The next day they started to ride early and followed the path north east, and were slow but steady coming closer to the mountains. Merlin's heart was still heavy after the good bye with Arthur, and most of the day they rode in quiet. It wasn't an awkward silence, but a pleasant one. After yesterday, none of them felt like talking, and they didn't feel the need for it either. Instead they just enjoyed one another's company. And now that Arthur wasn't after them anymore they had no need to avoid certain parts or ride fast in order to avoid discovery.

They had come to an open field with a pleasant view where they had a viewing point of several kilometres, and decided to follow a little river with cheerful purling (or is rippling better?) water, flooding down from the mountains. Further ahead of them they spotted some deer drinking of it, which fled away as soon as they noticed Merlin and Freya appearing.

Around dusk they reached a glade by the foot of a small mountain. Underneath the mountain a little lake twinkled in the setting sun, from which the river they had followed all day flooded from. By the foot of the lake was a little cottage. It didn't look like someone was living there; trees and bushes were overgrown, the little barn looked half in disrepair with half of its roof gone, no crops seemed to be grown. The little house looked in a need of a makeover too.

But Freya shone up when she saw the view, "What a beautiful place!" she smiled. Excitedly she climbed down from the horse and ran towards the little house and disappeared into it. Merlin laughed to himself at her happiness. He dismounted and tied the horse to a nearby tree, and then set off after Freya. As he had thought, the house was uninhabited. It didn't look like anyone other than wild animals had been living here for a very long time and it certainly needed to be renovated. All the furniture was covered in thick layers of dust. By a closer look most stuff were chewed broken by rats and other animals, and their droppings were scattered all round over the floor and spider webs covered every single corner of the house. There were several holes in the roof and in the big bedroom they found a bird's nest. At first glance it looked empty, but when they came closer they saw it was filled with eggs.

"I wonder who lived here, and why they aren't here anymore," Freya said, undisturbed by the house's condition. Instead she looked around on every inch of the house with great interest.

"I don't know. But it doesn't look like they left by any force," even if the little house was in a bad shape, no traces that violence ever taken place here were shown. It looked like the people here had just walked out and never returned. The late sun shone through the windows, filling the little house with warmth and making patches of light on the floor.

Freya picked up an old doll that was placed on one of the shelves on the walls, "I used to have a doll like this. But it had brown hair, not yellow. I had gotten it from my mother, and she had gotten it from hers," Freya smiled sadly at the memory, "Do you think kids lived here?"

"There's always the possibility," he could easily see this place with children, their small bare feet running over the floor as they played around with each other during loud laughs, and their parents telling them to be still, but for no use.

"This place looks to have been so wonderful once. Can we stay here? Please?" Freya danced around, moving into the kitchen, then turned around and looked hopefully at him. He didn't see any reason not to stay. No one would claim this house and they were on a safe distance from Camelot. And this place seemed to remind her of her childhood home. Even if this place wasn't in the best condition, they could easily fix it. And once it was fixed this would be a lovely home.

"Why not?" he said and with a beam Freya threw herself around his neck and kissed him, "Thank you!"

"But we're going to have a lot of work to do before this place is inhabitable, but I think I already know one thing that we can grow… strawberries," he grinned and her face cracked up in an even wider smile than before, "We're going to make this the perfect place!" she said.

"As long as I'm with you, any place in the world is going to be perfect," he said sincerely. It was true, it wouldn't matter if they had to be on the move for the rest of their lives, or lived here. They were together, and that was all that mattered to him.

"You stupid," she smiled uncertainly. She had still not got used having someone being nice to her. After losing her parents, and being given away to a bounty hunter by her own people that were supposed to protect her, she had had no one. Love and trust haven't been too present in her life, but he was going to make sure that that was changed. Every day he would make sure that she felt loved, and that she would never be alone ever again.

He leaned closer and kissed her. But this time it was a longer kiss. He felt her surprise at first, but then she responded to the kiss, her hand trailing up to his hair, pushing him closer to herself, almost as if she was afraid to lose him. But too soon they broke the kiss, slowly and reluctantly. For a long time they stood in each other's arms, just looking at one another.

"Do you really mean it?" Freya then asked, still a little uncertain.

"Of course I do! It doesn't matter where we are, what's important is that we are together. You know why? Because I love you,"

She blushed and looked down for a few seconds before looking up at him again, with her dark brown eyes sparkling, "I love you too,"

Another kiss and then, with arms around each other, they went outside to plan their future and watch the sun's last journey before it was completely gone under the horizon.

A/N: Sorry for the late update guys! but i started adding some stuff on this and had it sent to my beta on thursday, and yesterday a friend came over here to stay over the weekend but here it finally is, the last chapter. Merlin and Freya finally got their happy ending!

And thank you for reading this story, and reviewing, following and favoriting. It really meant a lot to me!