Previously: "He will not welcome you!" The thief spoke spitefully suddenly surprising Merlin and Arthur, "Balinor hates everyone and everything. The cave's the best place for him!" And with that he fled the room leaving behind the stunned duo.

Oblivious

Chapter 3: Finding the Dragonlord

That morning Arthur had the job of waking up Merlin, despite it being Merlin's job to do the same to him. But Arthur did not complain as he usually would have and Merlin failed to make his usual snippy remark. Both could not help but dwell on the events of the previous night. "Balinor hates everyone and everything." A blanket of doubt had been cast over the entire mission and the hope they had both had at the start was diminishing rapidly.

What if Balinor refused to help them? He was their last chance, and without him Camelot was sure to fall. But it was too late to go back now. They just had to pray for the best.

Having retrieved their horses they set off on the route the thief had given them, they spoke occasionally to confirm whether they were going the right way. Technically, Arthur was in charge of the map and which way they went, however he wasn't terribly good at reading maps. As a prince he usually had others to tell him which way to go but he couldn't directly ask Merlin because that would mean admitting he wasn't good at something so instead he "tested" Merlin by "purposefully" going the wrong way until Merlin pointed it out.

Despite Merlin's excellent map reading abilities, they still managed to get lost, but were comforted by the fact that they were sure the cave was nearby, they just weren't sure in which direction. And now they had another problem to deal with…

Arthur's shoulder was getting worse, he had been unintentionally wincing every few minutes and was beginning to sway as he walked, it was likely he was getting dizzy from blood loss, but of course the stubborn prat was too proud to admit to it.

After a particularly painful looking stumble, Merlin decided to take action.

"Let me look at your wound." For once Arthur surrendered without argument and Merlin peeled back some of the bandages: it didn't look good. It needed cleaning, possibly new stitches. And it needed them as soon as possible.

CRUNCH! Footsteps nearby snapped a branch underfoot, both Merlin and Arthur's heads whipped up at the sound. Immediately they ducked under a nearby fallen tree. Merlin poked his head over the top see what was going on. A group of heavily armed men, Cenred's he would have guessed, walked past. He ducked again to avoid them noticing him. The footsteps continued and passed by their hiding place without stopping. Merlin relaxed slightly, knowing that they hadn't been spotted. He waited until he was sure they were out of sight and hearing before nudging Arthur.

"They've gone." No response. With greater concern, Merlin shook the prince's shoulder. "Arthur?" Still no response. He had passed out.

This wasn't good. Cenred's men were probably looking for them, they had dragonlord to find and now, Arthur was unconscious. Typical, it was always Merlin's job to save Camelot.

He attempted to wake up Arthur a few times, even resorting to slapping him and splashing him with water, but the seriousness of the situation prevented him from enjoying any of it. Having failed at that, Merlin tried to figure out a way to get Arthur on the horse. Lifting him didn't work, he was far too heavy (must be from all those royal banquets, at least Merlin would be able to mock him about his weight after this). But he tried several times anyway until his breathing had become laboured with the effort. It was then that Merlin remembered two very important things: 1. He was a warlock and 2. Arthur was unconscious. So without further ado Merlin levitated Arthur on to the horse.

Unfortunately even with the ability to use his magic to his heart's content, Merlin couldn't heal Arthur. Healing magic was notoriously difficult and so far Merlin had only learned how to heal bruises and shallow cuts. He also couldn't treat Arthur's wound manually since he had nothing at hand with which to do it with. They needed help. But they were in unfriendly territory with soldiers walking around the forest, so there was only one solution.

Merlin cast out his senses until he felt the presence of the soldiers in the south, he dismissed heading in that direction due to the increased risk of being caught, so he searched the north. Up ahead he felt one person with just the faintness trace of magic. Even with the distance separating them Merlin was just able to identify the magic. It was the dragonlord.

The first thing that Merlin noticed about the dragonlord was how dark he seemed. From his excellent hiding spot (behind a tree) Merlin was still debating on how to approach the man. Thankfully the darkness he had noted was nothing to with any kind of evil aura but more of a sense of colour. His clothes were dark, his hair was fairly long and dark, so from the back he was just one big dark thing. But nevertheless he was a tall intimidating dark thing, which was the reason for Merlin's apprehension.

As the dragonlord began to turn as if to go somewhere else, Merlin hid himself from view behind the tree. He was very good at spying on people Merlin mused to himself, after all how else would he keep finding out about all the evil plots to take over Camelot?

There was a sudden sharp ring of steel and before Merlin could react a long blade was pressed to his neck. Perhaps not as good at spying as he had originally thought.

"What do you want?" The man growled menacingly, his voice rough from lack of use. Quickly recovering from the surprise Merlin rattled out a response.

"My-my friend he's hurt! We needs help!" The man hesitated before finally replying.

"Where is he?" Merlin gestured vaguely towards where he had left Arthur and the horses; he had been worried of alerting the dragonlord of his presence if he had brought them along.

The man surveyed him, looking for traces of deceit in his expression. Merlin's heart thudded in his chest as he feared for what would happen if the dragonlord did not believe him. With the sword at this proximity to his bared neck and the trunk of the great oak behind him he would be unable to stop the completion of the sword's arc with magic.

Then as quickly as the blade had come, it left, but it was not put away in the worn scabbard that hung from his belt, instead the dragonlord held it by his side ready to use it if proven necessary.

"Show me."

Meanwhile back in Camelot, Gwen who was oblivious as to what was happening with Merlin and Arthur, was tending to the wounded from the latest of the dragon attacks. She was in charge of the infirmary at the moment since she had ordered Gaius to get a much needed rest. It was quiet for the most part, all the patients were stable and the slow trickle of newly found wounded had stopped.

She carefully finished stitching and bandaging a deep cut on a young boy who had been hit by fallen debris, before moving on to a man with a broken arm. Gwen was vaguely aware of a disturbance over by the entrance. Probably a new patient, she assumed, but glanced over to see anyway. Shocked by what she saw, her eyes widened and she gasped audibly.

Standing by the door was Hunith, Merlin's mother.

AN: Introducing a little AUness there, Hunith is now in Camelot! Woo! Aside from that, everything is still somewhat the same though I can promise that **** will start hitting the fan soonish, Chapter 6ish if you don't count the events in Chapter 4 which you will find out about on Saturday. Thanks to everyone who has followed this story and favourited it!

Thanks to reviewers: MamzelleHermy, rmatri540, Mediatrix, Ana, OhHowDelightfullyDreadful, Laughy-Taffy the Grape, lilyflower1345, That-is-illogical.

Replies to reviewers:

Ana: I would give you a hint but that would spoil the rest of the story :) just keep reading, I'm sure you can work out what will happen from this chapter!

OhHowDelightfullyDreadful: There will be plenty more Merlin and Arthur scenes in this story however it won't, unfortunately, always be adorable, there is angst up ahead!

Laughy-Taffy the Grape: Don't worry, things will start getting more and more AU as the story progresses. Everything from Chapter 6 onwards is completely different from the original episode.