It took a few days before Merlin was up and about again, but those few days had been pure torture for him. He'd been driving himself mad by trying to remember the thing, but he'd only been able to uncover a few things and had been able to piece them together to create a story...
Merlin had been walking from the palace to the stables, when an old, dying woman had grabbed his arm. He'd spun round to look at her. She said his other name under her breath and told him "the king faces danger when cometh the men created by the Tearer or The Vale." Before Merlin could ask her what she'd meant, she dyed at her feet.
Merlin couldn't remeber a single thing about what she had looked like, but he knew she had been a sorceress, and that her words were to be heeded.
"MERLIN!" Arthur screamed at him. Merlin just pulled a cheeky grin and picked the now dented armour off of the floor. "You're going to spend the rest of the day getting that dent out of my ceremonial arour, or I'll make you pay for an exact replica. Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal, sire." Merlin sighed. He'd only left the bed about a week ago, and he was already managing to muck everything up. So far he'd ripped Arthur's shirt, dropped one of Gaius' vials, and dented Arthur's best set of armour. Was he cursed?
"Good." Arthur went back to his paperwork and Merlin went to look out of the window as he brushed down Arthur's pillows.
"Arthur, who are those men?" Merlin pointed out of the window at three knights who he hadn't seen before. Arthur walked over and peered at them for a few seconds before shaking his head.
"I don't know, Merlin. They're not knights of Camelot, but I don't believe there's anything to worry about." Merlin rolled his eyes and continued to watch them. They seamed to be very proud, which was natural for a knight, but there was something about their pride which was scaring Merlin. It was like they were proud of an awful thing they'd done.
The knights walked in a line, and as they walked they were in step with each other. They soke to each other, but as soon as a person walked past, they would stop. It looked like they were hiding some dark secret.
As they approached the castle, Merlin saw their eyes through their helmets, he only saw them for a split second, but there was something about those eyes that gave Merlin goosebumps.
Basically, Merlin had a bad feeling about those knights, and the feeling wouldn't leave.
x x x
Everytime Merlin saw the knights through-out that day, they were doing the same thing: walking. They never did anthing else. They never sparred, they never stopped to talk to other knights, they just kept walking in a straightline, talking in hushed voices until someone happened to walk past, at which point they would walk in sience.
Merlin knew something was wrong with them... something about them was almost... inhuman.
As the young warlock lay in bed that night, staring into nothingness, his mind strayed back to the words that the old woman had whispered to him...
"The king faces danger when cometh the men created by the Tearer of The Vale..."