Merlin's secret | ✔️

Waking up

outsider's POV

Arthur was leaning against an old tree while watching stars. The forest was dark and quiet. Far away were some hoot owl. It was his turn to keep watch. Around him, all the knights and Merlin were sleeping. The warlock hadn't wakened up. But he was getting even paler than usual.

The blonde king tried to keep his eyes open but his whole body was drained. He didn't want to snooze so he slapped himself. He knew he couldn't fall asleep. 'Who would keep us safe then?' Arthur took one of the water bottles and put some on his face. The liquid was cold and helped a tiny bit. Then he drank the bottle all the way down.

Meanwhile, the secret warlock had started to move in his sleep. The nightmare was teasing him. When his movements grew bigger Arthur noticed them. He rushed to his dark-haired friend's side now completely awake.

"Merlin, what now?" He asked shaking his friend. "Is it a..."

Merlin's scream cut Arthur's words off. He was yelling so loudly that surely also people in the next village heard it. "Merlin!" He said amazed by how much voice would come from Merlin.

All the knights were waking up and looking around them to see the cause of the sound. When they spotted Merlin screaming and Arthur calling his name, trying to wake him up, they came to help. Gwaine took Merlin's head between his hands, Lancelot was asking what was going on and other knights were trying to wake him up. The dark-haired boy opened his eyes and tried to get up. All the hands of the knights were trying to keep him on a place. It looked like Merlin was awake but he still was hysterical. His gaze wasn't on strictly anything. And his arms were poking in different directions. It was like he was possessed by an evil sorcerer.

"Merlin it's us!" Gwaine said trying to get him to listen.

"Please, please, let me go", whispered Merlin. He closed his eyes again, now stopping his moving. The king and all the knights were staring at their anxious friend, who kept whispering the word 'please'. Merlin's whole body was shaking and his face was contorted in sadness.

"Merlin it's alright, you're safe", Arthur said quietly.

Merlin lifted his head and opened his eyes. He looks straight to Arthur's eyes with a painful gaze. He opened his mouth and was about to answer something, but he changed his mind and just kept looking at Arthur.

" Hey lay down or your wound is going to open up again", Arthur said still in quiet and relaxing voice. The knights and the king gently pushed him down.

"Too late", was all Gwaine said when he saw Merlin's wound bleeding again. Bandages had moved off the injury and there was a slow pouring of blood. Merlin's eyes were closed again. Just like he wasn't even aware of the bleeding wound.

"Let's fix it", Lancelot said while starting to remove the bandages from Merlin, who was falling asleep.

Merlin's POV

I opened my eyes into the light. It was obviously a daytime even though I wasn't sure where I was laying. I turned my head to the right and saw in a short distance away, Percival, Elyan, Gwaine and Leon, disguising about something. They were talking so quietly that I couldn't hear a word. I didn't see Arthur nor Lancelot anywhere.

Suddenly all the memories from yesterday hit me. 'Or did they happened the day before?' I didn't know, how much I had slept. There were some gaps in my remembrance. Someone had hit me with the axe. That was the only clear memory. Events after that were blurry.

I tried to get up before a little pain stopped me. My left side was slightly painful. 'Did I get a new injury from the axe?' I pulled up the hem of my shirt, revealing the bandages on the left side. They weren't the same ones I had put so that meant somebody had seen my wound. That wasn't a good thing. If somebody had taken off my tunic, he had also seen my scars. A little anxiety started to grow in my stomach. 'What should I do?' I didn't have an explanation to give about my scars. Gaius was the only one who had seen them. Lancelot new of my magic but even he didn't know, how many times I had gotten some injury. All those times when I saved Arthur.

I looked again in the knights' direction and tried to decide, what should I do, when I heard Arthur's voice from the other direction.

"Merlin, you're awake!"

I turned my head on his way and saw him and Lancelot walking towards me. My heart was beating so loud, that they should hear it. I swallowed and listened, how everyone came around me. I wasn't happy about the attention. I also realised that if someone of the knights had seen my scars, that meant everyone had seen them. At this moment I was hoping I could use my magic to disappear.

"Merlin. We need to talk about your scars."