How Does Merlin Somehow Always Get Injured?

by Introvert_Extrovert

Summary:

Each of the knights helping Merlin after he gets injured

TW is read the tags ig (It's an injury fic, you can guess)

Notes:

Whatever ships you would like! There is some bromance depending, but otherwise yeah 👍

Chapter 1: Lancelot's turn to help Merlin!

No POV:

 

Lancelot knows Merlin fairly well. Some would even say the best in most cases. But sometimes Lancelot’s memories about what Merlin does flies out the window when Merlin comes to him injured, every few nights. This was unfortunately one of those nights where Merlin randomly knocks on his door and then stumbles in when he opens it. Lancelot was still getting used to this arrangement they had.

Merlin stumbles into Lancelot’s room once more, a hand to his stomach that is bleeding heavily. Now Lancelot knows what Merlin came here for. Lancelot sighs as he realizes he’ll probably have to explain the blood that is most likely trailing all the way to his chambers.

“What happened this time, Merlin?” Lancelot asks in a worried tone, gently making Merlin sit down in a chair. Lancelot grabs some gauze and other medical supplies he will need to help Merlin, listening to Merlin’s new story.

“Well, you see, another assassin.” Merlin says. He doesn’t explain farther, which makes Lancelot turn around to look at him once more and gesture for him to continue. Merlin rolls his eyes, “He caught me off guard. It’s fine, I took care of him.” Lancelot sighs as he knows what ‘take care of’ means to Merlin.

“Merls, where did you put the body?” Lancelot asks, crouching down slightly and starting to look at the wound on Merlin’s stomach. It was a small stab wound near his side. It didn’t look like it hit any organs, which was good, but it still bled quite a bit. Someone’s gonna have to clean that up when they find the blood.

“I uh.. I dropped it somewhere in the woods.” Merlin replies.

Lancelot sighs and slowly looks up at Merlin, “Merlin. Did you drag a body out of the castle, to the woods, and then walk back here, with a stab wound?”

Merlin blinks at Lancelot, “Perhaps.”

Lancelot sighs again and shakes his head, “The man that you are, Merlin, the man that you are..” Lancelot takes off Merlin’s shirt and starts cleaning the wound. Merlin guides him through it, making sure Lancelot doesn’t mess up. Merlin bites his lip to hide a noise of pain when Lance wraps gauze around his body.

“You better take it easy, okay?” Lancelot warns Merlin with a pat on his shoulder.

Merlin rolls his eyes, “Do you even know me, Lancelot?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” Lancelot replies with a smile, though his chest feels heavy as he thinks about how unfair it was that Merlin was the one to have to deal with this alone. Well, not alone, but Lancelot will never pretend to know how it feels for Merlin.

Merlin looks offended, “Unfortunately?!” Lancelot laughs at Merlin’s face, who just glares harder at him in return.

 

Merlin does not take it easy the next day. In fact, he takes it worse. Arthur wanted to go on a hunt, and of course he chose this day to do it. Merlin angrily got everything ready, a scowl on his face while he tended to the horses. His gaze softens as Lancelot walks up to him and sets a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry Merlin, I’ll make sure everything goes well.” Lancelot reassures. Merlin smiles at Lancelot, feeling so lucky to have him as a friend.

“Thanks.” Merlin sighs and sets a hand on his bandaged wound with a wince.

Lancelot glances down at Merlin’s hand before back up at him, “Feeling any better?” Merlin knows Lancelot means well. He really does. But he was in a mood. Merlin gives Lancelot a look that says ‘what do you think’ and Lancelot winces in sympathy.

“Sorry.” Lancelot says as he pats Merlin’s shoulder. Merlin sighs and shakes his head, starting to get the last things ready. Lancelot jumps in to help him to Merlin’s delight.

“Don’t apologize, I’m sorry, I’m just in a mood.” Merlin replies with another soft sigh.

“I can get that. You got no sleep last night, you’re in pain, you have to deal with Arthur, and now you’re being forced to go on a hunt.” Lancelot chuckles, though still worried.

Merlin grins, “Pretty much got everything right.” The two of them continued talking until everyone else got there. The party included the entire round table, and Merlin of course. Some would argue Merlin is a part of the round table anyway. They rode out in the middle of the day, planning on not coming back until a few days later. A perfect amount of time to get all the game they needed. Or, in Merlin’s way of thinking, a perfect amount of time to get attacked by bandits again. But who listens to what Merlin thinks on hunts like this?

Merlin hated riding on horseback while injured, it always jostled his wound way too much no matter what type it is. Lancelot gave Merlin a look of sympathy as Merlin grunted in pain, making sure it wasn’t loud enough for anyone but Lancelot to hear. Lancelot and Merlin rode towards the back to keep a slightly steadier pace for Merlin. It also helped them talk better, and keep Merlin’s noises of pain a secret. Merlin wasn’t sure why it hurt so much more than usual.

It was when they stopped to make camp when Merlin felt it, his stitches opened back up. Merlin gasps in pain and sets a hand where the stitches were. Lancelot looks at Merlin in worry and then comes over, setting a hand on Merlin’s arm. “What happened?” Lancelot asks.

“I-I think I might’ve reopened my stitches.” Merlin responded in a strained voice. Lancelot looks surprised for a moment before sighing, grabbing Merlin’s medical bag off of his horse.

“We can’t fix it now, are you crazy? Everyone else will see it!” Merlin whispered-shouted, trying to be stern but also not loud.

“Do you want to bleed out?” Lancelot asks with a raised eyebrow that even Gaius would be proud of. Merlin stutters over his words for a moment before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Obviously not, but I also don’t want to have to explain why I’m injured or about my scars.” Merlin replies, setting a hand back on his bandaged wound to try and lessen the pain. It didn’t work.

Lancelot sighs once himself, “Merlin, you will bleed out.” Lancelot knew Merlin well. Lancelot knew how hard this was going to be, but Merlin could bleed out if they don’t fix it right now. Especially since they still had days since they will be returning. Merlin didn’t have that kind of time, even if he was a warlock.

“Okay, alright, but I ain’t telling them the actual truth. Not yet.” Merlin finally agrees, wincing as he puts more pressure on his opened stitches. Curse Arthur and his need to hunt every fucking second of the day.

Lancelot wraps an arm around Merlin’s waist, setting his own hand on Merlin’s wound. With Lancelot’s help, Merlin makes his way to a tree and leans against it before sitting down. Arthur walks over before either of them could do anything with the wound.

“Merlin! Why are you sitting down when you’re meant to be setting up camp?!” Arthur shouts, giving Merlin an unimpressed look.

Lancelot replies before Merlin can, “Merlin has been injured, I’m re-stitching him since the travel made him reopen them.” Merlin glares at Lancelot, and Lancelot only smiles back in return.

Arthur looked surprised for a moment before he suddenly yelled, loud enough for all the other knights to hear. “Merlin’s injured and you didn’t tell anybody?!” Arthur yelled, crouching down to see what Lancelot was doing better. Arthur was ready to just strangle Merlin for not telling him. I mean, Arthur probably wouldn’t have made him go on the hunt if he knew Merlin was injured! That thought made Arthur even more confused. Everyone knows how much Merlin despises hunting, wouldn’t he want an excuse to not go to one?

The rest of the round table looks at them in confusion upon hearing Arthur’s yelling, and then they walk over to the three of them. “What do you mean Merlin’s injured, princess?” Gwaine asks in worry.

“I mean, this idiot came on this hunt without telling any of us besides Lancelot apparently that he was injured!” Arthur responds, sending a glare Merlin’s way. Merlin could see the small hint of worry in Arthur’s eyes, his gaze softening at him.

“It’s not that bad, don’t worry.” Merlin tries to reassure them.

“Not that bad he says..” Lancelot mutters under his breath, looking through Merlin’s medical bag to find what he needs. Merlin sends a frown Lancelot’s way.

“It really isn’t! It’s only a light stab wound.” Merlin says in defense to himself. It seems to have the opposite effect as everyone else freezes in shock and worry, blinking at Merlin in confusion.

“I’m sorry, a light stab wound?” Elyan asks, his eyebrows furrowing in thought as to what Merlin means exactly.

“I wouldn’t say it was light, Merls. It went all the way through you. No, it didn’t hit any organs, but it still wasn’t light.” Lancelot says with a soft sigh. Lancelot was still getting used to Merlin’s way of downplaying everything, because even he didn’t know Merlin well enough to know every single thing about him. He does know a lot though, which Lancelot is proud to state to himself.

Arthur also sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose and then looking at Merlin in annoyance and worry. “Merlin. Why did you even come here if you were wounded?” Arthur asks.

Merlin shrugs, but winces as he feels it pull at his wound. Lancelot forces Merlin’s shoulder back down to ease the pain again. “Because you told me to.” Merlin responds.

Arthur rolls his eyes, “Gods Merlin, I wouldn’t have told you to if I knew you were injured! You aren’t supposed to be riding on a horse when injured anyway, have you learned anything from Gaius?”

“Well, I wouldn’t have been on a horse if someone didn’t enjoy killing innocent animals as much as they do, sire.” Merlin says, his tone angrier than he meant it to be. Merlin’s face softens as he realizes how harsh he sounded, but he doesn’t apologize. Not yet at least. Maybe he’ll come to his senses later and apologize.

Lancelot sets his hands on the hem of Merlin’s shirt. silently asking permission to take it off so he can help Merlin. Merlin hesitates for a moment before sighing and nodding his head. Lancelot smiles in return to try and reassure him, hesitating himself to actually take off Merlin’s shirt. Lancelot ignores the gasps he hears as he finally pulls off Merlin's shirt, trying to focus on the wound. It did seem like Merlin tore a few of his stitches. “Leon?” Leon looks at Lancelot upon being called, “Can you help me with this wound? I know you have some medical skills.” Leon nods his head and crouches down next to Merlin, on the opposite side of where Arthur sat.

Arthur still was shocked where he sat on the balls of his feet, looking at Merlin’s scars. Arthur then finally looked down at Merlin’s wound and his face twisted in anger. That was clearly a stab wound of some sort right in Merlin’s stomach. And Arthur knew Merlin was clumsy, but not clumsy enough to accidentally stab himself!

Arthur’s eyes meet Merlin’s to try and talk about what happened, but stops before he says anything. Merlin had some look of pleading in his eyes. It looked as if Merlin was asking Arthur to not ask. That he wasn’t ready to talk about anything. Arthur lets out a sigh and nods his head despite wanting to know who hurt his servant so badly, not wanting Merlin to force himself to say anything when he wasn’t ready. If it happens again though, Arthur is making Merlin tell him.

Chapter 2: Time for Leon >:)

Summary:

Merlin is trying to get out of the castle to fight a magical beast when he runs into Leon, who joins him as he wishes to keep Merlin safe. What happens when they actually run into the monster?

TW: Mention of injuries, Mention of blood loss, Mention of fighting, Medical thingies, Swearing.

(Let me know if I need to add more tags!!)

Notes:

Ship if ya want :)

(I think I forgot to mention, none of the chapters are connected, so-)

No POV, again:

 

Merlin was walking in the halls, as fast as he could without it being deemed suspicious. There was a word of a magical creature in the woods haunting the lower towns, so Merlin decided to take care of it himself. Merlin was too lost in thought to see Leon run up to him, accidently walked straight into him. Leon caught Merlin’s arm before he fell to the floor. “Are you alright?” Leon asks.

Merlin looks up at Leon in shock for a moment before nodding his head, “Oh, yeah! Did you need something, Leon?” Leon smiles at Merlin’s answer and lets go of his arm, patting it two times before stepping back once.

“Not at all. I was just wondering where you were going?” Leon questions. Leave it to Leon to question what Merlin was doing for whatever reason. It must be knight instincts.

“I was just about to go collect some herbs for Gaius.” Merlin replies with a smile of his own. I mean what was he meant to do? Just tell Leon he was leaving to go fight some magical creature no one knew anything about that not even the knights were allowed to go fight yet?

Leon furrows his eyebrows, “At this time? Alone?” Merlin cringes internally for a moment before nodding his head. “That just won't do; how about I accompany you this time?” Leon sighs with a worried look on his face. Leon wouldn’t ban Merlin from going, he knows how important it was for Gaius to get herbs for certain things to heal everyone, but he wasn’t just about to let Merlin go off into the woods alone when there were sightings of a Magical creature out there.

“Well, you don’t have to, Leon.” Merlin responded, not wanting to just outright tell Leon ‘no’ without a reason. Well he had a reason. But it was not a reason he could tell Leon, or one Leon would accept. (He probably wouldn’t accept that answer even if he knew about Merlin’s magic, just cuz that’s how he is.)

“Course I do! I am a knight of Camelot, it is my duty to protect people.” Leon smiles proudly. There was another reason under what Leon gave Merlin, they were friends. Leon would gladly go into danger for his friends, even if they didn’t know it. That’s what made the two of them similar in a way. (Totally not the fact both of them are immortal, no sir.)

