Percival stirred at the feel of the wind brushing against his face, he dragged himself up and examined his environment cautiously. Noting the sun was begining to show he shook Arthur.
"Merlin!" Arthur grunted, then realised it wasn't Merlin. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness and then tilted his head to Percival. "Where is he any way?"
Percival glanced around, before realising Merlin was not to be seen.
"Not here, he's probably getting more wood or something," Percival suggested, casually.
Arthur agreed although he couldn't help but notice a nervous feeling in his stomach telling him otherwise. He squinted through the trees to see if he could see the tall silhouette of Merlin, although he couldn't.
"We need him we need to start going soon," Arthur said, after waking the others.
"Who?" Gwaine asked "you need who?"
"Merlin, he's gone. Probably collecting wood," Percival replied.
"He's been ages though..." Arthur muttered, "we should go and get him now though, we need to start heading off,"
They searched the surrounding area, but like Arthur dreaded they were unable to find him.
"Honestly it would be merlin," Leon signed.
"This way!" Arthur yelled, spotting foot prints faintly imprinted in the mud.
They followed the light prints cautiously through the winding forest, anxiously searching for any sign of Merlin.
"He won't have come this far!" Percival declared, but pretending he could not hear Percival, Arthur continued into the clearing to a lake.
"What's that?" Gwaine asked, nodding to a blob floating on the surface of the water far out.
Arthur squinted at it, it was blue and there was a bit of red and black.
"It's-It's Merlin!" Arthur gasped, experiencing dismay, horror, confusion and concern, which he never realised someone could feel all at the same time.
"What the hell's he doing out there?" Gwaine questioned
Arthur bit his lip hoping what he thought was not true. He ran towards a little wooden boat and pushed his hands into the water to row, yelping at the sheer coldness of the water.
Merlin lay lifelessly in the water, his pale skin nearly white. His lips let little breath out and his lungs struggled to inhale. Arthur dragged him out of the water unsteadily rocking the boat. Merlin's rag doll body rested limply on Arthur as he gradually arrived on the lake side.
Gwaine and Arthur hurriedly pulled off Merlin's clothes [ ;) y'all dirty minded!] he could see fading scars all over him, scars he'd never seen before that made his heart ache.
"Why on earth does he have this many scars?" Gwaine muttered
"I don't know..." Arthur croaked.
When Gwaine turned around Arthur feebly traced one of Merlin's larger scars hating himself for not realising there was more to his accident prone servant than he realised.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," Arthur grumbled, pulling off his top and putting it on Merlin, so he seemed to drown in it. The rest of the Knights did the same, wrapping the clothes around his legs awkwardly.
"He needs Gaius," Arthur informed the Knights and still in shock they headed off to Camelot.
YOU ARE READING
As Clear As Blood (A Merlin Fan Fiction)
FanfictionCOMPLETE 'It was icy, and the water pulled him under and soaked him in coldness so his body went numb, Merlin continued swimming down the lake until he realised he could no longer see, no longer feel, no longer hear. No longer breathe.' On a huntin...
