His Love

Chapter 8

Isaballa sat and stoked the fire with a stick that she had found in the campsite. As she waited for the men to return she stared into the flames whose crackled and distrubpted the darkness and thought about her situation. She was worried. Arthur and Merlin had shown her nothing but kindness but she was drawing them into danger. The chimera was a serious monster she just wasn't sure that they understood that. The pair of them seemed to take the whole adventire as a joke and not realised that one or both of them could die. She dighed and finished packaging up the venison for the long journey ahead.

A crunching and crackling in the undergrowh drew her attention, a sound to large to be a animal. Bandits? Enemies? Then she heard she heard carried on the wind winding through the trees.

"You...dollop head!" Isabella relaxed and Merlin and Arthur came into the firelight cricle, both damp, Merlin carrying Arthur's armour and tunic, and she assumed his clothes also, as they were both shirtless. Merlin laid the clothes out around the fire to dry as they were sodden.

She looksed at them as they were yawning and stretching, the flickering flames casting fluttering shadows across their torsos, Merlin's surprisingingly wirily muscular form looked ghostly in the soft firelight, heis chest was thin but toned and the light bounced off each hard plane reflacted in the damp water than still clung to his skin. Arthur was a glowing golden god in the light of the firs. His broad frame was lightly tanned from the day's travel which emphasized his powerful muscles more as small rivelets of water ran down them. His dark hair was plastered to his chest still wet from his dip in a way which only drew attention to his narrow waist.

The both smiled at her and she smiled back. Seeing how tired they were Isabella offered to take the firt watch.

"I will take the fist watch, you should both sleep." Arthur nodded and Merlin fussed about lying down the blankets and makeshift pillows they had brought for the camp.

"Wake me when you get tired" He said and lied down on the ground next to Merlin, slightly away from the fire so that they didn't become too warm. Isabella watched over them as they fell asleep, ears perked for any sound out of the ordinary. Arthur was very charming; even when he wasn't trying to when he was stuttering and falling over his words that was charmimng. She couldn't avoid noticing how he glowed in the sun as well, and in the firelight, he seemed to radiate majesty and light and it drew her to him like a moth to a beautiful flame. She had seen him on the training field as well, so graceful and deadly with all sorts of weapons, truly he was everything she admired in a man and she could see how he would grow to be a great king.

He was so different from Merlin, she pondered, a man who was the other side of the same coin, who shone like darkness in the night, who seemed so aloof when they first met but as the time had past she realsied that they had so much in common- their loves of book and medicine and owls and nature- who had cheekbones that could cut glass and eyes that sparkled like sapphires with kindness, who was enchanting. Her heart broke at his distress at having to keep his magic a secret from Arthur. Where Arthur was light he was shadow.

As Isabella watched the pair she noticed Arthur shiffle closer in his sleep and draw himself closer to Merlin who was also asleep. The both turned on their sides n order to fit together better, Aurthurs breathe ruffling Merlins hairs and his stong tanned arm wrapped around his waste. They fit together so well, like they had been one shape before they were born that had been torn in too by the cruel mistress of fate. As Arthru pulled him tight Merlin let out a happy sigh of contentment without waking.

Isabella smiled at them, despite her feelings for both of them, she could see they belonged together. She had no interest in coming between two so loving for each other.