More Than A Servant

Chapter 1

A/N
Just so you all are aware, this first chapter pretty follows the first five minutes of a Servant of Two Masters. After this chapter the story diverts from the original episode. I do not own the characters, setting, or the events in this chapter. That being said... enjoy!

"Nothing good ever happens in the Valley if the Fallen Kings, and no one in their right mind would go in there!" exclaims Merlin, earning some laughter from the knights behind him.

"Exactly!" says Percival.

"The routes are secret Merlin, that's why we chose it."
Just as Arthur finishes explaining, a group of bandits jumped out of woods.

Here we go again, Merlin thinks to himself. The knights started attacking the bandits, cutting them down one by one. Merlin, of course, was trying to stay out of trouble and help using magic when he could. Suddenly, a bandit started charging at Arthur while he was not looking. Merlin blasted the bandit off of his horse just in time. As he is distracted, a bandit charges at him with a mace. Merlin turns around just in time to see the bandit swinging his mace and then...
WHAM.

All Merlin can feel is pain radiating throughout his chest, spreading to his entire body. He can feel his legs giving out as he crumbles to the ground.

Arthur finishes fighting the group of bandits that had previously surrounded him and looks up to see Merlin lying on the ground. 'What? No, it can't be...' All Arthur can register is shock and fear. For a second he is completely frozen with fear. A new group of bandits rushing at him made him snap back to reality. He has to save Merlin... he would never forgive himself if he let his best friend die on a mission that Merlin didn't even need to be on.

After fighting off the three or four bandits that were surrounding him, Arthur rushes over to Merlin. Merlin returns to consciousness as Arthur was shaking him trying to pull him up. Merlin is still overwhelmed by pain, but he let Arthur help him up, and together they run from the scene.

After an agonizing amount of pain and running, they finally stopped and hid behind a tree. A few of the bandits ran by, completely oblivious to their hiding. Both Arthur and Merlin breathed a sigh of relief.

"They need to work through their anger." Merlin says.

"They just did, on you."

Merlin tries to laugh to response, but the pain makes it hard to speak, let alone laugh. Arthur can tell that he's in a lot of pain, but since he could do nothing at the moment, he decides that they should make camp. Hopefully, a night's rest would give Merlin time to heal.

***

When Merlin woke up, the first thing he registered was the pain. It is all throughout his chest spreading into his entire body. He knew that he couldn't get up even if he wanted to. He opens his eyes and just stares upwards, not really registering what he was seeing. Then he starts to hear footsteps in the woods.

Apparently, Arthur was awake and heard footsteps as well. As much as Arthur wanted to stay and let Merlin rest, he knew that if they stayed any longer they would be surely found and killed.

"I'd love to say we could stay here and rest, but another ten minutes and we'll be dead," Arthur says as he hoisted Merlin up onto his shoulders.

Merlin lets out a gasp in pain as Arthur lifted him up.
"Please leave me."
"Sure, whatever you say," Arthur replies as he continues to carry Merlin to safety.

Just as all seems to be going well, a few bandits come from nowhere and start to charge at Arthur. Arthur puts Merlin down and fights them off, with Merlin being able to do nothing but watch. Then, unbeknownst to Arthur, a bunch of bandits start to charge from the direction that Merlin is laying. A quick look at their number told Merlin that Arthur couldn't possibly survive an attack from all of them at once.

Once again, Merlin had to choose between the king's life and his own. Once again, Merlin chose to save Arthur. He whispered a quick spell under his breath and rocks fell from both sides of the cliffs, separating Arthur from the group of bandits.

As Arthur turned, he saw boulders falling and his best friend lying in the dirt, helpless. He panicked as he came to realize that there was now nothing he could do to save him.
"MERLIN!"