*Edges onto screen. Deposits chapter. Runs away*

A voice from far, far, far, far, far away "Run faster Peskychesk, before the vegetables arrives!" *pause* '"And don't forget the disclaimer!"

*Stops*

*Runs back a short way. Throws crumpled disclaimer towards screen. Flees (again)*

Bruised disclaimer: Merlin is not ours. Aren't you glad you didn't have to wait 3 years for the next part to air (wonder what that would be like...oh wait we know that feeling...*nudge* Sherlock *nudge*)

Chapter 4 A Valiant effort part drei

When Merlin finally deemed herself ready to face the tournament once more, she arrived to find that Valiant's fight was not yet over. In fact it seemed to have only just begun. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind a voice reminded her that Arthur's fight, having been scheduled as the first bout of the day, must have already finished and she had missed it. She wondered vaguely whether he would have been angry at her, before promptly forcing herself to discard the thought as utter nonsense. There was nothing to be mad about; they were barely even acquaintances, let alone friends.

A flash of purple caught Merlin's wandering attention, forcing her to observe the contest. Valiant was bashing his way along with all the finesse of a rampaging ox. Merlin was quite impressed with Sir Ewan's technique, until he was sent crashing to the ground from one particular strike. Even as he made to rise, Valiant was bearing down on him with his shield. Merlin felt something was a little off, for there was a barely extended pause before Valiant struck the other a knockout blow with the pommel of his sword, ending the fight for his win.

When Sir Ewan did not rise, Merlin watched as Gaius hurried forwards to tend the man, and took it upon herself to lend her assistance. After all, she was his unofficial apprentice. Of course this somewhat rash decision earned her a surprised glance from the victorious Valiant, who had previously been basking in the crowd's adulations. Merlin ducked her head, trying to avoid his predatory gaze, before hastening to Gaius' side, where Sir Ewan was in the process of being placed upon a stretcher.

She quickly decided to forego the next few fights in favour of aiding Gaius in his examination of the injured combatant (and if that allowed her to temporarily avoid any forthcoming advances from Valiant and/or Arthur then who was she to complain?).

It was midway through the assessment that Gaius hummed to himself, deep in consideration, and Merlin instantly perked up. The previous half hour had hardly been one of the most enthralling she had experienced – listening to lectures on anatomy was not one of her preferred pastimes. As such she leapt at the opportunity to question Gaius on what he'd found.

"What is it?"

"It's most odd." Gaius beckoned her closer, before gesturing to a spot on the side of the knight's neck, "Look at this. See these two small wounds? Looks like a snake bite."

"How could he have been bitten by a snake? He was injured in a sword fight."

"The symptoms are consistent with poisoning. Slow pulse, fever, paralysis."

Merlin felt a sliver of worry run through her. From what she had seen of him, Ewan seemed like a decent enough fellow, not the typical target for poison, "Can you heal him?"

Standing, Gaius turned to walk over to one of his benches, "Well if it is a snakebite, I'll have to extract venom from the snake that bit him to make an antidote."

"What happens if he doesn't get the antidote?"

Gaius looked at her, a hint of sorrow in the set of his brow, "Then I'm afraid there's nothing more I can do for him. He's going to die." The physician dropped his gaze, returning to tend to his patient once more.

In that instant a memory surfaced in Merlin's mind; of strange hissing, painted serpents, and blinking, malevolent red eyes.

"He was fighting Knight Valiant."

"What's that?" Questioned Gaius distractedly.

"Nothing"

After Merlin had (not so subtly) questioned passing servants and found her way to Valiant's chamber, she found to her dismay that enough time had passed for the knights to be returning from their midday meal. This led to her being secreted in a small alcove just around the corner as Valiant strode down the corridor from the other direction and into his room, sword and shield in hand.

Slipping from her hiding place, Merlin crept over to Valiant's room and sidled up to the door. Gently pushing it open enough to see into the Knight's chambers, Merlin was just in time to watch as Valiant brought a cage of mice over to the table in the centre of the room, and extracted one from it.

The creep in question held the struggling creature in front of his smiling face. "Dinner time," he chuckled, before perching on the table's edge and offering the mouse out to his shield, from which the three snakes then proceeded to rise, hissing and snapping at each other as they vied for the squealing rodent.

Uttering a small gasp, Merlin turned to flee the scene. A metallic clang resounded from inside the room and she realised with a jolt that she must have nudged the door as she'd moved, which in turn must have knocked something into falling from its stand. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, and for a brief moment it felt almost as though the world was standing still. There was no way on Earth Valiant wouldn't have heard that. The thud of hasty footfalls which echoed forth mere moments later served only to deepen her panic, and the tell-tale screech of a sword being drawn did absolutely nothing to aid the situation. Spurred into action, Merlin turned on her heels. And ran.

