A/n: I have no idea when this would be set but definitely sometime after Camelot and way before technology was really a thing.

"I've got you now you little menace," the man sneered as he peered at Archie through the cage. "I saw you turn into a mini dragon. I know you're magical, but I can't collect the bounty unless I can find a way to prove it. So in the meantime, I'm going to leave you right here, where no one will find you. Not even that bumbling idiot of an owner you have, who I've sent a couple men to deal with. And if he turns out to be magical too, well," he grinned a terrible grin. "I suppose the two of you might be reunited sooner than we thought."

Archie wanted to shout. He wanted to say that Douxie was not an idiot - well maybe sometimes, but only Arch could say that - and tell the man to sod off, and scorch his face with his fire breath but he couldn't. Because that would mean giving away his magical identity and that would only dig a deeper hole for himself.

So instead, all he could do was pathetically meow even as the man covered the cage with a cloth and set him down somewhere, kicking the cage. He hated every second of it, hated himself, hated that he could just hiss in protest, hated that he'd been stupid enough to leave Douxie and walk into this stupid animal trap in the first place. Hated that now, all he could do was just wait.

"Arch? Arch! Where'd you go?"

Douxie could have sworn that his familiar had been outside just a second ago. He'd had to pop into this shop to grab something just for a second but they hadn't allowed any animals inside so Archie had been forced to wait outside. But now, Douxie couldn't find him anywhere.

If Archie was a real cat, he would have thought that he'd just wandered off somewhere, but Arch wouldn't do that to him, and even if he had, he would have come right back. But he wasn't here. And Douxie was starting to get an anxious feeling in his body.

He stopped in the middle of the pavement. "Just take a breath Douxie," he told himself quietly. "Just calm down. You're not going to do yourself or Arch any good panicked." So he took a few deeps breaths to try and calm down, and while it did help a little, the sense of apprehension stayed.

Trying to think logically, he tried to think about what might have happened. Arch could have just wandered off to get something to eat, or maybe he got bored, or he might have seen something interesting or gotten distracted or… or…

His thoughts were interrupted by seeing a shady looking guy across the street and almost the second his eyes glanced over the man, a knowing filled his head. Something was telling him that this man had something to do with Arch. He knew better than to ignore his instincts so he quickly crossed the street, subtly following the man who would lead him to his familiar.

He was moving. The cage was shaking around him, a gentle swaying telling him that he was being taken somewhere but whether on a cart or by hand, he didn't know.

Many ideas had run through his head in the past few - minutes? Hours? Days? - on how to get out of his situation by himself. He could transform, into a dragon and use his fire to melt the metal of the cage, or into something small enough to squeeze in between the bars. He could do something as simple as talk and catch whoever was around him off guard, hopefully creeping them out enough to get them to open the cage. He would have tried already had it not been for a weird muted feeling on his magic.

The longer he stayed in that cage, the more he started thinking that there was something more to his kidnapping as it was. The bad feeling in his gut kept getting worse by the second, and he began to think that the wire of the cage weren't normal metal wires, that someone who knew what they were doing had put a magic-dampener spell of some sort on the cage. He'd felt it enough times to recognise it.

"…I can't collect the bounty unless I can find a way to prove it."

The man's voice suddenly echoed in his head. He'd assumed that the bounty would have been the one put out by the Crown, but maybe… maybe that wasn't the case at all. Maybe the bounty was put out by someone worse.

The shaking of his cage stopped. His cage was picked up, and he was carried for a bit before he was set down again. He heard new, hushed voices.

"The boy's familiar, ma'am," a deep voice announced, and the hushed voices stopped. The bad feeling reached its peak. Familiar? So they knew who he was, and it seemed they knew Douxie too. There definitely was more to this than he'd thought, much worse than he'd anticipated. He only found out the true scale of how much trouble he really was in a few seconds later, when the man who'd spoken whipped the cover off his cage.

Whereas this whole time he'd been hoping Douxie would come and find him, all that changed now as he saw who was before him. Now, he hoped beyond hope that Douxie would give up, and never appear in that doorway. But of course, this was Hisirdoux they were talking about, and with a great sadness, Archie knew that it was inevitable that he'd be seeing his familiar soon enough.

"You'll never find him," the man had grinned through bloody teeth from when Douxie had punched him, but it hadn't seemed to phase the guy much seeing as he was still using a singsong voice and smiling way too much.