Merlin mentally swears at himself, as he now actually needed to get herbs for Gaius. It’s not like Gaius doesn’t need more herbs, since Merlin was definitely meant to get him some a few days ago, he just doesn’t want to until the beast is gone. “Well, thank you, Leon.” Merlin forces a polite smile on his face since he did actually like being out with Leon. Leon couldn’t tell it was slightly forced, just patting Merlin on the back as they started walking to the gate.

“Do you have everything you need?” Leon asks. Merlin nods his head with a smile of his own, which was less forced now. He was actually kind of excited to hang out with Leon since they hadn’t had time to for a few weeks now. It was time for a good bonding. (If that bonding means one of them getting injured, then yeah.)

The two of them walk out of the castle with only a few glances from servants and guards. It wasn’t unusual to see Merlin with a knight of the round table of course, but people were always curious creatures and were probably trying to guess where the two of them were heading.

The walk wasn’t a very long one fortunately, or unfortunate for the two nature lovers. As they started walking a bit deeper into the forests where more bushes were, they heard a rustling from the bushes. Leon steps in front of Merlin and places a hand in front of him. They both listen to see if they could hear anything else. As soon as there was another rustle of leaves, Leon takes out his sword and gets ready to fight whatever was there.

The sound came from a different place than the last one. The creature was somehow changing places quickly enough to not cause enough rustling to let them know where it was heading. Merlin was starting to think the creature was doing the rustling on purpose to get their nerves up or confuse them so it could strike. As the thought pops into his head, the creature jumps out of the bushes from behind them. They were lucky enough to just barely dodge the claws of it.

The beast had the claws of a falcon, but large in size, a head of a human, and the bottom of a snake, as large as human legs usually are but just together like a snake tail. It wasn’t as big as some commoners said it was, maybe the same size of Percival, but they could definitely tell it was powerful. Merlin wondered if it could talk like a human, or if it made the noises of the other animals in its body.

“Stay behind me, Merlin.” Leon says in a stern voice. Merlin didn’t want to stay behind him, but he knew that would be the best option anyway since it’d be less likely Leon sees his magic like this. He just didn’t like the thought of Leon being up close and personal with that beast. Merlin had never even seen something like it, and it didn’t match any descriptions he’s read about.

The fight was going pretty well. Leon only had a few scrapes and some places that would probably bruise later, and Merlin was getting a few lucky shots with his magic from the tree where he was hiding behind.

He didn’t even notice another one coming behind him until he suddenly felt large claws in his back. Merlin yells out in surprise and pain, jumping away from the best and landing on his side a few feet away. Leon looks back at Merlin in worry at the sound before his eyes widen in fear for him. No one ever thought that there could be more than one of them…

Leon glances between the two beasts and Merlin laying on the floor still, his mind fighting him on what to do. Logically, he should continue fighting, but he wanted to go help Merlin. Merlin could get hurt even more if he just left him on the floor while he continued fighting.

Leon rushes over to Merlin and helps him onto his feet. Merlin grunts softly as he’s lifted up by Leon’s hands. Leon puts Merlin’s arm over his shoulders and then the two of them rush out of the forest and away from the two creatures. Luckily, Merlin had decided to use a bag attached at his hip for gathering today, so they didn’t lose any herbs or anything of that sort.

Merlin starts collapsing a bit before they reach the castle. “C’mon, Merlin, almost there.” Leon mutters encouragingly to him. He places a hand onto Merlin’s waist and hoists him up more so Merlin didn’t have to use as much energy to walk and keep himself up.

“Did you know there were two of them?” Merlin asks.

Leon shakes his head no, “Not at all, no one reported seeing another one from my knowledge.” Leon sighs and the two of them start walking again. Leon didn’t know how much longer Merlin would stay conscious; he was surprisingly still pretty aware of what was happening, but blood loss can hit you like a brick to the head.

And boy did it hit Merlin hard once they were halfway through the castle.

“Woah..” Merlin says softly, his eyes wide as he tries blinking away the spots in his eyes. His knees start buckling again and Leon helps him sit down for a moment.

Leon has a worried look on his face as he keeps eye contact with him, “You alright, Merlin? Do you need me to carry you?” Merlin immediately blushes in embarrassment at the thought of the knight carrying him to Gaius. He knows he’s been carried by all the knights before, but it doesn’t mean it hadn’t gotten more embarrassing; especially since they were literally in the castle now.

Merlin shakes his head, “No need, Leon. I can make it.” Leon hums in thought. He didn’t think Merlin would be able to make it, but he will trust Merlin’s judgement of himself. He is an apprentice physician after all.

“Alright, come on.” Leon gently hoists Merlin back up and puts his arm around his shoulders, and a hand onto his waist. They continue walking to medical, getting stares from servants and knights walking. Leon knows the word of Merlin being injured will be passed around quite easily, and it will soon get to Arthur.

They make it to Gaius a few minutes later. Leon busts down the door, “Gaius!” He helps Merlin to a medical bed and shifts him onto his stomach so the wound is out in the open for when Gaius comes. A few seconds pass and there isn’t even a sound of someone in the room. “Gaius?” Leon asks, looking around. Gaius wasn’t there.

“Merlin, any idea where Gaius has gone to?” Leon questions with a confused and worried look on his face. He honestly didn’t know which one was more overpowering.

“Uhhh.. Shit, he’s in lower towns treating someone…” Merlin starts to get up so he could treat himself, but Leon gently pushes him back down with a hand on his shoulder.

“Alright, I’ll treat you.” Leon says. He doesn’t even sound unsure of himself, as if he knows exactly what to do without any help from Gaius or Merlin. Leon searches around the room and grabs everything he needs to treat the wound. Or, wounds, as there were technically three marks from the claws.

“Do you even know how..?” Merlin asks with uncertainty in his voice, he seemed a little nervous to be handing this off to Leon without anyone else there. He couldn’t even see the wound and help Leon do it this time as it was on his back.

“What do you think we do if we don’t have a medic in battle?” Leon responds with a slight chuckle. Merlin hums at Leon’s words and decides to stay silent and just let Leon do what he needs to do.

Merlin winces as Leon takes off his shirt and throws it somewhere in the opposite direction of them. Leon hesitates as he sees all the scars on Merlin’s back, but he knows he shouldn’t take more time to wait before he tends to the wound. Leon has seen his fair share of scars, but.. He just never expected Merlin to have this many on just his back. He shakes away his questions and starts cleaning and fixing up Merlin’s injury.

Leon is almost finished with tending to the wound when Arthur bursts into the room, the door slamming into the wall. “Hey-!” Merlin shouts, not liking the fact the door and wall was being abused for no reason. (He’s worried, leave him alone Merlin.)

“What happened?” Arthur asks. Leon decides not to comment on the clear worry on Arthur’s face and tone.

Leon finishes up wrapping Merlin’s wound, “We got attacked by the beast everyone has been reporting on seeing. There’s two of them and the second one snuck up on him while I was fighting the first one.” Arthur’s face hardens slightly at the mention of there being two of them.

“Where was this?” Arthur questions. The worry hadn’t left his voice.

“North.” Leon answers, pulling over a blanket for Merlin to rest under. Merlin tries to get up again but Leon pushes him down once more.

“I’ll get some knights ready.” Arthur says. He then looks down at Merlin and his face softens at the sight of him bandaged up. There were some scars on his shoulders, but they were small enough that Arthur didn’t even think about there before more of them being from something other than accidents.

“He will be alright, sire. He just needs to rest.” Leon answers Arthur’s silent question with a smile on his face. Arthur nods his head in response to Leon’s words.

“I can hear you guys, y’know?” Merlin says. Arthur cuffs the back of his head gently, making Merlin say a quiet ‘ow’ and huff. Merlin did notice that Arthur didn’t hit him as hard as he usually would when he was annoyed though.

Notes:

Wow! It's been a while since I posted the first chapter of this fic lol. I hope you enjoyed Leon's part! Sorry it took so long to post, I just had no motivation to write the next part really. No idea who will be in the next chapter, I'll probably spin a wheel, but if you have a preference let me know! My Tumblr is @Rileyh20 if you wish to talk to me there, or if you had any questions or requests!

Make sure to drink water, and have a good day/night!

Chapter 3: Gwaine's turn! Yay!

Summary:

Merlin drags Gwaine out of a tavern so he's not hungover for a quest the next day, but runs into an assassin afterwards. What if the assassin lands a blow and he needs to find a place no one will see him and alert someone while also not bleeding out everywhere?

TW: Talk of drinking/being drunk and hungover, Blood, Death, Violence, Not good medical stuff, Bromance.

(Let me know if I missed anything!)

Notes:

Not written with Merlin x Gwaine in mind, but it does have some flirting in it from Gwaine. Also, not beta read, so let me know if I missed any spelling or grammar mistakes!

No POV:

 

Merlin walks through the town at night. It was past midnight by now, and the streets were mostly empty. The few people he saw being travelers and people going home from taverns. He knew Gwaine would be in one of the taverns, despite being told numerous times that he really could not be hungover at the quest they had the next day. So he took it upon himself to go grab him from whatever tavern he’s in early enough so he can drink but not get drunk enough to get in trouble the next day.

He’d already gone to two taverns he knows Gwaine visits often, but he had yet to find him. He made sure to keep looking around the streets just in case he saw Gwaine walking to a tavern instead of being inside of one. Or maybe in the off chance Gwaine was being responsible and coming from a tavern and back to his quarters this early so he wasn’t hungover. (As if.)

Merlin knew it would not be an easy job to convince Gwaine to leave so early, so he brought a nice and juicy apple that had been freshly picked that morning by him on a morning stroll. Usually he’d be too busy for such activities, especially in the morning, but today he decided to wake up earlier so he could watch the sunrise and actually enjoy life for a moment.

There is one other tavern Gwaine likes to visit frequently. That tavern was the oldest of the three and Merlin found out Gwaine was there more often than the other two, but since it was farther than the other two, Merlin decided to check those ones first. No one had seen him in either of the two at all today, so Merlin knew it was more likely that he wasn’t that drunk yet. He’d believe he wouldn’t be drunk at all because it was only seven. But this was Gwaine, so who knows at this point.

The tavern is loud and busy even this early into the night. It wasn’t overwhelming to Merlin, but it did make him rethink all his knowledge on how taverns and people actually work. Despite what Arthur says, he really doesn’t go into taverns often enough to actually tell what time they start to get lively and people get drunk enough to get kicked out. He’d been there plenty of times to drag Gwaine out in the middle of the night. But that was, of course, the middle of the night, and Merlin expected it to be like that so late at night. Maybe he really was too late for Gwaine to still be sober enough to not be hungover in the morning…

He looks around the place, trying to spot Gwaine before he goes weaving through all the people to ask the person giving everyone the liquor if he’s here or not. That’s just a whole lot of unnecessary contact from strangers if he isn't here.

Gwaine is sitting not too far from the door, talking to the people besides him and drinking up some ale. It wasn’t unusual to see him like this from Merlin’s personal experience, but it definitely is different to what the end of the night is like when he has to drag Gwaine out of a tavern or even off the streets sometimes. He’s usually pretty rowdy by then. And not to mention, very loud.

Merlin starts walking towards Gwaine and weaving through some of the people standing or walking around. He gets splashed with ale as someone who looks way too drunk for the time bumps into him. The person apologizes quickly and swings an arm around Merlin’s shoulder, who goes slightly rigid at the contact before smiling at the stranger and politely slipping away after accepting the apology. He was starting to regret his choice about coming here right now to save Gwaine. Honestly, Gwaine is a full grown adult who can deal with his actions. But here he is, saving his friend from a reprimanding from Leon and the king as well as disappointment from the two and probably everyone else. He’s such a good friend. (Why isn’t he paid for this too, he questions in the back of his mind. I also question this.)

Eventually, Merlin is close enough to reach his hand out and touch Gwaine’s shoulder to catch his attention. Gwaine looks over his shoulder and brightens up at the sight of his friend behind him. He doesn’t even really think about the fact Merlin is almost never in taverns with him unless it is to take him out of them, given the fact it is so early. He assumes maybe Merlin wanted to actually take him up on his offer for a drink for once.

Gwaine shifts a bit so he is able to pull Merlin close for a hug with one hand, the other hand holding his cup of ale by the handle. “Merlin, my friend! What brings you here this fine evening? Finally taking up on my offer?” He asks with a huge grin on his face. The smile on Gwaine’s face makes Merlin smile in return, his entire being feeling lighter while being around one of his friends. He kinda hates the fact he’s about to cut Gwaine off and drag him to his room instead of drinking with him.

“Ah, afraid not. I’m actually here to bring you back to your chambers so you don’t get in trouble for being hungover tomorrow morning. Maybe I’ll take up your offer once we get back though.” Merlin replies with a slightly tighter smile. He feels bad about crashing his friend’s party, but he knows this will benefit him later. Even if Gwaine protests it wont, he knows it will.

“C’mon, Merls, can I at least finish this cup of ale before we go?” Gwaine questions with a slight pout on his face and a whiny tone. Merlin sighs and nods his head, chuckling a bit as he watches Gwaine chug the rest of his ale. Gwaine pushes the cup closer to the person behind the counter and hops off the seat, “Okay, I’m ready now.” Merlin looks at Gwaine in surprise, wondering why and how it was so easy to convince him to leave so early. He could tell Gwaine was barely tipsy at best. “What’s that face for, Merls?” Gwaine asks as he realizes Merlin has yet to start leading him out.

