Morgana waits impatiently for Agravane to come back from his mission. She sent him and a patrol to capture her dear brother a day ago, and he still had not returned. Every single plan she made seemed to fail. Either one of her 'faithful servants' would fail, or that Arthur's loathsome servant would intervene. The fact that he was even still alive was a wonder to her. In fact, it is nearly impossible for him to have survived everything she put him through...
Breaking out of her thoughts, she looks up to see a group of her men walking towards her being led by Agravane. She looks at the group hopefully, but she does not see Arthur with them. In fact, the group looks quite a bit smaller than she remembered. They are dragging one hostage along with them. It almost looks like... oh no. Of course the only person they manage to capture is that nuisance. They could at least take someone useful! Well... maybe he could be of some use.
"How many men did you lose?" Morgana questions as Agravane approaches. He looks at her dejectedly.
"And how many men did you bring me? Or should as say how many servants?" She kicks Merlin over so she can see his face... and for the joy of kicking him.
"We had Arthur in our grasp-"
"And that's supposed to make me feel better?!"
"There was nothing we could do! The rock fall was hardly our fault!"
Rock fall? That's a strange coincidence. Actually, there seems to be a lot of strange coincidences...
"I'll dispatch this servant for you-"
"You will do no such thing!" Morgana says as she stops Agravane from killing him.
"He could prove useful... very useful indeed."
"What are we to do with him then? He seems to have a wound on his chest. He may not live that long anyways."
"Well we can't have that. He may have some valuable information. Bring him to my hovel. I think I have a good idea of what to do with him."
***
"Merlin!"
Arthur has been walking around for an hour at this point. Right after that rock fall Arthur managed to find a path back to where he left Merlin, but to his dismay Merlin was already gone. He spent the rest of the hour walking around seeing if he could find any clue as to where Merlin was taken. Eventually Arthur realizes that even if he were to find Merlin, he probably would not be much help at this point, so Arthur begins his trek back to Camelot.
The walk back is long and tiring, but Arthur just can't take a break. He can't stop worrying about Merlin. The moment before Arthur left keeps playing over and over in his mind. Merlin looked so helpless. His best friend was lying there in the dirt knowing that he was about to be captured or killed or worse! Was there anything Arthur could've done differently? He couldn't get the question out of his mind.
Finally, Arthur sees a group of knights bearing the Camelot crest off in the distance. As he gets closer he realizes that it is the knights he was traveling with the day before.
"Oh thank God, at least they escaped," he thought to himself.
Leon was startled to hear footsteps and leaves crunching behind them, so he turned around and swung his sword. Surprisingly he found that he sword clashed with King Arthur's.
"Sire!" He shouts in surprise.
"Good to see you too Leon."
Arthur and Leon shanks hands and they both sheave their swords. He exchanges hand shakes with all the knights that were present.
"What happened? When the bandits finally subsided we looked around and you were gone. Where's Merlin?" Leon asks.
"Merlin was hit in the shoulder with a mace. I took him away from the battle and we made camp for a night. The next day we were attacked and got separated."
"Where? Did the bandits take him?" Percival worries.
"I don't know exactly what happened. There was a rock fall that separated us. But the last time I saw he was alive."
"So there's hope," replies Elyan.
"Yes... there is hope."
They quickly decided to ride back to Camelot and send out a search party for Merlin immediately. All they could do was hope that wherever Merlin was, he was safe... or at least relatively so.