"Merlin!" Shouted King Arthur from the physician's door, "I thought I told you to be ready at first light. It's been over an hour!"

"Sorry, sire," Merlin stated with as much contempt as he could muster, "I needed to help Gaius care for one of the knights. He's fallen ill." Arthur scoffed, accepting the excuse but deciding not to show it.

"Do you think we can go now, Merlin? Or do you need more beauty sleep?" Merlin made a face that could be likened to either a smirk or a grimace, then grabbed his bag and followed his master out the door and to the horses.

The duo walked down the many stairs, mostly in silence, save for the occasional formality they would exchange with passing guards. WIthin a few minutes, they reached the foot of the castle, where they found Gwaine, Lancelot, and Elyan waiting for them, already mounted on their saddles, as well as two extra horses.

"Well, I found the useless lump!" Announced Arthur, putting his arm around Merlin in a joking and teasing manner. He turned to Merlin, who was glaring daggers at the blond. Realizing that he had kept his arm around his servant longer than what was entirely necessary, Arthur quickly withdrew his arm from Merlin and turned to mount his horse. "Well, come on. Let's go on the hunt. I've alerted the Queen that we are only to be gone for two days at the most, so we should hurry." And, with that, they were off, Merlin trailing behind them.

A few hours later, the five men were stationed outside a gathering of large and healthy deer, each pointing their crossbows at the animals (except Merlin, of course). Right as Arthur was getting ready to shoot one of the deer, they took fright, scattering left and right for no apparent reason. The knights sighed in frustration, and Merlin in relief. He never really liked to go hunting, not really. The poor animals did nothing wrong, and they were slaughtered. But, the King enjoyed this pastime, so go Merlin must.

"We should go further North." Suggested Elyan, "There we may be able to find more game." Athur nodded once in Elyan's direction, then turned his horse to the North.

"We must be careful. Bandits run rampant in that area, but we can take them." Declared the King with a smile. Merlin made eye contact with Arthur, who was searching for confirmation in his servant's eyes that this was a good idea. Merlin knew that his master would never admit it, but Arthur did often look to the young warlock for advice, whether it be trivial matters or decisions that would affect the fate of Camelot. Merlin nodded in Arthur's direction, then coughed into his hand. The cough brought to his attention that his throat was beginning to feel rather dry. He grabbed some water out of the side pocket of his horse and took a couple sips, frowning when the water caught in his throat and made him cough again. Gwaine looked in his direction and winked, as if they were sharing some amusing secret that no one knew about, and Merlin smiled. They quickly caught up with the rest of the group and then they were on their way.

They were passing a shallow trench when in happened. The men heard a shout, and then about a dozen bandits ran from the trench. Quickly, they dismounted their horses and entered the battle. Merlin stood off to the side, waiting to see if any of the warriors needed his assistance. Gwaine was locked in combat with two veiled men, and looked like he was having the time of his life. Elyan incapacitated one man, then began fighting another, seemingly at ease with the situation. Lancelot easily killed the men who approached him, not even breaking a sweat. Merlin's eyes flitted to Arthur and saw his master fighting with the obvious leader of the group of bandits. They were occupied with the fight, and Arthur didn't even notice the stray bandit creeping up behind them, sword raised; But Merlin did. Tilting his head forward, the young warlock's eyes flashed gold, and the sword flew out of the bandit's hands. To Merlin's surprise, he stumbled back, seemingly weakened by this small act of magic. Before he could study this further, Lancelot, finally noticing the King's predicament, rushed forward and thrust his sword into the bandit's back, killing him instantly. The leader of the bandits looked around, and saw that he was the only one of his men left standing; the others were either injured or dead by the hands of the knights. His eyes widened, and before anyone knew what was going on, the man fled.

Arthur, surprised at this man's cowardice, lowered his sword cautiously and surveyed the dead bandits around them. Then, he raised his eyes and surveyed his men.

