Hi!

This is my first story, so I would really love to hear what you think of it. Did you hate it, did you love it? Tell me ;)

Also, I do not own Merlin. If I did there would be a lot more than 5 seasons...

"I swear that slaver was at least a head taller than Percy over here," Gwaine ensured the group as they rode towards Camelot.

The group were on their way home after a three week long quest. Camelot had received word about a small band of slave traders who had been raiding and kidnapping children in the outer regions of the kingdom. Arthur had taken his most trusted knights and gone to personally handle the men who had mistreated his people in such a horrible way. It had taken time, but in the end they had found and disposed of the criminals, freed all the captured children and returned them to their families. Despite the long and tiresome quest the group were in a great mood. Nothing made Arthur happier than seeing his people happy and it quickly spread to Merlin and the knights.

"Oh, so that's the reason why he knocked you to the ground, was it?" Merlin asked Gwaine with a sly smile.

Arthur, Leon, Percival, Elyan and Merlin all laughed as Gwaine grumbled about the so called giant.

"Well at least I wasn't the one to get captured!" Gwaine shot back.

"Merlin was supposed to get captured, it's called being bait." Leon called back to Gwaine with a smile on his face.

Gwaine gave up on the subject of his almost-defeat and decided to change subject instead.

"I still don't get why we did that. I mean what would we have done if they actually got away with Merlin or, even worse, if they just killed him on the spot when they captured him?"

The group quieted down a bit. Using Merlin as bait had been a tough decision that none of them really wanted to make, but it had been the only way to get the slavers to show themselves.

"Gwaine, we have been through this. Because I'm a servant they didn't see me as a threat and which meant that the highest probability was that they would take me to the missing children. Besides, you were right there if anything would have gone wrong." Merlin said with a soft smile.

Arthur shuddered at the thought of Merlin being sold as a slave. He wouldn't have been able to live with himself if anything had gone wrong. Hell, he had almost punched Merlin when he told them of his idea, but he knew too that it had been the only way to lure the criminals out of hiding. Even if the plan had been a complete success and Merlin was unharmed, he still feared Guinevere's reaction when she would find out just how they managed to find the missing children.

"Help! Please, help me!" The desperate scream tore through the trees and seemed to momentarily stop time. The knights didn't even spare each other a glance before they set off to help. Someone needed them and they where honor bound to protect, they didn't need the order to know what cause of action to take.

"Please! Anybody?!" Merlin had a bad feeling about all of this, but he felt strangely drawn towards the screams. He needed to get there. He needed to save her. Because this time he was honor bound too.

They got closer and closer and after a short amount of time they found her. She was running, limping slightly, her clothes were torn and dirty and she had tears streaming down her cheeks. She was clearly a Druid. And she couldn't have been more than twelve years of age. She stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the Knights, but then she turned her eyes to Merlin and visibly relaxed.

Emrys?

Merlin met her eyes.

Don't worry, you're safe now. Arthur won't hurt you, he is not his father. What is your name?

Luna.

MeanwhileArthur had gotten of his horse and slowly started to approach the girl. Her gaze shifted to Arthur and despite what Emrys had said she flinched back a little. Arthur held out his hands to show her that he meant her no harm.

"It's okay" Arthur said slowly,"I will not let any harm come to you, you have my word."

The girl looked beyond relieved and suddenly ran into Arthur's open arms and began to sob quietly.

"Please don't let them take me again", she begged.

"Who are you talking about?" Arthur asked carefully as he softly returned her embrace.

Merlin quickly turned his head to the left as he clearly heard a twig snap. He let his gaze wander slowly through the trees and then back to Arthur and the druid girl to try to ease his feeling of them being in danger. The birds had gone silent and the woods was suddenly all too quiet for Merlin's liking. Something was up.

"Arth..."

All hell broke loose. Soldiers came at them from every direction, running out from behind the trees. Arthur let go of the girl and pushed her behind himself to protect her. The knights slid down from their horses and drew their swords, ready to protect their King. They were vastly outnumbered and this time even Gwaine didn't like the odds.

"Merlin!" Arthur hollered as he pushed the druid in Merlin's direction and proceeded to fight the enemy soldiers. Merlin took hold of the girl and, managed to dodge a sword and miraculously, almost magically, got himself and Luna out of harms way.

"Stay down, Luna," Merlin said softly,"everything will be just fine." Luna nodded and obediently sank down behind a tree. Merlin turned his eyes to the fight. The knights were mostly unharmed sporting only a couple of scratches, but even the knights of Camelot had their limits. They were all tired after the long quest and the soldiers just kept coming. It was only a matter of time before the enemy would get the upper hand.

Time to turn the tides, Merlin thought as his eyes flashed gold.

"Lord Emrys?"

"What is it, Luna?" Merlin answered without turning his eyes away from the fight where he had just dropped another branch on an enemy soldier trying to sneak up on Leon.

"Emrys!" startled by Luna´s scream Merlin turned around only to come face to face with a man holding a knife to the young girl´s throat. His glare turned cold as he met the soldier´s eyes.

"Let her go."

The man´s smile simply widened at Merlin´s words.

"Now why would I do that? I have you exactly as I want you."

Merlin tightened his jaw and bore his eyes into this advisory. For a brief moment he considered using magic to turn him into something utterly awful and just be done with this arse, but with that knife pressed against Luna's throat... he just couldn't take the chance. Instead he chose to keep talking-to the man while finding another way out of this situation. "And how is that?"

"Distracted." The single word was whispered into his ear by a new deep voice. Before Merlin could react something was brought down on the back of his head and he fell into darkness.