First Slow, Then All At Once

The Man With the Answers

The next morning, Merlin woke the group as the sun was rising from the horizon. The cave had become extremely cold, and all of them were sniffling. Merlin handed everyone a small portion of food, and let Ebony run to grab herself a wile animal of some sort.

"So what is on the agenda today?" Percival asked Merlin.

"Well I need to speak to a higher druid about the destiny. I also need to figure out a way to round up a lot more troops, and free the knights." Merlin told them. Merlin leaned against Ebony with his magic book, and continued to reread it. The others leaned up against Ebony as well, but Arthur paced around.

Merlin used his magic to warm the area around himself, so the others were warm. Arthur tried finding objects to make a torch out of.

"What are you doing Merlin? We shouldn't be relaxing and reading." Arthur told him. Merlin glared at him.

"For your information, I am looking at spells that can help us." Merlin snarled at him. Merlin just was not in a good mood as it was, and having Arthur breathe down his neck didn't approve his mood.

"What's that spell for?" Lancelot asked, pointing to one of the pages Merlin was reading.

"It's a spell to navigate under the ground. It works in caves and tunnels. If I can memorize this spell, I can see if there are any other ways to get out or find help through this tunnel." Merlin told him. Arthur sat next to the fire, and got his chainmail heating up to keep himself warm.

Merlin flipped through the chapter on the spell, and read more on it. He had to memorize the spell that turns off the vision. Apparently the spell almost enables you to echo locate, except there's no need for echo. All of the pockets of air with sort of show itself, and Merlin can see where each path leads. The downside was you can't see people or objects, just the outlines of the tunnels. So Merlin would need to know the spell that turns it off for him to be able to see.

It took Merlin constant mental repetition before he was able to memorize the two spells.

Merlin was a bit scared, because if the second spell didn't work, he'd be stuck not able to see anything except tunnels. Merlin looked towards the path, and casted the spell onto himself. All the light draining from his vision, and all that was visible were blue smoky areas that resembled tunnels. As Merlin looked below himself, he could see the tunnels that were below his face. Only faint lines showed where the tunnels lead to, and it only took a quit head jerk to make Merlin extremely disoriented and fall down from dizziness.

"Are you alright?" Arthur asked as he helped Merlin up.

"We can finally explore the tunnels. I can see the passages, and where they lead. It's a little foggy, but I have a good sense of where a major cavern is, and that it leads to an exit other than the one we entered."

Gwain, Percival, Lancelot, Gwain, and Arthur started to follow Merlin as he lead the group down the tunnel. Merlin was aware that the others vision was impaired, so he lit a blue flame, and guided them through the tunnels.

"Do tell me if I'm about to trip or run into something. I can't see anyone or anything." Merlin told them.

As they walked, Merlin looked back.

"I think this will take awhile. We might want to bring the horses to speed this up." Merlin suggested.

"But we'll have to head back. We would have wasted a good hour." Gwain told him. Merlin turned to face where they were walking, and called down the tunnel. They could hear the echoing of his whistle. Suddenly, they heard the distance clop and thump of hooves and paws running towards them. It took a couple of minutes, but the horses came running at full speed, along with Ebony.