But alas, just as she reached the area in which the adjoining corridors met, her feet slid on what she had not previously realised to be a rather unexpectedly slippery floor. Nonetheless, this still would not have hindered her escape had it not been for the unfortunate fact that her foot caught on the trim of her dress, sending her sprawling with a small (and stupidly high-pitched) 'eeep'. She barely had time to twist so that it appeared that she had been heading towards Valiant's chambers before the man himself strode out, sword in hand, and with an expression of barely veiled anger.

Watching with bated breath as the knight realised who lay before him, she quickly found that it was to be an expression she would dearly miss, as, to her utter and abject horror, his features slowly morphed to show surprised and mounting delight.

"Merlin!"

Bile rising at the pure joy infusing his saying of her name, Merlin attempted to scooch backwards without notice, wishing for nothing more than for a magical abyss to appear and swallow her whole. Valiant, however, seemed oblivious to Merlin's desperate attempt to flee, instead stalking her in her struggles, a hand outstretched to assist the damsel to her feet, sword forgotten. The love struck fool must have believed that not only could all willowy maids be brought to ground by the mildest breath of wind, but they also all needed an overly self-absorbed ponce to rush to their aid.

Inwardly plotting to later cleanse her entire arm with a spell, Merlin reached a tentative hand out to take the offered appendage. With an unexpectedly forceful tug she was up and nearly off her feet, stumbling forward into a broad chest and feeling arms slide about her waist in a firm embrace. Jerking back she made the mistake of looking up at his face, just in time to see his eyes become hooded with desire and focused on her slightly parted lips. The moment he began leaning in, she reeled back in instinctive alarm, a hand flying unbidden to shield the feature from view of the obscene gaze. She felt the blood rushing to her face in anger, and was horrified to see his pupils dilate still further; the man must have thought her a blushing maid. Reigning in, as best she could, her urge to unleash a hail of profanities upon him, she impulsively flipped her raised hand to cover his still approaching, pursed lips.

There was a single beat in which the world beyond them seemed to freeze, and she watched, sticken, her mind a blank, as his eyes widened once more. One could almost see his brain arrive at the dawning realisation that the girl before him had, seemingly without thought or hesitation, gifted him the essence of a kiss. Her brain process was barely rekindling when she felt the twitching of a smirk beneath her hand, and could only watch as Valliant drew her hand a hair's breadth from his mouth and planted a kiss upon her palm. While part of her mind was debating the merits of simply cutting off her hand when she got back to Gaius', a small panicked voice in the recesses of her mind - which she wholeheartedly decided never to allow access to her vocal chords - was fretting over how she was going to explain her current situation to his pratness the prince. Before she could do more than gape in shock, Valiant pulled away and murmured seductively (or as seductively as a lunk-headed brute could),

"If it pleases you, my lady, what say you to us reconvening as the sun's dappled rays slip beneath the swell of hills to..." Merlin noticed his eyes had moved to the 'swell' of her 'hills'. "Light the valley's supple bed."

Biting her tongue hard enough as to prevent any of the myriad of scathing replies she had to the question from spewing forth, Merlin could do nothing but nod slightly hysterically, a strained smile stretching her lips.

The knight gave her a smile in return, which he followed by bringing the fingertips of one of his hands to his own lips. Merlin's eyes widened as he shifted to present them to her, moving to probably copy her eariler accidental gesture. She couldn't escape it, every ounce of energy she had was being used to stop herself from shuddering uncontrollably. As the pads of his fingers brushed her slightly parted lips, Valiant spoke softly, "Until then."

Having delivered his words of promise, he turned and strode from the girl, who was now masquerading as one of the many statues inhabiting the castle, back towards his chambers. Five seconds later the slam of the door resounded down the corridor.

Delbert was on one of his more regular rounds when, whilst rounding a corner, he started to consider whether or not he had been cursed. He threw his arm out to prevent his partner turning into the corridor housing the newest long-term resident to the castle. Just in time, for she shuddered out of stillness and began vigorously rubbing her mouth against her sleeve. Apparently for good reason if the mutterings he heard mere moments later were any indication:

"I was right. Rat really does taste just that awful."

*Vegetables-will-have-their-revenge sidles begrudingly onto screen* "Peskychesk said I had to come and offer our apology for this being late, as I moved to Japan and Peskychesk didn't. So it is entirely all my fault, and all her fault too, and I'm not taking all the blame, and I'm yelling and rambling and we are terrified and I am running away now"

5 seconds later *PANT* "And I am" *WHEEZE* "really regretting" *PANT* not being" *HUGE GASP* "fitter."