Merlin blinks for a few moments before stammering out the rest of his words, “I’m just surprised it didn’t take much for you to agree to leave so early and so obviously not drunk.” Gwaine laughs at Merlin’s words and pats him on the shoulder harder than he probably meant to.

The pat makes Merlin stumble for a moment before he steadies himself. “Well, I realize you’re right, and I honestly don’t feel like being chewed out for the entire quest we’re about to go on that will last for more than a week, and probably time after for every quest we’ll go on after.” Gwaine says before patting Merlin on the back twice and starting to leave the tavern. Merlin stays behind for a few more seconds to process Gwaine's words before he goes after him so he isn’t left behind and can’t make sure Gwaine doesn’t just go to a different tavern.

Gwaine didn’t even pay his bill at the tavern. Guess that’ll bite him in the back when they’re all back from the quest.

 

After Merlin is sure Gwaine is safely in his chambers and won't just sneak back out to a different tavern, he starts walking back to his own room so he could catch some sleep before the quest tomorrow morning. He’d need to wake up early again so he can set up all the horses before dawn arrives, as that is when Arthur decided they will be leaving. He also has to make sure he’s there to tend to Arthur so he eats breakfast and gets clothes on, but he needs to get the stuff ready for the horses before.. He should definitely go to bed as soon as he can.

He’s so lost in thought that he doesn’t even hear footsteps behind him. He doesn’t realize someone is coming closer until they are right next to him and they wrap their arms around his neck to put him in a chokehold. Merlin struggles for a few moments, his hands coming up to try and tug the person off of him. But his magic soon takes over, forcing the person to take their hands off and pushing them to the wall.

Merlin flips around and looks at his attacker with cold eyes. They are wearing all black with leather armour underneath.. Obviously an assassin, but why would an assassin be sent to kill him and not anyone else in the castle who are much more important. At least, important in a political way. The only other thing Merlin can think of is if he was getting too close to the assassin’s target and they didn’t want him to interfere with the kill, so they figured taking him out swiftly and silently would fix that.

Only one problem with that though, Merlin has magic that likes to act instinctively. Not like the assassin likely knew though; just an unlucky killing attempt.

Speaking of the assassin, they have recovered from the wall throw and are now looking at Merlin intently. It was if they were studying him and looking at his body language to gauge how confident he is and if he’d be any good at certain things. Merlin’s clothes luckily hides enough of his body for people to not realize he actually had built up quite a bit of muscle since he arrived at Camelot. Not like most of the people would really notice besides maybe Leon, Arthur, and Gwen. Probably some of the castle staff too.

The assassin runs towards Merlin with a dagger in his hand, attempting to slash at his chest. Merlin jumps back to avoid the attack and punches the person in the face as a counter. Up close, Merlin could tell the person had green eyes and brown hair peeking out from under their hood. The assassin had a small scar running through their eyebrow. That was good for identification if they escaped. Not that it’s likely they will need to be identified for either outcomes this usually has, with them leaving with a changed mind or just dead. But who knows? Merlin likes to be prepared anyway.

Merlin is taken out of his thoughts as the assassin goes in for another strike. This time, they aim for his temple with the end of their dagger, but misses just barely when Merlin dodges out of the way in time. But they don’t stop with the attack and do not bother to listen to any words Merlin says to them to try and persuade them to not attack.

Eventually, Merlin has had enough and he grabs a dagger of his own from his boot and the two of them actually start to fight. It doesn’t take long for Merlin to overpower them with the use of magic and other skills. He holds his dagger to the assassin’s throat while pushing them into a wall.

He doesn’t try to negotiate with them anymore, just needing his questions answered. “Who were you sent by? And who are you trying to kill?” Merlin asks, making sure the assassin can feel his dagger on his throat. He wasn’t going to just kill him for no reason. Especially when he thought there was still a chance they might tell him everything he needs to know, and might agree to just go away.

“Why do you think I’ll tell you?” The assassin spits back, a scowl on their face. Merlin sighs at the assassin’s words.

“If I let you go, are you going to try and kill me again and then whoever your target is?” Merlin questions. He knows the answer just from knowing this person for only a few minutes, he can see it in their green eyes that they only care about the mission and the money. There is no obvious use in trying to change the assassin’s mind.

The assassin laughs at the idea, “As if, I’m bein’ payed a whole lot of money to take out the queen.” Merlin glares at the person as he realizes their target is Guinevere and not Arthur like usual. The assassin then stands Merlin in the stomach to try and escape, but Merlin only tightens his hold onto them instinctively as he processes the new wound. He doesn’t think another second before slitting their throat. Though, he probably should’ve asked who sent them. He can check their body for papers before burning them up.

Merlin winces as he starts feeling the wound in his side. He knows he cannot just leave the body here, as well as the blood, but he also doesn’t think he’ll be able to get rid of it before needing medical attention. His magic should be able to keep him stable for a while before he’s too weak to do anything though. (You’re also immortal lad, even if you don’t know it yet.)

He spots a closet close to them that most people don’t actually use, and decides to drag the guy over there. It’s a bit of a struggle because the assassin is bigger than him and he also has a stab wound in his side, but they eventually get there. He rips off a chunk of their shirt and uses it to bind his stomach so he doesn’t bleed everywhere. For the blood already in the hallway, he makes it go away with a small move of his hand.

Now he just needs to take care of his injury. He’s too far away from the physician's room, and he doesn’t want to walk that far. Hiding in the closet with the dead body of the assassin until someone finds them or he heals with his magic is also not an ideal situation. He could go back to Gwaine? He knows he’s awake since he just left him, and he’s pretty close to his room, and Gwaine will do things for him no questions asked. Maybe some questions if he’s injured, but not as many as some of the others. Gwaine it is, Merlin thinks.

Merlin starts to limp back over to Gwaine’s chambers while he keeps his hand tightly pressed to his stomach to stanch the blood. It luckily only takes around seven minutes for him to get there, even with his weakened state. The shirt he’s using to stanch the blood flow is now soaked up with his blood. It seeps through his fingers, but he’s happy to notice that he doesn’t leave a blood trail for someone to clean up later. At least not one people will notice.

His vision is fuzzy as he uses his left hand to knock on Gwaine’s door louder than he meant to. He was trying to stay quiet instinctively, despite it not being late at all like it usually is when he encounters an assassin. That honestly leaves too many questions and anxiety in his head for him to process right now, so he pushes it away for until he’s done.

Gwaine opens the door with his signature grin on his face. His eyebrows furrow as he sees the state Merlin is in, but not noticing the blood just yet. “Ah, Merlin! Why are you back exactly?” Gwaine asks with a confused and concerned look on his face, leaning against the doorframe with a soft smirk.

“Um.. I need help.” Merlin replies hesitantly. He was starting to question if this was the right choice, but he knows it’s too late to back out now. Especially since his shaky hand would not be able to hold the soaked cloth for much longer.

The person he seeked out smiles at him. There is not many things Gwaine would not do for Merlin, and there are few he could actually do, but Merlin wouldn’t have come to him if he didn’t think Gwaine could help, so Gwaine was sure he could do whatever Merlin needed at this moment. “Of course, my friend. What is it you need?” Gwaine says. There was a slight glint in his eyes that Merlin has seen quite a few times. He probably thinks Merlin needed help with something illegal or perhaps dangerous, which.. He isn’t totally wrong? But Merlin doesn’t need help with the body, so also not right.

Merlin glances down and his wound before looking back up at Gwaine. There was a nervous aura around him that Gwaine picked up on. Gwaine loses his smile and looks at Merlin with more worry than before, his eyes going down to where Merlin had looked before widening at the sight. Merlin tenses as he sees Gwaine’s reaction to his problem. “Um.. Can I come in?” Merlin requests, a small waver to stance. He doesn’t notice the slight swaying, but Gwaine does. Gwaine sets a hand on Merlin’s right elbow and gently helps him walk into his chambers. He makes Merlin sit down onto a chair with a pillow behind him for comfort.

Gwaine doesn’t ask any question about the wound, only grabbing a medkit and kneeling down in front of him. Merlin can tell he is fuming behind his eyes though, wanting to end whoever did this to him. Gwaine’s eyes glance up at Merlin's face for permission to take off his shirt to tend to his wound. Merlin hesitates for a few moments, remembering all the scars hidden underneath. But he knows Gwaine won't judge or ask too many questions, so he nods his head. Gwaine pulls off Merlin’s jacket first, and then the shirt. He tenses as he sees all the scars that were hiding. His eyes roam over a few of them before he goes back to focusing on the stab wound in Merlin’s stomach.

(Do they call them medkits in the past?? I don’t remember and it’s way too early in the morning for me to care rn. 1:30am writing for the win!)

He gently cleans the wound and tenses as he sees the full extent of it. He grabs the medkit and takes out a needle and some thread that was packed together tightly. Merlin’s eyes widen as he realizes what Gwaine is about to do, wondering if he made a bad choice since he didn’t know if Gwaine was good at stitching at all. He would suggest doing it himself if he didn’t know Gwaine would immediately turn him down. He’ll just have to hope Gwaine is better than everyone thinks he is at field patching.

Merlin winces and flinches a few times during the stitching, but he tries his best to be still so Gwaine doesn’t have to worry about doing a stitch wrong because he was moving. It hurts more when he doesn’t have something to numb the area or just his general pain. He should probably give Gwaine some more since it looks like the ones in his medkit are all used up.

The pain doesn’t go away when Gwaine is done with the stitching, but it is no longer as bad as it was. Gwaine’s hands are gentle as he finishes up the wound and wraps it in some gauze tightly, but not too tightly obviously. He hands Merlin some water he has because he knows that will help and smiles as Merlin takes a few sips from it before giving it back to him. “How do you feel?” Gwaine asks in a soft voice, but Merlin can tell he is still seething underneath.

Merlin smiles a bit, “Better.. You’re not as bad at this as I thought you would be.” Gwaine gasps at Merlin’s words and puts a hand on his chest dramatically.

“How dare you say that to me, I just patched you up!” Gwaine replies with a betrayed look on his face. Merlin giggles at the expression before curling in on himself in pain as the laughing upset his wound. Gwaine drops the act and looks at Merlin in worry, “Are you alright?” Merlin just nods his head in response and sighs.

The two of them stay in silence for a few moments. Gwaine wanted to ask about the scars, about who did this to him, who gave him the scars as well, but he knows now is not the right time to ask. He can ask when Merlin hasn’t just been freshly stitched up and isn’t in a lot of pain. So, he does what he does best and tries to cheer up the room. “Nice muscles.” He says with a flirtatious smirk on his face.

Merlin blushes and rolls his eyes at Gwaine’s playful flirting, a smile making its way onto his face before he can stop it. Gwaine beams proudly at him and then starts to overload him with more jokes and flirting.

Maybe this wasn’t a mistake after all.

Notes:

WOOO! ANOTHER CHAPTER!! ALSO, IT'S 3.5K+!! I HOPE YOU GUYS LOVED THIS ONEEEE!!! Sorry it took a while to get out lol. The next thing out should be my Shiro and Lance nightmare fic! Also, no idea who will be next in this fic. I'll probably spin a wheel like I've done the past three times, but if you have a request (-Arthur), let me know! This might become my longest fic ever by the end 😭.

Make sure to drink water, and have a good day/night!

Chapter 4: Ely and Merls!

Summary:

The knights + Merlin are all out hunting when they get ambushed. What happens when Merlin is injured, and he and Elyan are captured with no way to preform medical?

TW: Injuries, Blood, Fighting, Torture, The normal stuff for Merlin fics, y'know? Oh, and I suck at medical terms and stuff, so there's that too lol!

Notes:

You may ship them if you wish, but this was not written with the ship in mind! (Mainly Merthur in mind, but it's never actually stated anywhere in the fic until Arthur's chapter. The only other stuff is just the normal Merlin and Arthur dynamic. Which is still pretty gay otherwise actually. But it could also be platonic, I don't judge. I'm close to my best friend like that too.)

Also, this is a really long chapter! Like, longer than my longest fic ever long, so new record lol? It's 11,492 words.. So I hope you guys enjoy all the effort that went into it, and thank you to the Merlin Discord I'm in that helped me plan out a bit and motivated me throughout this chapter! Like, literally. I live streamed my writing a few times, and some lasted up to like four hours-

No POV:

 

The knights, and Merlin of course, were all out hunting together. It was a nice spring day. Warm, but not too hot that Merlin will start sweating in his jacket like he does during summer. The calm atmosphere was broken when a soft thunk came from the left side. The horses stop and they look over at where the sound was. There was a tree with an arrow in it that wasn’t there when they originally passed by this area about an hour ago.

Before anyone could process this change, another arrow came out and hit the horse Gwaine was riding on. The horse squeals in pain and lifts onto its hind legs, knocking Gwaine off in the process. Chaos immediately started as men rushed onto the fields and the horses were throwing off the people riding them one by one as arrows continued flying.

