Hey everyone, I'm back! I want to thank all of those who reviewed, alerted, and favorite my story. You guys make me smile. I want to tell everyone that I have a poll on my profile concerning my other story "The Protector's Call." I would be very grateful if you voted. I don't know when my next update will be, but I hope it will be soon. It might take some time because of college, my plays, and my other stories I'm working on. Anyways, I hope you will enjoy this chapter.

Merlin looked back at Gaius for an explanation. "How could he've been bitten by a snake? He was injured in the sword fight."

Gaius sighed as he said to us, "But the symptoms are consistent with poisoning: slow pulse, fever, paralysis."

"You can heal him right," I asked nervously.

"Well, if it is a snake bite, I'll have to extract venom from the snake that bit him to make an antidote," said Gaius.

Merlin and I looked at each other with concern. He looked back at Gaius and asked, "What happens if he doesn't get the antidote?"

Gaius looked back at us with a very grim look on his face. "Then I'm afraid there's nothing more I can do for him. He's going to die."

I closed my eyes when I heard what he had just said. I still felt it was my fault. How could I have missed something so important? I knew what was going to happen. I looked back at Sir Ewan to see his getting paler by the minute. I am so sorry Ewan. I'm sorry I didn't stop him. I had to hold back the tears when I realized that he is going to die and there is nothing I can do.

Realization flashed before Merlin's eyes when he remembered something. He looked at me and whispered, "He was fighting Knight Valiant."

I glared daggers at him and whispered, "Even I could have told you that, but did you listen to me before, no."

Gaius looked at us with a confused look, "What's that?"

"Nothing," Merlin and I said together.

Before I could say another word, Merlin grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room. He was pulling me so hard that I felt like my arm was going to be popped out of its socket. I looked back to see Gaius looking at us rather strangely. When we were finally away from the room, Merlin released my arm to my relief. My arm was in serious pain.

"Merlin, what the hell are you doing? Are you trying to pull my arm out," I whispered angrily.

He rolled his eyes at me and whispered, "Look, we need to check out Valiant to see if your snake theory is true."

My eyes widen when I heard what he had just said. HE BELIEVES ME? HE FINALLY BELIEVES ME! "So you do believe me right? You admit that I was right and you were wrong?"

"Let's call it a hunch."

I was about to ask him another question when he ran passed me down the hall. "Was that a yes," I called out to him. Of course he ignored me and continued to run ahead. "Ugh, men."

When I finally reached him, we had to wait for ten minutes until we saw Valiant walk into his guest quarters. I was still a little nervous about spying on Valiant. Not only he makes me sick, but I do have a fear of snakes. I was lucky I didn't scream when I saw it blinked at me when I was in the armory room. I remember this part of the show, and I was not ready to see this live. We tiptoed to his door to see that he cracked it just enough for us to peek inside. My heart dropped when I saw Valiant was holding up a poor defenseless little mouse above his shield. Merlin saw that I was shaking so hard that he put his arm around me for comfort.

"Dinner time my pets. Come on," whisper Valiant.

I had to cover my mouth when I saw the snakes coming out of the shield and one of them swallowing the poor little mouse whole. I felt tears burning my eyes. Merlin knew our time was up as he grabbed my hand and we ran away from the door. He pulled me into the alcove with him as we hid from Valiant. I placed my head on Merlin's chest and closed my eyes. I was breathing very slowly trying to clam myself down. I could still see that mouse being eaten alive in my mind and I was still shacking in fear. I wished I had not looked when the mouse was being fed to the snake. I felt Merlin's arm around my waist pulling me closer to him.

After a few minutes later, Merlin lowered his head to my ear and whispered, "It's ok Sam. He's gone."

I opened my eyes and looked behind me to see he was right. Valiant was nowhere in the hall. I grabbed Merlin's hand again as we ran back to Gaius's chambers. We entered the chambers to see Gaius was still working on medicine for Ewan. He looked up from his work to see us out of breath.

