A/U: Primrose's POV

I try to fight the mutt but its hold is too strong. I do eventually slip through but then as I begin to fall through the air I realize that might have been a very stupid thing to do. The creature scoops me up again before I can hit the ground, getting a tighter hold on me. I decide it might be best just to let this thing take me wherever its taking me then make a break for it. Which leaves me with time to think. I already figure I'm food, but why carry me off? Why not just rip me to shreds right on the trail? And why take me period when it had two good-sized kills?

At last the creature lands and drags me over to a nearby cave, throwing me to the stone floor. I looked up and see three smaller mutts standing over me. In fact, two appear to be children.

My kidnapper growls at his mate, then leaves again, leaving me alone with the rest of the family. They just stare at me and I stare back. I sit up and try to stand up, but mom freaks out, pushing me to the ground. I stare up at her, my heart pounding, certain that this is going to be the end, but she just as abruptly as he outburst had happened, it ended. "Okay," I think, sitting up, which gets very little reaction, "Apparently they're not gonna tear me to pieces yet. Alright, they have to look away at some point, so just make a break for it then."

But that moment never comes. If mom doesn't have her eye on me the kids are gazing at me trying to figure out what exactly it is their dad brought home. They do this to such an extent I'm starting to wonder if I'm met to be the family pet, rather than the family dinner. Finally dad comes back with the two carcasses, dropping them on the ground and drawing all attention to them. The family instantly dives in, ripping the deer to pieces in the matter of two minutes. I now see why the father mutt had gathered two kills to feed the voracious clan. Once they had finished cleaning the bones and sucking them dry of any marrow for the matter, the mom pulls the cougar forward and they start in on that. I've field-dress, cleaned and/or butchered a lot of animals in my time yet even I am somewhat disgusted by the display. I just hope I'm not the next course. Once they've had had their fill dad drags off the remaining parts of the carcass. When he comes back he's carrying something shinny in both his hands, and walks over to me. He sets it down in front of me and I see purple berries, plump and shinny as jewels. I know they're not poisonous and I am hungry at this point so I pop one in my mouth and it fills with the sweet taste. After I eat a couple of more a frightening thought dawns on me. Could I not be a pet, but instead provisions? Could they be fattening me up?

In any case I don't intend to me here long enough to find out, and I need to keep my strength up, so I eat all the berries and wait for them to fall asleep.

Soon after the sun sets they do, curled up together in a big heap. Apparently they don't think I'm much of escape, because they make no attempts to restrain me or even make it hard for me to escape. Once I'm certain they're asleep I get up and start creeping out of the cave. I'm at the mouth she I stumble over a lose rock, sending me the ground. I get up quickly, but it's too late. The Mutts are up, and the dad is coming at me. I put one arm up protectively as if that would do any good against the much larger and stronger creature, when suddenly out of nowhere, a rock comes down on the creature, hitting its head, and then another. As it turns it head to see who dared to challenge him, I hear a familiar voice say, "Really, Merlin? Did you really think that was going to do anything but make it mad?!"

I turn to see Arthur and Merlin, standing at the mouth of the cave. Merlin's holding another rock, and Arthur is looking cross, and my bow and arrows are at they're feet. "You alright, Prim?" Merlin asks.

"Yeah," I answer, "How did you guys find me?"

"We'll explain when we get you out of here," He replies.

There's no more time to talk before the creature takes flight and attacks them. I run towards them, but something picks me up and I get a serious sense of déjà vu as I realize it's the mom. She's howling at the kids when Merlin picks up my bow, grabs an arrow and aims it at her, which makes me even more scared because I have no idea if he can even shoot and he could very well hit me. He strings the bow and fires it, hitting mom in the arm, causing her to let me go. I rush over to him. He grabs onto me and start inspecting me for wounds, saying, "I didn't hit you, did I?"

"No," I say, "No, I'm fine. Nice, shot, actually."

"Well, I won't tell you where I was actually aiming then," Merlin replies.

"A little help here!" Arthur calls out, fighting with the dad, who now covered with cuts from Arthur sword, including a rip in the wing keeping it from flying off, but it's not going down.

"Can I have my bow back?" I ask.

Merlin hands both the bow and my diminishing quiver over and I quickly ready an arrow at the creature. I fire it at the mutt and it goes deep into its back puncturing its heart and sending it the ground.

The mom runs over to her mate, and kneels by his side, crying howls of despair.

We make it to the trees before she notices his killers are fleeing then her mourning howls turn to howls of rage as she takes to the air. She chases us through the forest, us barely keeping ahead. I know that this time this isn't a capture mission: If she gets her hands on any of use, she'll kill us.

I trip over rock and fall to the ground. I start to get myself off with my scrapped hands when she lands on me. She turned me over, growling. The look on her face is one of such intense hatred, I can practically feel it myself. I struggle under her weight and she just looks at me, like she's enjoying this. She puts a tick hand around my neck and squeezes it. I struggle more, gasping for breath, the flight slowly fading. I hear someone in the background, and the creature is suddenly lifted into the air. Several feet in the air actually.

When I recover I look around and see Merlin standing there, his arm outstretched, the palm of his hand out, as if gesturing for someone to stop. He moves his arm, and I notice a gilt of gold flashing in his eyes, for just a second. The creature moved with his arm, hitting the tree and falling to the ground after several branches, a trickle of blood running down its forehead.

Then he turns his attention to me, and gets a stricken look on his face when he realizes I saw much more than he intended me, too.

Suddenly, something Merlin said to me that first night, about people with magic, echoes in my mind. "Magic is illegal and Camelot you see, they just want to live in peace. Others, they don't do anything at all, just try to keep their heads down and survive. Sometimes they can even be helpful."

"Well," I think, several things clicking in my mind. Not just what I just saw, or his words, but the tree, the branch, him talking about someone looking out for me, "He would know, wouldn't he?"