The morning quickly arrived as the red sun rose in the purple morning sky. The horrible screams of the poor preteen girl that once echoed through the city had completely faded away. Everything she predicted would happen, happened. And the only question now is: What happens next?

Merlin had discovered Hazel missing and started to panic. He thought it was best not to say a word to the boy or her brother about it. He had a slight clue where she might have gone..or might have been taken to. And he had been proven right when he had snuck outside the castle to pay a visit to his rival, (who he knew had something to do with this), and found a pile of clothing strips and shreds that were all a pastel red and yellow, the same color as the girl's once flowing skirt. And in the midst of them was a shiny red necklace on a gold chain. Only now it was not as shiny as it had been. To his horror, its once gold chain (much like the clothing shreds) had been splashed in something that was red and rhymed with mud. He exhaled deeply as he picked it up and continued towards the witch's house.

The Mad Madam Mim sat in her isolated house playing solitaire as she was enthusiastically thinking what deliciously gruesome torture her little ex servant was going through. The very thought brought more happiness to her than when she had almost succeeded in squishing that ignorant little yellow grasshopper of a sparrow. But the word 'almost' is what infuriated her more. She flinched when she heard her door burst open and it brought great joy to her face to see her nemesis with an angry face.

"Well, someone certainly needs to learn how to knock. Barging straight into a lady's room without asking for permission is not a very polite thing to do, you old goat." she said quite proudly.

"Where's the girl?" he asked straight away.

"Girl? A little old for dating aren't you though?" she teased.

"You know what I mean!"

"Maybe I do, but either way it is none of your business."

"Like a hagfish it isn't! Now what did you do with her, or worse yet, to her!?"

"Why don't you figure it out for yourself, ya big smart wizard." she mocked, knowing she was getting under his skin, and knowing it was working.

"How could you do this to me!? I had everything falling into place until you ruined it!"

"Oh Marvin, you really are that stupid. It is my job to dedicate my life to ruining that little pipsqueak's as well as yours! Yet believe it or not, I did have some assistance from you, and you didn't even know it," she sang mockingly. "It wasn't my choice to make an underaged, mentally and physically weak boy a powerful monarch. It wasn't my choice to bring a persecuted girl out of hiding, and her only way of survival. It wasn't my choice to combine the two in a relationship that could never be. And you know I am right!"

"Call off your lies and tell me: Did you or did you not give her to Cameron!?" Did she… ." Mim was quiet for a moment before shooting an evil grin at him.

"Not yet she isn't," she said, making his eyes widen. "Oh don't play shocked with me. Why don't you go pay a visit to her with your little time travel abilities you are clearly so proud of. And then you can tell the boy the brutal death she is going to die, all because of you. Yet another life that is destroyed by your actions. So it looks like you were, what's the word…WRONG!?"

"You are really pushing it, Madam shortstop."

"Call me whatever you want but one day or the next you are going to admit it. I win! You lose!"

"I'm warning you Mim. If that girl is hurt, I will do it to you."

"And what exactly will you do? What exactly are you gonna pull? Are you gonna bring her back from the dead? I hate to break it to you, but even you can't do that. And besides, you and I both know the dreaded heartbreak of a consequence the boy will have to face in the future because of her. But he will never know such a feeling if she is gone, now would he?"

"You didn't!"

"Oh put your eyes back in their sockets. Nothing has happened to her…yet. And I am getting tired of you trying to guilt trip me because it is not working! Hazel chose this life you moron! She chose to come to me to relinquish her from her guilt that was and still is eating her alive. So you may say that she chose this fate. If you have any questions, I merely kept her around because she's useful. For the same reason you keep that little coward around."

"Do not even drag him into this."

"You have already done that yourself. Out of all the animals in the world you had to turn him into a squirrel. They would have never met and things would have been much better."

"That has absolutely nothing to do with it. I never said things would be better if they never met-."

"Well you were implying it."

"So you really did turn her into a squirrel."

"Well somebody's a bright boy today. But hey, at least I didn't almost get her eaten by a pike, a wolf and a hawk!"

"So I suppose you made her take an almost too close interest in him as well?"

"That I did. I told her I'd set her free if she could bring the lost heir to me. However I think she wanted something a little more out of the situation. But I don't think he found her very attractive do you? Believe me you don't even want to know what the punishment for that was, other than him leaving her in tears. "

"Oh never mind that! Mark my words Mim, you can't win."

