Profound Bond

Chapter 13- Tracks

"Hurry up, Merlin, we don't have all day!" Arthur snapped at his manservant. Merlin quickened his pace, catching up to Arthur and following alongside him. They had left the horses behind some time ago, for the trees had grown far too dense.

"Remind me why I'm here, again?" Merlin asked, holding Arthur's crossbow tighter against his chest.

"Merlin, don't you ever listen?" Arthur sighed. "We're here to track the lynx. Some villagers say it headed to this part of the forest. You, Merlin, are here because you are my servant, and I require someone to carry my things."

"Oh..." said Merlin as Arthur gave him an exasperated glare, "Right."

The boy continued to stumble after Arthur for hours longer, and still they found nothing. No prints, no flattened grass; nothing. How were they meant to track a beast, if there were no means of tracking it in the first place? It was verging on twilight when the duo finally thought of setting back to Camelot.

Until they heard something from up ahead.

"Shh, Merlin," Arthur whispered, pulling out his sword slowly. "Can you hear that?"

As the pair approached the sounds, it became obvious to them. It was voices. They were coming from a clearing. Arthur signalled for Merlin to duck beneath some bushes close by and then hid himself behind a tree.

"So what does he expect us to do?" A gruff voice said, "Drag her back home?"

"He said not to hurt her," another one grunted.

"Well..." A lighter sounding voice said, "If she don't cooperate, we'll just tell the king she were putting up a fight. He just wants her back alive, he don't really care for her. It's the queen who's so fond."

It struck Merlin as an odd conversation, to which he wished he knew the context. Arthur leaned out, hoping for a glimpse of the men. His foot just so happened to land on a twig, snapping it in half.

"What was that?" The first voice that had spoken asked. Arthur, whipped back behind the tree, holding his breath. Merlin stared at him anxiously.

"I dunno," said the lighter voice. He stepped closer to Arthur's hiding spot. Just as he neared the tree, there was an even louder sound from the opposite direction. It was the sound of a sword being unsheathed. A gasp from the men in the clearing followed promptly.

"Look out!" The gruff-voiced one yelled in alarm. Arthur was about to step out again, but Merlin waved at him not to.

"Who are you?" One of the men asked distressfully. There was no reply from the unseen attacker. Instead, there were just the sounds of swords hitting each other and bodies colliding with the ground.

"Get him!" The lighter voice cried. But there was soon a loud smack and the same voice then yelled, "On second thought, let's get out of here!"

Merlin and Arthur looked out in time to see three rough looking men scramble off into the trees hurriedly. They were out of sight in seconds.

There was just one person who remained in the clearing. It was a man dressed entirely in silver armour, and he was standing where the other men had just been. He held a sword in his hands. Merlin supposed that it was the sword he had heard being unsheathed earlier.

His back was to Merlin and Arthur, but even if he had been facing them, his helmet covered his entire face, making it impossible to know who he could be. The armour didn't show insignia of any sort and there were no markings to reveal any part of the supposed knight's identity.

He looked side to side before putting his sword back into his belt and walking away. Obviously he had not noticed either of them standing behind him.