RULES- Gwaine, BBC Merlin

SEVEN

His lips haunted her.

She tossed and turned but still those lips made its way into her dreams, kissing her in a new and delicious way. There was a longing that dug deep within her, Aphrodite had found an aphrodisiac with those lips.

Eyes flung open as once again, the moments in the Great Hall came back to haunt her- binding her in a complete knot. God! How could she cope?

Perhaps a walk.

She wrapped her cloak tightly around her shoulders to deter the cold from the corridors reaching her and left the room behind her with a small 'click' as to not wake her Father who's own room was not too far. Of course. The cracks and crevices of the stone walls met her fingertips as she trailed her hands across it, the other ghosting her lips- still haunted by the touch of a man she had only just met. It all seemed utterly preposterous yet so right at the same time. She brushed her hair over her shoulder and tried to recite the herbs and their healing    properties. Gaius tended to surprise her with tests and now was a better time than any to practice. 

The torches continued to twinkle in the light as the maze of the castle that she has memorised, the silence a blanket wrapping around her. No one in sight.

"CLANG"

A great noise reverberated off the walls and Eliana dropped her cloak in shock, the deep violet pooling to the floor in a velvet spill, nerves creeping up her spine as she crept closer to the noises from the lit door at the end of the corridor.

"I was just rearranging the bedclothes, that's all!"

Merlin. The muffled protests of Merlin escaped the room as Eliana approached. The sounds of swords and daggers unsheathed made her flinch, but still drawing herself closer to the door in an attempt to listen.

"You hear that, Sir Ethan. He was just rearranging the bedclothes."

"My mistake, he's not the snivelling thief I thought he was."

"I thought you might be cold!"

"Of course you did."

Some sense of instinct clicked to places when the sounds of daggers clanged jarringly together and words of a man she utterly detested followed and she burst in, taking in the scene in front of her. Merlin, ducking from the wrath of the two 'Knights' in front of him. Her mouth dry, sweat licking down her back at the predatory gazes that looked her up and down. She gripped Merlin's arm tighter angling her body to block his. She was breathing heavily but she continued to look Oswald in the eye. Despite her nerves, she refused to back down.

"Princess, how nice of you to join the show!"

He began to stalk towards her, a predator observing his pray before grabbing her wrist in an iron wrought grip, pulling her towards him.

"We were just teaching Merlin, here, what happens when you steal from the wrong person." He smirked looking down at her. 

"Is that so? I hadn't realised you had the authority to make such a decision." She didn't stand down, not wanting him to see through the steely expression that truly marked unending terror.

"As a Knight I demand the respect I deserve."

"Respect is to be earned. It is not given."

The sword was unsheathed once more from his partner and the grip on Eliana's arm only tightened some more. He opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted by a new presence that entered the room.

"Is there a problem here?"

Gwaine stalked into the room, gripping his sword tightly. His gaze fell from Merlin to Eliana, her mask falling as he moved farther into the room- her eyes silently begging him to save her from the clutches of Sir Oswald.

'No. Now leave."

Oswald released Eliana, his hand reaching once more to the hilt of his sword. Gwaine instantly lunged for her, angling himself so his body shielded hers. The need to protect her was overwhelming.

"You alright Merlin, Eliana." Both clearly distressed, he could read the situation like a book.

"I thought I told you to leave."

The tension was slowly rising as both men readied themselves for the inevitable.

" How dare you speak to a Knight like that?"

The clashes of swords came to quickly as the attack began, Gwaine pushing Eliana into Merlin's arms, shielding her from the clashes and clangs of swords meeting each other in a deathly crescendo. Merlin's yells of encouragement and warnings toward Gwaine joining the fight from afar. He looked ready to help with an incantation but he continued to clutch Eliana tightly, brining her away from the line of fire. It seemed to be going toward Gwaine's advantage but the  the door once again opened and Sir Leon and the guards burst into the room.

"What's going on?"

Oswald knocked him down as he took advantage of Gwaine's distracted state and he fell to the floor. She gasped as he fell, rushing to his aid, grabbing the top of his arm and brushing back his hair to examine the wound that now graced his forehead. 

"This man attacked me. I demand an audience with the king."

They hauled Gwaine away before she could protest his innocence.