Royal in Hiding

Chapter 13: Welcome to Hell

The first night in the imposing mountains had finally fallen. The group had found refuge from the snow that had started around 500ft down in elevation in a cave. While the men laughed and let lose for the night, Merlin stood deep in the cave. Everyone cared about what could come from the outside but Merlin knew the best attacks came from within. So far he had warded off two large rats and a Volare Cave Sniffer within the hour they had been in the cave.

"What are you staring at?" Arthur asked his friend as he came up from behind him.
"That there, which is likely what his Majesty is staring intensely at is known as a Ferferrat Snake hole. They have lethal poison, strong muscles used for sqeezing, and are surprisingly quick in attacks." Lady Arabella said as she and the other knights approached.

"They are also well adapted to the cold and don't go into hibernation." Lady Emelyne added from her spot next to Gwain.

"Shut up all of you." Merlin hissed softly before his eyes flashed and moved a boulder over the large hole.
"Impressive." Leon commented with a nod.
"Not nearly, you should see him in battle, oh wait, you did." Ernald joked as he elbowed Humfry playfully.
"Or when he wishes to prank. Oh dear lord." Humfry added with a laugh.
"You deserved it." Merlin defended.

The knights of Larcean laughed in reminiscent, leaving the Camelotians more than a little confused. "Don't worry about it, it isn't that important."  Imayn reassured the confused knights, who simply gave a slow nod.

"Sleep friend, we'll watch out but we need our only magician here at peek performance." Arabella softly comforted, sending her King to his sleeping area, his mind not completely gone as he drifted to sleep.

The next day was as hard as the night before, Merlin quickly discovered.

It all started out rather quietly, the snow had stopped and clouds had vanished.

"Merlin, I don't know what you're talking about, these mountains don't seem that dangerous." Arthur commented as they rode up the path.
"Arthur, we're barely in the mountains, how would you know?" Merlin questioned him tiredly.

He had admittedly not gotten nearly enough sleep the night before, sending warding spells to the more dangerous of creatures that invaded his magic alarm system. This, however, gave him barely twenty minutes of sleep before he was up again, warding another attack.

"I don't know, I just got a feeling." Arthur said joyously.
"Great." Merlin bitterly mumbled.
"What's wrong with my feelings?" Arthur asked, slightly offeneded.
"Whenever you say that, I end up being put in yet another life threatening situation. Please, never say that again." Merlin grumbled in annoyance.
"Oh." Arthur muttered in shock as he realized just how many times Merlin had put his life on the line for him.

The journey was silent for the next ten minutes, Merlin had just stared to doze off when yells sounded.

Groaning softly, Merlin looked up to see the all too familiar white monkey-man thing on top of a cliff.

"Everyone calm down, it won't jump down to hurt you if you stay silent." Merlin ordered his men. The army fell silent and cautiously continued walking.

They almost made it when a solider let out an almighty sneeze that seemed to reverberate across the mountain tops.

The monster jumped as Merlin flung his hand out and threw him across to the neighboring mountain across the valley from them. He hit the soft snow, which in turn caused an avalanche to come storming down the slope in fury.

"We're in avalanche land, so be careful." Merlin warned the men before he continued walking like nothing had happened.

As they continued, more incidents happened. Vicious griffins attacking from the sky gave their war cry nearly half an hour later. Next in the way was a werewolf that was hiding in a cave, he seemed to be permanently in his shifted form and lusted for blood. Following the werewolf was a large bear, another monkey-monster, a cloaked vampire, and a dragon that Merlin had ordered away.