Chapter 6 – Destiny forgotten

Hi everyone! I know this is shorter than you were hoping for and I'm sorry about that. I promise next chapter I'll make up for it! Life has just been kinda crazy to be honest and I'm also playing with a oneshot that I may or may not post so please don't kill me! I love you all!

I know I also promised I wouldn't make not replying to reviews a habit but I know I've gone and done it again. Please just know that each and every one makes my day and that all of you alerters and reviewers and readers are the reason I keep writing =).

Disclaimer: If I owned BBC/Shine's Merlin I would give you all juicy tidbits on what was to come. Alas, no such luck.

There's a lot of magic between you too, ain't no denying that. And magic makes forgettin' hard.―Nicholas Sparks

Merlin felt the world swirl around him once again until he had no choice but to squeeze his eyes shut tight until it ended. When it stopped, he opened them cautiously, first one and then the other. The blonde woman's face was inches from his and he scrambled backwards confusion making his heart beat fast.

For a second, just a moment, her faced morphed into someone else's. Also blonde, with eyes the colour of the sky. The image was fuzzy and he blinked and it was gone like it had never been there at all.

And maybe it hadn't, maybe his mind was just playing tricks on him. But he felt like he should know that face, and the emptiness it brought instead was like a physical ache.

"Where are we?" He watched the priestess smile out of the corner of his eye as he took in the silence of the forest around them; the thickness of the trees and the depth of the solitude.

"Far from Camelot." The high priestess stepped towards him. "I've come to meet an old friend, someone who will help us. Follow me."

And Merlin did, still trying to slow his racing heart.

XXXARTHUR**MERLINXXX

Arthur Pendragon, prince of Camelot, woke feeling anxious. Not angry or miserable or uncomfortable or even scared (although, of course, he didn't get scared) or any other myriad of emotions for which he might have been able to find an easy fix. No, just an infuriating mixture of boredom, pent up energy that shouldn't have been there after his training yesterday evening, and…what…? He wasn't sure what the third thing was but it ran through his veins tingling as it mixed with his blood and raising the hairs on his arms as it forced him to sit up (or was that the respectable, bootlicking servant by his side whose gaze was properly directed to the ground?).

Something about the fact that the young man's neck was still angled downward while he placed a tray of food in front of him irked Arthur though it shouldn't have. What the young man was doing was right, so why did it feel so wrong? Arthur shook his head trying to make himself feel and thinkproperly again as he started into a sausage.

"Thanks Merlin." The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them and he froze, sausage half way to his mouth, and raised his eyes to meet his servant's green ones. The poor boy was looking a little unsure.

How did you go about correcting the prince of Camelot when he got your name wrong?

You didn't…

"Happy to be of service, sire."

Arthur cleared his throat refusing to let embarrassment turn his cheeks red. The boy was only his manservant, after all. There were too many other, actually important, names to remember.

"You're dismissed; I can dress on my own."

The boy nodded looking slightly shocked and left as fast as he could. Arthur couldn't blame him really. On a normal day he'd never pass up the chance to send him running from hither to high-water and everywhere in between. But today wasn't a normal day, and the sight of those green eyes was making him sick. It was like they were eating into his soul. For some reason, he got the distinct impression that they should have been blue but then he shook it away. That was ridiculous, eyes were eyes and they were the colour they were. He was losing his damn mind. That's probably what Alfred was telling the rest of the servants. 'Three years working for him and he still can't remember my name'.

Arthur stabbed his sausage in frustration. Alfred! That was the boy's name. He bit off a piece of said sausage and started to chew. Where on earth had he gotten Merlin from? It wasn't even close. For goodness sakes he didn't even know anyone named Merlin.

Arthur vehemently ignored how the name sent tingles up his spine, how it seemed to probe spaces in his memory that shouldn't have been empty but were.

As he started on his eggs he put questioning his sanity out of his mind and focused on simpler things, like what he'd be doing that day. 1 – train knights 2 – welcome lady Helen 3 – discuss a certain serving girl with sir Leon 4 – sit in on another of his father's boring to tears council meetings in which Uther mostly ranted about everything nasty magic had done since the last council meeting, everyone nodded along, and not much else got done…oh and he'd have to get one of the other servants to make a trip to the seamstress since he'd so rashly sent Alfred away – maybe Guinevere oh she was lovely (see number three). He had no idea why, but for some reason he felt a need to start wearing neckerchiefs and much to his annoyance he didn't have any.

Maybe some red and some a nice blue-gray. Yes, that was it. But mostly red…

Arthur abandoned his food for the moment and took to rubbing his temples. Did he have one hell of a headache…

"It's like forgetting the words to your favourite song/ You can believe it, you were always singing along/ It was so easy and the words so sweet/ You can't remember, you try to feel the beat." – Regina Spektor

So a little lighter than most of what I've written so far but I'm feeling alright about it and like I said, no worries, plot galore coming next time I assure you of this!

Please let me know what you think! 3