"Where have you two been? You look like you seen a ghost Samantha," he said.

I looked at him dead in the eyes and said, "No, not a ghost. Merlin and I saw snakes."

"Of course, I forgot you are terrified of snakes."

Merlin placed his hand on my shoulder as he said to Gaius, "We've just seen one of the snakes in Valiant's shield come alive. He's using magic."

Gaius suddenly dropped one of his test tubes and looked at us with disbelief. "Are you sure?"

"I saw it before Merlin did and now he saw it with his own eyes Gaius," I said.

"The snake ate a mouse - one swallow, straight down. Sir Ewan was fighting Valiant when he collapsed. It must've been one of the snakes from the shield. I have to tell Arthur," Merlin said before he turned to leave.

"Hold on, I'm coming too," I said.

"Is there any chance you both might be mistaken," we heard Gaius called out.

Merlin and I came in complete halt. We looked at each other before turning back at Gaius.

"I know magic when I see it," said Merlin.

Gaius sighed as he said, "Perhaps, but have you any proof?"

My eyes widened when I realized he didn't believed us at all. "Say what now?"

Merlin looked a little hurt as he asked, "Don't you believe us?"

"Now you know how I felt when you didn't believe me in the first place," I said to Merlin sarcastically.

Merlin glared at me while I glared back at him.

"I said I was sorry," he thought to me.

"You didn't say you were sorry. You said, let's call it a hunch," I thought back.

Gaius felt the tension in the room. "I fear you both are going to get yourselves in trouble. How will you explain why you were in Valiant's chambers to Arthur?"

"What does that matter? He's using magic to cheat in the tournament! He attacked Sir Ewan and Arthur might be next," I yelled at Gaius.

"But you can't go accusing a knight of using magic without proof. The King would never accept the word of servants over the word of a knight."

"What? So what I say doesn't count for anything," asked Merlin.

"I'm afraid it counts for very little as far as the King is concerned. That's the way it is."

Merlin and looked at each other and sighed. This is going to be harder than we thought. The next morning, I was standing next to Merlin and Arthur waiting for Arthur's next opponent to make an entrance. My eyes were wide in shock as I saw a HUGE knight with gigantic muscles walking out of his tent ready to battle Arthur in the tournament. The giant knight's servant boy had to use a step ladder to put the helmet on the knight's head.

"Oh. My. Gosh."

I guess Merlin agreed with me when he said to Arthur, "You're telling me you've got to fight that?"

Arthur smirked at us as he said, "Yes, and he's strong as a bear. But he's slow."

"Ah, and you're fast."

"Exactly Merlin," said Arthur.

As Merlin finished helping Arthur with his armor, I looked around to see what the other knights were doing. My eyes stopped at one particular knight. I shivered with disgusted as I saw Valiant put down his shield next to him. I felt someone touched my shoulder and I gazed up to see it was Merlin. I smiled to myself thinking how lucky I am right now that he is protecting me from that monster. It wasn't long until Gaius walked right up to us. We were still mad at him for not believing in us about the shield.

"How're you two getting on?"

Merlin grimed at him as he mockingly answered, "Fine. Just doing our job. Minding our own business."

"If someone else gets bitten by those snakes, I'm blaming you Gaius," I whispered.

We continued to watch the tournament as Arthur fought the giant knight. I was jumping up and down when Arthur won the match. I giggled to myself as I thought how ironic that Arthur's tournament against that knight reminded me of David and Goliath. My smiled slowly washed away as Valiant entered the ring facing his opponent. Of course he won his match, but thank God he didn't use the shield. I walked up to look at the final brackets to see that Arthur and Valiant were going to face each other for the final match.

Merlin leaned down and whispered to me, "Valiant's going to fight Arthur in the final. He'll use the shield to kill him."

"We have to get proof and tell Arthur ASAP."