"I already have."


"Well now why are you in such a hurry?" Sir Ector asked his former son after bumping into the dirty kitchen that he once forced the boy to scrub until it was spotless.

"Huh? O-o-oh, nowhere Sir Ector."

"Then why are you here? I'd think your throne is getting a bit cold. If I didn't know better I'd think you've lost something."

"Well actually I'm looking for Hazel."

"Who?"

"You know. The little redheaded girl we brought here who's about this tall." he said as he raised his hand a little bit above his shoulder to demonstrate Hazel's short height.

"Oh! Of course. By the way I've been meaning to ask you how it went."

"How what went?" he asked, scratching his head.

"Oh you sly dog! Your first kiss, what else!?" The boy blushed.

"What?" he squeaked, quite embarrassed.

"Sure I saw it right before my eyes, and so did fifteen other maids, knights and nobles."

"They saw that?"

"I'll say they did."

"Well it was not a kiss," he said stubbornly. "It was just an er…experiment." he proudly said, folding his arms, trying to hide his vast embarrassment, but then failing as he sighed and slumped down.

"Y'know I'd thought she'd kissed you longer."

"I was hoping she would," he said, defeatingly but then seeing the smirk on his adoptive father's face. "Well, just for a teeny bit longer."

"If you say so. But when all else fails try again." he said, nudging the boy's shoulder.

"Absolutely not. I'm never gonna do that again for as long as I live."

"Oh you're being ridiculous my boy."

"I don't know dad," Kay hollered as he entered the room just for a bit. "He doesn't know squat about women. And I wouldn't wish that little red headed brat even on him."

"Kay, what did you do with Hazel?" the blonde exclaimed as he stood on his toes to try to seem taller.

"I didn't do anything with your little lover. If I did, I'd be in a much better mood. Why don't you go ask her real irksome noble brother? The fool seems a bit overprotective about the little pewee."

"That's what I'm afraid of." he admitted rather quietly.

"Maybe she ran away. After all, she didn't seem too into you."

"How can you say that, Kay? The girl kissed him on the lips for crying out loud. And I've never seen any lady kiss you on your hand."

"It's not like she had much of a choice. All he has to do is snap his finger and if she doesn't obey she dies."

"Oh don't be ridiculous. The boy feels guilty when he kills a fly."

"Him? Kill? That's nearly as pathetic as when he pulled the sword."

"Well I did it, didn't I!?" Arthur exclaimed, starting to get fed up with being talked down on for being weak.

"I don't know did you? How do you know it wasn't just dumb luck or better yet your little wizard friend didn't magic it out for you?"

"He didn't!"

"Ok then why don't you get your scrawny self out of here and go find your scrawny girlfriend!?"

"Hey shut up!" the elder man yelled at his son. "But back to you kid," he continued while turning towards the young teen. "If you find the girl, remember to play it cool and let her make the first move."

"Hu-huh?"

"What he means is don't make a fool out of yourself more than you already have, Wart. Now get out of here!"


(SPEAKING IN GAELIC)

"Stella!" Onyx whispered to his aunt as he shook her shoulder. "Stella wake up please!"

"Huh? Wha...," the woman exclaimed as she got up and shook her hair out of her face. "What is it Onnie?"

"I went to Gwenny's room and she wasn't there." If she wasn't half asleep, Astella would have jumped up at those words and imediatly switched to panic mode. But she was nearly awake. And she made that quite clear as she covered her face with her pillow.

"Oh she's probably out with that boy somewhere, anyways we traveled a hundred miles to get here so let me get some sleep!"

"Oh Stella, we got here two days ago and it's long passed morning. Now you've gotta wake up, Gwenny is missing, I tell you!"

"And how do you know that?" she moaned.

"Simple this." he said as he handed her a small piece of paper. Astella took it and waited for her eyes to focus on it, only to have them pop wide open when she finished reading it. The woman quickly hopped out of bed and ran towards the door.

"Come on Onyx! We must go get help!"


Arthur had come to the conclusion that Hazel had run away. She had been gone for a while now and he decided he wasn't gonna fuss about it. Besides, he had more important things to do than search for someone who socked him in the arm. If she wanted to leave so badly then let her. He wouldn't care. That was until he collided with her brother who was racing down the hallway.

"Oof!" they both exclaimed in different tones as they crashed into each other.

"Oh my bad, your highness." Onyx said as he pulled the kid back up on his feet.

