A/N: OK. Wow. Thank you all for the alerts / favourites! Also, thank you LadySarah14, Ash9, krimsondelamber, and the anonymous reviewers for your reviews - I really appreciate them! I'm glad you're all enjoying the story so far and think I'm keeping everyone in character.

Disclaimer: BBC owns everything, I own nothing. Zip.

Chapter 3

The first tendrils of light were illuminating the horizon when Arthur was shaken awake by Gwaine, concern obvious in his eyes and voice.

"Merlin and Oswald are gone." Gwaine said. Arthur sat up and looked around the room quickly. "Marcus says Oswald never woke him up for his watch last night."

"They can't have gone far," Arthur said, standing up and pulling his cloak on. "Let's split up and look for them."

Without further ado, the three nobles were out the door and set off looking for their missing companions. The snow was significantly deeper that it had been when they had gone to sleep the previous evening and a sliver of concern wormed its way into Arthur's stomach, if either his knight or servant had been out in this weather all night then they would likely be dead. There were no tracks or any evidence to show where either of them might have gone but as he looked around he saw a thin trail of smoke rising from the chimney of one of the huts close to the centre of the village. It was a obvious place to start and gave him hope that, having got lost in the storm, Merlin and Oswald had sheltered in the first hut they found. Although why on earth they had gone out in a storm was something that he intended on finding out. That and quite possibly banging their heads together.

Shoving open the door of the house with more force than really necessary, Arthur stomped inside hoping to shock whoever was sleeping awake but what he saw stopped him dead in his tracks. There was a pool of dried blood on the floor in front of him, with drag marks leading away from it to a heap in front of a slowly dying fire. Despite the bloodstains, Arthur recognised his own cloak and the dark, matted hair sticking out from under it and that galvanised him into action. In two long strides, he was across the room and on his knees next to his friend.

"Merlin!" He rolled his servant onto his back, eliciting a moan from the younger man. There were various scratches and cuts across his face and neck but the worse wound was a terrible gaping hole in his shoulder that, to Arthur's untrained eye, looked like a bite. Despite the amount of blood covering the floor and Merlin, the wound itself seemed to no longer be bleeding, which was strange but something he was grateful for - if it had kept bleeding then the chances were that Merlin would have been dead by now. Ignoring the uncomfortable emotion that thought caused, he wrapped his borrowed cloak more tightly around his servant and picked him up effortlessly, kicking the door off its hinges in his hurry to get back to the relative safety of the other hut.

Gwaine, Marcus and Oswald intercepted him on his way back and Arthur allowed Gwaine to take the unconscious man from his arms. He watched the dark-haired knight until he disappeared inside the hut before turning back to Oswald sharply and grabbing him by the front of his cloak.

"Where the hell were you?" he demanded.

"I thought I heard a noise when I was on watch last night, so I went out to investigate it." Oswald shrugged, "There was a snowstorm and I couldn't find my way back. I ended up sleeping in that shack." He jerked his head in the direction of one of the small buildings.

"And Merlin?"

"Was asleep when I last saw him."

"It looks like he was mauled by an animal - you didn't hear anything?"

"Not a thing," Oswald replied. "Glad it didn't come after me - it would have been difficult to spot in the dark."

Arthur clamped down on the urge to punch his own knight and shoved the man away. "You two carry on looking around this God-forsaken place and see if you can find whatever did this to Merlin." Both knights gave slight bows and turned away.

"How's he doing?" Arthur asked dropping down next to Gwaine.

"Not good," the knight admitted. "Does that look like a bite to you?"

"Yes, that's what I thought. We need to patch him up and get back to Camelot as soon as possible. Whatever happened here, we missed it." Arthur patted his unconscious friend's cheek slightly. "Merlin! Merlin, you lazy, good-for-nothing waste of space! Wake up!"

Gwaine busied himself with cleaning the various wounds and cutting up a blanket to make some bandages while his king affectionately insulted his insensible servant. Between the two of them, they tightly bandaged up the bite and strapped Merlin's arm down, all the while Arthur kept up a near-constant stream of insults. Finally, the injured man opened eyes and groaned before gasping and trying to push himself off the floor. His two friends pushed him back down, assuring him he was safe but he continued to fight them, pushing them away with all his strength. With an agonised howl, he flung himself forward and both Arthur and Gwaine were sent flying across the room. Freed from restraint, Merlin began to drag himself towards the door.

"What was that?" Arthur exclaimed, picking himself up.

"I have no idea," Gwaine responded, "I didn't know he had that kind of strength in him!"

Arthur shook his head and bounded over to his prone servant, who was still desperately trying to make for the exit. "For God's sake, Merlin," he yelled, placing a restraining hand on the terrified man's uninjured shoulder, "stop being such an idiot! Merlin!"

Finally the young man stopped fighting and focused on Arthur's face. "Arthur?"

