The Destruction Of Merlin

We're Okay! I Promise.

The entire room jumped out of their skin as familiar faces and suites of armour came crashing into the room, swords swinging and eyes blazing. Relief seemed to melt through the Knights as their eyes set on Arthur, a large breathing huffing out of them all at once as if they had been holding it in for eons. Then, the knight in fronts jaw set, eyes locking onto Azalea, who had thrown her hood back up when the doors open, before charging at her, sword high in the air, ready to tear down into her undefended shoulder.

Gwaine let out a cry of anger and fear, throwing himself in front of her. The Knight stopped millimetres from Gwaine's face, practically shaving the shaggy scruff that had cultivated on his face.

"Sir Alymere! It's alright," Arthur cried out, hand thrown into the air as a warning to the others who had began to charge. "We're okay! I promise."

Alymere turned to face the fair king, sword at his side but still drawn, Arthur's blue eyes met his green and nothing else was spoken between them, no questioning, only loyalty and trust. Alymere sheathed his sword and the others took the example, all stepping back to join him on his knees.

"Sire, I don't understand, if all is well, why are you in a bandits hideout?" Another knight, Sir Lucan, asked, looking around at the crumbling walls in distain.

Arthur looked stumped at that question, mostly because only an hour or so ago, everything really hadn't been well and they'd have done pretty much anything to escape. Arthur's eyes darted across the room, searching his men for an adequate response, eyes desperate.

"This is my sister!"

The whole room was stunned into silence.

"What?" The newest group of Knights said, sceptical and unbelieving, whilst Arthur and the others turned to stare incrediously towards Merlin and Azalea. Azalea herself had looked shocked for about 5 seconds before schooling her face into an innocent mask, eyes wide with innocence, an innocence that had long before left the bandit's leader's eyes with the years of hardship and bloodshed.

"This is my little sister, Azalea. She moved away when she was really little and I hadn't seen her since I was 6. We ran into some bandits whilst hunting who caught us by surprise, when we were escaping we stumbled upon her, she'd been pretending to be a man so that none of the bandits hurt her. We were just about to leave when you arrived." Merlin's words were quick and firm, almost demanding someone question his story. The looks continued, but everyone seemed to accept that Merlin was telling the truth once the others nodded in agreement.

The now expanded group stood up and charged through the rest of the ruins, escaping mostly unscathed (with the exception of a small scratch on Leon's upper arm from a bandit's sword) but with very few of the supplies Merlin had packed. It was about two hours after their sudden escape that Arthur began to question why a search party had been sent out already.

"It wasn't a search party, Sire." Alymere stated. "We didn't even know you'd been taken."

"I'm confused." Gwaine mumbled into Percival's ear, brows furrowed.

"Same." Merlin said, drawing out the a with his lips slightly pursed. Gwaine stared at the man, who was walking next to Arthur and Azalea, about 3 meters in front. Confusion seemed to be the main theme of the day.

"We were on patrol." Lucan supplied. "We heard reports from several village elders that they were being plagued by a group of bandits who were hiding out in a tumble-down fort. It was really only by luck that we found you."

By the time dusk fell, the Knights of Camelot had departed leaving their king, after his insistence that he was fine, and continued on with their patrol.

Scarlett sunshine shone through the trees, marking the end of day with its beauty as the Knights continued on with their journey, now aiming towards the nearest village for new supplies and horses. It seemed that Arthur wasn't willing to give up on his dream of a successful hunting trip, even with their new added, friend...?

After an hour more complaining from the Knights, mostly Gwaine, Arthur finally repented, now searching for somewhere safe to sleep for the night. Even with the prospect of sleeping hungry, all were excited for the well deserved rest to come.

All except Merlin.

Merlin was terrified at the prospect of sleeping. Merlin was also terrified because he knew that he needed to sleep. He knew that he couldn't put it off, he was just too exhausted, but he also knew that the moment he closed his eyes, the nightmares would begin, and there was no telling what he'd do in his sleep, what he'd say.

Unaware of Merlin's plight, the others began their search in earnest as the stars glittered down on them, the moon gleaming.

"Hey" Elyan called. "I think I found somewhere!"

The Round Table congregation to Elyan's new found spot, gazing intensely around at the darkness that the tall oaks were shrouded in before declaring it suitable clearing.

The sparse bed rolls were unpacked and layed on the ground, after Merlin and Azalea had brushed away as many stones and twigs as possible. The group divided the space between them, Arthur and Leon deciding to swap with one another, Percival and Elyan choosing to switch between eachother leaving Gwaine, Merlin and Azalea to the last bed roll. (AN- I really hope I didn't forget anyone but I genuinely spent 5 minutes mumbling under my breath, "is Lancelot dead?? I think Lancelot's dead. I don't remember keeping him alive..." My parents now think I'm insane... JK, they already think that!)

The offer was given immediately to Azalea to take the first turn, which she immediately rejected, offering it to a very stressed looking Merlin with the very statement:

"You really look like you're gonna die from shock, I think you need sleep sooner than I do."

And with no way to object, Merlin found himself crawling into the blankets, covering his toes with a flick of his legs to tuck them underneath, warming himself up before muttering a gentle goodnight and drifting of to the Percival's rhythmic rumbles and Leon's soothing snores
____________________________________________________________________

HEY BIRTHDAY CAKES!!!

Look!! I updated!! (Wow, so proud, you finally managed to function like a normal human with responsibilities *slow clapping from my sarcastic friend*) It's slightly later than I wanted it to be... But!!! ITS MY BIRTHDAY 🎉🎉🎉 I'm very happy right now!!!

Anyway. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm sure there are plenty of spelling errors (or grammatical ones... 😨😨) So feel free to point them out so I can rectify them.

Hope you have a wonderful month (yeah, I know I updated once a month but it's a lot better than once a year and in trying...) Next time I update it'll be Christmas!!

Lots of love,
                Itha xx

Word count: 1205!!

P.s. somewhere between January of last year and August of last year this story changed POV... Idek. I'll fix it at some point once this is all over.

P.p.s. shout-out to Holymotherofskittles for being incredibly enthusiastic about Freylin (same tho) and making me giggle with her comments, honestly commenting makes my day.

P.p.p.s. 1) Yes I stayed up just so I could post this at midnight. 2) Yes, someone should probably stop me from adding another post script note...