"Oh no it was my fault." he said as he noticed the letter in the boy's hand.

"Onnie are you alright?" Stella's voice echoed as she came running in.

"I'm fine Stella. Now we better go."

"Go? Go where?" Arthur squeaked as Astella grabbed his shoulders and kneeled down to him.

"My boy, you have a magical friend do you not?" she asked quite concerned.

"Yeah."

"And he has magic, does he not?" she asked as she nodded her head slowly with each word.

"Well sure he does."

"Where is he?"

"Upstairs I think. Bu-."

"Thank you." she quietly said as she pushed past him and ran down the hall with her nephew in tow.

"Hey wait a minute! What's going on!?"


Onyx busted through the door of a tiny study where his sister once walked in, to find the old man smoking a pipe as he lounged back in a chair.

"Are you Merlin?" Astella asked.

"That I am Miss Astella." he said cheerfully, not noticing the boy's panicky tone.

"How did you-."

"Know your name? Magic of course."

"I see," Astella turned to mutter to her nephew. "A bheil thu cinnteach gum bu chòir dhuinn faighneachd dhaibh? Tha na daoine seo gòrach! (Are you sure we should be asking them? Is this magic or being a lunatic?)"

"Not now Stella!" the boy gently hissed.

"I assume you're here about your niece."

"Do you know what happened to her? Can you help?"

"I know very well about her ..unfortunately. But how to help I am not sure."

"What do you mean you're not sure!? You know everything about me and about her but you don't know how to get her back?"

"What are you all doing in here!?" Arthur exclaimed as he entered the room with Archimedes on his head.

"Trying to figure out what happened to my sister!" Onyx said in an elevated voice.

"Didn't she run away?"

"My boy I can assure you that she didn't." Merlin said, not wanting to go deeper into what has and was gonna happen.

"Well of course she did...right?"

"Worse."

"H-huh?"

"Perhaps this will tell." Merlin pulled out Hazel's necklace and gave it to the boy. Arthur gasped as he recognized the golden pendant that had been dropped in his hand.

"I -I don't understand."

"Arthur," Onyx said for the first time as a tear rolled out of his eye. It took him a while to notice that Astella had several pools of tears silently forming in her eyes. "Cameron took her." Of course he did. Arthur had ordered her not to ever go outside alone at night. But she was Hazel, it's not like she listened or anything. Hazel was indeed a fighter and could definitely take a beating, more than he could that was for sure, but she was still a child and still a girl and still vulnerable to danger.

"What? But...but how did he get here?"

"That we are all unsure of but it does not matter. Gwenny needs your help." Stella sighed.

"My help!?" he exclaimed rather nervously. "But what about you both?"

"We can't go back to Lothian now that we are here. It is too risky for Onyx. He's already got Gwenny so the last thing we need is for that monster to get him."

"But what about Haz-er Guinevere?"

"He's right Stella. There is nothing we can do about it. So maybe we should just leave this be." the teen said to his aunt.

"What?"

"You and I both know there is no way she's still alive! We are wasting our time by asking him for help!" Onyx exclaimed as he pointed towards Arthur. He was hurt and offended, but everything that had just come out of Onyx's mouth was true. "Cameron will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Gwenny is dead Stella...we just have to accept it. Life is a cruel thing."

"How can you even say that Onyx!?" she exclaimed at her nephew. "She is your flesh and blood. Your only sister. Your only living sibling. A family member whom you've lost for nearly a decade and when you have found her you're just going to lose her again!? She could be dying right now and-."

"Well that's her fault! She's the one who got up and ran off, now wasn't she!?" That got a loud gasp out of Astella as she stared at him with wide eyes of disbelief. She didn't reply and only let a tear slip from her eye. Onyx sighed. "I...I need to get some air." he said quietly as he exited the room.

"Well, that went well." Merlin huffed.

"It could've gone better." Astella sighed.

"I wouldn't worry about him my dear. He is very uptight about this and reasonably so."

"I suppose. After everything he has been through, this is the last thing he needs. I could never forget how broken he was when he came to me. Or when his mother and father walked out on him."

"But I thought you weren't there when they left."

"That does not mean I don't know a fraction of what happened or what it was like."

"So….what was it like?"

"It wasn't the greatest moment of their lives and only he knows 100% what words were said that night. But it was quite the fight. Who remembers who said what? But from what Onyx tells me it went something like this..."

To Be Continued...