Broken Crown - Merlin

The horse

A horse.

A big, black mighty horse. It had the longest mane any of the knights had ever seen.

It stared at them. They stared at it.

Elyan stirred, the horse didn't seem spooked. So, he found himself approaching it.

"Hey there..." he spoke softly. He carefully approached the animal, slowly reached out to touch it. The horse didn't move.

"There you go... How did you end up out here?" He asked, even though the horse was not able to answer.

Gwaine put his sword back in his belt, looking at the mighty creature in front of them. Elyan looked like he had it under control, but Gwaine was tempted to join him.

"it's beautiful," Gwiane said. He ran his hand down its neck, the horse responded with a light snort.

Leon looked around. The treetops swayed in the light summer breeze, and even tough Gwiane and Elyan were small talking, it was still quiet. Too quiet for Leon's liking, too quiet to not be on guard. He and Percival were basically the only ones looking out for them, now that they evidently had started a conversation with the stallion.

"be careful" Leon finally said. Gwiane looked back with a slight smile, obviously thinking he was overreacting.

"what for? It's a horse, it can't do much damage. In fact, it can't even wield a sword" Gwaine had picked up a straw, that was hanging out his mouth. None of them had seemed to notice before now.

Leon rolled his eyes. They were always like this, having a discussion now and then. It was nothing.

All the knights – including Arthur – were like brothers, you would expect them to get on each other's nerves sometimes.

"There aren't many wild horses out here now that I think about it" Gwaine wondered. He turned around, looking at the horse for the second time. The horse had a twinkle in its eyes, it stood unnaturally still.

"horses don't run wild in Camelot, and certainly not in any other kingdom. This horse is not wild. It's free... And in order for a horse to be free, there have to be people around to free it" Leon said.

The other knights looked at him with knitted eyebrows. Even the horse seemed surprised.

It's not like it was unexpected information, Leon was just usually not the one to state the facts. Merlin and Arthur took care of that.

Gwaine sighed, "you think it's the Saxons, don't you?" he asked. Gwaine hated when he had to be serious. He rarely was, to be honest. He always cracked a joke, whenever in a situation of conflict, and the others had gotten used to it now.

Leon opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Yes, he thought it was the Saxons. It was the only logical reason as to why a horse was running freely in the forest.

"Maybe it's a good thing. Merlin was out gathering herbs, he couldn't have gone very far. The Saxons must have him in captive, there's no other explanation" Gwaine said. He drew his sword once more and took as many steps forward as the horse would let him.

It snorted in protest, stamped its hoof in the ground. The knights looked at each other.

"maybe it sensed something," Percival said. He had been quiet throughout the whole incident, but eventually made use of his vocal chord.

They looked around.

This was one of those things Merlin had taught them unintentionally. To look for the horse's reaction.