The hope
It had been two days. It had been two days and Merlin still hadn't woken up. Gaius had done his best to tend Merlin's wounds - the cuts on his face and chest, the stab wound, the crossbow bolt puncture, his broken ankle and the empty socket. He had cleaned them, bound them and reset the broken ankle but the wounds were not the problem - Merlin was deep in the grip of a bad fever. He lay on the bed, twitching, shivering and his pale skin was covered in sweat, Merlin's skin was hot to the touch. The injured warlock occasionally muttered in his sleep, sometimes it seemed like he was awake and replying to the but he was just feverish and delirious. Once he began thrashing about, it took both Arthur and Gaius to calm him down again.
Gaius didn't know what to do. He had done his best and Merlin hadn't woken up, he was surely dying. But this couldn't be how it ended, it couldn't be - not before he fulfilled the prophecies about him and Arthur - not before magic returned to Albion. Gaius felt so helpless and he hated it. Arthur had only left Merlin's side to change clothes and relieve himself, he hadn't eaten much and had only drank what Gwen had forced him too. The look on his face was so wounded and so sorrowful that Gaius almost felt guilty for his outburst, but he knew that what he had said was the truth.
On the third day, after poring over various books for the past few days, Gaius admitted defeat - the only thing that could help Merlin now was himself. But with Arthur constantly by his side, Gaius couldn't use any magic to help Merlin, help himself. But he had another idea. He approached the young king, who was sitting with his head resting on his elbows, his eyes were half closed, dozing in and out of sleep. "Sire?" he gently shook Arthur's arm, the blonde king jerked upright. "What is it? What's wrong?" he asked in a startled voice, staring around the room blearily.
"Nothings wrong, sire, I just think that you should get some sleep." Gaius used his `wise old man` face as Arthur shook his head. "I'm fine here Gaius." Arthur scrubbed a hand over his face "Arthur, staying here wont help Merlin recover any sooner. You will make yourself I'll if you don't rest and eat, you should return to your rooms and I'll send word if there's any change."
Arthur looked as if he might argue at first but then his shoulders slumped and he nodded in resignation. "Here, this will help you sleep." Gaius passed him a bottle of dark purple liquid, Arthur took it and left the room, closing it softly behind him. Gaius moved quickly over to Merlin's bedside and produced the vial of smelling salts - he opened the jar, holding his nose and put it under Merlin's nose. To his surprise, Merlin jerked upright coughing and let out a cry of pain at the sharp movement.
The boy's blue eye snapped open and he blinked blearily at Gaius. "Ugh . . .what happened?" he groaned.
"You've been unconscious for two days, Merlin." Gaius told him.
"Fever?" Merlin guessed, rubbing his face with one hand.
"Yes and now I'm going to have to ask you for something." Merlin nodded absently, he looked like he was going to be sick.
"Merlin, you need to concentrate. You're going to have to use your magic to heal yourself, I've done all I can." Gaius looked straight into Merlin's hazy sapphire coloured eye, the boy looked back, looking unsure and a bit frightened.
"I. .I don't know if I can do it Gaius." he stuttered. Gaius gripped his shoulder with a comforting hand. "I know you can do it Merlin." Merlin looked uncomfortable and gestured to his empty eye socket "What about. . ?" Gaius reached over to a jar full of putrid smelling blue liquid, inside of it, floated Merlin's eye. Merlin leant over the edge of the bed to vomit all over the floor. "Sorry, Lancelot gave it to me, he had a feeling that you might be able to do something with it if I couldn't." Gaius said.
"Well, now or never." Merlin muttered, mostly to himself it seemed, he looked pale and very scared, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and sat up. The young warlock took a deep breath, his eye flashed a bright gold and he was suddenly cocooned in bright blue light.
Hi, sorry about the confusion earlier, my fault! This chapter and all the ones from now on are real and not imagined by Merlin! Thank you for following and reviewing!