Defeating the Darkness (A Merlin Fanfiction)

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Characters belong to BBC 1, not me.

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Merlin's heart pounded, unsure of what to do. "Percival..."

"We couldn't find any pink flowers, Merlin," Arthur huffed, out of breath as he approached the two. "Is there any other way... Percival!"

"I found a flower myself," Merlin quickly said. "It, uh, worked pretty well."

The remaining knights hurried up behind Arthur, sighing in relief as they saw Percival awake. Leon clapped him on the back and smiled. Percival returned the grin nervously.

"Guys, uh..." Percival started.

Oh no oh no oh no, he's going to tell them, Merlin thought, anticipating the moment when Percival would expose his secret and all his friends would abandon him just like that.

Percival glanced at Merlin, then quickly looked away and cleared his throat. "Thanks for getting me here. With the whole magic arrow infection and all."

Arthur smiled and patted him on the back. "Anytime, buddy. Merlin, how about some dinner?"

Merlin let out a tiny sigh of relief, then nodded and stood up slowly. He looked down and offered his hand to Percival. "You alright?"

Percival gave the slightest of nods but refused to meet Merlin's eyes. He ignored Merlin's hand and heaved himself up on his own.

"Percival, I..."

The knight shook his head and limped away from Merlin.
/At least he's not revealing me to the others,/ Merlin thought. He would try to talk to Percival later, but for now, being ignored was better than being exposed.
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Merlin sat on a thick log as he stirred a pot of soup over the fire. The soup was no luxury; just a few vegetables and spices he had brought for the journey, but it was better than nothing. The knights lounged on beds of grass or at the bottom of trees, with their eyes closed or sharpening their swords. Merlin sighed as he stirred, pondering what to do about Percival.

Maybe Merlin could try to convince him that what he did was not magic; that he had healed him with herbs before he woke up and the spell he had uttered was just a prayer in the ancient language. But Merlin quickly disregarded that idea; Percival was no idiot, and it would just make him more suspicious of Merlin.

Then he had two options: either talk to Percival to convince him that Merlin only used his magic for good and ratting him out would only cause trouble, or to avoid Percival and hope he didn't talk to the other knights about what he had seen.

Merlin opted for the first choice.

The soup started to boil loudly over the fire and Merlin was snapped out of his thoughts. He stood up to grab the stack of bowls and briefly caught Percival's eye before the knight looked away.

"Dinner," Merlin called. The knights all lined up to get soup, and by the time Merlin had served them all, there was barely any left for him.

"Here, Merlin." Percival poured some of his soup into Merlin's bowl. "Thanks for saving me."

Merlin looked at him, astounded. "Uh, no problem..." He looked around to make sure no one else was in earshot. "Aren't you mad...?"

Percival looked down. "No, I guess just surprised. I see why you can't tell anyone, but... I'm a Knight of Camelot, I'm supposed to kill everyone with magic."

Merlin quickly stuttered, "I know, I know, but I would never... I only use my magic for things like healing, and saving Arthur on the countless instances where he almost ends up killing himself."

Percival nodded. "Yeah, I trust you. I think."

"Thanks."

"Does anyone else know?"

Merlin hesitated. "Gaius."

"Of course he would..." Percival turned to Merlin. "Arthur trusts Gaius with his life. So if Gaius trusts you, then so do I." He took a deep breath. "I won't tell anyone, Merlin... You're around the king every day, obviously, if you wanted to do something to hurt him, you've had a million chances."

"Thanks, Percival."

The knight glanced at Merlin. "Ever thought about telling Arthur? You two do have a pretty close friendship."

"I was about to... Every time I try to prove to him that magic isn't all bad, something goes wrong and he ends up hating it even more. And then Uther died of magic... No, I can't tell him."

Percival nodded. "I won't say anything." He clapped Merlin on the back and headed over towards the other knights.

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Hope you like it so far.
-xx lilypad