The Fire Inside- A Merlin BBC Fanfic

Welcome Back

"Good morning, Cyra. How was your hour long bath? Ours was dreadfully dull, Bruin discussed the treaty for an eternity," Merlin joked as Cyra jumped down from the tree.

"It was fine," Cyra replied shortly, her voice quieter than normal. Merlin raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"We didn't get to do much bartering, but we'll be behind plans if we stay much longer," Arthur contemplated.

"A few hours can't hurt anyone. Besides I promised Gaius I'd get herbs from every stop," Merlin slung his bag on his weary shoulders.

"Back into town, then. Do you think Bruin will want to escort us again?" Arthur asked as they trailed through the trees.

"He might. We are his guests after all," Merlin noticed his green friend tense up, but assumed it was nothing and kept walking.

"Didn't you say you were leaving this morning, Arthur?" Bruin asked as he spotted the three in the market.

"We were, but yesterday's schedule didn't allow us to trade as we wanted to," Arthur explained, "Is that a problem?" Bruins's paranoia vanished in that second, replaced by a cheesy smile.

"Well of course not! I just wanted to double check, is all. Would you allow me to escort you around our market?" Bruin bowed slightly.

Cyra was having a hard time fighting the tears, but was determined not to worry her friends and stayed silent. She hurriedly wiped the young tears from the corners of her eyes.

"I, uh, think we'll manage, Bruin," Merlin added, suspicious of the larger man.

"Whatever makes you feel comfortable," Bruin looked straight into the frightened eyes of Cyra, making sure the place a tightly gripped hand on her shoulder before departing.

"Let's see what the market has to offer, I su-" Arthur started, but was cut off by a flaming arrow thwacked into the wooden house next to him. The few Druids who had gotten up early ran for cover, shrieking.

"Arthur!" A familiar voice yelled as the three were knocked to the ground.

"Gwaine? Elyan? Wh-" Merlin started to ask but he was shushed by Gwaine.

"Do you not realise there are flaming arrows raining from the sky? Get out of here, then we'll answer questions," The five bolted for the woods where they had emerged from, taking down the few archers with ease.

"There's too many archers, they'll burn the town before we can get to them," Arthur commented as he saw the minuscule dent they had made.

"Cyra and I can stop the fire, you three take out the archers," Merlin put a brave face on, finally glad he can use his magic to a full extent.

"Let's hope this works," Gwaine commented before Merlin grabbed Cyra's hand and tried to drag her out into the centre of the town. He had only barely touched her hand when she pulled it away with a shriek and just ran into the fire without him. Merlin was puzzled, but fell in step behind her.

"Could you help me with the rain spell? I've never used it for only rain before," Merlin asked Cyra as they spun around, trying to see over the flames. Cyra nodded, although very unsure of herself.

"Álætan sé beirhtrodor æg ágéotan dún ond ácwencan sé lígbracu," Cyra and Merlin chanted, their voices intertwining as their eyes glowed gold. The rain they brought was heavy but did its job  of putting out the flames. Slowly the arrows stopped flying and once the fire was all but ash, the storm clouds slowly drifted away.

The two sorcerers trudge through the ashy mud, making their way back to where their horses were. Elyan was already there, and they were waiting on Gwaine and Arthur to return.

"Did you know they were going to try and burn the village?" Merlin asked, seemingly exhausted from energy it had taken.

"That's what we came to warn you about. That and Guinevere doesn't think you safe," Elyan chuckled, "I wonder when she'll realise that you're never really safe anywhere,"

"Archers are all gone, most were killed but the rest fled," Arthur announced as he and Gwaine made their way through the trees.

"Are we moving on to the next colony or returning to Camelot?" Merlin question his King as they secured their belongings on to the horses.

"Rumours tell that the western colony has already been attacked, along with the eastern colony you ventured from," Elyan informed the group.

"We'll stop in Camelot to gather supplies and hopefully make our way to the northern colony before it's too late," Arthur announced, climbing on to his horse.

Gwaine and Elyan followed suit, with Merlin and Cyra left trying to get on the one horse. Merlin climbed on with his usual ease, trying not to draw attention as Cyra obviously struggled with the contact. He wondered what had happened briefly but his thoughts quickly wandered.

Cyra's thoughts, however, were set on trying to be as normal-appearing as possible. With constant physical reminders accompanying the brief flashbacks from all sorts of horrible experiences she'd endured over the years. The first time with her father, the neighbor, her walk through the town, and especially the events at the bathhouse. The internal debate of the good of Camelot versus the crimes she'd endured raged on in her thoughts, though she knew there was no way she was admitting the experience to Elyan or to Arthur, even.

The ride back to Camelot took a day— a very uncomfortably silent day for most of the riders. Cyra refused to speak at length, to Elyan's and Merlin's dismay, and Arthur was only looking to talk about strategy, which ran out fairly quickly when neither of the knights knew the full story of the attacks.

"Are we riding straight through the night?" Merlin asked as the sun began to set.

"If the moon allows it. I want to get back to Camelot as soon as possible." Arthur replied without turning around, seeming quite determined to find what was going on as soon as possible.

While Merlin and the knights groaned at the thought of continued ride, Cyra was very glad that she wouldn't have to explain to the group why she wouldn't be sleeping that night. The nightmares would be too great to risk it, and in her fit she would be too paranoid about shifting without realising. And she'd rather not risk the forest fire.

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So I was rereading this for the heck of it and realised that I had 80% of this chapter done and unpublished. Since that's not fair to you guys, I've decided to at least put this part up (this is absolutely no guarantee I'm going to keep writing this though).

Sorry for the two year hiatus, y'all. Anyway, please leave feedback, I hope you enjoyed!