"Is everyone alright?" Asked Arthur, looking around. One by one, each of the knights nodded and found a spot to sit, obviously tired out from the battle. But, as Arthur looked closer, he noticed someone was missing. "Merlin?" He called out, searching for his loyal servant. When no one responded, he stood up and started looking around their makeshift camp.

"Maybe he needed to take a leak." Laughed Gwaine, "Maybe he wet himself." But Arthur wasn't listening.

"Merlin!" He yelled, kneeling next to the unconscious man. He shook him, hard, and slapped him, "Come on Merlin, don't be such a girl. Wake up, I don't want to carry you." At this point, the knights noticed what was going on and were anxiously looking at the scene unfolding, To everyone's relief, however, Merlin blearily opened his eyes, obviously confused at what was going on.

"What… happened?" He whispered, struggling to his feet with the help of Arthur.

"We don't know." Stated Arthur, " You must've gotten a blow to the head. Dizzy?"

"Uh, a bit." Answered Merlin, his voice stronger.

"Oh, well, glad to see you weren't even fighting and you managed to get hurt." Lancelot said with a smile, "Now, come on. You should rest. We should all rest. It's getting dark." The other men agreed, and Merlin pushed Arthur away.

"I can walk, you know." He said, obviously irritated but grinning all the same. He walked the short distance to where the other men had started a fire and plopped down next to Lancelot and Gwaine. "Did you all make it out alright?" He asked, clearly wanting to remove the looks of concern coming from the men sitting next to him.

"Better than you, I guess." Said Gwaine with a grin.

"Yeah." Chuckled Merlin, rubbing his head subconsciously.

"Does it hurt?" Asked Lancelot, beginning to examine Merlin's head for lacerations.

"Yeah, but it's funny. I don't remember getting hit."

"You won't if it's bad enough." Added Elyan. "Once I got hit in the head by one of my Dad's tools. Took me a week before I remembered that it had happened at all." Arthur looked at Elyan with curiosity.

"How did you get hit in the head with a blacksmith's tools?" Elyan moved slightly, obviously uncomfortable, before answering.

"I made Gwen mad." He stated simply, causing everyone else to laugh.

"Yeah, I made that mistake once," Said Arthur. She put honey in the sheets on my side of the bed. Took ages to clean out." At this Merlin chuckled.

"How would you know?" He quipped. "You don't clean the sheets." The knights laughed harder, and so did Merlin, but his throat caught in the laugh, and he launched into a coughing fit. He sat up from his place between Gwaine and Lancelot and coughed into his fist, startled by this sudden revolt from his throat. After a little bit his throat calmed down and he grabbed some water to choke down. After swallowing the last of his water, he looked up to see four pairs of eyes on him.

"What the hell was that?" Asked Arthur, looking at Merlin with annoyance and a bit of concern.

"Oh, nothing. I must have swallowed wrong or something." Huffed Merlin, a bit out of breath from the fit. "I'm fine." He looked around at the knights, who were all still looking at him (especially Lancelot, who had not missed how out of breath Merlin had become), and repeated, "I'm fine." The other men seemed to accept this, finally, and continued to converse back and forth. This time, Merlin didn't join, but instead he leaned back to get some rest. He was feeling unusually tired, but he attributed this to the supposed head injury. Closing his tired eyes, he was lulled to sleep by the comforting sounds of conversation around him.

After the conversation began to dwindle, Lancelot settled back to rest for the upcoming day. As he laid back, he heard something odd coming from his right, where Merlin slept. He moved his face closer to the young warlock and identified the faint sound of wheezing coming from him. Alarm began to rise in Lancelot as he continued to listen to Merlin's breathing. But, after a couple of minutes, he began to reason with himself. Get a grip, Lancelot thought to himself, I'm probably just hearing things. Or he just has a cold. He is prone to catching colds. Successfully putting the matter behind, the young knight carefully laid back down as to avoid waking the possibly ailing boy, and fell asleep.