Merlin looked at me with a confused look on his face. "ASAP?"

Again I mentally slapped myself. I really need to learn how people talk in this time period. "I mean, as soon as possible."

He looked at me strangely as he said, "Why didn't you say that before?"

"Never mind Merlin."

Later that night, I was sitting next to Sir Ewan, who was still asleep on the sickbed, as he looked even sicker than before. A few cold tear drops fell slowly down my red check as I continued to stare at Ewan.

"I know you can't hear me, but I am so sorry I couldn't save you. I wish I could rewind time and stop Valiant for letting those snakes bite you. I just want you to know, that you are going to have a great life after this one. I just hope you can forgive me."

I heard the door slowly opened and I looked up to see Merlin and Gaius walked in the room.

"How is he," asked Merlin.

"Not so good. He's getting worse than before," I answered.

Gaius sat next to me as he addressed Merlin, "Merlin, about what I said yesterday...Look, Uther wouldn't really listen to you or me, but you are right. We can't let Valiant get away with this."

"But we don't have any proof."

"Well, if we could cure Ewan, he could tell the King that Valiant was using magic. The King would believe another knight. But how can we get the antidote...Well, that's another matter," Gaius said.

Merlin looked at me right in the eye and we both ran out of the room while we heard Gaius calling us to come back. It wasn't long when we approached Valiant's Chambers.

Merlin raised his hand at the door and whispered, "Cridialla."

I smiled when I heard the door clicked itself unlocked. Merlin smiled at me as I pushed the door open and we entered the room. We both grabbed a sword from the rack next to the fireplace. If one of those snakes were coming after Merlin or me, I have to be ready… even if I scream in fright. We slowly approached the shield when we heard someone near the door. We looked back to see no one was there. My whole body was frozen in fear when I heard a soft hissing behind me. I turned to the shield slowly to see one of the snakes staring right at me with its dark black eyes. Its mouth opened wide as its sharp fangs were ready to strike me. Everything was a blur at that moment; Merlin was really scared and screaming at me as the snake leapt right at me. I held the sword tightly as I swung it like a baseball bat. To my dismay and surprise, my sword connected with the snake's neck and sliced its head right off. I backed up away from the shield as the snake's head rolled on the floor dead. I dropped the sword when I realized what I have done. I killed the snake. I actually faced a poisonous snake and didn't get bitten.

"I did it. I… cut… off… its…head," I said while catching my breath.

After Merlin placed the swords back, he ran to me to check to see if I was ok. "Sam, are you alright?"

I gulped and slowly nodded my head. "I'm fine, but I need a moment to catch my breath."

Merlin grabbed the snake's head and said, "We don't have time for that. Sir Valiant will be back any moment, so let's go."

He grabbed my arm as we ran out of the run and back to Gaius's. Gaius was extremely shocked to see Merlin was holding a snakes head.

"Is that the proof you need," I asked him sarcastically.

Merlin covered his mouth to hold his laughter as Gaius glared at me. We explained to him what happened in the room and how I chopped off its head. Gaius was extremely surprised that it was me who chopped the head off, considering that I was terrified of snakes. He took the snake's head from Merlin and started to drain some venom from the head. I had to cover my mouth from gagging. It was so disgusting to watch.

After Gaius was done with the venom, he started taking out test tubes. "I'll get started preparing the antidote," said Gaius.

Merlin nodded his head before saying, "We're going to tell Arthur."

"You'll need this."

Gaius handed Merlin the snake head and I was grateful he didn't handed it to me. Merlin looked at me and nodded his head to the door. Merlin left the room while I was following him.

I was about to leave the room when Gaius called for me. "And Samantha, what you did was very brave."

I couldn't help but smile at him. "Thanks Gaius."

There you have it. I hope you like this chapter as much as I did. I will try to hurry up with the next update so I can start on the next episode. PLEASE REVIEW; IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY IF YOU DO! See you all soon.

Grapejuice101