The World will be Fine

He had to keep running, he had to. Even with his king half-conscious and desperately trying to keep running. He could feel Arthur's sluggish body move in an uncoordinated manner against his own body. One of Arthur's arms was passed over his shoulders and Merlin could almost feel his tunic tear up from the king's still firm but clumsy grip. That he was still wearing his gauntlet wasn't helping either.

Where were the knights anyway?

They'd left Camelot a four days ago, on a quest that Merlin definitely hadn't wanted Arthur to take part in. But being Arthur, and the young king of Camelot and somehow, he thought that putting himself in terrible danger every time he could was a way of "proving he was his people's strong and rightful king". Like he thought it would somehow discourage his enemies to try and kill him or something. A traveler in the night had come to the castle with reports that the most important outer village near the west borders had been attacked by ghostly creatures into the night. They knew it wasn't the Dorocha because they'd closed the gates months ago and Merlin had made sure to seal it by making a magical pact with the guardian of the Veil… which, admittedly, wasn't sure he could trust but he'd figured he'd know it if she ever came back, seeing as her first appearance a few months ago had cost him all his body heat in a few seconds, along with his consciousness and his sanity. God, he never wanted to see that woman again.

They'd traveled to the village but had found the place empty, literally empty. With all its people, animals, hell, furniture gone. Only the houses remained and they had looked old and abandoned, almost in ruins, like remnants of a time that had come to pass a long time ago. They'd stayed there the night; troubled by what they'd found but nobody had talked about it much. Merlin had had wanted to ask the others what they thought about all this but he'd refrained himself for doing so because the answer was clear: either the messenger was a fraud, either magic was involved. And if magic was involved, it meant nothing good for Merlin.

And so on their way back to Camelot, they were ambushed. At first Merlin thought it was only an ordinary ambush... until one guy showed up in a robe and started shooting fireballs at Arthur's guards. This was followed by Morgana's arrival. Merlin should have seen it coming, really, but he was too busy with the empty village enigma that he hadn't thought it could be so simple as to be one of Morgana's clever little tricks to try and avenge her people by killing Arthur.

Merlin stumbled over the root of a big three and fell, taking Arthur down with him. Arthur sluggishly tried to stop his fall but failed miserably, opening and closing his eyes like the sun was in his eyes. The king put his hand down on his chest, struggling to breathe.

"Arthur!" called Merlin, getting up and shaking him, trying to get him to stay awake. "My lord, we have to go!"

Somewhere in between the trees, he heard voices and the sound of people running.

"Come on Arthur!" Merlin pleaded.

But the king didn't answer. Behind him he heard the running sounds come closer and closer. He had to do something and quickly.

"Sisgh Aelecto!" he hissed.

He felt his eyes burn gold, and with this simple spell, he managed to hoist Arthur on his back easily. The spell would wear off soon enough but for the time being he would be able to carry Arthur as if his king was a small brick. He glanced behind him just in time to see the end of a cape get behind a three, and he started running again, making sure he wasn't going to fall over a root again. But Arthur was wearing his cape and it was slowing him down, getting caught in branches and bushes.

His blood froze in his veins when he felt something warm tickling his legs.

"Ow!"

A sudden sensation of burning sent a bolt of pain to his brain and he fell on his knees, falling on his tummy. Arthur fell onto him and the spell he had put on him wore off almost instantly. He managed to extract himself from under Arthur – who was very unconscious and back to his full weight – and looked around him.

There were more than 10 people closing in around him... although, he wasn't entirely sure some of them qualified as people. He spotted the man – or rather, the man-like creature – who'd shot the fire spell at him. There were definitely a few ordinary druids gone wrong, but two had a greenish face and symbols on their faces that Merlin didn't recognize. Among them was, of course, Morgana Pendragon, her green laced dress dirty with dried blood he hoped didn't belong to one of the knights.

"Do you like my new friends Merlin?" She asked with the twisted smile she usually wore on her face whenever she managed to reach Arthur in a 20 feet radius. Merlin thought about how she smiled before she'd turned to Morgause and found himself wondering how the lovely smile she had wore at Uther's court could have become such an ugly, twisted thing.

