Thanks once again to withkissesfour for editing this chapter. Apologies for the lateness in posting this chapter, I went overseas for a month and was very busy. I hope you enjoy the next chapter!

Finally the birdsong dulls down and Arthur and Merlin begin to stir. Arthur opens slowly blinks and open his eyes and sees that they are not in the Valley anymore.

Rather they are in the council chamber.

Ouch, Arthur thinks as he straightens up and cranks his neck. He and Merlin must have fallen asleep at the table which he thinks is rather odd considering that it is mid-afternoon.

Arthur looks over to Merlin and sees that his court advisor/man servant is still somewhat asleep. Annoyed, he taps Merlin's shoulder, very hard. While Arthur considers Merlin one of his best mates, he still gets a lot of enjoyment teasing him. It reminds him of when he does it in front of Gwen she always sighs, rolls her eyes and mutters under her breath "boys!"

"Ah! What you doing?" Merlin complains sleepily and starts rubbing his shoulder.

"Waking you up. It seems we both fell asleep whilst we were discussing Guinevere's birthday feast," Arthur points out as if it is entirely Merlin's fault.

"Yes…which is odd…" Merlin rubs his eyes and then continues, "Because I dreamt that we went hunting…"

"And were kidnapped by bandits and some strange-quite-possibly-mad-man appeared…" Arthur finishes his train of thought.

"You had the same dream too?" Merlin asks. Arthur nods his head and then rubs his nose with his fist which Merlin knows as a sign that Arthur is thinking deeply.

"Yes I did Merlin. Obviously we fell asleep after discussing Guinevere's Birthday feast at length," Arthur notices that Merlin still doesn't believe this but he shrugs it off and continues, "Not only that, but you know how much lack of sleep I'm getting now with Guinevere's condition."

Merlin shakes his head and points out, "But we didn't just fall asleep did we. We had the same dream. Who knows this might not even be real it might be a dream too. I mean we thought it was real in the Valley of the Kings"

Arthur gives Merlin a side glance and considers this for a moment then dismisses Merlin's fears. "Well I just know that this is real, Merlin and the other one was clearly a dream. So let's try and forget about it…"

"But something is not right…" Merlin interrupts him, but Arthur waves his hand.

"Merlin, trust me everything is fine. Now I promised Guinevere that I would have lunch with her today so let's get a move on. Her moods have been all over the place lately."

Merlin laughs a little at that.

However, Merlin fears are proven right when they finally walk into Arthur and Gwen's chambers and discover everything is not right. Not right at all.

Arthur walks over to Gwen's slumped, pregnant body, kneels down and nearly has a heart attack thinking that she is dead. But then he sees that her chest is moving so she is indeed breathing and alive. He tries to wake her up by rubbing her forehead gently – since he does not want to cause Gwen to be scared and miscarry. But nothing happens.

He turns to Merlin who is checking on Gwen's lady's maid who also appears to be asleep.

"Merlin, Gwen is asleep and nothing I do will wake her," Arthur says frantically.

Merlin refrains from saying a 'told you so' as it seems like it's not only them that may be in danger.

"It's the same with Jane," Merlin reports.

"Then clearly magic is involved…" but Arthur's voice stops and slurs as both of them hear the familiar birdsong and they both shut their eyes and their bodies slump on the floor.

XXX

The bells are ringing. Agravaine looks up from the court documents he was reviewing, drops his quill and knows that something is gone wrong. His face drops.

One of the knights quickly rushes into his chambers and announces "My lord," the knight stops as he tries to regain his breathing.

Agravaine is getting very testy, "Well what is it?"

"The three prisoners have escaped!" he blurts out, then looks away a bit, afraid of the reaction he will most likely receive.

"How did they manage to do that?" Agravaine demands to know.

"Well the guards were found asleep with an empty decanter of mead and when they woke up, they discovered the keys were missing."

Since Agravaine knows that it is against protocol for guards to be drinking while they are on duty. Though he knows that some of them do have a little now and then to get through their shift.

"Do the guards have any idea who gave them the mead?"

"All the guards remember is Gaius giving them a jug of mead and then everything else is blank. We do know that Gwen is missing and believe that the three prisoners must have kidnapped her."

Agravaine knows that that is very unlikely; however, he agrees to go along with the knight's theory and orders some of his knights to search for them.

After he organizes the knights, he grabs his cloak and decides that he must warn Morgana.

XXX

"Arghhh" Arthur complains, as he tries to arch his shoulder and back and opens his eyes and discovers that they are back in the Valley.

"So we are back here again." Arthur points out then looks around and notices that the strange man is gone. Merlin notices this too, "And that strange and possibly delusional man is gone too."

Arthur nods, "Yes it does appear that way. And we both fell asleep again…"

Merlin nods, "I had this strange dream where we did the same thing, we fell asleep and then we woke up and we had a slight disagreement because you didn't believe me, " Arthur gives him a glare, but Merlin continues, "Then we went back to your chambers and Gwen and her maid were asleep…"

"And Gwen was pregnant." Arthur finishes for him and a slight smile appears on his face when he remembers how Gwen's hand was gently resting on her baby bump. But he realizes that while he loves this thought of Gwen being pregnant and them being married, they are in a dangerous situation and they need to work out who is behind it and how to get out of it.

Arthur is about to question Merlin more about his theories since he may have been right before – okay, he was right - when he hears a whooshing sound and the wind swirling in front of him, making the leaves fly in circles. Finally, it dies down as the wind disappears and the strange-and-quite-possibly-mad-and-crazy-man materialises before them.

"You again!" Merlin spits out annoyed, thinking that maybe they wouldn't see him again - he was silly to think that in the first place. Danger seemed to always follow him and Arthur, especially when magic was involved, especially when it had something to do with Morgana.

"Now, now Merlin that's no way to treat someone that has given you everything you have desired - to finally be more than a simple servant." He turns to look at Arthur, sees the frustration evident in his face "And you Arthur, you shouldn't be frustrated. After all you are finally married to the woman of your dreams. The woman your father wouldn't accept as Queen; you are about to have a child, a family."

However, Arthur and Merlin are not as gullible as the strange man originally thought.

"What have you done to us?" Arthur demands to know. Then suddenly he hears the birds singing in his head once again.

The strange man laughs and teases, "You'll find out soon enough." And with that the strange man disappears.