Protection

River

A/N Sorry the last one was kinda rushed but I'm not in my normal work zone, I'm at my dad's not my mom's so I had something else I had to do but I'll try my best for this one, they will probably be rushed until August 1st because that's when I go back and the only time I get to write is at like 10 at night so I have to hurry and type then go to bed, sorry everyone. I'm also watching Merlin while writing this, I'm watching the episode Gwaine.

Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin

Prompt: Merlin falls into a flooded river and is swept away so Arthur and the Knights must locate him by staymagical.

"I'll go and wash these dishes." Merlin says grabbing the rest of the dishes and disappearing to the river. Arthur watched him go with a small worried feeling, a storm was coming in, a big one. The clumsy idiot would probably fall into the river or something. Gwaine and Percival start to set up camp after Merlin had not shown up after about five minutes.

"Should we go after him?" Gwaine whispers to Percival as they start to set up a tent.

"Not sure, let's give him another couple minutes." Percival replies as he helps pin up another tent.

"Forget it, I'm going to go and find him." Gwaine mutters as the rain starts to come down hard. Him and Percival disappear down the path that Merlin had took only to reappear no more than three minutes later holding the dishes and Merlin's neckerchief, which was ripped.

"What happened?!" Arthur asks when he sees what the piece of cloth Percival is holding.

"I don't know, this is all we found." Gwaine says, putting the dishes down near the fire.

"We need to find him." Leon says as he and Elyan start to stand up, Arthur and the knights all head down to the river where Merlin had been washing the river Merlin had washing the dishes.

"You think he fell in?" Elyan asks, looking at the flow of the river.

"Probably, the rain cause it to flood a little but nothing to major" Leon assesses, looking over the situation with an expertise he had grown accustom to over the years. Arthur looks over the flow of the river, which was heading East.

"This way." Arthur says, motioning to the East where the moon was rising slightly.

"Are you sure he fell in?" Gwaine asks after about three minutes of following the river.

"Well what other option is there?" Arthur snaps sending a glare at the knight.

"He could've gotten attacked by bandits." Gwaine offers.

"You think." Leon asks, not thinking of that possibility.

"Lets go back to camp for the knight and see if we can find any tracks." Percival says as the knights head back to the small camp they had set up not to long ago. They all settle down for a nights rest, Arthur on first watch, not sure if any of them would get any sleep that night.

*The next morning*

After eating a nice breakfast, the Knights all head out to look for tracks of a human or anything that gave any clue as to where Merlin might be. When noon stroke and they found nothing, they had no choice but to head back to Camelot, hoping to find a trace of any bandit activity, a clue to where Merlin might be. They were all set on the idea that Merlin was kidnapped by bandits. They found nothing, they had scoured the forest at least ten times in the last two weeks and nothing, nothing had turned up.

"What of other possibilities, like he was a clumsy idiot and fell into the river." Arthur says, finally becoming desperate.

"Maybe, we could go and search down the river see if he got swept away in the current." Elyan offers.

"Tomorrow, we ride out at dawn." Leon says, giving Gwaine and Arthur a look when they turned to glare at the knight.

"Fine." Gwaine growls, turning to leave, followed by the others. Arthur sighs and falls back onto the bed. He gets distracted by thoughts of Merlin, him acting like a fool. He couldn't, wouldn't lose his best friend, he refuses to lose another one of his family members, especially when Merlin might as well be his brother. Smiling at all the memories of his best friend, and let himself fall into oblivion.

*The next morning*

"We ride out now. Today we find Merlin, I will not return to Camelot until I find him, even if I just find his body, I will bring him back." Arthur says to his knights as they all mount their mares. With that they all rode out towards where they had last seen Merlin. Finding the river once more, they tie up their horses and follow the river East.

"Merlin!" Arthur shouts scanning his surroundings.

"Merlin." Leon shouts, his voice echoing.

"Merlin!" Elyan yells, "Merlin, where are you!"

"Merlin!" Percival shouts.

"Merlin!" Gwaine yells looking around, his eyes finally settling on a small servant sitting in a small cave, looking near to unconsciousness.

"Merlin." Percival says, relived heaving the boy out of the cave, still soaked though. He was shaking uncontrollably and looked on the brink of exhaustion.

"Merlin, what happened?" Arthur asks as he slipped his cloak off, draping it over the warlocks shaking form.

"I w-was j-j-just wa-washing the d-d-dishes and s-s-slipped. Y-you've s-seen th-the r-rest." He stutters, pulling the cloak tighter around him as if he was trying to block out the cold. Easily Gwaine and Percival slip their cloaks off and put them around Merlin.

"Come on, let's get you back to camp, then back to Camelot in the morning, once this storm clears up." Percival says pulling him to his feet and gently leading him back towards camp.

"Th-thanks." Merlin whispers.

"We're always keep you safe Merlin." Gwaine promises, smiling at Merlin.

"Th-thank you, f-for sav-ving me." He says returning Gwaine's smile with a slightly shaky ones.

"Always." Arthur says, laying a hand on Merlin's shoulder, who smiles again.

A/N I know, slightly rushed. Sorry. Keep sending in prompts and I know the characters are slightly OOC. My goal for this story by the way is to get to 50+ chapters, maybe 75 or 100. Can't promise anything but if you want me to continue then please send in ideas.