily one man's throath. That made the blood splash everywhere. The body just kept running without its head for a couple steps before it fell on the ground and didn't move ever sence.

Merlin rode right after the prince eyes shineing gold. Without even a spell his magic throw three pheasants on a rock. There was a disgusting sound of three sculls crushing on a stone. Two knights took down easily the last two zombies.

Slowly Merlin regoniced Leon, Elyan and Percival. The last zombies were killed by Elyan and Percival, but Leon tropped on his kneels right when the fight ended. The knight hold his frist with seariously painfull look on his face.

In a second Merlin had ran to him Arthur and the other knights right behind him. There was a pure horror on the Leon's face. Merlin had never seen the brave knight being so scared. Never.

"Let me see it", the warlock said. Leon didn't fought back when the raven hair took his hand and looked the would. The blood was running unnaturally fast from the cut. Merlin tried not to think that the cut didn't look like it was made by a sword. It looked like Leon has been bitten.

"Elyan, could you get my bag..." Merlin started but Leon cut him off.

"No. Get away from here. There is no cure for this..."

"We don't know it yet. Maybe Merlin will heal you", Arthur in turn cut off Leon. Leon shook his head looking even more painful than before.

"We will not take a risk that I would bite any of you. Gaius will find a cure but you must get to him first. Alive. That way you will help all of us. Go", the knight said lookind right to prince's eyes with searious look. Arthur looked at his loyal, trustfull knight with a lost look. The knight was right. They have to go. But banding a friend felt impossible. Leave a friend behind was too hard for him. That's why he had to make desision not as a friend but as a prince.

He nodded shortly.

Elyan and Percival looked at Leon shocked. They didn't know was there even a cure for this illness. It was hard enough to see innocent citicens suffer from this but seeing Leon, their friend and brother in arms in this condition... It was killing them. This may be the last time when they ever saw the blonde knight anymore. The knights fought back their tears as they nodded.

Merlin wasn't a solder so he didn't even try to fight his cry. Leon smiled to him and hitted lightly the warlock on his skinny arm.

"Take a good care of our prince, Emrys", Leon whispered. That made Merlin smile sadly. He nodded before he stood up. Leon in other hand just leand on a tree comfortably and looked up to his friends. The pain was unnaturally reaching his whole body, not just his frist. But even that didn't make him worry too much. He was calm. He belived that there will be a cure and he would see his friends again.

Without saying a word Percival walked to Arthur's horse and took a rope from Arthur's bag and walked back to Leon.

"Best if you stay here when we return with a cure", the knight said unhappily smileing while he tied Leon up on a tree. Leon laughed.

"Better safe than sorry", Merlin said. He muttered a short spell and the rope turned to a strong chain. That would hold even if Leon struggled as much as he could. Arthur nodded in agreemend.

"We must go now. But I promise that we will return with a cure. For that, Sir Leon, the knight of Camelot", the prince said voice full of respect. Leon looked extremely calm and trustfull even when they all saw how his face were turning white like someone was sucking al the colour from his face. He seemed to be on the edge of dead.

Arthur lead his knights back to horses so they could leave. Merlin however stayed with Leon. He tought that they should stay here as long as Leon was still Leon. No one should face this kind of thing alone. And surely not a friend. Leon however looked at the warlock with demanding look.

"Go Merlin. It's too dangerous to stay here when it's dark. There is nothing even you could do anymore", the knight said smileing peacefully to him. Leon felt how his heartbeat started to slow down dangereously and his mind went slowly blurr.

"At las I can ceep company to my friend for a while", Merlin said as he sat down right in front of Leon. The knight smiled a little but didn't try to change the warlock's mind anymore. The pain in his body started to get worse. He took a deep breath trying to ease the pain. His body started to cramping.

Merlin moved closer to Leon and put his hand on the knight's hand. Leon's grip was so strong that it almost broke bones from the warlock's hand but he didn't even realized this.

"It will be over soon. Next time we see, everything will be back to normal", the warlock whispered. Leon tried to focuse his eyes on him. Merlin saw in his painfull eyes have a little hope. Everything will be allright eventually.

Merlin snapped back to reality when he realized that he was looking in eyes that didn't saw anything anymore. The knight's body was limp. The warlock fought back his tears with boor succsess. He bite his lips as he squesed Leon's hand for a last time.

Suddenly he saw the wound in Leon's frist. Merlin put his hand in his pocked, looking for something usefull..,

His hand found a peace of a fabric. Well, it was better than nothing. The warlock wipped the wound with a cloth and the brown peace of fabric got a new dark colour. Merlin turned to put the cloth back to his pocked.

"MERLIN!"

Every single drop of colour ran off of his face when he turned back to face Leon. His eyes were pure white as was his skin. He looked like he was blind. But still Leon looked straight into his eyes. Merlin was so close to him so he actually could see even the smallest blood veins under the knight's skin. There was no any emotion on Leon's familiar, usually friendly face.

Merlin didn't have time to even fright when Leon yelled with his new raw voice and leand forward to bite the warlock. He had no time to react.