AN: I know this is a bit of a short chapter, but I felt it was necessary to have a bit of Arthur's perspective before we get back to Merlin. So here you go, next chapter will hopefully be up soon. Sorry for the long wait, I just got a bit lost on the path of life ;)
Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin, and if I did, it would have definitely had a happier ending.
Back in Camelot, Arthur was most certainly displeased. He'd woken to find his breakfast absent, his manservant nowhere to be found, and a heap of unpolished armor scattered across the floor.
Irritated, and in no mood to hunt down an incompetent servant, he'd scoured the castle, and the nearby taverns, but Merlin was nowhere to be found. He'd tried Gaius first, but the physician had declared that he hadn't seen Merlin since yesterday afternoon, when he'd been given the day off. And his bed hadn't even been slept in the night before.
Now, not finding his irresponsible manservant passed out in a tavern or fooling around in the castle, Arthur began to feel the pricking of genuine worry twisting at his chest. Normally, he'd dismiss Merlin's absence as another of his attempts at shirking his duties. Lately, however, he'd noticed that Merlin was vanishing without a plausible explanation with alarming frequency.
And just the other day he'd caught the lanky servant clutching at his ribs after stumbling into his bedpost with a load of laundry. Arthur recognized pain when he saw it, and Merlin's white face and stiff movements spoke of something a bit more serious than a minor bruise.
Shortly thereafter he'd impulsively given Merlin the afternoon off, hoping he'd take the time to grab a proper meal and perhaps see to whatever was causing him pain. He wasn't as worried as he could have been, since he figured Gaius would see to whatever was bothering him. He was, after all, the court physician.
And yes, he had given Merlin the afternoon off yesterday, but he'd also made it clear that he expected his breakfast some time the next morning–preferably on time.
Grasping at straws, Arthur set off to check the stables, half-hoping to find Merlin passed out in a pile of hay.
Upon arrival, he began checking the stalls. Finding no sign of Merlin, he almost left before noticing something–or rather, a lack of something. Luca, Merlin's steady old mare, wasn't in any of the stalls.
Almost smacking himself for not checking the stables sooner, Arthur grabbed the stable boy–Kevin, and demanded to know if he'd seen Merlin leave the stable sometime yesterday afternoon.
The frightened stable boy babbled that he had indeed seen Merlin leave with Luca, pointing in the direction he'd taken, and babbling rather incoherently in between.
Arthur felt a bit bad for scaring the boy, but his worry for Merlin overruled his patience for dealing politely with stable hands.
Releasing the shaken stable boy, Arthur strode purposefully towards the practice field, where he was supposed to be training the knights. Putting a bemused Sir Leon in charge of practice, he ended up leaving with a concerned Gwaine, Lancelot, Elyan, and Percival, after his "impromptu hunting trip" excuse had fallen through and he was tricked into admitting that he was going out to look for a missing Merlin.
Unable to dissuade them from following him, and knowing that they'd be more than a little useful if Merlin was in any real trouble, the five knights set off towards the forest, quickly picking up Merlin's trail and hoping that nothing terrible had happened to the good-natured manservant.