"Not particularly, no" answered Merlin, feigning indifference.

He looked around him cautiously, looking for a way out of this. Where were the knights? Gwaine, Leon, Percival, all of them were nowhere to be seen and it made Merlin's throat itch with worry.

Morgana's smile morphed into a grimace.

"I see you're still fond of my dear brother" she said, her voice bitter with disdain.

"What do you want Morgana?" Merlin said.

The druids and creatures around them broke into laughter.

"By that time I would expect you know what I want, but I see your wits haven't improved since I left my late father's castle."

The, a man standing at Morgana's right flashed his eyes gold and Merlin found himself flying back until he hit a three. He saw stars for a moment. Arthur must have been hit by the spell too because he landed right next to him.

That's when he saw the flaw; an opening in the circle, to his left, where a young druid was eyeing him strangely. He was young and it seemed to Merlin he was the weakest of them all. He took his chance.

"Maybe yours haven't improved either, Morgana!" he shouted with every ounce of bravery he had inside him.

He made a lump of three fall over 5 of Morgana's allies and profited of the commotion to put Arthur back on his feet. He had begun to stir a bit. It was a miracle that Morgana didn't seem to grasp the concept of "Merlin has magic!" which was surprisingly guessed it was a family thing, judging by the history.

But the commotion he created wasn't enough. Two of Morgana's followers closed in on them. And he barely managed to bypass them. He was out of the circle, but it wasn't enough. He felt Morgana's magic build up behind him.

"YOU WON'T ESCAPE ME THIS TIME MERLIN!" she yelled.

And this time, he felt a deep, deep pain on his left foot, like a knife making his way through the fabric of his boots, his socks, his heel… and then he felt something warm and wet on each of his feet, spreading life slow burning fire on his feet and ankles and he stripped, in so much pain for a moment he thought he was going to pass out. He kept his grip tight on Arthur's arm and shoulder but twisted his body so he could look behind him and…

His eyes darted down to his feet and he stared at them in horror, suddenly too shocked to even feel pain. His boots were in tatters and soaked dark-red with blood. Morgana and her followers were very near, closing in on him and on Arthur, and that time, Merlin was sure only magic could save them, but he was in no shape to fight now that his blood was being drained out of his body from his feet.

He wished he didn't have to do this. He wished it didn't have to end like this.

He wished he could be in the safest place on earth, where Arthur would be okay, where he would be okay. He wished he wouldn't have to fight Morgana.

As he started to think he could maybe simply try to freeze Morgana up so he could gain some more time to call for help, the world went upside down and he saw stars.

xxx

He literally saw stars. Lots of them, going around him and swallowing him and Arthur, swallowing the forest, Morgana and her followers, and maybe, just for a moment, the sun itself. But they came back as they had come, and the forest came crashing down around him and Arthur like rain pouring from the sky. It was surprisingly familiar - well, it was a forest, with the same types of threes, nothing special - but while being familiar it also seemed strangely out of place. Like that time Merlin had gone back to his mother in Ealdor and discovered she'd reorganized the place so she'd have more space to do knitting and sewing.

The world stopped spinning, and they were finally completely alone. Merlin could still hear his blood rushing through his ears from all the stress, but as it slowed down, the pain in his feet came back and he hissed and grunted with pain. Next to him, Arthur stirred again and Merlin's attention turned on the king immediately.

"Arthur, Arthur can you hear me?" he said.

The king's eyes opened and closed several times, mumbling several things that Merlin couldn't quite catch until Arthur cleared his throat.

"Appointment... with Father. Merlinnnn…" he mumbled.

"Arthur, you are king, your father is dead, you are the king now, remember?" Merlin said, confused.

But Arthur kept babbling.

"Merlin… council… Very… important."

"Arthur!"

But then he felt it, an unimaginably strong magic hanging around them everywhere. Merlin tried to search for the source, and considered trying to find what spell could leave such a strong magical flare, but he was becoming dizzy with blood loss and so he did the first thing that came to his mind: he built a magical field around Arthur so that the effects of whatever spell was hanging around them would have no effect on him.

