A/N- Thanks for reading the second chapter. This chapter consists of two very important pieces of information (though one part is not obvious until later in the story). I am planning to put in the next chapter the snow and magical wolves. Also later on I will put in the spoilers about old Morgana and more spoilers too. If you didn't know there hasn't been any mention of a giant in the fifth series but there was a story about it in the legend which I have twisted.
Merlin was unnecessarily pacing in Gaius's chambers as he collected provisions and essential supplies for their journey. The young warlock was tense as he felt powerless against the giant.
"Merlin?" asked Gaius breaking the unnerving silence. Merlin jerked around, his arms flailing and colliding with Gaius's leech tank. The brittle glass couldn't bear the force of hitting the floor so it smashed creating numerous fragments of glass which scattered all over the floor. Merlin hastily began to gather the glass up with a filthy rag.
"That can wait Merlin," Gaius firmly stated, "Just now we have more pressing matters. Giants are one of the most formidable creatures to exist. Their skin is tougher than armour and at least twice as thick as the length of Arthur's sword making their hearts almost impenetrable."
"Maybe it is time to reveal the truth," Merlin calmly said, "-to let Arthur know I have magic." Though Melin spoke as cool as ice, his muscles tensed up and he put a look half way between a grimace and a smile on his face. This was preceded by a stressful silence in which Merlin and Gaius were lost in their worrying thoughts. To break this edgy silence, Merlin grabbed the pestle and began to squish the leaf in the mortar to pulp. This released all his anger which had building up in his mind. It wasn't part of Merlin's personality to be angry, at any one time, but his fury had been building inside him for quite some time. After all Merlin knew he had had his part to play in the corruption of Morgana; he had been thinking it through for the past three years. At that time the warlock had been young and naïve but now he was not the simple minded child that everybody thought was a mere servant. No. Now he was someone who everybody respected including Arthur, though admittedly Arthur did not like to show it.
"That will be of no use as your magic or any other magical creatures will be useless against the giant." Gaius paused there and one of his eyebrows rose slightly higher than usual. Merlin picked up what Gaius had said even though he hadn't been planning on endangering Kilgharrah's life. "I fear your magic will just rebound off the giant's skin. Also you must fear the person who unleashed the giant as they could react violent."
"Morgana?" Gaius gave a small nod looking deeply into the young warlock's sapphire eyes. Quite often Gaius wondered what was going on in his complex mind; he knew that fear and dread would be regularly in there. "So all in all I have to trespass a kingdom, kill an almost immortal giant and defeat a powerful sorceress. Piece of cake," Merlin joked. Seeing Gaius's stony look "-One word for it, impossible."
"Merlin you must be wary of al-."
"MERLIN!" thundered Arthur interrupting Gaius's droning lecture. Merlin quite happily escaped the lecture but embraced the old man before tearing after Arthur, the warlock's saddle bag swinging off his shoulder.
Morgana galloped along the forest riding a silvery stallion she had heisted. The fiery sun in the pink sky was glaring down upon her but Morgana did not care about the daylight; she currently was trespassing inside King Gremian's Kingdom. Suddenly, the witch pulled the stallion to a halt. There was a strange feeling in the air, not unlike the feeling at the Isle of the Blessed but this one was more vivid. Morgana knew that feeling anywhere - magic was around her. This caused some excitement to flood through because it was less than seldom for her to come across such a place.
Dismounting her horse, she pulled her elaborate, black curls out from behind her ears and began to search for the source of the aroma. Recently, Morgana had been completely determined to master all aspects of the Old Religion so she could make her powers even greater.
Morgana's eyes lingered across a circular dome shape, the size of a small hut roof, which she warily approached. She could sense powerful magic in the area surrounding the mysterious dome. The witch began to tread forward but her foot broke through the frail moss, revealing bars which ceased her from falling through a hole. Her right foot had fallen through the bars though, crashing against them and inflicting pain. The witch had just managed to pull herself up before she hurt any other part of her body. Morgana's swollen foot was an unpleasant blue colour so she muttered words of the Old Religion to heal it. Then hauling the bars off the hole and Morgana lowered her body down into an underground tunnel.
"Fobearnan," she murmured. A flickering flame burst out of the witch's palm, illuminating the murky tunnel. She ambled slowly along the tunnel and cautiously descended the stairs when she then creakily pushed the once sumptuous but now decaying door, causing it to open. There was an ominous silence in the room; a spine chilling feeling. To try and prevent her tense feeling Morgana lit a black barred fire holder. Illuminating the room, the light revealed an open coffin and numerous pompous objects in piles as high as mountains of treasure. The coffin looked unused and was deserted except from an isolated ornate chest. Curiously, Morgana approached the chest and clutching a knife from her cloak began to slice the wood. She stuck her hand in hole of the chest only to discover an icy and glutinous object. When Morgana jerked her hand back she had a black inky liquid all over her hand. The witch hacked away at the chest to discover a black heart smeared in half clotted blood. Stiffening a scream Morgana turned around and nearly crashed into a man. Drawing out her dagger she let out a shriek for a nano second but cut it off.
The man said, "Morgana Pendragon, the la-"
"I despise that surname," Morgana abruptly interrupted. "Calling me, that is suicidal. I demand to know who you are." Morgana threateningly pointed her dagger at the man but the man did not flinch or even look the slightest bit scared.