Merlin looked at the chaos, panic filling his body as he couldn’t spot Arthur. He runs through the fighting, even managing to push down a few of the people that attacked them. He finally spots Arthur fighting two people at once. Merlin smiles as he realizes Arthur is okay and obviously winning against the two bandits. It’s almost as if the bandits got worse over time instead of better like normal people do over time. Merlin was starting to think the only time they fought was with them and not even do any training otherwise. Though, with how often bandits attack them, Merlin supposes that’s enough training to someone who doesn’t care about fighting. Either way they aren’t a match for the knights who train daily.

Because Merlin was distracted with his thoughts and Arthur, he didn’t realize there was a bandit right behind him and getting ready for an attack. Fortunately, Elyan was nearby and saw what was about to happen. “Merlin!” Elyan yells to try and get Merlin’s attention. Merlin looks over towards Elyan and sees the bandit in the corner of his eye. He gasps and tries to jump out of the way of the bandit’s swing, but still gets slashed in his right side from his hip up to just under his armpit. Merlin falls to his knees and twists just in time to land on his left side so no dirt gets into his right to try and make sure infection doesn’t happen. Elyan’s eyes widen in shock and horror as he sees what happens right in front of him. He rushes over and blocks the second attack the bandit throws at Merlin, knocking him back and cutting him down.

Elyan immediately looks back at Merlin and crouches down next to him. His hands hover over Merlin, who was groaning in pain and laying on his left side. “Okay, uh..” Elyan mutters under his breath. He scrambles for Merlin’s bag that he luckily has on himself instead of the horse like usual. He grabs some gauze from inside and uses it to try and staunch the bloodflow. His eyes glance wildly around his surroundings to make sure no one is sneaking up on them, trying to stay focused on both the fight and Merlin.

This would prove difficult however because of how many bandits had jumped them, and Elyan would soon be distracted enough for one of them to sneak up behind him and knock him out cold. Merlin hadn’t even noticed the bandit himself, his eyes shut tightly in pain. Elyan’s knocked out body lands on top of Merlin. He falls exactly where Merlin’s wound is and drapes over his side, making Merlin let out a pained grunt. Merlin opens his eyes and looks at Elyan’s body before glancing up at the bandit. His eyebrows are furrowed as he tries to will himself to see through his blurry vision.

Merlin’s body squirms a bit from under Elyan’s unconscious one, but he soon realizes that just causes more pain and wont help at all in their situation so he stops. His vision starts getting blurrier as the bandit crouches down next to the two of them. “Oh yes, she’ll surely be happy about this.” Merlin hears the bandit say. He’s confused at first, but then his mind flashes to Morgana and suddenly everything makes sense. These bandits must’ve made a deal with her, and they’re here to capture and or kill everyone here. He isn’t able to think on it much longer however, because the bandit covers his mouth with a cloth and his mind soon goes blank and he goes unconscious.

The bandit beckons over one of the other bandits around so he can help him get these two into the cart they have a few miles down the road for their kidnapped guys. (I don’t know what to call them, bare with me. I almost called them kidnappies.). The original bandit picks up Elyan and throws him over his shoulder. The other one grabs Merlin and does the same to him. The two of them grin at each other and starts jogging out of the battle as discreetly as they so none of the other people they were trying to kidnap see them and try to save their friends.

Unfortunately for Merlin and Elyan, the two bandits are able to sneak away with their unconscious bodies and they are thrown into the bandit’s cart. One of them climbs in with them and puts a blindfold over both of their eyes, then ties a rope around each of their wrists, connecting the two of them together just to make it hard for them to escape if they tried. Then the bandit binds their feet together with a temporary rope, because they will need to walk once they get to their destination. Neither of the two men wake up from what the bandit does.

Once done, the two bandits wait by the cart as ordered just to make sure the two prisoners don’t escape or be let out by someone else. One of them is sitting in the front where the horse’s reigns are, and where everything is controlled, and the other is leaning against the back of the cart with his arms crossed as if he was a moody teenager. (I don’t know how else to describe it without just putting, “With his arms crossed”, I didn’t wanna be boring, but like.. Is it cringy now??).

The other knights are continuing to hold their ground against the other bandits, completely oblivious to the fact Elyan and Merlin are no longer near them. Arthur slashes down another bandit and looks around the field to see if anyone needs help. His eyes scan the battle, taking notes of all of his knights and what situations they were in. Percival was fine taking on two knights. Leon was taking on one skillfully, right next to Gwaine who was taking on another two with a grin on his face. Leon looked like he was suffering, which means Gwaine probably made a joke to him a few moments before. Lancelot had just got the upper hand on his own foe. But Arthur couldn’t help but feel uneasy. Elyan wasn’t anywhere on the field. He assumed Merlin was just hiding behind a tree, but he could usually find which one it was since Merlin liked to peek around for some reason. (Absolutely no reason at all..)

Arthur continues looking around, panic slowly making its way into his heart as he realizes Elyan and Merlin aren’t anywhere to be seen. He doesn’t have time to think about it more though, because a bandit started to charge towards him. Arthur easily takes him down and starts jogging around the field and taking out as many bandits as he can while searching for the two missing people. He eventually makes his way over to Leon and bumps his shoulder to grab his attention. Leon is focused on the battle and checking on everyone himself, but nods his head to let his king know that he is listening. “Hey, have you seen Elyan or Merlin in a bit?” Arthur asks, a slight hint of worry lacing the undertone of his voice. He masks it quite well though, despite Leon hearing it from how long he’s known Arthur and being a trained knight.

Leon scans the field himself and furrows his eyebrows as he shakes his head, “No, not since the first arrows started flying, why?” Arthur worries at his lip because of Leon’s answer. It would have been so much easier if Leon had just told Arthur that he saw the two of them run away for some reason. Arthur of course doesn’t believe Elyan would just abandon the battle for no reason, or for the reason of being scared, so he was worried one of them could be hurt. If Elyan was hurt, Merlin was the only completely qualified person here to do all if not most medical things. But if Merlin was injured, Elyan was probably the only one who saw it and might’ve gotten him away from the battle to keep him safe. Or.. Arthur shakes his head before the last thought. He doesn’t want to think of the possibility of his servant and knight being kidnapped by some bandits. Even if it could very much be true.(It is true Arthur, think it and suffer.)

The knights all meet up in the middle, out of breath and sweaty. Leon sheaths his sword and some of the other knights follow his lead. Gwaine glances around the group in confusion. “Where’s Merls and Elyan?” He asks, looking behind him to see if either of them were just not ready to meet with them yet. Percival and Lancelot look around as well as they realize that the two were indeed missing from their group. Everyone was growing in their worry, having no idea where they would even start looking.

“Everyone calm down. When was the last time you saw either of them?” Leon asks. He looked determined, but everyone could see through his facade. They knew he was incredibly worried about Merlin and Elyan. They were glad he at least got them starting on their actual search instead of them just looking around the same field over and over again in hopes one of them just pops up from behind a tree or bush. But that of course wouldn’t happen even if they all prayed to every god in existence that it would. Arthur sighs and looks back to where they came from. It was unlikely that the bandits had any camp behind them and didn’t attack them earlier, so Arthur figured the best thing they could do currently is continue on the trail until they find tracks or something alike.

“Follow me.” Arthur commands, then sheaths his sword and starts walking along the path. He steps over bodies of the bandits, trying to be respectful even if they were his enemy just a moment ago. It would be unkingly to disrespect someone like that even if they were alive, let alone dead and unable to defend themselves or their honor. The knights follow his lead without question. They also make sure to not step on any of the bodies. They already killed all of them, why would they disrespect them as well?

 

Elyan groans, his head lolling onto something soft right next to him. His eyes flutter open slowly but he still sees only darkness as if they were never open at all. Elyan raises his hands to try and see if his eyes were open or if he was dreaming it, but stops as he realizes his wrists are binded together. “What..?” Elyan grovels out. At least I’m not muffled, Elyan thinks as he tries to get his thoughts together to try and remember what led to this being his situation at the moment.

The soft thing from under Elyan’s cheek moves, making him jerk in surprise. The thing groans and Elyan almost gasps in shock. “Merlin?” Elyan questions. The soft thing he was feeling must’ve been Merlin’s hair. Merlin groans again in response to Elyan’s words, his voice being too loud because of how close his mouth was to his ear. Elyan shifts a bit to try and get Merlin comfortable despite their situation. “Merlin, are you alright?” Elyan asks with a worried tone. (Why is everyone always worried chat? Why do I always make them worried and concerned, blegh)

Merlin grumbles under his breath and shifts as well, setting his head onto Elyan’s shoulder. Elyan doesn’t remove Merlin’s head from his shoulder, still worried about how he’s reacting to this. He doesn’t know if the loopyness is from his wound he got earlier, another wound he might’ve gotten while Elyan was knocked out, or maybe even a drug that he could’ve been given while Elyan was unconscious. He doesn’t know anything because Merlin isn’t even talking to him. Hasn’t said a single word since he woke up. And that just worried Elyan even more.

“Merls, talk to me, what happened? Are you injured more than before?” Elyan asks Merlin once more, hoping for more than just a low groan from the dark headed man. Merlin doesn’t answer verbally, but Elyan sees him shake his head as a no ever so slightly. Elyan smiles slightly as he sees the answer. He felt better knowing Merlin wasn’t injured more while he wasn’t conscious enough to help protect him, it gave him hope that the bandits wouldn’t hurt them as much as he originally thought. He feels Merlin shift from under him another time and moves out of the way as best as he could to give him some space. Elyan gives Merlin a slight nudge, “You good?” Merlin nods his head in response. The lack of words brought more worry into Elyan, replacing the slight hope that was there before.

They ride in silence for about ten minutes before the cart comes to a stop. The sudden stop jostles the two men, making both of them grunt and tense up for a moment. Elyan can hear footsteps walk around the cart they’re in and go towards the end, where the entrance to the cart is. Elyan wasn’t sure if he wanted to call it a door or not. It felt wrong to have something as normal as a door being viewed in the same light as something people use to kidnap others. Elyan wasn’t even sure there was a door though, as he couldn’t see anything as of now. He assumes Merlin can’t see either.

Someone steps inside and walks towards them. They grab Merlin’s arm by the bicep and start to drag him out of the cart. Merlin yelps in pain as he’s dragged on his injured side. Elyan scrambles after him to try and help Merlin, but soon realizes he and Merlin are actually tied together and gets dragged as well. It was like they used the same rope for both of them but left enough rope in the middle of them to let both of them comfortably move around without even noticing they were tied together. Both of the men stumble onto the ground, but Merlin only stayed standing because the bandit has a grip on his arm.

Elyan gets closer to Merlin and sets a hand on his back as best he could given the ropes tied around his wrists, trying to steady him. Merlin leans away from the hand despite it. He didn’t want to seem weak, though knowing Elyan probably wouldn’t judge him, he knows their captors will definitely use it to their advantage. Elyan frowns as he feels Merlin pull away, but doesn’t do any other reaction or try to help him again. He knows what Merlin is thinking and feeling right now. (Does he? Also, why is this lowkey turning to crap rn btw???)

Merlin tenses as he hears the sound of a sword being drawn. Elayn hears it too, but doesn’t tense as much. “Walk.” One of the bandits says, poking Merlin and Elyan on their backs with a sword. Elyan gives Merlin a slight nudge to tell him to go first, not wanting Merlin to have a sword to his back while they’re forced to walk. Merlin decides not to argue with it despite feeling the same way and not wanting a sword to Elyan’s back because he knows he can’t die but Elyan can and starts walking. Elayn starts to follow behind Merlin once he feels the rope tug at his wrists. He does walk a bit closer though because he doesn’t want Merlin too far ahead of him, and knows the rope tugging on both of their wrists will give them a rope burn.

They walk and stumble through the woods blindfolded. Elyan stumbles more than Merlin however, as Merlin’s magic is helping him sense the world around him so he knows when to step over branches. It was a neat thing he found randomly that his magic can help him sense the world around him when he can’t see, though it was stronger in nature. Elyan unfortunately did not have any magic to help him travel the foreign terrain. (Ha, loser. Joking, obviously, I’m clumsy af)

Soon enough, they reach their destination. Merlin and Elyan can tell because the floor turns to stone instead of dirt. Well, and the fact Merlin’s magic warned him of the change. Elyan did unfortunately stumble upon meeting the stone floor from his surprise. The two of them are led into a cell. One of the bandits unties them for a moment. Merlin thinks about the possibility of escaping, but knows it’s not worth it right now. The blindfolds are then taken off and the door to the cell is shut and locked when the bandit walks out with the ropes and blindfolds.

“We’ll probably be here for a while..” Elyan sighs out, and Merlin nods his head in agreement.

 

Percival sits down on a random log near a fire Leon made for them. Gwaine was leaning against a tree with a focused look on his face, showing he was thinking about ways to get Merlin and Elyan back. Usually he was unserious in some situations, but the situation just rubbed him the wrong way this time. Arthur was pacing around with a hand rubbing the bottom half of his face. It was a subconscious habit he did when he was thinking about something that was bothering him, or something that was serious. Leon was seating across Percival and helping Lancelot cook some fish stew that Merlin sometimes makes when they’re near a river. They figured it would be something that might bring up everyone’s spirits, and Merlin had taught Lancelot how to make it a few weeks ago anyway because Lancelot was about to go visit a friend alone and Merlin thought Lancelot’s friend would enjoy the stew.

