The Boy and the Beast: A Merthur Beauty and the Beast AU

Where, Oh Where

When Hunith left it was a little before the sun was finishing up its descent in the clear blue sky.

It was pitch black when Alamar galloped back to the cottage, neighing like crazy but most importantly lacking his mother.

Merlin heard this commotion and rushed out the front door. He immediately ran over to Alamar and tried to calm him down.

"Woah there, boy. It's just me, it's just me...calm down." Merlin brought his hands up to the horse's chest to try to pet him and get him to be still while speaking soothingly to the spooked animal.

"What happened?" Merlin asked Alamar once he wasn't neighing as much knowing full well he wouldn't get an answer. "Where's my mother?"

He figured the only way he'd find out was to get onto Alamar and follow the path she had taken hopefully finding her ok. Alamar just ran back because he got scared by some animal. At least that's what he convinced himself of. Merlin rushed back inside for a lantern then mounted the horse. He lifted the reins and had Alamar set off into the woods at high speed.

The path was just wide enough for the horse and the cruel night air scratched his face making his eyes water as they rode on.

What seemed like years later Merlin stopped Alamar. On the ground was a smashed lantern. The lantern Hunith had taken with her when she left...and next to it, bruised and dirtied now was the apple she took out of the basket and packed in her bag.

"Oh, no," Merlin breathed as he scanned the lantern back and forth over the scene. He tore his eyes away and looked around. Where could she have gone? She had definitely been here...but what happened?

Merlin snapped the reins and Alamar continued trotting down the path. Merlin illuminated the area with the lantern, looking carefully for signs that his mother may have been there.

Nothing.

Finally, when he was about to go back home and rally up a search party, he saw it. A huge castle with three towers and gargoyles and shattered windows. He had been so focused for signs on the ground, he hadn't even bothered to look up...until now, right when he was about to turn around and go home.

There was no way she could be there, right?

Curiosity and possibility got the best of him, and after another glance at the castle he had Alamar take them to the castle's entrance...which they had to find. However, they only had to turn one more corner until they faced an unnecessarily long cracking stone bridge and two enormous wooden doors leading into the castle.

Merlin hesitantly dismounted his horse. What were the chances of his mother being in this castle? But where else could she have gone? She wouldn't have been able to make it to Martha's in the dark with no lantern.

Well, guess he's going in then.

Merlin took a few tentative steps towards the bridge. Then, he stepped onto it.

Well it wasn't collapsing. That's a good sign. Maybe his mother did make it in the castle after all. Then he noticed something a few paces in front of him that confirmed that.

Hunith's shawl was lying in a tangled heap on the bridge.

He rushed to the shawl and knelt down. He laid his palm on the thin fabric and then grasped it in his hand. He laid it on Alamar's back then continued heading to the front doors of the castle, calling out for his mother a few times along the way. Finally he reached the doors. He looked up. There wasn't a doorknob or knocker or anything. He tried to push the door open and it required all of his might. The door opened with a deafening creak.

He thrust his hand with the glowing lantern through the opening door first, then stepped into the dark castle.

He found himself in a long hallway and a set of stairs to the left and a few meters in front of him ascended into who knows where. Since he couldn't see very far ahead of him he decided to take the stairs. At least there was a candelabrum on a table by the steps. There was a clock next to it also but he didn't pay much attention to it.

Merlin lifted his right foot, placed it back down on the first step and began to climb the red carpeted stairs.

"Mother?" He asked the castle as he got higher and higher on the staircase. He turned down a few hallways and looked in a few rooms, but his mother was nowhere to be found. Besides, he could swear he was hearing voices.

His head snapped behind him. He definitely heard a clicking sound, like something was tapping on the ground. Like someone else was in the castle with him. He swallowed. A door was beginning to close, like someone just walked through it.

In his books, it would be an evil villain ready to kill him. But he wasn't in any book. He caught the door before it closed completely and entered the room. All it consisted of was a spiraling stone staircase.

"Hello? Is someone there?" He called out as he began to climb the staircase. He barely needed his lantern to see on these stairs. There was a candelabrum in a hollowed out section of the wall on the staircase. Wait, didn't he just see that downstairs?

"Mother?" Merlin called out again, voice shaking slightly.

"Merlin?" A faint voice answered.

Merlin rushed up the final steps and found himself in a wide stone room. Directly in front of him was a wooden door and near the bottom a few metal bars made for a window to see into the room that Merlin was standing in. And in those bars he saw a face.

His mother.

Merlin ran to the door and knelt down.

"Mother? Is it you?"

"It's me, my boy," Hunith replied, reaching both of her hands through the bars to grasp Merlin's. "You must leave. It's dangerous here. If he finds you-"

"If who finds me? I won't leave you here...there's got to be a way to free you. Who's done this to-"

And the last word died in his throat.