[✔] Sides (a merthur soulmate au fanfiction)

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Not BBC, Johnny Capps, Julian Murphy. As I promised: one long emotional magic reveal ahead!

:

Chapter 5

:

Merlin woke up to the dripping cold raindrop against his cheeks.

Jolting, he straightened up and immediately regretted it as he grunted to the searing pain on his right foot. He was lying on a stone floor with his legs bent at a very uncomfortable angle. Next to him was a wall and directly above him was a barred opening.

He twisted his body to take a look at the source of his pain, hurting some part of his body as it looked like he had been badly bruised all over his person, and gasped weakly as he saw how his ankle was now bending at an awkward angle. He was reaching to feel it when he heard a rustle on the other side of the cavity he was in.

"Hello?" he called out. His voice almost didn't make an echo, making him think that he was being trapped in some sort of a small space.

It was too dark for Merlin to distinguish any shape. The moon should be at its full form tonight, if they hadn't passed out for more than a day, but the rain had obscured most of its light. His eyes hadn't gotten used to the darkness yet, so he had to squint his eyes and brought out his arms to feel his surroundings.

"Arthur?" he asked, unsure.

There was a moment of pause and a low grunt before he heard a reply a few feet from him, "Merlin, are you alright?"

Merlin let out a relieved sigh. At least they were together. That was good, Arthur was safe. "I think I broke my ankle, but I'm fine. Are you hurt?"

Merlin felt the smooth walls behind him and tried to get up on his good foot, only to slide down again, hurting his broken ankle in the process. He winced loudly. He didn't know broken ankles could hurt this bad, for a damage on such a small part of one's body; he couldn't even move. No wonder Arthur was impossibly firm on emphasizing the importance of a good footing during his trainings.

His eyes began to get used to the darkness. They were in some kind of a well, almost a perfect square in shape, but its stone walls were too smooth to scale. The cavity looked like a dungeon with no escape, aside from the opening above their heads. Its four walls were also wide enough that it was impossible to climb them by using pressure on the two opposite walls with their legs. Not that either of it was possible because it was drizzling out there– there was nothing that could purchase a hold on the wet stones. And even if they could climb it to the top, the opening was still barred with what looked like considerably thick iron bars.

"Dislocated shoulder– can you fix it?" Arthur groaned from the other side of the well.

"Wait a minute," he grunted, trying to move. Arthur dislocated his shoulder often enough during his trainings and it always fell on Merlin to pop the bone back to its socket, so he could do it easily. They would need Arthur to be fully physically functional if they wanted to get out of this well alive. If only he could move to where Arthur was to do it.

"No, you stay there," Arthur suddenly interrupted. Merlin looked up to see the blonde's figure moving towards him before sitting with his back on him, his free arm cradling the one from his dislocated shoulder. "Alright, fix it."

"It's going to hurt a bit, alright," he warned, launching into his usual speech and prompting the blonde to sigh.

"Just get it over with."

Pursing his lips, Merlin felt for Arthur's shoulder and upper arm. They might have embarked on the most insane of quests, but fixing Arthur's dislocated shoulder in near total darkness was yet another new thing for them. Merlin began counting. "One."