No one has spoken any words in a few minutes. Not one knight has uttered a single syllable. It had already been a few hours since they realized Merlin and Elyan were gone. They were tracking the best they could earlier, but soon lost the trail mysteriously. Arthur had made the call to stop and make camp once he realized they lost it. So the knights traveled back to their fallen horses and grabbed their things, and then traveled on foot for a bit until Arthur deemed a clearing good enough for camp. There was no way they’d be getting new horses until they get back to the castle. So all they could hope was that neither Elyan or Merlin needed immediate medical care, and could walk on their own. No one had complete faith that either of those were possible though.

Lancelot was the first one to speak up once everyone got their bowl of stew, “Does anyone have any ideas on how to get them back?” Leon and Percival looked at their king, expecting a reply from him, but receiving none. He was stumped on how they were meant to even find the castle. He has yet to make it farther than that, having no plan to infiltrate the place Merlin and Elyan were being held. Gwaine shakes his head to Lancelot’s words. Leon and Percival’s silence says enough about how many ideas they had. Though, you could tell Leon had something brewing in his head.

“We could.. No, no, that wouldn’t work.” Leon started saying, but shakes his head after the first two words and stops his thoughts. He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. You could practically feel the stress radiating off him. And, everyone else for that matter. Someone could cut the air with a sword, that’s how much stress was filling the surrounding area. It was suffocating to not know what to do and having people you know and love depend on you figuring out what to do. In this case, it was Elyan and Merlin that were mostly depending on everyone. They could be tortured, or worse, in their situation. For Arthur though, it was everyone. As their king and friend, it was his job to take lead in this sort of situation. But he was stumped.

Lancelot worries at his lip. He knew Merlin would’ve helped them by using some sort of magic if he was here, but he didn’t even know if Merlin was awake enough to help them when he wasn't. “Maybe we should get some sleep, and then follow the path in the morning? Look for any odd detours?" He finally suggests to everyone. He looks around to see if anyone had agreed or disagreed with his suggestion. But no one shook their head and said anything about it.

“That sounds like a good idea, Lancelot.” Arthur says. This made the decision practically final, and made it their plan for now unless someone spoke up with a better one. Though the probability of something better happening with no actual trail to follow is unlikely at the moment.

After everyone eats the stew, Percival collects all the dishes and goes to clean them in the river. Leon is the one who sets up Arthur’s bed since Merlin isn’t there. But the other knights get their own stuff and set them up themselves as most of them are used to doing. Even before they turned knights, if they went out camping or on trips they would set out their own beds. Even Leon set up his own bed quite a few times. (Why is this so shittt- I know I keep interrupting to talk about it, but I just lowkey hate this. It’s taking too long to redo tho.. Also, this makes no sense, but we ball.)

Gwaine takes the first shift to keep watch, and everyone else falls asleep with thoughts about what could be happening to Merlin and Elyan filling their minds. Nightmares of torture follow them into their slumber.

 

Elyan and Merlin sit next to each other in their cell. The ground is moist and cold, and the wall to their back isn’t helping to warm them up. Elyan has an arm wrapped around Merlin’s shoulders as an attempt to keep him warm. Merlin hadn’t talked much, which was unusual, even for them being kidnapped. It concerned Elyan, but he filled the silence the best he could by talking himself.

“How’s your side?” Elyan asks Merlin with a hint of worry filling his tone.

Merlin shrugs and then winces from it tugging at his wound, “It’s fine, I suppose..” Elyan nods his head to Merlin’s words to show that he heard them. He just didn’t know how to respond to them verbally. He was thinking of ways to escape, but they didn’t know if there were anyone other than just bandits. Elyan didn’t think bandits would ambush them to kidnap them, especially because Elyan realizes that the bandits were planning on kidnapping all of them, not just Elyan and Merlin for ransom or something like that. No, there had to be something else going on, Elyan thinks.

“Can I check it?” Elyan questions. Merlin nods his head and shifts a bit farther away from Elyan so it’s easier to check. Elyan grabs the edge of Merlin’s shirt and lifts it up, but doesn’t take it off fully to try and keep Merlin a bit warmer. The makeshift bandage was bled through most of the way by now. Elyan winces in sympathy as he sees it, but doesn’t mention his thoughts to Merlin yet. They didn’t have any fresh bandages around or anything to sew the wound up with, let alone something to clean it. Infection is very likely as of right now. Even if the bandage never got dirty from the outside, Elyan knew it would get infected because he couldn’t clean it properly earlier when he first bandaged it, and Merlin had been on the ground. “It’s.. Not the worst thing I’ve seen.” Elyan says, trying to make Merlin feel better.

“Sure it isn’t.” Merlin replies with a grin. Elyan chuckles at Merlin’s sarcastic response, glad he was talking from his silence earlier. It was like Merlin to try and bring up the mood sometimes. Though Gwaine always helped doing it when he was around. Elyan lets go of Merlin’s shirt and sighs as he leans back against the cold, stone wall. It certainly was a cell for people the captor didn’t like. Then again, Elyan doesn’t remember a time he’s ever seen a cell that was lovely. Unless you wanna count abusive homes that look like the best place to be until you actually live in it.

Merlin scoots closer to Elyan again, leaning his head against his shoulder. They didn’t talk anymore. They just sat together in silence with their own thoughts. Elyan tried his best to keep Merlin comfortable despite the circumstances, and Merlin tried not to make Elyan uncomfortable with their closeness. They were not the closest people, but they were still friends.

 

The two of them were woken up the next morning by their cell door opening. It made a loud creak because it wasn’t taken care of properly. Maybe the place they were taken to was abandoned and just for temporary use? Or maybe it was abandoned and their captors used it as their new home for now? Elyan doesn’t know. Nor will he probably ever know.

The person who walks in isn’t someone who looks like they were in charge. Elyan couldn’t tell if it was another bandit or a guard. They wear black leather armor and black clothes, as well as black boots that look as if they just treaded through the woods. They wear a hood over their face. “She wishes to see you.” The figure says. Elyan is surprised to note the voice sounds womanly. It isn’t often they see a woman during something like this, or in these types of clothes as well.

She gestures to two guards and they walk into the cell. The two guards go towards Elyan and Merlin, dragging them to their feet by their arms. The woman nods her head and starts walking away, the guards following her, which means Elyan and Merlin also follow her because of the guards holding them. They walk into a room that looks like a smaller version of Camelot’s throne room, and are made to kneel in front of the throne by the guards. The guards do not take their hands off of them though. Elyan and Merlin both look up at the throne and immediately tense at who they see.

Morgana. She’s in a black velvet dress, paler than the last time either of them saw her. Her jet black hair is a mess of tangles despite the fact she could probably just use magic to untangle them. Her green eyes look down at them, a glint of happiness in them. Though, Merlin and Elyan assume the happiness is not good news for them. An evil looking smile is on her face as the room stays silent. No one dares to speak before her. However, Merlin would’ve loved to if he didn’t feel so uneasy and guilty. It was his fault everyone was in this mess. (No it’s not, my sweet baby..(Well, kinda-))

“Welcome to my castle. Knight Elyan, and Arthur’s dog.” Morgana says, her tone turning harsh at the word dog. Merlin didn’t even react to the insult, but Elyan did glare at Morgana for it. He was not about to let Merlin’s name be dragged through the mud just because he was Arthur’s servant and not a knight. “I do hope you enjoy your stay.” Morgana continues before either of them can speak up about her earlier ones. Her tone is sadistic, which just helps Merlin and Elyan know they are in for a rough time here.

Morgana waves her hand and the guards lift Merlin and Elyan up off of the floor. The guards roughly lead them to a room just off of the throne room. It has many weapons pinned to the wall, and many places they could be seated or strung from. Perfect to spice things up for torture in case Morgana gets bored. Elyan doesn’t want to imagine the kinds of things they will have to go through here. Merlin doesn’t have to imagine, already knowing what people do in these kinds of places, and has been in one by Morgana before.

The guards push each of them onto separate chairs that were facing each other. It was probably what Morgana would want to use the most for double tortures. Especially if the two people know each other, or one of them is empathetic. Merlin knew what kind of person Morgana was when she was torturing people. For information, for fun, for revenge, anything. It was if a switch was turned on in her brain after Merlin poisoned her. He could barely see any resemblance to the person he once called a friend.

Merlin catches Elyan’s eyes from across the room and gives him the best reassuring smile he could at the moment. Elyan smiles back at him and gives him a small wave as the knights start to tie them down to the chairs with more rope. It was probably the same rope from earlier they used to tie them together in the cart. Though at least they weren’t tied together this time. Merlin was tied down next, using a different piece of rope. Then the guards step back and head to the door and take their position on the inside to do what their names say. Guard.

The room is silent for a few moments. Until Merlin speaks up, “So.. How long have you two been with her?” Elyan gives Merlin a look that means to shut up, though Elyan was also interested in where this was going at the same time. It’s better to not make the people who are in charge of your torture mad or offended.

The two guards raise an eyebrow and look at each other. They were wondering if they should actually reply to Merlin’s question or not, but eventually found no harm in doing so. “Uh, I’ve been here for a few weeks, and he’s been here a month and a half.” The guard on the right says. Merlin nods his head in thought at the answers. Elyan was just surprised they actually lasted that long with the witch. Merlin looked at them and was about to try and convince them that what Morgana was doing was wrong, especially since they probably weren’t that loyal to her since they are so new. But then Morgana walks in before he can speak.

The guards both tense up as she walks in, now silent from their earlier conversation. Morgana doesn’t seem to know that they were talking at all. Which is good for the guards, Merlin supposes. Morgana slowly walks into the middle of the room as if she was trying to scare them. The clicks of her heels against the stone floor echo off the matching stone walls. It uneases Elyan, which was her goal, but Merlin didn’t seem as uneased as Elyan. Morgana wasn’t surprised at that fact. Though, she was a little annoyed.

“Here’s how this will go. I want information about my dear brother, and you two will give it to me.” Morgana begins speaking, picking up a small dagger as she talks. She walks closer to Merlin and bends down so they meet eye to eye. She grins at Merlin, catching the hint of a nervous feeling in his gaze. Merlin doesn’t avert his gaze from Morgana’s. She eventually stops the staring competition and starts walking over to Elyan instead. She eyes him like a hawk, making him swallow nervously. “One of his loyal knights… How loyal will you be once I start slicing you open, I wonder..” Morgana remarks, placing the tip of her blade just under Elyan’s eye. Elyan swallows again and looks up and to the side, trying to ignore the blade altogether.

Morgana eyes Elyan up and down from where he’s tied down to the chair, a hungry and sadistic look in her eyes. “You two will do nicely. Of course, the serving boy knows everything you need to know about our dear king, but you will know some as well.. And, I’m willing to bet you’ll break faster than he does.” Morgana says, her tone turning snarky towards the end as she gestures her head back at Merlin. Elyan was confused on what she meant, as he was more trained than Merlin ever was. So, that would mean Merlin would break first... Right?

She leaves Elyan’s side and heads back to the middle of the room. She looks back and forth from Merlin and Elyan as she continues talking, “So here’s how it’s going to go. I ask you a question, and if you don’t answer, then the other person will receive one cut, sounds good?” Her grin becomes wider as she sees Merlin and Elyan both become more nervous and scared by her words. They know she won't just back out of her plan of how she’s going to torture them. And that terrified both of the men. Merlin mostly for Elyan, and Elyan for Merlin and himself. Neither of them knew how long they’d survive under this type of torture. Merlin wasn’t often tortured with other people, and he’s never been tortured like this before. He was nervous.

Merlin and Elyan make eye contact across the room. A silent understanding is between them; do not talk. No matter what Morgana puts them through, they will try their best not to betray their king.

 

Soft clinks of metal armor hitting each other, steps on the hard forest floor, trees rustling and bushes shifting are all that’s heard during this time of day as the knights travel on the path. There are no sounds of birds chirping, unusual for this part of the woods. The knights feel uneasy because of it. It was unlike birds to still not come back hours after a battle as small as that occurs. Maybe during wars they’ll stay away, but something like that? They’d come back sooner than most would think. (This is me bullshitting, guys.)

Any words they would speak are given by facial expressions or hand movements. They didn’t want to make too much noise. Partially so no one would find them, partially because they wanted to be able to hear anything out of the ordinary. The only thing they have noticed recently though was just the lack of birds. Which is both a good and bad thing.

The bandits left almost nothing for them to even track. Unusual, since nothing out of the ordinary happened that would erase tracks. It was as if magic was used. That thought makes Arthur stop suddenly, which in turn makes Gwaine bump into him. “Hey, princess, why’re you stopping?” Gwaine asks as he gets his bearings back from just running into something solid. It wasn’t like Arthur was as solid as Percival, but it still dazed Gwaine just a bit in shock from it.

