Betrayed and Broken

Attacked

MMMMMM

Merlin, quite frankly, was not surprised. When had they gone on a trip through the woods and not run into either bandits or mercenaries? He couldn't remember a single time. Well, there were times where it was slave traders instead. Merlin shook his head. This was not helping the battle that was about to occur.

All of the former knights and their companions leapt off their horses (which, by the way, why would they do that? When on their horses they had a clear advantage) and jumped into the fray. Merlin rolled his eyes and sighed. Then he saw Arthur fighting three men at once. He took one out and just managed to block the second when the third swung his sword at the king's unprotected side. There was no thought. It was completely instinctual when Merlin threw his hand out, sending the third man flying into the trees. Arthur finished off his last opponent and looked back at Merlin, eyes wide and disbelieving. Merlin looked away.

The young warlock took in the scene in front of him in between opponents. He (like a smart person) was fighting from the back of his horse with his spatha, a Roman cavalry sword. He noticed that there were too many enemy fighters. They would never win this battle with swords alone. Merlin sighed again (he seemed to be doing a lot of that lately), closed his eyes and whispered a spell, "æþrýtnes á hwa gewill æt ege mín gesiþþe áwierdnes ondforþringanhíe."

He watched with magic filled eyes as his spell took hold. All of the bandits were lifted into the air, flailing and struggling. Their eyes widened in terror and they started to scream as they rose ever higher. Their breathing quickened and their struggles grew stronger as whatever was holding onto them grew tighter. And then suddenly, they disappeared. Just like that. One minute there were hordes of bandits flailing in the air and then there was nothing but the clear blue sky. Everyone turned as one to stare at Merlin. He simply raised an eyebrow at them.

Arthur stalked menacingly towards him and Merlin quickly changed his spatha back into a sword. He held it loosely with the tip pointed to the ground in a show of surrender. His former best friend growled, "What did you do to them?"

Merlin tipped his head back and looked to the sky. He regained his cool and then looked back down at Arthur, "What do you mean? Would you rather that they were here fighting you? Because you would have lost! There were too many of them. Would you have preferred to die and let your people suffer under Morgana's reign?"

The young warlock noticed Percival, Gaius, and Lancelot come up next to him, some pulling their swords out to defend him. Arthur must have noticed it too because he stopped moving forward and simply said, defeated, "You still didn't have to kill them like that, where they didn't have a chance to fight back. I know that you have magic and the impulse to do evil comes first, but you didn't have to."

Merlin, in an equally defeated voice, said, "I didn't kill them, Arthur. The impulse to do evil never even comes to me, let alone coming first. I simply sent them somewhere else. I really have no idea where. That's for the magic to decide. If it pleases your highness, I could show you where they are right now. I could find them with my magic." He added on the sarcastic title because he was really starting to get annoyed with Arthur about now.

He just didn't understand how Arthur could be that obtuse! Arthur had killed more people this day than he had! The clotpole had seen Merlin defending him. Merlin could have let everyone but himself and the three standing behind him die and he could have disappeared, living happily off the land and taking his friends to the places he'd been. But he didn't. He chose to save them all and this was the thanks that he got! Merlin quickly got his anger in check when he noticed the wind start to pick up and clouds start to form on the horizon.