Just The Beginning (Prince Merlin Fanfic)

Chapter 10: Bandits (cause you can't have a merlin story without them)

Quickly we were surrounded, it was seven of us fighting thirteen of them. Two of them went for Arthur seeing he was the king of Camelot. Lancelot, Gwaine and Percival were fighting two at the same time. For some reason, three bandits came for me. They were big and muscly I was no match for them. They had swords I had nothing but my magic which I couldn't use openly.

They swarmed around me, I couldn't run, then one of them slashed their sword at me. I dodged it just in time. I came up with an idea I mockingly poked my tongue out at him making him angry and he tried to run me through again I ducked and instead of the sword hitting me it hit the bandit behind me. Another bandit tried to stab me but failed since I muttered:

"Ahathian." Making the hilt of the sword burn white-hot and the bandit dropped it. The bandit who tried to kill me first came back trying to knock me out with the hilt of his sword when Gwaine and Percival came and finished him off.

"Thanks," I panted.

We went to go help Lancelot who was struggling with a very overweight bandit.

"Hey, fatso!" Gwaine called out to him, "why don't pick on someone your own size?"

The outraged bandit charged towards Gwaine leaving Lancelot to catch his breath. Before the bandit even got a metre close to Gwaine, Percival tripped him and Gwaine stabbed him.

"Nice one, Percy!" Gwaine complimented, "Lance? How'd you get stuck with one so hideous?"

Lancelot just glared at Gwaine not finding it funny at all. I looked around and spotted Arthur fighting a bandit not noticing another one gaining up behind him who looked very eager to spill Arthur's blood. I looked around and spotted one of the bandit's swords lying on the ground. I picked it up and stabbed the bandit straight in the back.

Arthur killed his bandit turning around to see the scene of me holding a bloody sword and a dead bandit lying lifeless right by his feet he immediately understood his servant had just saved his life 'again'.

"Thank you, Merlin," he said surprising himself and everyone else.

"No problem," I grinned, Arthur was actually saying thank you to me! His clumsy servant! You don't hear that every day! This couldn't get any better.

After we finished the last two bandits that Leon and Elyan were fighting we decided we had enough hunting and we should go back to Camelot. On the way back Arthur who was riding next to me said.

"I meant it you know."

"What?"

"For saving me," he muttered.

"Oh yeah, it was nothing." I was enjoying this.

"So...I suppose I should give you some sort of reward. Not many servants get the chance to save a king's life," he said so quietly I barely heard him.

"Could I!?" I exclaimed.

"Yes, Merlin," he rolled his eyes. "What do you want?"

"I want two day's off so my sister and I can go to Ealdor," I said without a second thought.

"You can go as long as you take a knight with you." So he does care about me. I raised my eyebrow at him.

"Just choose a knight!' He exclaimed frustrated.

"Oh ...er...Lancelot." I chose him because he was the only knight who knew about my magic.

"Why do you seem closer to Lancelot out of all the knights?" Arthur asked suspiciously.

"Well...I did know him before all the other knights"

"Oh yeah."

When I got to Esmeralda I found her in my old room -which was now her's- looking through the cupboard. Noticing me she turned around.

"You're early?"

"Arthur gave me 2 day's off for saving his life," I smirked.

"Lucky you. What are you going to do in this spare time may I ask?"

"We're going to Ealdor. Yes, you too," I answered her questioning look.

"Oh yay! Gwen let me have some time to clean your room. It's a mess. Why do you have so many red things here?"

"Oh," my face fell, " I still can't make a strawberry." She came over to me and hugged me.

"So," she said trying to enlighten the mood "tomorrow me and you go-"

"-and Lancelot," I remembered.

"And Lancelot?" She asked, biting her lip.

"Yeah Arthur made me take a knight so obviously I chose Lance." I looked her way but it seemed she had stopped listening when Lancelot was mentioned. She was looking outside the window and had an odd look in her eyes, I knew that look.

"You're in love with Lancelot," I was more a statement than a question.

"Huh? What no!"She said unconvincingly.

I raised my eyebrow.

"Ok fine I am." She confessed.

"You can tell him tomorrow then you two would be perfect together."

"There is no way I'm telling him," she looked horrified at the thought. "You don't just tell someone you like them!"

"If you barely go near the person there's no other way to tell them. Maybe they like you back but how will you know?"

"In some ways. Now hurry up and start packing we're going to see mother tomorrow!" She squealed excitedly.

The next day we said bye to Gaius and Gwen and were waiting for Lancelot in the courtyard on our horses.

"Where is he?" I asked looking around for any sign of him.

"There!" Esmeralda pointed out a figure riding towards us.

"Here you two are, I've been waiting for ages then I got bored and went for a ride. Shall we get going?" Lancelot said.

"Yes let's go." I agreed.

It was very awkward Esmeralda had become very silent the reason was clear to me as she had only told me yesterday, she was on my left on my right was Lancelot he had never been the one to talk a lot that was always Gwaine so it was up to me to start a conversation.

"Where are you going while Esmeralda and I are at Ealdor Lance?

"Oh, I might go to a village nearby and there might be good training grounds there."

"I'm surprised we haven't been attacked by bandit's yet," Esmeralda said finally. But she may have spoken too soon because 3 seconds later five bandits came out of the bushes holding swords, axes and maces.