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Leon led them carefully through the underbrush. Their footsteps were muffled from the dense layers of fallen leaves as he and Leon cautiously started over the ridge. Merlin tailed behind them, his eyes darting about skittishly.
Elyan murmured, “Looks like we lost them.” He glanced back at Merlin, who was anxiously glancing about.
“Indeed,” Leon said beside him. He offered Elyan a weak smile.
“We need to go back.” Merlin dropped in on the other side of Leon. “The others —”
“The King ordered us to keep on,” Leon said. He gestured at his empty scabbard. “Besides, we wouldn’t be much help to them.” Merlin made a pinched face. He was always worried about Arthur, though Leon understood his anxiety. Their duty was to keep their king safe. But Arthur could take care of himself, most of the time. Odds were he was already halfway to their rendezvous point and he would spend the rest of the trip nagging how Leon’s group was responsible for their delay.
Merlin knew that as well, which was likely why he didn’t argue. He frowned a bit more and muttered impolite things under his breath, but he fell into line and followed Leon and Elyan deeper into the ridge.
The ridge broke over into the pass – though it wasn’t as large of a ravine as Leon expected. More of a gully. As they stepped off the border of the forest into the sparser, younger trees, Leon started as a shiver raced up his spine. He turned and was met with a similarly startled look from Elyan. “Did you feel that?” Elyan asked.
“It was just the wind,” Leon offered half-heartedly.
“I don’t like this place,” Elyan hissed. He twisted back to look at Merlin. Out of the three of them, he was the most likely to act twitchy or unsettled, but Merlin merely looked back at them with a placid expression. Leon squinted. Too placid. His eyes were…distant. Glassy-eyed.
“Merlin?” Leon asked.
“Uh,” Elyan started.
All of the color drained from Merlin’s face. Leon turned and barely caught him in time, staggering a bit, until Elyan stumbled over the roots and helped gently lower Merlin onto the ground. He and Elyan shared a wide-eyed look of pure panic and Leon started peeling back the layers of Merlin’s jacket and tunic to check for wounds.
“Merlin?” Elyan called helplessly. He slapped Merlin’s cheek gently, then harder. Leon batted his hand away.
“He’s not injured.” Leon readjusted Merlin’s tunic and jacket. “As far as I can tell.”
“Maybe he hit his head?” There had been too much going on during the fight. They were already in a grim situation, being separated from the others, and their horses were long gone. Though Leon knew his horse would show up sooner or later – Arthur’s horses were all trained well. At some point or another they’d wander back into the city, muddy and unharmed, and searching for treats.
He and Elyan clumsily lifted Merlin upright and rested him on Leon’s chest while Elyan felt for wounds. “No,” Elyan declared. “His head’s fine.” He exchanged a long look from Leon. “Maybe he’s just…tired. Er. Probably from running.”
Leon raised his brow. The other knights did that – they bounced around on metaphors. Gwaine was the worst. The way Elyan clutched Merlin’s jacket, his eyes twitching uneasily between Merlin’s slack face and Leon. He could let the poor man squirm a bit more, but they had already suffered a rather taxing morning, and he wasn’t cruel.
Leon asked, “You mean from using magic?” Elyan sputtered a bit. Despite the chill and the aches making themselves known in his joints from their rousing escape, Leon smiled.
Elyan tugged off his cloak and with Leon’s help they tucked it in around Merlin, who slumbered on without knowing. “Does he know?” Elyan asked.
“I’m surprised you knew,” Leon said instead of answering. Elyan shot him a look so he amended, “No. It’s just myself and Gwaine. And you, now. I think Lancelot knew, but…”
Elyan nodded, his mouth pressed in a thin line. “And Arthur?” Then he grimaced at the look on Leon’s face. “Yeah. Figured.”
They shared another long look. Elyan slapped his thighs and pushed himself upright. “I’m gonna look for wood.” Leon acknowledged him with a nod and went back to fussing with the cloak over Merlin. As Elyan disappeared into the treeline, Merlin stirred. He blinked slowly up at Leon, who smiled encouragingly, but his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell into what seemed a deeper sleep.
Leon brushed off his hands. From the forest he heard Elyan cursing and tromping around gracelessly, swearing about spiders and wholly irritable at the slim pickings. Leon glanced back at their snoring servant and then stood to go help Elyan find some real wood.