How Not to Arrange a Party, Chapter 2

Percival was too slow to notice everyone else sidling away, and when he finally looked up, it was too late.
"Hey Perc..."
"Gwaine…" Percival realised he was in trouble. For the past few years, Gwaine had grabbed hold of a couple of the other knights and arranged a birthday celebration for Merlin. Thing was, they always failed. Dramatically. Merlin used to put up with it, but now that everyone knew he had magic, Percival was sure that whoever helped Gwaine out would end up as a toad… or worse…
"How do you feel about helping me to arrange Merlin's birthday thing this year?"
"Gee Gwaine… I'd love to, but I have to… I mean, Leon will tell you why I can't… Won't you Leon."
"Err" Leon tried to act as though he knew what he was talking about, but hey could all see that Gwaine was having none of it. Leon tried, none-the-less.
"You see… Percival was, well, It's kinda hard to explain… but Johan volunteered to help you…"
"What!" Johan's voice was heard over the far side of the courtyard, where Gwen was talking to an old friend of her. Excusing herself, she made her way over, grinning at the indignant expression on Gwaine's face.
"Gwaine?"
He stopped talking and turned to her,
"Yes m'lady?"
"How about I help you out a bit?"
Gwaine's face lit up, and Leon looked between them.
"Fine," Leon said, "But Gwaine is not going to try and pin this one on me this year. And if you get Merlin scrubbing boots again, he will most likely hang you upside down from a balcony. Or lock you in a room somewhere…"
"Or zip his mouth shut?" Called Johan, shorty followed by Percival,
"Or ban him from the Tavern… Till next year…"
A chorus of Oohs went up, and Gwaine scowled. Gwen stifled a smile as she took his arm and pulled him inside.
"Right," she said, "Here is what we are going to do…."

Merlin held up is hand and jumped down from his horse. Arthur was next to him in a second.
"What's up?"
"Bandits… I've never seen them in this area of the woods before." Kaden trotted his horse over.
"Camp is about 200 feet to out left. They left at first light…"
"How do you know that?" Arthur asked, curious,
"Merlin's been showing me some things…" he said, self-consciously. He was well known as a quiet person, and he only ever seemed animated when he returned from a trip to the forest with Merlin and a few others. Now Arthur knew why.
"Well, He's taught you well… Any sign of them near?" This was to both Merlin and Kaden, but it was Merlin who replied.
"I don't think so… But it's hard to be sure. Someone has masked their trail with magic… We'd better keep an eye out from here on…"
They mounted their horses again, and Arthur let the other three pull in front as he waited for Merlin to finish scanning the area fully. Merlin found no lingering traces of magic, and turned, finding a small grin on Arthur's face.
"What is it?"
"Just wondering when I started to let you take charge…"
Merlin shook his head, laughing, and turning his horse to follow the others, Arthur right behind him.
"Me? Take charge? Not likely… I'm just here to offer a… forcefully helpful viewpoint slash opinion…"
"Must be the nicest way of saying take charge attitude I've ever heard…"
"Straight from the person who brought you clot-pole…"
Bedivere's voice echoed back to them,
"And Dollop-head…"
Arthur laughed,
"Yeah… And no doubt we'll hear something new sometime soon…"

They continued on for nearly two hours, when Arthur called a halt.
"It's getting dark. We had better make camp. If we leave at first light, we can reach the druids by mid-day."
"Or," Merlin said, "We could all get a half decent sleep, leave mid-morning, and reach the druids mid-afternoon… Why is it always the break of dawn with you?"
"Because it seems to irritate you…"
"No, seriously…"
"Yeah. Seriously. Fine, but you're taking first watch…"
"You got it…"
Half an hour later, and Merlin had a stew simmering over a small fire, and was teaching Kaden the best way to cover your tracks.
"So, you see," Merlin explained, using magic to cover their tracks with leaves, "It hides the tracks and makes it appear natural. Also means you don't have to waste energy on shielding everything."
"What about camps? How would you shield them?" Kaden seemed generally intrigued, and Merlin couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm.
"Well, the leaf idea works with the fire, though you could use some rocks of mud to complete the cover. As for clothing or other small items, I use a small spell to make them flick from one place to another." Merlin suddenly grinned, wickedly, "For example…" he said, turning to Arthur. Bedivere was watching him with interest, and grinned as he realised what Merlin was planning. He whispered to Tristan, and they both head over to the horses.
Merlin murmured a spell, and Arthur's cloak, which he had just laid on the floor, got swept underneath an old log on the floor. He had also thrown own a rolled up mat behind him, and it went sailing into the saddle-bags again.
Merlin made himself look busy as Arthur turned, and barely managed to hide his laughter at the confused expression that covered his face. Kaden had to ace the opposite direction to hide his grin and the two knights were silently laughing as Arthur got the mat from the bags again. He lay it down on the floor, and then span around, obviously looking for his cloak. His expression went to one of incredulity and he looked suspiciously at Merlin, who had just managed to turn in time to hide his grin.
"Merlin!" Merlin composed his face, and turned around,
"Yeah?"
"Do you know anything about where my cloak has gone?"
"No… Are you telling me that you lost a bright red cloak in a dull, brown forest?"
"Well…" Arthur now looked more confused than ever, and luckily didn't see the two knights, who were clutching their ribs, laughing silently.
"Look… Do you really want me to tell you where your cloak is?" Merlin asked, whilst gently moving it, with hand gestures, towards Arthur, keeping his face straight.
"Well… Yes!" Arthur now looked more confused and frustrated than ever, and Merlin sighed just as the cloak fell lightly onto Arthurs shoulders.
"You're wearing it Sire…"
"Look, I think I would know if I was…"
Merlin dropped the cloak onto his shoulders, and Arthur turned, bewildered, just as the Bedivere, Tristan and Kaden burst out laughing. Arthur turned to glare, but it was such an indignant look that Merlin started laughing too, and after a few moments, Arthur grinned.
"Really mature Merlin."
Merlin slumped down against a tree, still laughing lightly, and called over to Kaden.
"And that is how you hide small items…"