"Yes. Now would you lie still? You're going to tear your shoulder open again!"

"Arthur, we have to get out of here!" Merlin said frantically. "Something's here. We have to go now!"

The sheer panic in Merlin's voice surprised the king. For all he berated his servant for being a coward, he was actually quite brave and had faced things which would have scared most men senseless. Whatever had attacked him had truly terrified him. Then again, suffering a vicious animal attack alone in a storm would be enough to scare even the most stout of heart.

"Don't worry, we're going," he soothed. "As soon as Oswald and Marcus get back, we're leaving."

"Come on, mate," Gwaine said, gently lifting Merlin to his feet and depositing him on a nearby stool. "Rest here while I pack all this up."

Pretty much every instinct told Arthur to interrogate his servant further, find out what attacked him and why he'd left the group in the first place but looking at his pale tormented face, trying to stay conscious and aware, Arthur couldn't bring himself to do it. Right now, his friend needed rest and medical attention - there would be plenty of time to figure out exactly what happened when they got back to Camelot.

Marcus and Oswald returned shortly after and reported they had found nothing of interest in or near the location of the attack. The knights gathered up their belongings and Arthur slung his servant's good arm over his shoulder and the group headed to the shed were the horses were bedded down. Merlin glanced over his shoulder, nervously looking at the dwelling where he had been attacked. He wanted to get away from this place as quickly as possible. Whatever that creature was, it was evil and had rendered his magic useless without so much as a word.

Gwaine reached the edge of the village first but his horse stopped suddenly and refused to move. He dismounted, holding out his hand in mid air and sliding it from side to side in front of him. "I think we have a problem!" he called over his shoulder.

"What are you talking about?" Arthur asked exasperated.

"Try and walk past me," the knight challenged.

"Really now is not the time for one of your jokes, Gwaine," said Arthur disapprovingly but nonetheless he dismounted and went to brush past his knight. It was like walking into a stone wall. "What is that?"

Merlin slowly climbed off his own horse and stood on wobbly legs, running his hand over the invisible barrier. It was created by powerful magic, running deep underground and high into the sky but he could not sense a source. Most barriers had to have a source from which the magic they were created from flowed but this barrier just seemed to exist. They would not be leaving this place any time soon.

"It's magic," he said quietly.

"How do you know?" Arthur asked.

"Umm, I read about this sort of thing in a book once." With hurried impertinence, eager to distract the king and the knights attention from his knowledge of magic he continued, "You do know what a book is, right?"

Arthur frowned at his tone but seemed to accept his explanation. "Does your book say how we get past it?"

"No."

"Of course not," Arthur sighed. "All right. Gwaine, stay here with Merlin. The rest of you split up and see if you can find the end of this thing."

"There won't be an end," Merlin stated firmly. "These sorts of barriers are designed to keep living things in."

That was of course the big question. Was it to keep them, or the creature that attacked him last night, in? Either way they needed to come up with a plan quickly before it came back and as much as he did not relish the prospect, he needed to tell Arthur exactly what had happened to him. It was the only way they could be prepared.

"Listen, Merlin, books can be useful but there's got to be a way out of here."

"I'm telling you there won't be. Watch!" He picked up a pebble and threw it in front of him. It travelled a decent distance and hit the ground well outside the village. "Living things are trapped here but other objects can pass through freely."

"Great. That's...great. Fine, back to the hut."

"Surely we're not actually going to listen to this moron?" Oswald demanded.

Marcus placed a restraining hand on his companion's arm. "He's Gaius' ward, Oswald. He's more likely to know about this stuff than we are."

"He's a simpleton," retorted the large knight.

"That's enough, Oswald," growled Arthur. "I really don't care what your opinion is on this matter. I give the orders and and I said: Back to the hut."

The three knights did as commanded and Arthur followed slowly behind with Merlin. "Something really bad happened here, Arthur."

"Like last night?"

Slowly Merlin told his master about the events of the previous night, leaving out the parts involving his magic, as they made their way back inside.

"You're sure?" Arthur asked dubiously when he was finished. "It was dark and -"

"I didn't imagine it, Arthur! It spoke to me! It bit a chunk out of my shoulder!" Merlin emphasised his point by pointing to the bandages, causing Arthur to wince in disgust.

"Easy, Merlin," Gwaine said, pushing a cup of water into the warlock's hand, "no-one's saying you made it up."

"I am," grumbled Oswald from the corner.

"I am not an idiot. I didn't imagine it. I did not make it up." Merlin said quietly but firmly, staring at a spot on the floor. "I know I'm just a servant but I swear to you, that is what happened!"

Arthur looked at him seriously for a moment then nodded decisively. "I believe you. What do we do about it?"

Merlin looked up from the floor sharply, realising the king was speaking to him. "You're asking me?" he said incredulously. At the older man's nod, he shook his head. "I have no idea."