~Previously ~
"Sire?"
"Yes Leon?"
"Where is Merlin?"
~~~
Arthur shot around to see the place where Merlin had stood so firmly was now absent from his presence.
"MERLIN?!" The king shouted at the top of his lungs... no response. Panicking he began hastily looking around the clearing, realising Leon and Percival still stood where he left them "What are you doing standing around? Help me look for him!" The blonde commanded. Following his orders the knights both started to call Merlin's name and spread out to search the forest.
Merlin was running, he was running as fast as he could, he had to get away, he couldn't hide the pain, he had to let it out, so he ran whilst the king and knights where distracted. The boy had been running for about 5 minutes when he collapsed to his knees, he clutched his chest writhing in pain, he couldn't keep it in anymore and let out a deep sounding scream clearly conveying his agony. It was if he hopped the cry would somehow lessen the pain, but it didn't, if anything it made it more real.
Birds flew from the trees as an ear piercing scream emerged from the distance, the three men looked at one another, all of them drew their swords and headed towards the sound "Merlin?!" Leon shouted.
"Merlin?!" 'No no no they couldn't see me like this' the boy thought to himself, getting up and stumbling to keep his balance he began to run away, grasping onto trees on his way to prevent him collapsing. He didn't need to run forever, just long enough for the pain to subdue back to a manageable level.
The knights continued running towards the place of the sounds origin, shouting for Merlin as they did so. After a while they had to stop to catch their breaths.
"What are you doing, we can't stop." Arthur said between harboured breaths
"We just need a minute to catch our breath" Percival objected
"We don't have time for...." 'SPLASH' Their attention was immediately drawn to the watery sound, as they ran to its direction.
Soon the three men arrived at a banking which had a large drop down to a river, as the knights looked down at the water, there lay a body faced down in the river, all that was visible was a brown jacket and raven black hair which moved in the water's current.
"MERLIN?!" The giant screamed as he ran down the steep banking, struggling to keep upright as he did so. Leon and Arthur followed at his heels racing towards the boy.
Without a second thought Percival rushed into the water treading through it quickly. He reached the boy and grabbed him by the shoulders pulling his face out of the water, Merlin was unconscious, he had a gash of blood on his forehead and his lips were blue in colour, "Merlin? Merlin? Can you hear me?" But the warlock didn't respond, "Quick you've got to help me, he's not breathing!" Leon raced faster into the water, grabbing ahold of the boy and helping Percival drag the boy to the muddy shore. The three men crowded over the body, the giant placed his hands on the warlocks chest, pumping them up and down "Come on Merls breathe"
Arthur looked at his friend in panic, he held Merlin's head in his hands.
"He must have hit is head and fell" Leon observed as he stared down at the boy.
Percival kept pumping, looking back up to face Leon who shook his head in sadness, "No, he's not, he can't be" The giant turned back to the servant "You have a lot of explaining to do Merls, you don't get out of it this easily!" And with that the knight raised his arms high and hit Merlin full force, causing the boy to immediately start spewing up water and coughing. The three men dressed in chainmail let out a sigh of relief as the raven led back down with his breathing steadying.
YOU ARE READING
The Aftermath (Merlin)
Fanfiction*Sequel Out now* Kilgharrah may have told Merlin that nothing he could do would save the Once and Future King, but that doesn't mean he was right. The warlock takes things into his own hands when he revives Arthur at Avalon, but there are consequenc...