Douxie had let his blue magic play along his arms and hands, and if he had a mirror to look into, he was quite sure his eyes would have been tinted blue as well. He saw the man's bravado flicker at the sight of it, but it still remained until Douxie had done a few things to the man he wasn't the proudest of, but it didn't matter because it had worked.

"She promised money if I delivered your cat to her! I don't know where - okay, okay, I'm sorry please don't hurt me! They're in the cave, the mountain a little ways off. I can show you, just don't hurt me!"

The scene kept on playing in Douxie's mind, and he wanted to feel bad about what he'd done, how the man next to him still cowered every time he so much as glanced at him, but all he felt was numb.

If anything had happened to Archie, he didn't know what he'd do. He couldn't remember a time without Arch in his life, and anything he did remember was cold, dark, sadness. Archie had come to mean everything to him, a constant companion who he considered more than family. To lose him would mean to lose everything. Especially after Camelot, after Merlin had fallen into his deep sleep and Arthur had died and he'd been forced to leave, Archie had been all he had. Of course, he'd met Zoe and some other people, but they came and went whereas Archie would always stay.

Nothing could happen to him. Douxie wouldn't let them.

He'd rather die than let anything happen to Arch.

"We're here," the man beside him said quietly, their carriage coming to a stop. He looked fearfully at the opening of a small cavern in the mountain they'd arrived at, another carriage parked outside. Douxie got off.

"You can go," he told the man, and two minutes later he was watching the carriage kick up dust, disappearing into the distance. There was no need for the man to stay; there was another carriage for them to leave in anyway, and this way there wouldn't be any way for pursuers to come after them.

He took in a deep breath, preparing himself as he stood before the entrance to the cave. It worried him that even from this distance, with his decreased magic sensitivity, he could still sense the power coming from inside the cave, the black magic touching him even here. It felt as if he was walking to his death, but he had to. Somewhere among the dark, vile magic, he could also sense his familiar, the bond that they shared. Archie was in there, and that was all the reason he needed to go in.

Archie's hackles rose against his will. He couldn't help but recall a line from one of the plays he'd read back in Camelot.

"All the lights going dark and my hope's destroyed."

A sad statement, but one accurate to the situation as he sat there staring at the old hag in front of him. She had a mane of white hair, framing her wrinkled raisin face which had on it a delighted, wicked smile, her small dark eyes looking over him with greed.

She went by the Witch Queen of the Dark Moors, a frightening reputation going along with the name. Humans' fear of magic and magical beings, while extreme, was not entirely unfounded and in some cases, completely justified. It was people like her who gave the dominant reputation of magic being evil and dangerous, people who even the magical community feared.

Unfortunately, this was not Archie's first encounter with her. Douxie and him had travelled much in the years after Camelot, and they'd come across some beautiful places, met some wonderful people, but they'd also found much of the opposite. He didn't like to remember the day they'd wandered into the Dark Moors, the two barely making it out alive and the whole experience definitely leaving scars on the both of them, and as it seemed, the Witch Queen as well.

"We meet again, dragon," the Witch Queen drawled. "It's been quite a while since you and your familiar wreaked such havoc on my coven. We were doing so well for ourselves in that Moor, but now as you can see, we've been forced to relocate to a much more…" - she paused, searching for the right word before she smiled - "tasteless location. Ever since then, we've all been aching for a spot of revenge, haven't we girls?"

Cheers, hissed, and cackles filled the small cavern, every witch lining the walls expressing their agreements with their leader in various ways. Each one was uglier than the next, their use of Dark Magicks evident through their appearance. Even last time, though there may have been more of them, this was a smaller, more enclosed space. If anything were to go down, Archie might not make it.

The Witch Queen sliced her hand through the air and the shouts were replaced by a louder silence. She stood slowly from her 'throne' - in reality just a raised slab of stone with some semblance of a high backrest - and at a leisurely pace, made her way closer to Archie. He fought the urge to back up, to cringe away with each step she drew nearer.

When she was two steps before his cage, she stopped and leaned down so all he got a nice, good look of her horrifying face, wild eyes and sadistic grin right filling his view.