"My name is Taliesin and I am a seer not unlike you. I have been looking at your destiny in the crystal caves and it appears that you will return the old ways. However it was unclear how long for. So beware and make your choices carefully as you should not try and bring about the downfall of our young King Arthur as he is destined for good."
"Do not joke about things like that. There is no way that my half wit brother is destined for good because he persecutes the innocent," Morgana mockingly joked.
"The one called Emrys will change tha-"Taliesin stated confidently.
"Emrys is nothing but a good for nothing sorcerer who continually tries to thwart my plans. I suppose if I possessed him then that would be a different matter." Morgana's eyes twinkled in the gloom.
"Do you not think there is a reason that a sorcerer who Arthur would see dead repeatedly tries to save his life?" questioned Taliesin.
"He has mental problems," Morgana hastily answered.
"I'm not to sure he is the one that has metal problems." Morgana threw her dagger at him but he vanished, reappearing a few metres behind Morgana.
"I'm not the mental. Once I am Queen, millions of lives will be saved."
"But how many people will be sacrificed along the way? I have warned you Morgana Pendragon." Morgana scowled at him calling her that. "So if you in the future regret the choices that you make, it will be completely your choice to ignore my warnings. The crystals also say that Arthur will bring about a time of Albion where magic will be welcomed back. He is the once and future King. Make your choices cautiously as the old ways could be lost forever. It is the truth." With that Taliesin vanished, confident that he had left her pondering over what he had said and he was right. Morgana sat down and dwelled on this matter not caring she was in an eerie tomb. It was late morning until she evacuated the tomb but had Taliesin's time with her been well spent?
Merlin, Arthur and the knights had quickly departed Camelot and were now traveling through a lush, green coniferous forest. They were trotting on their horses and had been fairly quiet until just now.
"Arthur?" Merlin called. "What are we going to say if a Saxon asks us what we are doing? I mean it is not everyday that Saxons see six men riding horses all together."
"I don't know act foreign, speak French," Arthur replied unsure.
"Yeah and that is not going to be suspicious at all, providing that you and Sir Leon are the only people who have been taught French," Merlin said cheekily.
"We can all be French traders. I know a very useful French phrase. Je t'aime," laughed Gwaine. Seeing the bewildered looks on Merlin's, Percival's and Elyan's faces he added, "It means I love you. Well I actually know quite a bit of French."
Crack
"Shhh," beckoned Arthur. Gwaine stiffened his laugh.
Bandits shot out of the trees yelling to try and intimidate their enemy.
"Really? The minute we are out of the boundaries of your kingdom Arthur, we get attacked. At least we know that it is not your kingdom that has an infestation of bandits. " Gwaine chortled. The knights, the King and the servant jumped off their horses and began to fight the bandits. Their swords clashed and blood spurted out of the half-alive, enemy bodies. A bandit crept up on Gwaine who was too occupied fighting the two bandits in front of him to notice. The bandit swung his sword for the kill but fortunately he was blasted back his sword piercing his heart. Merlin grinned at himself. Once again he had managed to save someone's life again using magic without anyone noticing. What Merlin didn't notice was a bandit sneaking up on Arthur and smashing his mace off Arthur's skull but Gwaine who had polished off the bandits he had been fighting did and sprinted over towards Arthur killing the bandit with the mace.
"MERLIN!" Gwaine yelled. Merlin dashed over to Gwaine finally realising what had happened to Arthur. The bandits were still numerous in number outnumbering them at least one to five.
"Gwaine we need to get him out here. Help me lift him," Merlin called. Gwaine and Merlin began to haul Arthur away but looked back at the struggling knights conflicted at the thought of leaving them.
"Gwaine, you need to get the King out of here. His life is at stake. We can manage," Sir Leon ordered, almost getting his head sliced off. At this Merlin and Gwaine began to flee while Percival cutting down the bandits that tried to approach them.
Gwaine and Merlin had been dragging Arthur for five minutes before they came to a halt.
"Ah… with all our bad luck, surprisingly there is a cave over there. It looks safe enough to rest in," Gwaine panted. They were all shuddering as the further north they traveled the colder the weather became. The trio ventured into the cave where Merlin lay Arthur down and extracted a blanket from his back which he wrapped round Arthur. "Will he be alright? Can you heal him," asked a worried Gwaine.
"I'll see. Meanwhile we will need wood to make a fire and water." Gwaine scurried away in search of wood and water. Examining Arthur, Merlin discovered what he had dreaded. His cranium was broken and he was suffering from internal bleeding, as well as external. Merlin thought deeply as he tried to remember the spell he had used on Morgana to heal her when he had accidentally caused her to fall down the stairs. Merlin needed to brace himself as Arthur was in a much worse state than Morgana had been. The warlock placed his hand over Arthur's lungs and felt his weak, rattling breath. Merlin closed his eyes and began to say "Ic þe þurhhæle þin licsare mid þam sundorcræftas þære ealdaþ æ!" His hand could now feel Arthur's chest heaving more naturally and he had the courage to open his eyes and to stare forlornly at Arthur. He also witnessed Gwaine standing at the entrance of the cave and gaping at him perplexed.
"Merlin, I want the truth."
