Help is Always Given

Chapter 5

And so it Begins

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Shoving a bowl filled with herbs towards Rory, Merlin instructs, "Crush those up as best you can." Merlin is reading the instructions, while he has given Sherlock the task of finding the needed lab equipment and bringing it to him.

"This is the last of it," Sherlock states, setting down a burner.

Merlin thanks him and starts combining different liquids into a vile. Rory finishes crushing the herbs and Merlin drains their juices into the concoction, mixes it together, and puts it over the fire.

"Now we let it simmer for twenty minutes," Merlin says, then sits and reads the instructions over again to make sure he didn't miss a step.

After the twenty minutes, Merlin takes the elixir off the burner and adds some of the crushed herb leaves into it and mixes it again. He speaks some words that neither Sherlock nor Rory know, but Merlin's eyes glow when he's finished. Rory knows he used his magic because the elixir started fizzing and bubbling, and when it stopped, the liquid was a light lavender color.

Merlin put a cork in it and smiled, "Lets hope I got this right."

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The Doctor, Amy, and John had left the other three to do their job while they headed back to the control room.

When they arrive the Doctor goes to the computer screen and types some things into the typewriter and soon after, a picture appeared on the screen. A ways off in the distance, smoke was billowing into the sky. "Ah!" The Doctor exclaims. "That must be the lower town outside the citadel!" The Doctor presses more buttons and the camera that is connected to the light on top of the TARDIS moves a full 360°, scanning the area. Seeing that there's no immediate danger the Doctor turns to Amy and smiles, "Ready to go to Camelot?"

Amy grins and then it disappears, "Clothing. Please let us dress for the era! I love medieval gowns!"

The Doctor gives a slight roll of the eyes and gives in. He can never say no to his Amelia. "Alright, let's go."

They head to the wardrobe and change into the correct clothes. The Doctor puts on some of Merlin's extra clothes, while Amy looks in the closet for a dress fitting the time period. It doesn't take long to find one, but takes twice the time to actually put it on. Once Amy got it on, she and the Doctor went back to the control room.

"How do we look?" Amy asks john, twirling around. She decided on a simple dress, all powder blue with some design around her stomach and a cream colored shawl to wrap around her arms.

"Amazing!" John says honestly, smiling. "You could win best outfit at a comic convention!"

Amy smiles back at him while the Doctor says, "Cool! Now, back to business."

John hands them the best map, and the Doctor tucks it away in his jacket.

"John, you'll have to stay here and keep in contact with us throughout the whole thing. I'll leave the visual up for you. Also, I'm leaving the TARDIS cloaked, so if you see Amy and me coming, just flip this lever and she'll be blue again. Don't need to run into her again." The Doctor instructs. "Both Amy and I will have earpieces with which you can communicate with us. There's a phone in every room in here and they all connect to this one." The Doctor points to the phone on the console. "Got it?"

"Yes," John assures. "And I'll call you when Merlin has finished the elixir."

The Doctor smiles and claps John's shoulder before dashing to the door, opening it, and gesturing for Amy to go first.

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"Now it says we just have to let it sit for a day," Merlin says, putting the vile into a holder.

"Great, we've got some free time on our hands," Rory says a little sarcastically.

Without saying a word, Sherlock walks out of the room. Rory guesses he's off to explore more of the wonders of the TARDIS.

"Best tell the Doctor it's almost complete," Rory mumbles before walking out of the room himself.

He first checks the War room thinking they may have gone back there to study the maps some more, but when they aren't there, he heads to the control room. When he arrives, John is the only one there. He's sitting in one of the chairs and Rory can hear he's snoring. Not wanting to wake him up, but wanting to know where his wife and the Doctor are, he lightly taps him on the shoulder.

"Sorry," he apologizes, "where's Amy and the Doctor gone?"

"Ah, they've headed to the castle to see about getting that sword made. Told me to wait here and be able to be in contact with them at any time." He replies.

"Ok, just wanted to let the Doctor know, Merlin's finished the elixir, but it has to sit for a day."

"He should be calling soon, I believe," John says. "I'll tell him then."

Rory nods and turns to leave, suddenly exhausted. He feels guilty just thinking about it, what with everything going on, but he could really use a nap.

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The TARDIS door closes and Amy looks around at the forest and up at the sky and inhales deeply. "Mmm the air is so much cleaner!" She states happily, taking another deep breath of fresh air.

"Well it's not as polluted as it is in the future. All that technology just making the Earth worse for everything living!" The Doctor complains.

Amy laughs and links her arm in his as they head towards Camelot.

After a while of walking Amy gasps and stops. "Doctor! We forgot to ask Merlin where we can find a blacksmith!" She says worriedly.

The realization just hitting the Doctor too, he taps his earpiece and speaks into it, "John?? John! Can you hear me? Am I coming through?"

A few seconds went by before they both heard him through their earpieces. "Yes, I hear you, what is it?"

"Find Merlin and ask him where we can find a blacksmith. Quickly!" Demands the Doctor.

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John slams down the phone in a hurry and starts running down the corridor towards the science room where he had last scene Merlin. He finds Merlin with his head on the table, sleeping. He shakes Merlin awake and points at the phone that's in the center of the table. Gasping for air, he says, "Doctor... phone... needs blacksmith... call him!"

Not knowing exactly what to do, Merlin picks up the phone and looks to John questioningly. John punches in the Doctor's number and Merlin puts the phone to his ear.

"Merlin?" He hears from the other end.

"Yes." He replies. "You need a blacksmith, I'm guessing?"

"Yes, do you know where we can find one?"

"Gwen will help you. Just tell her you're friends of mine and she'll help you."

"Gwen?!" Amy asks incredulously. "Isn't she the queen?!"

"Erm.. Well, yes, but before that she was a blacksmiths daughter." Merlin explains. "She's quite good, and if she needs help with the rune marking, she knows where to go."

"And we'll find her in the castle? Not in the lower town?" Amy asks a little shocked.

"Yes."

"Thank you, Merlin. Best get to it, Amy." The line goes dead and Merlin sets the phone back down.

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Sorry it's so short guys, just wanted to post again before finals. Probably won't post for a couple weeks again (till school's out) Thanks for reading!!! (:

Also: my iPod decided to delete all the work I'd done on this so I'm having to re-write stuff so it might take longer cuz of that too.