"Killing you would be fun enough, but as I remember, that little wizard boy of yours caused his fair share of destruction too…." She made her way around his cage as she spoke, slow steps as if she was just on a nice midnight stroll instead of trying to instil terror in him. "I'd hoped that he'd come after you, but he seems to have gotten lost and taken a detour. No matter. I'm patient," she paused here, her steps halted as she pivoted to look at him again. "We'll just have to settle with a bit of torture for now, and hope that familiar bond of yours calls him here quick."

Archie drew himself up to his tallest height, meeting her gaze with a defiant one of his own. He would not let her harm a hair on his boy's head, no matter how much torture she might inflict on him. If it came to it, he'd even cut the familial bond if he really had to, just to spare Douxie from having to come and get himself caught up in this mess too. It'd hurt Douxie as much as it'd hurt him, physically and psychologically, but he'd do it if it was necessary, if it helped.

The Witch Queen seemed to pick up on it, and she grinned. "Oh, your defiance will only make this so much sweeter."

Her face suddenly glowed with dark light from a ball of magic that'd erupted in her hand. It made her look even more gaunt, and her eyes disappeared into shadow. Archie's defiance wilted the slightest bit, but he tried not to let it show. He had almost resigned himself to this fate, the magic getting closer to him by the second when -

"Don't you dare touch him," a dangerously quiet voice said, echoing in the chamber, laced with magic. The Witch whipped around in a rage, and Archie could now see past her to the entrance to the passage swathed in shadow beyond, likely the way out though now it was blocked by a figure surrounded by wisps of blue light.

Douxie stood in the passage, magic surrounding him and tinting his eyes blue as he glared at the Witch, eyes flickering to Arch in relief before returning with a new fury to look at the old hag. She straightened slowly, snuffing out the magic in her hand.

"Well, well, well," she said slowly, grin only growing impossibly wider. "It seems we go straight to the main event then. How fun."

"Let Archie go."

"Oh, of course, let me just get the door for him," the Witch Queen said sweetly before cackling, all the others witches joining in. "Silly boy," she continued in her usual drawl. "Let him go or what?"

"Or none of you make it out of here alive," Douxie said smoothly, voice soft but still managing to echo around the room and make a few of the other witches on edge.

Archie's eyes widened. The boy standing in front of him was not his Douxie. This boy was cold, and unforgiving, powerful in a way he'd only ever been when really threatened. It scared Archie to see his familiar like this, as it never failed to do the rare times it happened. Part of Douxie was his caring, loving, and optimistic personality. This was the other part, the dark one that would do anything for those he loved. The one Archie had been afraid of seeing now.

He knew the chances of getting Douxie to leave now were scarce, but he still had to try.

"Douxie, you have to leave," he called out desperately, but Douxie's eyes didn't even waver towards him.

"I'm not leaving without you, Arch. So," he addressed the Witch now. "You'll either let me walk over and take Archie," he said slowly, powerfully. "Or I make my own way over to him and take care of anyone who steps in my path. I've grown stronger since we last met, Brunhilde. Choose carefully."

There was silence for a few seconds, before a sudden, loud cackling replaced it. But unlike before, the cackling wasn't echoed by every witch in the cavern. Instead, there were some cackles, along with some scattered nervous laughs and a few silences. It seemed seeing Douxie show up had made the danger all too real for some of the witches - those who, perhaps, had been in the midst of the battle last time and had already seen the lengths of which Douxie and Archie would go for each other.

Once the few cackles had petered out, the Witch Queen spoke. "You, against my army of witches? Pardon me if I'm skeptical."

"Oh, I'm happy to give a demonstration."

The corner of the Witch's mouth twisted up, and with no warning, she lifted a hand and directed it towards Douxie. "Show him our power, witches!" She shouted, and at her shout all the witches peeled off the walls and surged towards his familiar, the cavern now alive with dark magics and shouts.

Archie tried to not let panic overtake him as Douxie disappeared from view, but as long as he could spot the bright blue flashes among the darker colours, he knew his boy was okay.

That didn't mean he was.

As the witches fought Douxie, the Witch Queen herself stayed back. But not out of cowardice. She turned back to Archie with a wicked look in her eye, reaching out for his cage. He backed up now, pressed against the wire behind him and magic still suppressed enough that he couldn't even transform.

He glanced desperately towards the horde of witches where blue flashes still shone, and by some miracle, he met Douxie's hazel eyes, which - once he'd taken in what was happening on the other side of the room - glowed blue. Archie didn't doubt that Douxie's sight was tinted blue too.