“What if they use magic, and that’s why we can’t track them?” Arthur questions. He wasn’t asking anyone specifically, but he also didn’t keep it to himself. The other knights stop as well to think about what their king says. It would make sense as to why they are so hard to track, even if they were only on feet. They probably weren’t though because of having both Merlin and Elyan with them. It’d make sense for them to at least have a horse, but they couldn’t even see any human tracks.

The thought of the bandits having magic, or someone on their side who has magic was unsettling. Who knows what type of curses or spells could befall Merlin and Elyan while they were in the bandits' care… They didn’t want to think about it.

After a few moments of silence as thoughts fill everyone’s minds about what could be happening, Leon speaks up, “Merlin and Elyan are strong; they’ll be okay.”

 

Merlin grunts as he’s thrown back into his and Elyan’s cell by the same guard who took him out. He lands onto his side and rolls onto his back before the guard leaves, calling out to him, “You couldn’t just walk me in, you prick?!” The guard doesn’t even phase from Merlin’s words, just walking back outside of the cell and standing in front of it just like he did before. Elyan was thrown in next. Merlin is able to catch him before he’s also thrown to the floor, but Elyan still grunts in pain. They were just freshly tortured anyway. The guard who threw Elyan in locks the door as he leaves and then stands on the other side of it like the other guard.

“You have food in the corner, I suggest you eat it.” The guard who threw Elyan in says, then both guards become quiet. Merlin looks into each of the corners of the room until his eyes fall onto two small trays on the floor that have bread and a bit of cheese on it. The food was unanticipated, but more than what Merlin was expecting Morgana would give them. He wouldn’t think she wants them to regain their strength by eating the food, but maybe she was feeling nice today after trying out her new torture method. Elyan and Merlin both share a look and silently convey their feelings. They were trying to agree on whether eating the food was a good idea or not. Eventually, they choose to eat it and go sit in the corner where they saw it first.

The bread was hard on the outside, but surprisingly soft on the inside for prisoner food. The cheese was smooth and perfect temperature. Merlin was starting to get suspicious by how good this food was, but he couldn’t taste or feel any poison in it from his magic. Maybe Morgana really just actually wanted to be nice this time and give them good food. Or maybe she wanted to give them a good meal before she kills them… Whatever was happening, Merlin was on high alert, and Elyan was too.

At some point, Merlin’s hands were getting too shaky to break apart the bread, so Elyan reaches over and helps him break it apart so he can eat it easier. Just because the inside was soft, doesn’t mean the outside was still hard to eat. It definitely would’ve helped if Morgana gave them water or something to drink, but Merlin supposes she didn’t want to be too nice.

Once they are done eating their food, they sit in silence for a bit. Both of them look at each other’s marks and slices on their body from the previous torture. They had an equal amount done to them luckily, so neither of them felt more responsible about the other than the other does to them. Elyan did have something on his mind though… Merlin’s scars. He’s never seen them before, let alone see Merlin get them. It was like unlocking a new chapter to life, or a new book chapter that held mysteries that made you want to keep reading. He never knew his friend had gone through so much.

Before Elyan is able to ask about the scars, the guards open the door again and walk inside. “You fellas ready for round two?” The one who brought Merlin in asks them. Though, it was less of an ask and more of a way to let Merlin and Elyan know what was about to happen. They likely wouldn’t even have had a choice to do it even if they were ready or not.

“We don’t even get an hour to rest?” Elyan asks, his eyebrows raised as he looks between the guards in shock. He didn’t think Morgana would be that cruel to the both of them. But here they are. The guards come closer and grab both of them by the arm again, standing them up, and then dragging them to the hallway. What was different however, was that the guards started taking them down separate ways. “Wait, what-?” Elyan blurts out as he’s moved down the hall from Merlin, panic in his eyes as he tries reaching out for him. Merlin tried reaching also, but they were too out of reach… All they could do was look at each other as they’re dragged away.

Elyan loses sight of Merlin as he rounds a corner. He glares up at the guard who is dragging him, but the guard doesn’t notice it. Elyan sighs and just tries to focus on how many halls he’s going down, in case he needs to find Merlin again after if they aren’t put in the same place after. Or in the unlikely case of them being saved before they can be put back into their cells. Elyan could only hope Merlin could make it until then.

He’s not put into a chair this time. Instead, he’s strung to the ceiling by a few ropes. His toes barely touched the floor if he shifted the right way. But otherwise.. He was fully strung up by the ropes attached to his wrists. It was better than his neck, his dark thoughts added. If Elyan could look at his brain with disgust, he would at this moment. Unfortunately that was unpossible, so his mind will just have to know it’s being glared at in spirit. (He’s so real, why does the mind give you dark thoughts like this- Is that normal??)

He waits there for a few minutes until Morgana finally walks in. His wrists are starting to hurt by now, but he assumes that’s on purpose. He hopes Merlin isn’t getting the same treatment as him. Though, it’s probably unlikely he isn’t given he was tortured the same way earlier when they were in the room together. Maybe it was different because it was a duel torture? Morgana was too unpredictable for him to really know what was going on. He knows that she’s unpredictable on purpose though, as a strategy to confuse her opponents. And it’s working because Elyan is thoroughly confused right now.

“How was your food?” Morgana asks with a grin on her face. The grin made Elyan feel just as uneasy as before, if not more uneasy. He decides not to respond to her question because of that feeling. He doesn’t know if saying it was good is the right or wrong answer here… At the lack of reply, Morgana raises an eyebrow. “Nothing? Not even a ‘thank you’, or perhaps a curse? Lame… You make me almost miss Merlin.” She says, her grin widening.

Elyan isn’t surprised Merlin is sassy and sarcastic with Morgana, just as he is with Arthur. That boy really has a death wish. Good for him to not be afraid though, a makings of a knight if anyone would ask Leon. or anyone for that matter. If they truly knew how brave Merlin was, they’d say he should become a knight. Some people probably think he’d be treated better anyway. Or that he deserves that sort of job with all the shit he puts up with. Elyan would have to agree that Merlin does a lot for everyone while also putting up with some people, but he isn’t sure he’d really want Merlin as a knight… He doesn’t particularly like the fact Merlin could be in more danger as a knight. Then again, he’s in every battle anyway, might as well at least give him more training than just holding a shield for people to strike at.

Morgana picks up a scalding hot piece of metal from the fire made on the other side of the room. “You’re a metal worker, are you not? I think you should be quite familiar with this type of tool.. Quite fitting, don’t you think?” Morgana says sadistically. Elyan swallows nervously. He’s been burned one too many times just to know how hot that can be, and he is not excited at all to be tortured with such an item. He does think the irony is there though.

Elyan tenses as the metal gets closer to his ribs, already feeling the heat steaming off of it. He sees Morgana’s eyes turn gold in the corner of his eyes, which definitely doesn’t help his mood at the moment. He is in so much trouble right now…

 

Merlin is strung to the ceiling by some ropes as well. He hears Elyan’s screams from across the castle. The best he can do for him is do a spell to help lessen the pain. Luckily, the guard is zoning out pretty hard and doesn’t notice Merlin’s eyes turn to gold. Merlin only stops the spell as soon as the door opens and Morgana walks in.

She smiles as she sees Merlin struggling a bit with the ropes, as he’s been up there since he got into this room and had to wait for Morgana to be done with Elyan. “How’re you liking the new ropes? I found them in the garbage.” She says with a smirk on her face.

“That’s why they smell like this? I just thought it was because you had them in your grasp.” Merlin retorts. Morgana’s face turns into a snarl and she slaps Merlin in the face. Merlin groans, cracking his neck from the sudden movement after about two hours of no movement at all. He already couldn’t feel his arms, might as well try to preserve his neck from the same treatment. Morgana looks at Merlin as if he was a piece of dirt. But she knows he isn’t. She knows what kind of man Merlin is.

She goes back to her weapons of choice, grabbing a poisoned blade. It wasn’t lethal poison, oh no oh no oh no, it was just poison to make sure Merlin was in pain. And a lot of it. As much pain as she could squeeze out of his bony body. Merlin swallows heavily as he looks at the blade. He had a feeling that it was more than just what meets the eye.

A smile adorned Mogana’s face once more, “Merlin, Merlin, Merlin… Do you happen to know the new routes the knights take?” Merlin shakes his head despite knowing, which makes the smile from Morgana’s face fall again. She snarls angrily and slashes at Merlin's chest with the poisoned dagger. Merlin winces as blood starts to seep from his new wound, and he feels the poison enter his body. He also feels his magic start to fend off the poison and try to cure his already wounded body, but the torture earlier already took a lot out of his magic to start healing the wounds, so Merlin could tell it was being slower than normal.

This is not good.

 

Elyan catches Merlin as he’s thrown in. Well- catch is an overstatement. Both of them fall to the floor still because Elyan is weak from his own torture, but at least Merlin got cushioned by Elyan’s body? Both of them groan in pain as the cell door is closed and locked. Elyan looks Merlin over as Merlin tries to get his bearings back from being tortured and then just thrown away into the cell.

Merlin honestly didn’t look good. Clammy, pale, and of course fresh new wounds that they had absolutely no bandages for. Elyan was worried Merlin might go into shock soon from how much blood he’s lost recently. From his initial wound before they were captured, to the first torture, and now this second torture. Elyan’s torture was different the second time, focusing on temperature and burns instead of slashing like the first one was. The fact they literally had nothing to treat any of either of their wounds was what made it worse. Merlin was the best healer here, but even Elyan could tell they could go into shock, or get some sort of infection, if nothing gets treated soon. But neither of them were sure Morgana would even be willing to treat them. Especially not any actually good medical supplies at least.

Elyan leans Merlin against the wall and then sits next to him. He’d offer his shirt to Merlin, but he has a feeling it’s kind of melted to his skin at the moment. Merlin wasn’t much better, with all the slashes in it and his blood soaking it, but it was better than the possibility of it melting to his skin for sure.

 

By the time Merlin and Elyan are done with their torture, Arthur and the other knights have found the castle. They’re huddled together behind a few bushes and trees to hide them from the four guards at the front. Two on either side of the entrance. It’ll be an easy win as long as they don’t have magic. But Arthur doesn’t feel like just going in without a plan, despite Gwaine trying to. Percival is able to hold Gwaine back before he jumps out from the bushes. Arthur thanks him of course. Leon also thanks Percival, but only with an appreciative look and slight nod since Arthur starts talking after he thanked Percival.

“We defeat the guards in the front, and then sneak in through the door. That is, unless the alarm goes off, then we can just barge in. After that, we go to find the cells, and then grab Merlin and Elyan. If they aren’t there, then we split off into groups to go find them. Once you check your side fully, you go to the other side and continue to try and find Merlin and Elyan, unless the other group comes to you and tells you the two of them are found, then we leave.” Arthur says, laying out the plan perfectly as a king and general.

Leon and Lancelot nod along to Arthur’s plan, seeing no problems in it. Percival gives an approving look. Gwaine, who is still in Percival’s hold, gives Arthur a thumbs up as a response. Arthur smiles at his knights, “That settles it then. Are you guys ready?” Once every knight nods again–and Gwaine is out of Percival’s arms–Arthur gives the signal and they charge upon the four guards that are guarding the gate.

None of the guards anticipated an attack. They were caught off-guard (Ha-), not even having their weapons drawn before the knights were upon them. They were easily cut down by the knights. They turn their attention to the actual entrance now. It was easy to open, luckily. Arthur was actually surprised they didn’t put any sort of locking charm on the door because of how easy it was to open. Even if it wasn’t easy to open, the door was wooden, so they could’ve broken it down one way or another anyway.

The knights enter the castle on high alert. They take down anyone they come across, especially the ones that try to stop them. There didn’t appear to be anyone that looked like servants. Mostly bandits, and some of them that resembled knights but weren’t as geared up. Definitely some assassins in there as well. No druids, or sorcerers that they could see as of now thankfully. Arthur may have hunted some in the past, but he didn’t feel too keen to face one on Morgana’s turf.

It was now that the alarm started to blare, as one of the guards rang a bell. The noise was loud and hurt the knights’ ears, but there wasn’t anything they could do about it at this moment, so they continued moving around the castle. Arthur leads them through the halls and into rooms. They find the armory but soon leave it since all of them have their weapons with them. Elyan wouldn’t, but he can just snag one off a guard later. He was probably injured anyway, the thought fills everyone’s mind and only gives them more determination to find the two missing men.

 

Meanwhile, Merlin and Elyan are rudely awoken to alarms blaring into their ears. Merlin accidentally elbows Elyan in the gut as he sits up because he was laying on top of him. Elyan lets out a pained noise, but waves off Merlin’s concern and apologies. Both of them watch as bandits and other people rush past their cell. The guards stay there though, which is to be expected because the alarm probably means their friends are here specifically for them.

Elyan looks over to Merlin and smiles, “That was quicker than I thought, to be honest..” Merlin nods his head in agreement. Elyan frowns as he looks at Merlin. He was paler than before, and that was already pale.. He was hot to the touch, something he noticed only after waking up. And he also didn’t seem all there. Elyan was worried about him, but knew there wasn’t much he could do about it until they at least got out of there. Merlin probably needed Gaius more than any of them.

