Camping

Minor spoilers for season 4

Merlin hated camping.

And it just so happened that King Prat had decided to drag him along with Gwen and the Knights of the Round Table for company.

It was a few weeks after the Queen's coronation and Arthur had decided to bring her out so she could get away from the stress of being Queen and relax out in the open air of the forest. The knights had been brought along as guards; which was probably the only good idea Arthur had come up with. And Merlin had come along to cook and set up tents and all the pointless stuff like that.

They were only an hour's ride from the castle when Arthur decided that they had ridden far enough and after find a decent clearing, set Merlin to work setting up camp.

It was at that point that it started to rain.

The weather hadn't been good all week and despite Merlin's constant whines and request of putting off the camping trip, Arthur had dragged him along any way.

"What did I say about the weather," Merlin muttered to himself as he angrily pulled the tent off the horse, causing it to rear and almost kick him in the face.

Arthur, who up till that point had been cowering under a tree with Gwen (and he called Merlin a girl), came to Merlin's aid and took all the tents off the horses and dumped them at Merlin's feet.

"Hurry up Merlin we haven't got all day!" he called, jogging back under the safety of the large oak tree, which the Knights of the Round Table, who had been out collecting fire wood, were now also sheltering under.

"I'll help you Merlin!" Gwaine yelled running out into what was now a heavy downpour.

"I'd rather you not," Merlin replied, already on his third tent (the two before had not been put with magic, just a bit of magical assistance).

"Suit yourself!" Gwaine shouted, walking back to the tree, looking fairly pleased with getting out of something he wasn't good at.

It took ten minutes for merlin to put the remainder of the tents up, and even Arthur looked impressed when he saw the 3 smaller tents and the 1 bigger one, all in a neat circle around what would soon (hopefully) be a fire.

Soon enough, the knights and the king and queen were all sitting in their cold, yet waterproof tents while Merlin sat desperately trying to start a fire in the rain.

Before long he resorted to magic and the fire raged up, creating a sudden gust of heat to brush over Merlin. He began to cook a stew over the fire and got up to go and get some water from a nearby stream, which the knights had located during their firewood excursion.

About 5 minutes into the wood he tripped on a large rock which Merlin swore wasn't there when he last looked in the particular spot. He was about to push himself up, before he heard an evil laugh and just had time to think, camping might even be worse than hunting, before darkness engulfed him.