Summary: Merlin gets kidnapped, Arthur goes all angsty, and a few years later a prince called Emrys comes to visit...

Set in mid-season-2-ish, so Merlin doesn't know who his father is. Morgana isn't evil (she won't really be featured here) and Arthur's still a dickhead XD

~~ Enjoy ~~

The birds in the forest chirped happily, and the sounds of animals filled the forest with a peaceful tranquillity. It was a beautiful summer's day, with the sky bluer than the ocean and cicadas chirping away to some source of music unknown to humans. Even the trees seemed to be happily rustling away to each other.

Merlin inhaled deeply as he sat down, smelling all the different flavours of the forest. The rich earthy soil, the sharp eucalypt and the salty taste of the river filled his mind. He couldn't have asked for a better day to be outside instead of being stuck with that thick-headed prince. Gaius had asked for Merlin to take the morning off to pick some rare herbs far away from Camelot.

Of course, Merlin was skiving work already. He was only a few minutes in, and then the smells of the forest had overwhelmed him. Just a few minutes of rest couldn't hurt...

Next thing he knew, a pair of hands had clamped around his mouth. He tried to yell out and punch the person, but someone else was holding his hands and feet. Terror filled him. Instinctively he lashed out with his magic, supposedly sending everyone around him flying into the trees.

Supposedly.

What actually happened was nothing. Whoever it was, they had enough magic to be able to block his attacks, which were considerably powerful. Merlin started panicking and tried to wriggle out of the person's grasp. He'd never felt so helpless. Without magic, he was absolutely defenceless.

'Stop, Emrys,' someone whispered into his ear.

Merlin flinched at the sound of his Druid name, and then started to struggle again. If he couldn't get back to Arthur, the prince might get killed, knowing his luck. Then all his efforts would have been for nothing!

A girl walked in front of him. 'Please, don't resist. We must take you with us and leave Camelot.'

Of course that made Merlin resist even more and struggle with every millimetre of his being. I will never leave Camelot, he said telepathically to her.

The girl was surprised by how loudly and easily he'd been able to do that without any training. You leave me no choice then, Emrys. You will understand later.

She muttered a spell, and the last thing Merlin saw before the darkness overwhelmed him was the woman's face, sad and regretful. She was very pretty, and suddenly all Merlin wanted to do was make her happy again.

Then everything went black.

'We must leave some evidence of his death so that no one will look for him,' the girl said to her accomplices.

The man that had held Merlin down and was now carrying his limp body nodded. 'Darparu tystiolaeth ffug,' he whispered.

An exact replica of Merlin's clothes appeared. As they watched, the clothes tore themselves apart as if some invisible dog had gotten its jaws on them. Blood appeared on the rags and the surrounding rocks.

'Very good,' said the girl. 'Let us leave before Emrys wakes. I don't think he'll be too happy with us.'

'Merlin!' yelled Arthur, bursting into Gaius' quarters. 'Where is that idiot?'

'Merlin?' asked Gaius.

'Yes, Merlin! He said he'd be back by afternoon. I need my armour fixed for training, and my clothes prepared for dinner with the king tonight.'

'I thought he was with you, sire,' said Gaius.

Arthur sighed. How many times had Merlin mysteriously gone missing? 'When you find him, tell him that I'll have something extra special for him.'

The prince stormed out, and Gaius felt pity for his ward. An angry Arthur was never any fun to deal with.

The next day, Arthur had to wake up by himself as his incompetent servant hadn't bothered turning up. Merlin hadn't even brought him breakfast! This put him in an especially foul mood, and as he walked through the castle everyone seemed to turn around and run away as soon as they saw his face.

'Good morning, sire,' one of the knights called out.

'Anything but,' Arthur snapped back. He drew his sword, only to find it was blunt. What on earth was Merlin doing? The prince had had to put on his own armour and find his own breakfast. There was no point in having a servant if he never turned up or did any of his jobs.

The knights seemed to take note of their prince's stormy expression. They backed away quickly.

By the end of the training session, Arthur had pretty much beaten up all of his knights. They were sure to have lots of lovely cuts and bruises the next day. Normally Arthur would be laughing his head off at his victory, but that day it did nothing for his mood. He was still as irritated as he was before.

For the rest of the day, Merlin took a holiday. Arthur decided to borrow a servant, Stephen, by the time it was midday. Stephen started muttering about incompetent servants and the honour of serving the prince until a glare from Arthur shut him up.

Finally, Arthur decided to go looking for Merlin. He had nothing to do for the rest of the day, and thought it would be funny to think up of especially cruel chores for his manservant to do once he was found. But no one, it seemed, had seen Merlin since yesterday. Arthur decided to call it a day and went to bed, with the temporary servant practically drooling over him.

On the third morning that Merlin had decided to grace Arthur with his absence, the said prince crashed into Guinevere.

'Gwen! What are you doing?'

'Sire,' she said, looking very flustered. 'I'm looking for Merlin. He told me a few days ago he'd take me on a picnic. Not a romantic one, of course, just one as friends - I mean, the weather's so nice - perfect for a picnic-'

'I'm looking for Merlin as well,' said Arthur, who knew by experience that if given a chance, Gwen could ramble for 10 minutes straight.

'Great!' said Gwen, but she didn't say anything after that.

'Um - would you like to accompany me?' offered Arthur.

An awkward pause - then Gwen said, 'Sure, sure, I would love to.'

The couple went to the kitchens, but no one had seen Merlin. They went to the markets and had the same result. Even Gaius had no idea where his ward was.

'I give up,' Arthur said after flopping onto the ground. 'That Merlin can take care of himself. I'm going hunting now.'

Gwen gave him a look of disapproval, but they both knew there was nothing they could do. And so Gwen did the rest of her chores for Morgana and Arthur got ready for hunting. He dragged Stephen along, partly out of spite, and partly because he needed someone to carry the game back.

During that hunt, Arthur swore to himself to never complain about Merlin again. This servant was such a bootlicker! It had only been a few days and already Arthur missed his usual manservant's idle chatter and cheery face. It was fun to throw something at. However, this servant did nearly everything perfectly. It gave him no excuse to let out his anger on the ever-so-perfect servant. He couldn't exactly throw a knife at someone who had just polished his armour to perfection.

But one thing that Stephen could not do was walk quietly. Arthur swore he was making a deliberate effort to step on every twig in the forest. Each time he did, he would look up, redder than a tomato, and apologize profusely. If his walking did not scare the game away, then his talking would. At least Merlin knew better than to ramble on like that.

After two rabbits and a little fawn, a clue to Merlin's location turned up. His neckerchief. It had been snagged on some branches, as if he'd been running away from something.

'Look for any other marks!' ordered Arthur. He felt a twinge of concern. If Merlin had been running and he hadn't returned yet, where the hell was he?

'Sire!' Sir Leon's voice was shaking. He held up Merlin's brown jacket. It had teeth marks and dried bloodstains.

'Oh no. Oh, no.' Arthur felt panic rising up in his throat. Merlin had been running... And had been bitten by something at least a day ago, judging by the colour of the blood.

'Hurry up and find anything else,' he said weakly. Then he stumbled through the trees and saw exactly what he was hoping like hell not to see.

Merlin's clothes had been torn apart. And an impossibly huge amount of dried blood was lying underneath that.

REVIEW IF YOU WANT MERLIN TO SURVIVE XD