The Angels In The Game (Merlin Fanfic)

Chapter 2

Time melted away. Hour upon hour passed. Sitting, pacing, thinking until eventually Arthur stood up.

“This can’t go on”, He said forcing everyone to look at him.

“We can’t just sit here waiting for god knows what”.

“What do you suggest we do?”, Merlin asked “We can’t climb out, we certainly can’t walk out. There are no doors or windows to break through”.

“I’ve been thinking”, Arthur said “The key to getting out of this place is the roof, right”,

“Yes and we can’t get there”, Gwaine said

“Well maybe we could, somehow”, Arthur said

“How?”, Percival asked

“I don’t know. Maybe if we somehow made some sort of rope we could swing it up and…”, Arthur trailed off.

At that moment the hatch in the roof opened and some things were dropped in. They were long and thin and they wriggled. They realised that they were snakes when they hit the ground. Two were slain swiftly but the other had landed right by Arthur and it wasted no time in attacking. Before they had even registered it the snake had sunk it’s fangs into Arthur’s leg and injected it’s venom. It released it’s fangs and was almost immediately killed. It was too late, the damage was done.

Arthur seemed fine for a moment but then the colour left his face and he fell to the floor, unconscious.

　

　

Over the next few hours the pit became slowly darker and colder. Arthur lay in the corner where they had put him. Merlin had taken a look at him but there was nothing he could do.

　

Morning came around again and there was a delivery of food and water.

　

Arthur woke up lying on the floor of the pit. He took a moment to remember where he was and when he did he tried sit up. This movement caught the attention of everyone else, there wasn’t exactly much else for them to look at. He immediately regretted it. Pain exploded in his head and the world began to tilt wildly to one side and then the other. He was about to black out again when he felt hands on his shoulders, guiding him back down.

It was Merlin.

“Merlin…”, He said but his voice was rough and weak. Merlin handed him a water skin and he drank thirstily.

“How long was I out?”, He asked when he could speak again.

“Too long for my liking”, Merlin said “I can’t tell how long an hour is in this place”, Arthur felt unconsciousness creeping up on him again and he fought to stay awake.

“You should rest, your weak”, Merlin said

“I’m fine”, Arthur muttered but already his vision was blurring and fading and before he knew it he was asleep again.

Arthur woke again some time later. His throat was dry and his head was aching. His thoughts moved slower than a snail and when he tried to move his limbs felt heavy as rocks. He tried to look around but his vision was fuzzy and he couldn’t focus on much in particular. He managed to make out the sleeping forms of his friends, lying motionless on the floor. He felt the blackness closing in on him again and no matter how hard he fought it, in the end there was only going to be one victor. Arthur felt his eyes closing and the last thing he thought before sleep took him was “Please let this end”.

Arthur began to improve quite swiftly after that. He spent his time drifting in and out of consciousness but he was gradually regaining his strength.

They were all sitting and nobody was really saying anything when the hatch opened and a large basket was lowered in. The basket was covered with a cloth but they could hear a faint growling sound from below the covering.

When the basket hit the floor Gwaine slowly walked forward, sword in hand and peeled back the sheet. Underneath was a cat like creature with sandy coloured fur and bright green eyes. Before anyone could react, the cat sprang at Gwaine and landed on him, ripping a large gash in his chest with it’s claws before Percival lunged at it and stuck his sword through it’s head, killing it instantly.

Gwaine sank to his knees blood soaking his shirt. He swayed and then fainted only to be caught by Merlin.

“He’s bleeding heavily”, Merlin said ripping Gwaine’s shirt open so he could examine the wound “We need to stop this now before he dies of blood loss. I need bandages”.

Leon grabbed the sheet from the basket and cut some strips from it and handed them to Merlin who swiftly bandaged Gwaine tightly to stem the blood flow.

Once the bleeding had stopped Merlin removed the bandages and took a closer look at the gash.

“He was incredibly lucky”, He said “This gash is deep”,

“I thought you said he was lucky”, said Arthur who was sitting up watching Merlin. He was still very pale and quite weak but he was of little concern now compared to Gwaine.

“If the gash had been much deeper it would have reached his organs and I wouldn’t have been able to help him”, Merlin said.

A closer inspection of the basket produced a bundle of herbs which just happened to be the right ones Merlin needed to help Gwaine.

“Someone is playing with us”, Merlin said, eyeing the bundle “They keep bringing us close to death and then pulling us back so that we can keep fighting”.

Merlin dressed Gwaine’s wound and then he made sure Arthur ate and drank plenty so that he could regain his strength before finally lying down in a corner and falling into an exhausted sleep.