Always Be With You - Merthur

Chapter 18

Arthur pov.

Arthur slowly regained consciousness. The first thing he felt was the back of his throbbing head. It felt like it had been split it open and bashed in. What happened? How did he get here? His eyes were still shut tightly and it was dead quiet in here... Wherever 'here' was. Carefully, Arthur sat up and winced when all his muscles protested against the idea. He rubbed the back of his head. His head was pounding and stinging, but at least he was killing the whole 'being knocked out as long as possible' thing.

The sudden flare of pain restarted his brain and he gasped at all the memories that all hit him without any warning, causing him to inhale a great amount of dust in the air and have a short, but violent coughing fit before finally regaining his breath. Alright, this might just be the worst day in his life. Merlin. Was Merlin okay?

Arthur opened his eyes and looked at him. Merlin was still sort of underneath him, paler than before. his heart sank. "Merlin?" He breathed. Of course he didn't wake. That didn't help him at all. "Merlin!" Not knowing what to do, Arthur grabbed his head and gently tilted it to rest on his lap so he could check if he had any wounds apart from the cut above his eyebrow. 

He fell completely limp against him. Arthur laid two fingers against his neck to check his pulse. He did. "Good, good, that's good, that's..." He had dealt with unconscious people before, but he never got used to it. And for some reason, Merlin... Merlin being like that spiked his worry in a way that never happened with anyone else he knew. It was confusing and frustrating and it made him want to throw thing sometimes.

"Alright, I need you to wake up now." He said, gently squeezing his shoulder to wake him. There was no response. "Please." Arthur added. "For me?" He didn't react. If anything, Merlin looked even more like death than before. Not good. Not good at all. Arthur checked his pulse again. Maybe Merlin was dying and he was sitting here, not being able to do anything to help him. 

He was going to ask Gaius for a few books when he got back, he couldn't keep going around expecting everything to work out just fine when he didn't know anything that could help him make sure Merlin - and other friends didn't die on him!

For now, Arthur was just going to have to find a way out of here. He looked around the room, or what was left of the room. It was very dark, they were underground, so the collapsing of the roof had no effect on the darkness in there.

He went over the room again and saw a hole in the floor. It was half burried in rocks and there was a lot of dust on top of it. The air still made it hard for Arthur to see or breathe properly. Luckily, his shirt worked just fine to help him not choke on it again. He stood up, gently laying Merlin back down to examine what seemed to be a underground tunnel.

He lowered himself down and landed on the ground with a soft 'Thump'. Tunnels underneath the Castle. Of course. Nothing seemed to have given out in here... But when Arthur tested the wall, fragments of soil like stone let go and fell down. 

This was not exactly stable, but Arthur wasn't going to stay here forever and there was no other way as far as he was concerned. It would be fine for now. There wasn't enough light to see every little detail, but Arthur's eyes had adjusted to the dark enough for him to at least see where he was going. 

"Okay." 

Arthur sighed and pulled himself back up trough the hole. "It'll be fine. Absolutely fine." He winced as more of the clay broke off when he stood too close to the edge. 

Now, he only had to get Merlin and see if he could go in there while carrying him. Shouldn't be a problem. No.  When he got back, he remembered something. He didn't have a weapon, because he had dropped the sword- Excalibur - and it was now probably buried underneath the stones. 

He didn't have time to get it, so he reached in Merlin's bag and found what he as looking for. The dagger Merlin had used with a weird amount of skill earlier. Now he could defend himself if more bandits decided it was a nice day to attack him.

The dagger went into his belt, where he could easily reach it and he bent down to pick up Merlin bridal style. It took him less effort than he'd first thought. Merlin didn't weigh that much. Let's do this. Arthur went back to the hole. It was a five feet jump, so he was going to have to be careful not to break his back by the impact - he didn't have his hands to steady him now - but he could do it.

Ignoring his instict that told him 'Don't jump!' Arthur stepped into the hole in the marble floor. Just as he expected, he only just managed to steady himself without dropping his friend and straightened up again. Good. Still on high alert, Arthur began walking to the left. 

~o~

He really hoped that at least one of the horses had stayed nearby, he had to reach Camelot as soon as possible so Gaius could help Merlin. Eventually, Arthur saw a light source on the end of the tunnel. Merlin's head was resting on his shoulder. He hadn't moved once and Arthur felt his worry for him slowly turn into anxiety. He couldn't die on him. The thought of that seemed unreal now that Merlin was with him almost every hour of every day.

Walking faster, Arthur reached the end and saw that the tunnel ended about 50 yards from the castle. He also immediately noticed that it was still nighttime. Not too much time had gone by. He expected to be attacked from all sides the moment he stepped outside, but nothing happened. In fact, when he looked around he noticed that there weren't any guards at all. 

Why wouldn't there be anyone? Weird... There was an owl somewhere close, hooting softly and if he squinted, Arthur could make out the outline of a hedgehog next to a tree. There wasn't a lot of time, Arthur had to get Merlin to Gaius. 

He continued his walk to where the horses would hopefully still be and then he realised. The guards weren't here because they were all on their way to Camelot - they were probably already there - and no one stayed behind because they would think Merlin and him were dead. 

The prince was already 'taken care of', so they could all go. The more the merrier. With that being said, Arthur figured they would have to kill the king. That added to his hurry to get back. They were going to kill his father. He couldn't let them do that. 

When Arthur finally reached the place they'd left the horses, he just managed to restrain himself from yelling a relieved 'HA!' as his horse and Merlin's were still there, happily grazing in the grass. Still, Arthur couldn't say it was his lucky day from literally everything else that had happened to them today.

Quickly, he got on his horse, placing Merlin in front of him so he could make sure he was okay and called for the other one to follow them. It loyally obeyed and they left in a quick pace. they would get to Camelot by morning.

A/N ~ Hello.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! That's it

~ Fia