“Merlin, are you feeling alright?” Elyan asks, concern clear in his voice. Merlin nods his head in response once more with a soft hum, but stays silent otherwise. Elyan continues looking at Merlin, but decides not to ask anything else. He just wraps an arm around Merlin’s shoulder and lets him rest against him.

 

Arthur and the knights were still not having any luck to finding Merlin and Elyan yet. They’ve found plenty of guards and bandits and other folks, but they’ve yet to find any sort of cells of any room that held Merlin and Eylan, or even just one of them. It was as if whoever built this castle put the dungeons all the way in the back of it on purpose. It wasn’t a bad strategy, if Arthur was honest. It helped whoever broke in from the front see more guards and people, and also prolonged the time they had to gather the prisoner and escape. (Why does this lowkey not make sense… Oh well)

It takes them another five minutes of fighting and running through the castle for them to finally find the cells. All of them were empty and had no guards, until they got to the sixth one on the left. The guards look towards them and immediately freeze up. The knights know this is probably where Merlin and Elyan are being held, so they charge at the guards and run them down.

“Hey guys!” Elyan exclaims, a huge grin on his face at seeing his comrades. His body fills with relief as Arthur opens the cell door with some keys he found on one of the guards. Arthur rushes in and takes Merlin from Elyan’s arms, and Lancelot helps Elyan up.

Merlin smiles up at his king, “Took you long enough, prat.” Arthur rolls his eyes and helps Merlin to his feet, but has to catch Merlin by the waist again so he doesn’t fall back to the floor. Merlin bats Arthur’s hands away and stands up the best he can by himself. He’s slightly hunched over himself. Arthur raises an eyebrow skeptically at him.

“Just accept my help, clotpole.” Arthur says, taking Merlin’s arm and putting it over his shoulder. Merlin mutters a small, ‘that’s my line, prat’, but willingly lets Arthur guide him out of the castle. Lancelot helps Elyan out, but he luckily is in better shape than Merlin and doesn’t need as much help.

They leave the castle without anyone else coming after them. Only strange because Morgana wasn’t someone to just let people go unless she had a reason to. Like last time when Merlin had that snake in his neck; she let him go because he was being controlled, not just because she could. So everyone was still on high alert. Even as they walk miles away from the castle without a single person following them.

Eventually, they make it back to their camp and Elyan and Merlin are finally able to be looked at. Leon grimaces as he sees Elyan’s burns and cuts. “That definitely is not good..” Gwaine says as he also peers over. Leon glares at Gwaine as if to tell him he wasn’t helping, making Gwaine put his hands up in surrender and go away.

Elyan sighs, “Yeah, I figured they wouldn’t be good.. I’ve had enough burns, and seen enough for that matter, just to know that I would be in bad shape.” Leon nods his head at Elyan’s words. There wasn’t much he could do here for him, but he figured changing his shirt and cleaning the burns with cold water would help. Maybe even a cold bandage too.

“Hey, Percival,” Leon starts, waiting until Percival comes over before continuing, “Can you go get me some water from the river? A few bowls, please.” Percival nods his head and makes his way towards the river, grabbing a stack of bowls as well. Meanwhile, Leon decides to try his best with Elyan’s shirt. “This is going to hurt.” Leon says. Elyan nods his head, and happily takes the leather gloves Leon gives him to help him from being too loud, or hurting his mouth in any way.

Leon peels back the bottom of Elyan’s shirt. Luckily, there was minimal damage there, so Elyan only tensed slightly. But as Leon starts to tear off things towards Elyan’s ribs, Elyan starts to tense more and his muffled screams can be heard from the glove. Leon grimaces as he sees his friend and comrade in pain. He himself hasn’t been burned this badly yet, but he can definitely imagine how painful this is. Eventually the shirt is fully peeled off, leaving Elyan panting and already exhausted. It’s at this time that Percival comes back with the water. He passes by Lancelot and Arthur, who were taking care of Merlin, and gives them two bowls first, then comes over to Leon with three bowls. He figured Elyan would need more at the moment because of the burns. And he can always go get more for Merlin later if he needs them. Percival heads over to Gwaine once he’s done giving the bowls out, leaning against a tree and waiting to be called over for more help.

Lancelot was in charge of helping Merlin, but it definitely wasn’t good. Merlin obviously had an infection from the wound that was previously bandaged by Elyan. Of course, Merlin also told them of the poisoned knife Morgana had used on him, which probably didn’t help the wound even if it wasn’t meant to be lethal or deadly in any way. He could still die from septic shock or even just pain.

Merlin thought it to be ironic and fitting, as most sorcerers that were burned alive actually died to pain instead of the fire itself. Given that a sorcerer herself would be the cause of a different sorcerer–warlock–to die to pain was just so ironic. Especially since the sorceress was trying to make sure no more sorcerers died. Maybe that was just Merlin’s dark thoughts filling his head though. They always got worse when he was on the verge of being unconscious.

Lancelot slaps Merlin gently on the check, “Hey, no sleeping, stay with me, Merls.” Merlin groans, just wanting to sleep. Lancelot sighs. “I know, I know, but you can’t yet.” He says, gently dabbing at Merlin’s wounds with the river water Percival got earlier. He cleaned them to his best abilities and used everyone’s ripped shirts and some other things to make bandages. Elyan got the same treatment from Leon.

Arthur and Lancelot share a look, silently communicating. Both of them could tell Merlin was in bad shape. Merlin sighs softly and looks up at the sky. The birds are finally back, and Merlin smiles as he sees them fly above the group. Lancelot comes back from his and Arthur’s conversation, popping into Merlin’s view and tapping his face. “You still there?” He asks. Merlin rolls his eyes and nods his head. Lancelot smiles, “Good. We're gonna make Percival carry you back to Camelot since our horses are uh.. Dead.” Merlin shuts his eyes and thinks about how embarrassing that’s going to be. He doesn’t even care that he can barely stand, he just hates showing weakness for the whole world to see. Especially since Camelot will have a fine view of it happening because they weren’t in the castle.

Leon helps Elyan to his feet, and is willing to be his crutch on the way back to Camelot. Gwaine and Percival started taking down their camp a bit after Percival gave the bowls filled with water to Lancelot, Arthur, and Leon, so all they needed to do was just start walking. Percival goes over to Merlin and picks him up bridal style. Merlin winces a bit at the initial pick up, but soon relaxes into Percival’s hold. Then they start making their way back to Camelot by foot.

They don’t take many breaks on the way there. No one wanted to have to wait for Merlin and Elyan to be actually treated by a physician. The field treatment will hold for a while, but it obviously wouldn’t hold up to being treated properly by Gaius. If Merlin wasn't the one injured, the field treatment would probably be better, but here they were.

The townspeople gawk and whisper as the king, knights and Merlin walk through the gates. Everyone knew of Merlin of course, and most people loved him, so they were worried when they saw he was limp in Percival’s arms. They didn’t stop any of the knights to ask however, which they appreciated. They already walked very far, might as well not prolong the journey any more than they have. Arthur was regretting going on this trip when Merlin and Elyan were kidnapped, but it was heightened from the long walk they had after they got the two men back.

Eventually, they make it to Gaius. They got stares from a few servants and knights in the castle, but no one said anything. Arthur is sure Merlin will get a bunch of questions later by the servants though.

Gaius is sitting at a table and reading a book when the knights barge in. He flinches and glares at whoever walks in, but then it softens as he sees the state of Merlin in Percival’s hold. Gaius stands up and walks over to one of the cots, “Lay him down here, gently.” Percival nods his head and does as told, laying Merlin down gently onto the cot. Leon walks in after Percival and helps Elyan to a different cot. Gaius sighs and looks at the two men. Elyan gives Gaius a thumbs up to let him know he was lucid, but Merlin was completely unconscious. “Tell me what happened.” He demands out of everyone as he starts working on his not-son-nephew-person. (I’m dying, if you couldn’t tell.)

After the knights explain, and then Elyan tells them what happened while in Morgana’s ‘care’, Gaius kicks all the knights out except for Lancelot. He needs Lancelot to stay and help him work on the injured, and Lancelot was happy to help as always.

 

A few hours later, Merlin and Elyan are both as stable as they can be. Lancelot and Gaius ache with all the things they had to do. They wouldn’t trade Merlin and Elyan’s life to just not have a sore body though. Granted, Elyan wasn’t in as bad of shape as Merlin was. So it was really just Merlin they were saving.

At some point during, Merlin’s heart stopped for a full three minutes. Elyan watched on in horror as both Gaius and Lancelot just step back and wait. Then his horror grows as he watches Merlin come back to life. Of course, he was happy Merlin wasn’t dead, but that meant... He had to have magic in some way. He watched both Gaius and Lancelot watch Merlin’s body and continue working on it once Merlin is back. He didn’t see surprise or shock, just sadness and disappointment. That’s when Elyan realized both of them already knew of Merlin’s magic… And that’s probably why Gaius asked Lancelot to stay out of all the knights.

He stays silent until Merlin is lucid enough to talk. Merlin already senses what has happened, and is expecting Elyan to say something about it. He wasn’t ready for the conversation, but he knew it had to happen so he could just maybe make Elyan understand.

Lancelot and Gaius leave them alone so they could talk about it privately. They sit in silence for a few minutes, neither of them wanting to start the conversation. They don’t even know how they would start it. Does Elyan just accuse him of being a traitor? One of his friends? One of the people he trusts to have everyone’s back? Does Merlin start from when he was born? Does he explain everything? Does he only explain the magic? Merlin’s always planned on telling them, but not like this.

Elyan starts first, “So.. You have magic?” His eyebrows are furrowed as he looks at his friend. He doesn’t even know if they still stand as friends at this moment. All that can change if Merlin accepts to being a traitor, and Elyan tells Arthur about it. Everyone would be heartbroken about it. Plus, Lancelot and Gaius would also have to be tried for helping Merlin keep his magic as a secret.

Merlin nods his head. He keeps his eyes towards the ground. “I was born with it.. Could move objects before I even started crawling..” Merlin says in a defeated tone. He didn’t know if that was the right thing to say. But he felt it was. Especially because Elyan doesn’t immediately alert any guards to come in and arrest him.

“Born with it..” Elyan mutters as he tries wrapping his head around the idea. He takes in a breath, “Are you saying sorcerers can be born with magic instead of learning it? That they didn’t have a choice to have it?” Merlin nods his head to Elyan’s words again. He could tell Elyan was warming up to Merlin having magic, but it wasn’t over yet.

Merlin finally looks up at Elyan, “How.. How do you feel about it?”

Elyan makes eye contact with Merlin. He sees no deceit in his eyes, no malice, nothing to show he was a traitor to Camelot. “I feel.. Fine about it.” Elyan finally answers. He didn’t like being lied to by someone he calls a friend, but he also gets why Merlin never told them. And if he was honest, it wasn’t as if Merlin told them he didn’t have magic, he also just never said he did.

Merlin smiles at Elyan’s answer, and Elyan? He smiles back.

 

Gaius and Lancelot are with Arthur and the other knights, talking about diagnoses and how things went. “I believe Merlin has Sepsis, but it is being treated and he should be okay with time. He’ll need some time off. Sir Elyan has third degree burns, but it should only leave scars and he should be fine to return to duties in a few weeks.” Gaius says, and Lancelot nods his head in agreement despite having no idea what exactly Sepsis was. He knew what Septic shock was, everyone knew what septic shock was. Unless you were living under a rock. (Idk, bare with me guys, I’m no medical expert.)

Arthur smiles, “Can we see them?”

Gaius shakes his head. “Not yet, Merlin and Elyan need rest at the moment. Tomorrow morning, we’ll see if it’s different.” He responds. The real reason was that Gaius didn’t want Elyan and Merlin’s talk to be interrupted, but Arthur and the other knights didn’t need to know that at this time.

They were just glad the two men were alright anyway.

Notes:

Woop woop! Another chapter out! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. My main issue was actually writing Elyan and Merlin's dynamic correctly because I totally forgot how they interact in the show (Though it's not that much anyway), and I also don't read many fics of them together, so.. I hope I did Elyan justice though! Elyan lovers, please don't hate me. I love Elyan, I'm just not used to writing him, or reading him, y'know..? Anyways, the next chapter will probably be Percival because I want Arthur to be the ending chapter, and I felt like doing Mordred at the end too, so Mordred will be in chapter six! Give me ideas for future Merlin fics if ya wish, because this is my first one and so far my only one as of writing this chapter. I'll try to keep up the trend of doing long ass chapters for Merlin fics, but no promises. I'm honestly surprised by how long the chapters are for this fic anyway. Wow, this is a long note. Let me know if I did any spelling mistakes! The next thing posted should hopefully be the next chapter to Sodapop x reader, but no promises..

Make sure to drink water, and have a good day/night!

Chapter 5: Percival + Gwen

Summary:

Merlin falls down the stairs-

Uhh, regular TW? Nothing too extra in this chapter tbh.

Notes:

No intended ships, but go ahead and ship whoever ya want.

