They stared in wonder for a long moment, as if expecting something or someone to burst from the treeline and pierce them. This perhaps was a trap, visceral in making.

But after a while, when no sudden attack came, Igraine's hands fluttered to her face.

"I don't...understand? Oh, perhaps it is a different curse..."Igraine looked at Regina. Regina frowned,deeply sympathetic, and drawn to the Evil King. They could tell from her face that Regina felt something as she studied the sleeping man that only she could understand, and perhaps even she did not fully know how to articulate it.

"Well, the Wizard will know..."Regina turned to 'the Wizard', meaning Merlin, who, after several weeks of being educated in arcane magic by him, even as powerful with magic as she was, she had dubbed 'the Wizard' and had named her mentor.

Merlin pressed forward, reaching gently passed Igraine and laying a hand over Uther's forehead. He searched his form for signs of curses, spells and illusion.

"Well, while it is strange, it is a sleeping curse, the kind that needs true love's kiss..."

They paused. Igraine looked at her son.

"I don't understand...I did so truly love your father...I...oh, perhaps it is that his true love has fallen for someone else and...and..." her hands trembled.

They all stood in defeat for a long moment, as Igraine was so astonished by her inability to wake her husband, that she could not even cry over it.

All the while, Arthur had fallen quiet and studied his father, as if he was contemplating something. Merlin made note of this, watching the struggle between anger and sorrow on his face. When suddenly, the levy broke, and the only expression on Arthur's face was one of profound love.

"I've no doubt that he loved you truest of all...he never married after you...and he rarely spoke of you, I knew so little...I..."Arthur smiled at him, and laid a hand on his face.

"I was alone with him for most of my life. We had Morganna, but she was distant. Often, he and I were alone. I saw a side of my father others did not see. The quiet torture manhood sometimes brings..."Arthur bowed closer. The others studied him as his eyes filled up with tears.

"If you can't wake him up, perhaps no one can." He shook his head.

"It...It's like laying him in the vault all over again. And I thought I'd made peace with that. The path to Hell and Death and the Grave I know quite well, but a curse I don't understand..." Arthur swallowed. He looked up at Merlin.

"It is not an entirely lost cause...It may be painful though. You see, true love's kiss only works to break the spell, if the one being kissed also loves the one who kisses them most truly." Merlin smiled with pity at Igraine. Igraine studied Merlin, then Arthur, and then Merlin again.

"He had a long time to find a truer love than me...Perhaps this is what Nimueh wants. For us to search for her, and to find him a new queen, even to the breaking of our family and the chaos that might ensue. She loved to torture her prey before making the kill..."Igraine's eyes were glittering with dark thoughts.

"Well, would it not be like her to think that perhaps she is his truest love. She aims to show me that only she can have him, I fear..."Igraine clutched her throat suddenly.

"Why'd I say that?" she looked at Merlin in real worry.

"She has bewitched you. It's already begun." Merlin took Igraine's hands. The others standing around started chattering in harsh whispers, fear filling them all. All save Arthur, who stood beside Uther looking like he'd been pierced.

"Must we leave him here? Out in the open...Or may I carry him somewhere and lay him down." Arthur looked at Regina who had been watching him all the while in curiosity.

"You may...Perhaps we should give you a moment to grieve?" she smiled at him. He nodded and looked down at his father, as the others grew silent.

"No, I've done quite enough of that." He studied Uther's face then.

"I will leave you here only just a little while until I can bring back a litter for you, lord king." Arthur muttered. He then bowed over him and kissed his forehead.

There was a sound like a wind and a surge of lightning from the forest. Arthur flinched at the sound, and looked over his shoulder, watching for her. Regina smiled then.

"It's alright..."She nodded down to the table. The others looked on in pure wonder.

Uther's eyes fluttered open. Arthur looked down at him, and his hair stood on end. He smiled.

"Arthur?" Uther reached up and took his son's shirt.

"Where...where am I? Why are you dressed so strangely?" Uther studied his son's face. Arthur looked like he could burst into tears.

"My lord?" Igraine could not contain her excitement.

Uther's eyes went wide, afraid to look. He looked back at Arthur, as if for reassurance.

He laughed, and nodded at him, unable to voice it.

Uther sat up.

"My lady?" He stared at her slack jawed.

"Of course! Of course,Merlin, of course! True love...No truer love than the little boy we made together! Of course there isn't another woman at all, it is my son, my dear son Arthur...that I can accept!" Igraine squealed with girlish happiness, and grabbed at Merlin's sleeve. She then ran to Uther and threw her arms around him before he had time to process being alive or her also being alive.