When Merlin Went Missing [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER TWO

The cave darkened and the only light source came from outside the prison door, streaming in through the cracks. The man cursed under his breath and unsheathed a dagger from his belt, not taking his hatred-filled eyes off of Arthur. The look in his eyes had turned wild and unpredictable. It was the same look Arthur had seen before in crazed murderers with nothing to lose when they were being held in Camelot's prisons or being sent for execution.

"Algernon, Bancroft keep a close eye on our little friends. I'll go find whatever is causing trouble down the hall, try not to kill them while I'm gone. That's reserved for someone else." The man turned to his lackeys, ordering them about even though they were both a foot taller than him. He looked like a puny human bossing around giants lumbering above him. Arthur could only hope they'd squish the man under their boots, but no such luck.

When he left, Arthur spotted Gwaine sharing a look with Percival, Leon and Elyan. He recognized the look, it was the one they shared in practice when they were planning to team up on him but his time he knew he wasn't the one about to get attacked. That was reserved for their captors. Hopefully.

Leon flickered his eyes shut and pretended to 'faint' onto the straw covered floor of the cave. His body became limp, almost lifeless, and his breathing became shallow enough for his chest not to noticeably move. Arthur almost shuddered. He was incredible at playing dead when he wished to, it was worrying. 

One of the men, Bancroft if Arthur was correct, panicked a bit and sheathed his sword back to his side. If one of the prisoners died before he could be sold, killed or held for ransom, he'd lose his life for certain. He moved forward, hesitantly, and made his way to check Leon's pulse. 

It was then Gwaine, who had remained perfectly still and quiet to avoid attention (something Arthur never knew he could possibly do) kicked out his legs. Bancroft fell to the ground, giving Percival the chance to pin him down.

Algernon was taken care of by Elyan, who had sneaked silently behind him to grab the unlit torch. The guard was struck around the back of the head with the makeshift weapon, resulting with him face down on the ground. They didn't wait around to find out if the blow had killed him though. Instead, Gwaine swiftly punched the light out of Bancroft and, together, they made a run for it out of the open door.

They wandered through the cave, luckily stumbling across their weapons in another room, until they heard another crash. It sounded close.

They blindly made their way to where they guessed the noise had come from and, before they turned the corner, the man who had threatened them flew past their heads, colliding with the wall with a sickening crunch. Arthur gestured for the knights to halt. Who ever had caused the mans defeat was undoubtedly immensely powerful if they could throw an entire human body at such force.

Gradually, footsteps drew closer to where the group stood, hidden in the shadows, until the mystery person was less than a meter away. Arthur hesitated but raised his sword, whirling around the corner and pointing it at the strangers torso. 

It wasn't a stranger though, not to the knights.

There was something familiar about the boys foolish lopsided smile, his red neckerchief and oversized baggy blue shirt. Arthur should know so, he threw his breakfast at that person every morning, along with a goblet or pillow here and there to keep things interesting. It was the person he had been searching for before he and the knights were kidnapped.

Merlin.

Merlin grinned at the sight of his friends. He had been told by a helpful druid from a nearby village that three bandits had kidnapped the knights of Camelot. Merlin immediately set out towards the closest known bandit camps, searching for the people he called family. 

It was a good thing the first one he checked was the right one, the forest had a surprising number of bandit-infested buildings strewn about, and a great deal contained things that would kill anything that moved. Merlin had learnt that from personal experience, unfortunately.

"Merlin?" Arthur almost dropped his sword in surprise and, upon hearing their missing friends name, the knights turned the corner.

Gwaine broke into a large grin and rushed forward to embrace his old friend "You're alive!" He laughed joyfully and slapped Merlin on the back.

"At least I was the last time I checked," Merlin chuckled and playfully shoved Gwaine off of him, giving time for Arthur to look back to the unconscious man on the floor behind them. He was starting to link two and two together "And thank god you lot are too." Merlin greeted his other friends, who were all eager to see him again.

"Merlin, did you somehow manage to throw this guy?" He asked slowly, moving around to face his servant again.

"Uh... no?" Merlin's grin seemed more worried than overjoyed at seeing his friends alive. He hadn't expected them to notice him coming to their rescue.

"Who else did it then? There's no one else here apart from us, those guys and you." Arthur looked around past Merlin's shoulder, as if he was expecting another knight from Camelot to magically appear behind him.

"Can we just get out of here already?" Merlin winced. Gwaine realized Merlin was hurt and, sure enough, when he stepped behind him there was a dark red stain expanding on his shirt. He was bleeding and, from the looks of things, the flow of blood didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

"Arthur, try not to punch him or anything because it looks like Merlin has been stabbed."

A/N

[FIRST EDIT 14/12/2019]

Ah, me tired and headachy, but me edit this because god dam there were a lot more mistakes than I had expected. I actually ended up rewriting entire sentences and paragraphs just out of frustration.

[PUBLISHED 13/04/2019]

In case you're wondering, the name Algernon means 'wearing a mustache' and Bancroft means 'field of beans'. Why? Because I can.

This is the second upload for this week, thank you for the 4 reads and 1 vote (I didn't expect anyone to even read this at all). This book will be completed in the next week then marked as completed.

I'd love to hear feedback if I have made any mistakes or comments on my plot/writing style.

-Beccy