Hidden Secrets

Chapter 33

3rd Person POV:

 It has been nine years since the coronation of the two said kings and their battle to regain Ealoran. Nine years ago they had confined their feelings and confessed to each other. Nine years ago Arthur discovered Merlin's secret along with his. A lot has changed since then

Now they all were in one big castle in the middle of Camelot and Ealoran which were now just one Kingdom, The United Kingdom. Cora was 14 now and she was in and out of language lessons and history of her kingdoms, she was gonna be crowned Queen after all in the future. The pair of twins which Merlin and Arthur were very fond of were crowned royals two years ago as well. Sylvia had gotten pregnant with twins two years after her marriage with James. 

Mark and Leo are the 8 year old twins of Sylvia and James, and now she is pregnant again. Lancelot and Gwen also had a son immediately, now 7 but unlike the others he wasn't mischievous, he kept himself out trouble and had his head wrapped around books related to science, following Gauis' footsteps 

Percival and Gwaine had made their relationship official after a few years and had gotten recently. They also had a 15 year old son Luke who they had saved from a bandit attack during their hunting trips 3 years ago and now he is a knight in training. With Gwaine as his parent you can think for yourself what kind of a kid is Luke, almost twice in a week you would hear that Luke has pulled off yet another prank on someone around the castle and Gwaine would congratulate him while Percival would shake his head questioning how he fell in love with Gwaine but he wouldn't change those times for anything. 

Morgana had settled down as well with a hunter who had caught her eye. At first Morgana didn't pay much attention to him but then they met frequently around the town and gradually become friends and then soon more. With his raw fighting skills and a little help from the others, Arthur and Merlin had offered him to a knight but he kindly refused that he would lik to enjoy the open nature for a little while more. And now Morgana was seven months pregnant

Nothing had changed much between the two kings except that their bond and love grew even more stronger by every passing day. The only challenging thing was keeping track of their little ones, Rose and Ed weren't mischievous but they are bit of handful. First of all, they are inseparable you would always see them together. Secondly, both of them have a admiration for the outside world, so they would be gone for hours walking around the woods alone even though Arthur and Merlin had strictly told them not to do so. 

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Currently, as usual Rose and Ed had gone out again and it was the dead of night. Merlin had put the two to bed this night and until that time he was sure that they were asleep but that was not the case. The two had left at the dead of the night to see the fire-flies in the woods and they did that only this time someone had seen them. At first Cora thought that they would come back early but she started to get worried when more than two hours had passed and they weren't back yet. She knew something was wrong but she also knew that if she went to her parents they will kill the two when they get him back, not literally of course 

She knew that her parents might come in to check on her so she stuffed a few cushions under her blanket once she was satisfied, she just draped her cloak on herself and went out of her chambers making her way to the stables, she got her horse ready and was about to cross the palace walls when the guards had stopped her 

"Halt." The guards held up their hands "Who are you?" 

"It's me." Cora sighed as she moved the hood from her face 

"Sorry, Milady," The guards gave her a slight bow apologising 

They of course wanted to ask her where she as going at this ungodly hour but they knew they couldn't. Just before Cora thought that it was too easy to run from the castle she ran into unexpected person who also shouldn't be out here 

"Cora?" Luke gave her confused look stopping his horse "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" Cora ignoring his questioned and looking everywhere but his face 

"Answer my question." He asked again 

"I am the princess therefore i don't have to." Cora smirked playing the royalty card 

"Arthur is growing on you." He pointed out as he just shrugged "Can you just tell me where your're going? It's not safe out there we just drove out a few bandits."

Cora's face went pale as Luke told her of that. She didn't wait for anything else as she clicked her tongue and raced her horse to the direction of the woods while Luke rode after her calling out her name. He knew that something was definitely wrong now considering her reaction and followed her anyway, he couldn't just leave her by herself at this hour. He lost her after a few minutes  

They had stopped right around some caves and streams. Cora could hear some voices as she went further and could see a fire which was blazing bright in the dark. Her eyes then landed on two small figures and their crowns were enough to tell her who they were. Before she could go further, a hand wrapped around her waist and one on her mouth. Cora's heart started beating rapidly as she tried to get the man 

"What do we have here? hmm." A deep voice rang through her ears "What is a girl as pretty as you doing here?"

He didn't wait for an answer as he pushed Cora to the ground, pining her down but she gained a punch when she was resisting as he started to grope her

"Please no...let me go," Cora cried 

"Shut up." He shouted at her 

But before he could could do anything more suddenly an arrow shot out and hit him point blank on his neck. The man gasped as he held his neck and Cora used all her strength to push the man off of her and shrieked when another hand was on her shoulder

"Hey, it's just me." Luke calmed her 

Cora didn't care about anything as Luke wrapped his arms around her throwing his bow and she calmed in his embrace. Luke didn't want to let go but he knew that they should be going out of here as soon as possible. Both had an unexplained bond with each other, Cora might only be 14 but she was intelligent for her age, Luke just simply admired Cora from the start. He pulled away slightly, asking her if she was okay and she nodded getting back up on her feet. Then remembered that she had seen her siblings. She took Luke's hand and ran to the direction of the fire and tensed when she saw the figures were unconscious 

"What!" Luke said shocked as he saw the twins "What were they doing here in the first place?" 

"God knows." Cora sighed

Luke with the help of his dagger had cut the ropes of the twins from their wrists and feet. Cora had found a little water flask and sprinkled it a little on both of them. Cora smiled in relief as they started to stir and slowly opened their eyes and Luke scanned them for any injuries, which were only a few cuts nothing serious 

"You guys gave me a heart attack." Cora exclaimed as she hugged the two who eagerly did the same

They then moved to Luke as well, who shuffled their hair and Rose huffed but nonetheless smiled

"Let's get out of here." Luke said 

Both the older ones took hold of the little ones but suddenly there was a weird cry and there were three men, covering their faces running towards them with swords ready

"Bandits." Luke hissed as he twirled is sword and Even though Cora has magic, Luke still threw her way his dagger which she caught gracefully