Either way, he had two seconds to brace himself before a ring of blue magic exploded out of the midst of witches, throwing most into the walls, ceiling, or floor, leaving Douxie standing by himself in between them. Though the magic must be exhausting him, the only indication of it was his heaving chest. Otherwise, his glare was as fiery as ever when he met the Witch's gaze, the explosion only making her take on step back as opposed to being thrown across the room.

Douxie wasted no time striding towards the hag, and Arch.

"I told you before that I'm not leaving without him. I've even given you a demonstration now, too. I'll give you one more chance to choose. Give me Arch, and I'll leave you alone, never to see you again. Or you make life difficult, and I'm forced to take him, with no promises of leaving you alive." Douxie's voice was hard, but he'd yet to shout, his voice staying quiet but perhaps even more dangerous as such. His voice was still perfectly audible as such, still laced heavily with magic which made it echo.

"I'll admit," the Witch started. "You have proven yourself stronger than last time. But the true test comes now. These witches were nowhere near my power. Prove yourself a worthy opponent, and fight."

Archie didn't need to say anything to Douxie for him to know how he felt. The familial bond and the look he gave his boy said everything, but Douxie disregarded it all anyway because he only assumed a defensive stance.

"Bring it on," was all he said, before the battle began.

"Arch! Oh I'm so glad you're okay!"

Archie climbed down from Douxie's shoulders into his open arms, and the two embraced. They'd waited until they were well away from the cave before they'd let themselves relax enough to talk, taking the time in Douxie's case to muster up the energy, and in Archie's case, to process what had just happened.

Their hug lasted a minute before Archie pulled away, transforming into a dragon so he could properly slap Douxie across the face.

"What were you thinking, you idiot! You lost complete control, and you could have been killed. You should have left when you had the chance!"

"We made it out okay, Arch, relax."

"WE VERY MUCH ALMOST DIDN'T AND YOU'RE TELLING ME TO RELAX?"

Maybe he was overreacting, maybe he was being rude, but it wasn't that he wasn't grateful for Douxie coming after him. And yes, Douxie was right in that they had made it out mostly okay after all. But his point was also right. They very much almost hadn't. This wasn't even the first time Douxie had put himself in danger for Archie, and almost lost control or been killed because of it. He wanted to just be happy but every time he tried, he couldn't get the image of the cavern they'd left behind - unconscious witches scattered on the ground, with a still smouldering unidentifiable Witch Queen sprawled on her throne - out of his head.

Douxie's powers were growing, and if he was capable of that, Archie was quite frankly terrified to see what might happen to his boy going on. Yes, he generally had a hold on his emotions, and yes, he was usually a happy boy, but it was moments like these that never failed to remind Archie of just how quickly all that could change. He didn't want to have to watch - or worse, stop - Douxie if he turned to dark magic.

For now though, Douxie was back to normal - exhausted, yes, but nowhere near what he'd been earlier - and only laughed at Archie's antics.

"Oh, come on Arch, loosen up. Actually, you know what I think you need? A nice fish. I'm pretty hungry myself, so if I don't fall asleep before then, maybe we can eat in a local pub, what do you say?"

There were lots of things Archie wanted to say, but looking at his boy who looked like he was ready to drop dead asleep right there and then in the carriage, smiling tiredly at him, his heart melted. So instead of saying all the things he wanted to say, reprimand Douxie for his reckless actions, shout to try and get some sense into the boy, all he said was four short, simple words.

"That sounds lovely, Doux."

A/n: No wonder I'm barely making any progress on catching up with Whumptober prompts! I keep writing actual long fics. I really gotta stop, my god. But I did have fun though. Got distracted in some parts and went to doing something else, but writing Douxie and Arch fics that aren't directly connected to the shows are so fun because you have so much freedom while still staying within canon because there's just that much space in the timeline and so much to explore with these two and their adventures.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it. If you have any other Doux & Arch fic ideas that you might want to see me write, then please drop a comment and I'll consider it. Of course, I'll be too busy trying to write Whumptober to get around to it anytime soon, but these two are ones I can write any time so I can always come back to them when I have nothing to write without needing specific motivation as I do with other fandoms (I.e I just rewatched the show or read the books etc.)

Stay safe and see ya soon.

- CrowofArcadiaOaks