Darkness settled quickly over the small camp, and Tristan and Kaden had nodded off shortly after eating. Merlin had down to the small stream nearby to wash things out and get fresh water. He turned as he heard footfalls behind him and Bedivere crouched down to help him collect water.
"Merlin? I've just wondered, why do you do this… well, these kind of things, by hand? When you could do them with magic?" Merlin considered this, as he got to his feet, and shrugged.
"I dunno… Habit… Trying to regain a sense of normality in my life. After all, if you can do everything with magic, where's the fun?"
"Filling water skins is fun?"
"No… but it's more fun than doing it with magic… That would get boring after a while…"
"Fair enough…"
Bedivere took the water skin from Merlin and put them into the saddle bags, keeping three out for himself, Merlin and Arthur. Arthur caught the skin and sank down against a tree.
"Damn… I'm actually tired."
"Yeah… well it's been a hell of a few days." Merlin replied, flopping down next to him.
"So why did you want to go to the druids now? I mean, we could have done with some time to recuperate…" Bedivere asked.
"Well… The magic that the sorcerers used on Arthur was powerful. Very powerful. And if they have many people with that kind of ability, the sooner we know the better. Easier to put safeguards in place that way." Merlin replied, then frowned.
"Plus I really want to know more about their leader, if the druids have found anything. Something felt… strange about him…"
"Strange?" Arthur looked interested. "Why?"
"I don't know… Just strange…" Merlin shrugged. "Ah well, hopefully the druids will have been able to gather more information…"
Arthur yawned, and lay back onto his cloak,
"Well, that's tomorrow. For now, I'm sleeping. You still okay to keep watch Merlin?"
"Yup."
"Good. Wake me in four hours…"
"Actually Sire, I can keep the next watch. I don't think I'll be getting much sleep anyway…" Bedivere said, and Arthur nodded.
"Okay then…"

He was asleep in moments and Bedivere shuffled around closer to the, now almost dead, fire. Merlin muttered a spell and the flames increased, sending warmth into the clearing.
"Thanks," Bedivere said, grinning, then laid out his cloak, lying on top of it.
"You sure you're okay to take the watch? Gaius said you needed to rest after…"
"I'll be fine. Jeez… I'll wake you in a few hours…"
"Alright then…"
A few moments later, and Bedivere's breathing had slowed to a steady rhythm. Merlin lay on his back and stared through the canopy to the stars. He hadn't felt this good in quite a while… And he was excited about seeing Archie again. Hopefully the druids had been able to put him to good use… Merlin slipped into an in between state. Not asleep, but his body was resting, even as he was aware of everything around him. It was something that Aglain, the old druid, had taught him. It was very helpful when the body was healing too, which explained why he had healed from the after effects of his wounds so quickly.
He stayed this way for quite some time, and only wrested himself away from the peaceful state after about three hours. The reason for this was that something was wrong. He couldn't be sure what, but something just felt wrong… Staying down, he opened his mind and detected something over the far side of the clearing. Delving deeper, he felt eleven people, shielded by magic. They were not focused on him, but rather on something dangerous they had just come from. Merlin got, silently, to his feet and made his way towards the group. As he got closer, he heard their veiled whispers. They were talking about the knights in the clearing behind him.
"Look… we can just walk up to them in the middle of the night and wake them up. Is crazy… why would they be able to help anyway?"
"They may know where Emrys can be found…" Was the response, then a voice piped up, a voice that was very familiar.
"Merlin is at Camelot…" Archie said, quietly.
"Yes," came the first voice, "and from what we heard, he has recently sustained a very dangerous wound. He would hardly be up and about now, would he?"
Merlin stepped forward and spoke up,
"Actually, Yes I would be… and it's not nice to whisper…"

The faces all turned towards him, and the expressions ranged from shock to relief.
"Merlin!" Archie got up and ran towards him, wrapping his arms around him. "We were just heading to Camelot… Why are you out here?"
"Actually, We were just heading for you guys… Why are you this far out at night?"
The first speaker got to his feet, and Merlin recognised him as a Druid.
"Emrys… It is an honour to meet you… As for why we are here… a small encampment near to our people's main settlement was attacked several hours ago. We managed to get away… but everyone else was…"
"Merlin!" Arthur's voice was loud amongst the mutterings and Merlin turned to see him, Tristan, Bedivere and Kaden coming up behind him, swords drawn. Arthur lowered his sword at the sight of Archie and sent a questioning look at Merlin.
"A druid settlement was attacked several hours ago…" Merlin explained, and Arthur and the other sheathed their weapons.
"Who attacked them?" Arthur asked, and Merlin shrugged,
"That's what I want to find out…"