The Guardians and their doors.

Chapter one. In which I decide to make an effort. For now.

"I'm sorry, Arthur. He won't make it through the night."

Arthur Pendragon was many things. King, knight, a leader, a warrior, a diplomat, a husband, and a best friend.

But right now none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was his friend dying in the middle of the forest hours from help.

The bandits had come from nowhere, aiming to take hostages, shooting down the horses and then most of the escort.

The knights had fought bravely, as a knight should, only for Merlin to leap into the path of an incoming rider, who sliced open his stomach.

What really made it horrible was that he had seen this type of wound before.

Merlin had healed them.

"Make camp." Arthur ordered. "I'll take care of Merlin."

The remaining five knights nodded, spreading bedrolls and other supplies salvaged from the horses around the campsite.

Arthur took first watch, sitting with his back to a tree, Merlin's head by his feet. If it wasn't for the palness he would look like he was sleeping.

A creak in the forest had the king alert and wary, sword in hand.

Eyes reflecting the firelight in the bushes, about four feet off the ground, watching him.

A deer. Arthur thought.

Until it stepped from the bushes.

It was completely silver, its coat shimmering with translucent shades that dances as hypnotically as a flame. It's hooves with shining like freshly polished armor, its antlers as gleaming as a beloved blade.

It shuffled over, silent as a specter, carefully picking it'a way towards them.

It wasn't until it was it was only a hairsbreath from Merlin's boots that Arthur snapped out of his awestruck trance.

He raised his sword. "Go on. Get."

The stag seemed to take offense to that, stamping it's hooves, making the first noise since it arrived, and looking pointedly at Merlin.

And with a heavy sigh, spun so fast it blurred into a swirl of silver, leaving a girl in its place.

She looked unperturbed at the increasing number of swords at her throat as the knights awoke to Arthur's cry.

She had eyes as blue as Merlin's and hair just as dark, although a streak of green ran through it. Her clothes were silver, matching the circlet on her brow and quiver and bow at her back.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Thalia. My friends and I have been looking for you. We found what was left of the bandits. And sought to help." She said casually, as if she didn't have half a dozen swords to her neck.

"You are a sorcerer." Arthur said firmly.

"No."

It was a new voice, causing the knights to spin around, forming a circle around Merlin.

Another child, another girl, not even ten summers, sat in the branches above them, a green cloak draped upon her shoulders, purple eyes flickering in the firelight. She held a strange bronze mask in her hand, no features except two slits for eyes.

A barn owl sat next to her, watching with a gaze far tooo intelligent for an animal.

"I like being a bird. Makes finding people much easier." The second girl  said, leaping thirty feet and landing with a soft thud. "I'm Jazz." Her purple eyes glittered with mischief.