No POV:

 

Merlin sighs as he looks down the staircase he needs to go down. He has a load of Arthur’s freshly cleaned laundry in the basket in his hands, but he was worried about walking down the stairs to get back to Arthur’s chambers. Getting up the stairs wasn’t as much of a problem as going down. He knew the weight of the laundry would probably make him more wobbly, which in turn increases his chances of falling down the stairs. And he was already clumsy beforehand. Merlin sighs again as he thinks about what he should do in this scenario.

“Need help, Merlin?” A voice suddenly asks behind him. Merlin jumps in surprise and then his eyes widen as he realizes he just jumped in the direction of where the stairs are.

“Oh shit-” Merlin says as he falls down. He hears a startled shout from the person who scared him, as they probably didn’t think that Merlin would be jumpscared so badly and fall down.

Merlin groans as he lands at the bottom, the laundry sprawled around him on the floor and steps. He’ll have to wash those again… He moves his body so he’s laying on his back instead of his stomach, looking up at the ceiling. His eyebrows are furrowed in pain as he tries to process what just happened to him. Because of how long he was thinking, someone spotted him having trouble and accidentally snuck up behind him and spooked him into falling down the stairs.

He hears someone rush towards him, but he realizes the footsteps don’t come from the stairs. He looks to his left and sees Gwen crouching down next to him with a worried expression on her face. “Gwen..?” Merlin mumbles, squinting his eyes to try and make his vision more clear.

“Merlin? Are you alright?” Gwen asks in this beautifully sweet and concerned voice. It was at that point that someone rushed down the stairs with a panicked look on their face. They seem relieved to see Gwen and Merlin on the floor. Merlin recognizes the person to be Percival. He must’ve been the person to ask if I needed help, Merlin thinks. “Percival?” Gwen questions in a confused tone, wondering why Percival was suddenly there. Had he seen Merlin fall down the stairs?

Percival looks at the two and replies guiltily, “I’m sorry I scared you, Merlin, I didn’t think you were that deep in thought..” Merlin gives Percival a thumbs up and then sighs. His head hurts.

Gwen frowns, “I think he has a concussion..” Percival walks over and crouches down next to the two. Merlin’s face scrunches from the noise of Percival’s armor shifting as he crouches, as if felt so much more annoying than normal despite him being around it pretty much every day.

The knight gently opens up one of Merlin’s eyes wider so they can actually see his pupils, cringing at how dilated it is. “Yeah, he’s definitely concussed.” Percival says, agreeing with Gwen’s statement from just a few moments ago. He looks around at all the laundry on the floor and then comes up with a plan. He looks at Gwen, “I’ll take him to Gaius, and you can clean up the laundry and then meet us there?” Gwen nods her head and starts to clean up the laundry as quickly as she can. Percival scoops Merlin into his arms bridal style, even if it was kind of hard because of how lanky he is.

He walks as fast as he can without disturbing Merlin too much. Percival doesn’t bother knocking on the door, just walking in. He doubts Gaius would mind. Especially because that would mean he has to set Merlin down to knock properly. But Gaius doesn’t hear the door open because he’s not even in the room. Percival looks around in confusion and sets Merlin down onto one of the patient beds. He frowns and looks around the room again in hopes that Gaius will just magically appear. (Well, not magically, but you know what I mean-).

But Gaius doesn’t appear to be anywhere in the room. Nor does it look like he’s been there in a while. He must have something going on in the lower town, because most of the herbs Percival can see are mostly stocked. Plus, Gaius usually sends Merlin to go get herbs and stuff instead because he was younger. And he knew that Merlin enjoyed going into the woods anyway.

It was definitely inconvenient for Gaius to be gone at this time though. Because now Percival had an injured patient and he only had minimal medical training. Sure, he was a knight and had some field stuff, and he learned some herbs while he was with the Druids, but that doesn’t mean he can find his way around a physician's space and know exactly what to do without thinking too hard about it. He was wishing he was the one who fell down the stairs instead, because at least Merlin was a physician.

Percival sighs and looks at Merlin with a worried gaze. He still felt incredibly guilty about scaring Merlin earlier and causing this whole mess. He also made Gwen have to do more chores because there wasn’t anyone else in the hall that could do it besides him or Gwen, and he doubts Gwen would want to lug Merlin around the castle to get here. And that trip would probably injure Merlin more, or at least make him uncomfortable in some way, so Gwen cleaning and Percival taking him here was the best course of action.

He starts to look around the room and grabbing a few things he thinks he’ll need. Luckily, Gaius and Merlin like to keep their things labeled very obviously and neatly, so Percival didn’t have much trouble finding the things that he needs. He’s mixing a tonic for Merlin’s pain together when Gwen walks into the room. She carries the basket Merlin had dropped earlier while falling down the stairs, and has all the laundry that fell out of it back in the basket. It must’ve been hard to get here.

“Where’s Gaius?” Gwen asks, looking around the room as she sets the basket down close to the door.

The knight shrugs as he pours the fresh tonic into Merlin’s mouth and helps him swallow it, “He isn’t here, probably in the lower town for a birth or something.” Gwen hums in thought as she watches Percival take care of their wounded friend. She smiles softly at how tender he’s being. She isn’t surprised, however. Most people who knew Percival personally knew that he was a gentle giant.

Gwen takes it upon herself to check Merlin’s head for any bleeding. She’s relieved to find no bleeding, and just a small lump on the back of his head. She doesn’t remember seeing any blood on the floor where Merlin had fallen, but that doesn’t mean it just took a while to start bleeding because it was a small cut. If he was going to be bleeding from the fall though, he’d already be bleeding by now. “His head seems good..” Gwen mutters quietly. Percival nods his head and then checks Merlin’s pupils again now that he realizes he’s going to have to take care of him fully.

Percival isn’t surprised to see that Merlin’s pupils are still dilated and that he doesn’t seem to be focusing too much on the things around him. The good thing was that Merlin did follow movement slightly, so they know he isn’t totally knocked out. He was just probably tired because head injuries always made people tired.

“You can go to sleep, Merls, we’re gonna take care of you.” Percival says.

Notes:

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I realized that Gwen didn't really have a chapter because I was more focused on the knights, but I kinda wanted to write her, so she is a bonus for this chapter! Sorry this chapter is so much shorter than the other ones by the way, that's just kind of how it ended up. The next thing out should be my Shiro and lance nightmare fic! My Tumblr is @rileyh20 if ya need me otherwise or you kind of just... Wanna see me, idk??

Make sure to drink water, and have a good day/night!

Chapter 6: Mordreddddd

Summary:

Mordred finds Merlin in the forest, who has been missing for three days. He helps him with a few spells placed on him.

TW: Mention of Torture, Mention of Kidnapping, Mention of past/implied injuries.

Notes:

Not meant to be a ship!

No POV:

 

Mordred walks through the forest. He, along with many other knights, have been sent out to find Merlin, who has been missing for three days after he went out to gather some herbs for Gaius. No one has seen or heard anything of him. Not even the locals or travelers that they come across have said something about the missing boy. Everything just felt like a dead end.

So this leads Arthur to decide to send out some knights alone instead of in groups, which is why Mordred is alone while he searches for Merlin. Of course, Arthur didn’t choose random knights to send alone, but he figured Mordred would be alright on his own. Mordred gladly accepted the task of finding Merlin. It would actually help that he was alone, because he could attempt to use magic to find Merlin faster.

He took off his boots and hung them onto his waist so he could spread his magic through the ground and feel the forest around him. It was something the Druids taught him to do when he was younger. It helped him feel the plants and creatures around him, which means he’d be able to feel if Merlin or someone was nearby in case he couldn’t see them.

Mordred walks along a mossy log over a small stream, and then steps into a small clearing filled with more moss and leaves. That’s when he sees a body on the floor. He rushes over and flips the person onto their back, and gasps as he sees it’s Merlin. Mordred can tell that something was wrong with him, but he didn’t know what. “Emrys.” Mordred says, shaking Merlin’s shoulders to try and wake him up. Merlin luckily wakes up after a few minutes of Mordred calling for him and shaking the life out of his body. He groans, but Mordred doesn’t hear anything. Mordred looks down at Merlin in confusion as Merlin blinks up at him. “Why can’t I hear you?” Mordred questions.

Merlin huffs and glares up at the sky as he thinks about what happened. He was just gathering herbs when a random sorcerer kidnapped him and had this whole plan about Arthur and tortured Merlin because he was Emrys and blah blah blah. He remembers the sorcerer placing a mute spell on him so he wouldn’t go tell anyone about his plan, and he wouldn’t be able to advise the king anymore. The only thing that was new was the spell that made him mute. That was going to be annoying.

Speaking in Mordred’s mind, Merlin replies with, ‘Mute spell’. Mordred nods his head and then helps Merlin stand up. Merlin surprisingly couldn’t keep himself up for very long however, so Mordred had to catch him before he fell again.

“Are you okay?” Mordred asks. Merlin’s eyebrows furrow in confusion as he thinks about why he can’t stand, but he nods his head anyway. He’s not sure what’s happening, but he knows he’ll be able to fix it at some point. Or the stupid lizard will as a last resort. Merlin grumbles under his breath as he thinks about needing to call Kilgharrah. He was not in the mood for any riddles today. (I messed up spelling the dragon’s name so often, it’s not even funny.)

Mordred makes Merlin sit back down onto the forest floor. He should see if he can reverse or heal whatever happened to him first, to try and make the trek back home better. His hands hover as he thinks about what he should do first. He could try and see about physical injuries, and then spells, or he can do the opposite and do spells first so Merlin can tell him about any potential injuries. He goes with the latter option. All he needs to do is figure out how to counteract the mute spell. It was different from the ones he’s ever encountered, especially because it even made Merlin’s sounds mute. “Okay uh… Do you know what I need to do to fix that mute spell?” Mordred asks.

Merlin nods his head and grabs one of Mordred’s hands, placing it against his chest and letting the flow of Mordred’s magic help him complete the spell. He’s not sure why exactly, but his magic is feeling weak. After a few seconds, Merlin lets go of Mordred’s hand and then sighs. Mordred smiles as he’s able to hear it. “Are you hurt?” Mordred questions.

Merlin shakes his head no, “The guy healed all my injuries before letting me go, which is weird, but I’d rather not be injured.” Mordred nods his head in agreement. He looks over Merlin and frowns as he sees how pale he was. Merlin was always really pale, but he just seemed extra pale right now. Mordred chalked it up to probably not eating or drinking well while held captive. He was sure Merlin wasn’t treated like the king he was while imprisoned.

Mordred helps Merlin stand up again, but has to catch him once more. Merlin looks puzzled as Mordred lowers him to the floor again. He has no idea why he feels so weak, but not in pain. “Are you sure you’re alright, Emrys?” Mordred questions again, a frown full of worry on his face. Merlin sighs and shakes his head no as a response. Usually, he would just lie and say yes, but he has a feeling he’ll need Mordred’s help with whatever was wrong. He also had a feeling that he had another spell placed on him while he wasn’t aware. Mordred gets a determined look on his face, “What can I do to help?”

“Just give me a second to figure out what’s wrong.” Merlin replies. Mordred curtly nods his head and leans back a bit to give Merlin some space. He patiently waits as Merlin closes his eyes and thinks really hard, letting his magic do a full body search to see what was happening. It took longer than it normally did, and Merlin can feel his magic slowing down slowly. It was as if it was being drained from him by the minute. And that realization helped Merlin realize what was happening. “A draining spell.” Merlin says.

Mordred looks at Merlin in confusion, “What’s that?”

“I’ll give you a book on it or something later, just give me your hand again.” Merlin says quickly, not wanting to deal with Mordred’s questions. Plus, the longer they waited, the longer it was going to take for Merlin to fix it because of his draining magic. He was going to use more of Mordred’s magic to make it go faster and actually work like it’s supposed to. Mordred complies without another word and gives Merlin his hand, who holds it to his chest. Merlin starts to breathe deeply and focus on his and Mordred’s magic mixing together. After two minutes, Merlin opens his eyes again and lets go of Mordred’s hand. “All done.” Merlin declares.

Mordred smiles and helps Merlin to his feet again. Then the two of them walk back to Camelot.

Notes:

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, tho I kinda thought it was bad. The next one is Arthur! No idea what I'm gonna do for him tho lol. Give me some ideas for future fics if ya want! I'm always open to them. And I'll need more Merlin fic ideas since this is currently my only one posted. Anyways, the next thing out should be the next chapter to my sick Darry fic!

Make sure to drink water, and have a good day/night!

Notes:

Woohoo, first Merlin fic! Sorry, I'm hyperfixating on it for a moment so I needed to write something! My Tumblr is @rileyh20. I do take requests and stuff (Usually for Voltron, Merlin, or The Outsiders). I hope ya enjoyed the first chapter! The next thing out is a surprise for me, since I'm chasing vibes to get rid of some writers block and burnout! I might not update as much in a few days since I'm moving and have been having some mental problems, but otherwise I'll try to update when I can.

Make sure to drink water, and have a good day/night!

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Being Emrys means the gods like to torture you (Which is currently me)
• Part 33 of A break from angst for your poor, poor soul