Merlyn - Arthur x Female Merlin [1]

Chapter Sixty-Three: A Unicorn

Merlyn was still feeling Galahad's death, even weeks later she still had moments of grief. Arthur understood and was always there to offer a shoulder when she needed one. He never said anything; he always just held her and made sure she knew she wasn't alone and that Galahad's sacrifice hadn't been for nothing. Slowly but surely Merlyn was returning to normal as was everything else.

Having not been hunting for some time Arthur had decided to go into the woods for a big party hunt. He took a group of knights with him and Merlyn - it was going to be a long day of hunting so the extra men were needed to carry the goods they would hunt. The activity took Merlyn's mind off the last few weeks and she found herself completely immersed in the hunt.

They were tracking a creature through the woods but Merlyn had no idea what it was. Suddenly the group came to a stop and Merlyn watched as Arthur silently, hand-signalled to his knights (Leon included) and ordered them to surround the creature. Silently, the knights went in the direction they were ordered to go off in. Eventually, Merlyn and Arthur were the only ones left in the area. As usual Merlyn was bogged down by Arthur's stuff that he hardly ever used – she swore he brought extra stuff along just for her to carry. He only ever had to carry his crossbow.

"Merlyn" Arthur whispered, gesturing for her to come over to him. With a sigh, Merlyn made her way over to him, snapping multiple twigs on the way – she wasn't even trying to be sneaky.

"What is it?" Merlyn asked as she got close enough. Suddenly, more twigs were snapped ahead of them – there was a creature somewhere, pretty big from the amount of twigs it kept breaking.

"I don't know" Arthur answered honestly as he looked over his shoulder though there was no point, he couldn't see anything from his position. "We'll surround it. I want you to go in there and flush it out." Merlyn's face dropped at his words.

"You want me to go in there?" Merlyn exclaimed as loudly as she dared, "You just said you don't know what it is. It could be dangerous." Arthur could only smirk at her.

"Let's hope so." Quickly, Merlyn began grumbling under her breath as she dropped the bags she was holding to the floor – if she needed to run she was not carrying Arthur's crap with her, he could buy new crap. Once she was free of her restraints Merlyn turned and glared at Arthur.

"You make no sense" she muttered, poking him in the chest. "One minute you'd lock me in a cage to keep me safe next you throw me head long into danger."

"Stop being such a baby, there is a band of knights protecting you" Arthur replied with a roll of his eyes. With a sigh Merlyn began to move passed him remarking

"Yeah well, when I'm on the ground dying I'm going to remind you of that." Arthur scoffed behind her as she moved out of earshot. Quickly the prince silently moved to higher ground so that he could protect Merlyn like he had promised. Meanwhile Merlyn was making her way through the forest, trying to spot this creature. She didn't try to hide her footsteps as she was supposed to be flushing the creature out anyways. However, not knowing what the creature was did cause Merlyn to stop and reach into her boots where her sai rested against her lower legs. Freeing them Merlyn made her way around more rocks and finally into an opening. What she saw there made her instantly relax, drop her weapons and stare in wonder.

Before her was one of the most beautiful creatures Merlyn had ever seen. It was a unicorn! A creature with a pure white coat and an ivory horn twirling up from her forehead. They were real. The unicorn looked straight at Merlyn with a wise gaze, so old and yet so treasured. Slowly, Merlyn moved towards the creature, her hand outstretched. Surprisingly the unicorn did not move; its eyes stayed locked on Merlyn whilst she made her way over to it, her fingers shaking as she neared the gorgeous animal.