Almost instantly after he finished the spell, Arthur lost consciousness again and fell to the ground like a rag doll.

Merlin reached his king with difficulty and tried to get up, but his feet were too gravely injured and he fell on the ground floor next to Arthur. He was so focused he almost didn't hear the unfamiliar female voice.

"Oh my god!"

He looked up. Three people, two boys and a girl, dressed in longue, black robes sporting a red and gold seal on the left part of their chest. The girl was wide eyed and both boys seemed somewhat confused.

"Are you okay sirs? " asked the red-haired one.

The girl turned to him.

"Are you blind? Do they even look okay? We should go get professor McGonagall! I'm going now!"

The girl made a few retreating steps before the red haired boy spoke again.

"Wait, wait! I'll go, you're the best at healing spell, and maybe you can help them. Just… stay there. And… be careful!"

And he retreated before turning on his heels and breaking into a sprint. The raven haired boy - who was wearing circle round glasses with black frames - approached gently.

"Sir?" he asked carefully. "Who are you?"

"M- Merlin."

"Merlin? Okay… who's your friend? What happened to him?"

"He… he's Arthur, we were coming back from a quest, and we were attacked by bandits and… and Morgana and… have you seen a group of knights?"

It was like words were pouring down his throat without his consent. The raven haired boy eyed him curiously but came closer and closer until he was next to him.

"Harry…" said the girl, Hermione, from what Merlin had understood. She was almost pleading.

"It's fine Hermione" Harry answered with assurance. The boy turned his attention back to Merlin "Where are you coming from? Usually people stop at Hogsmeade. Did you pass Hogsmeade? Did nobody wanted to help you there? You can't possibly have walked very far with wounds like that."

"What… what's Hogsmeade?" Merlin asked.

Harry turned to Hermione, who stared back at him in confusion, if it was even possible to look that much confused.

"You're…" the boy began.

Before he could speak more, the red haired boy came back running behind a tall and rather mature woman wearing an emerald green robe and nothing else than… a pointy hat. Her face was stern and serious but she was walking very fast with an expression of concern.

"Oh, by Peeves, what happened?" she asked. Her voice was sharp. She came close to him, making a gesture toward the boy, Harry, who promptly retreated near Hermione.

"We found them just like this professor", said the girl. "Look at his boots, he must have lost a lot of blood!" there was concern in her voice.

The mention of his boots seemed to bring the pain back and Merlin was suddenly aware that he was losing blood every minute that passed. He felt dizzy and his head fell forward. Professor McGonagall quickly put in back in a sitting position.

"What's your name, young man?" she asked. "I don't remember having you in one of my classrooms but you look rather young. Are you a traveler?"

Merlin looked at her, bemused. A classroom, why would he be in her classroom?

"What's your name? She asked.

"Merlin, he said it was Merlin." Said Harry behind her.

"Ah, nothing less."

She stood up and turned to the three young people.

"Potter, Granger, I trust you know the levitation charms well. Help Mr. Merlin on his feet. Weasley, run up to Madam Pomfrey will you and tell her we have two patients coming up and that she'll need some scarring potion for deep flesh wounds. I'll take care of the… funny dressed knight right here."

The teenagers didn't need to be told twice. Harry and Hermione came either side of him and helped him up. He felt a rush of magic around him and panicked, looking around him.

"It's fine Merlin, it's just a levitation spell so we don't have to carry your full weight up to the infirmary", said Hermione reassuringly.

A spell? did she have a death wish?

But then he saw the older woman get a wooden stick out of her robes, and without even a word, Arthur came floating right next to him. Merlin looked, like star struck, because surely, the blood loss was having an effect on his brain. What if Arthur woke up? What if he hadn't been a magic user? They could have been killed.

"What…"

The dizziness intensified and the last thing he heard before being swallowed by darkness was Hermione's gentle voice: "I think we're going to have to make him float up the infirmary too, professor."

Author's note: I know where this is going, I just don't know when I'll be updating. In less than a month, that's for sure. Hopefully next week. Still, please leave comment and like the story if you want me to keep writing (or if you want me to write faster because you want to know what happens!).