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The quest had been going well, too well if you asked Merlin. They'd managed to get to the village in need of their help without any of the usual trouble, which caused everyone, even Merlin for a change, to let their guard down for the ride back to Camelot. That had been their first mistake, as had letting almost their entire group cause a Ruckus so loud it wouldn't be a suprise if half the kingdom could hear them entire leagues away.
It was due to that Ruckus that no one, not even Arthur, who was the best of them all when it came to listening out for threats, was prepared for the bandits that came swarming out of the trees around them. The knights put up a hell of a fight, but were outnumbered and loosing strength due to just how brutal these bandits were.
Merlin tries his best to help where he can, but was quickly taken by suprise when one bandit yanked him from his perch and knocked him to the floor, before another knocks him out. Unbeknownst to him, they had noticed him doing magic and had come prepared as once the last knight had been knocked out and dragged away, they had wrapped magic sapping manacles around his wrists before throwing him in with his friends.
It takes almost 20 minutes before any of them begin to stir and groan quietly. Lancelot is the first to open his eyes, staring up at the roof above him through the hazy light of the room as he gets his bearings enough to turn his head to see what state the rest of them were in. Thankfully, Arthur was already moving to sit up, though he was holding his head and his eyes were tightly closed as he tried to stop his swimming head, Leon was taking it as slow as Lancelot was as he grimaces back to Lance's questioning eyebrow.
Gwaine's quiet grumbling can be heard as he slowly turns onto his side and then his front so he can push himself onto his feet. Percival and Elyan lean against each other, well technically Percival rests against the wall behind him whilst Elyan rests against him as they too get their bearings back enough to look around the semi large room they find themselves in "anyone injured?" Arthur asks the moment he's able to speak properly, which is met with a few grumbled 'yes's' and even fewer shakes of the head when everyone takes stock of themselves for the first time.
Lancelot quickly looks around for Merlin, as he's always the first to move and take a look the second anyone admits to an injury, only he can't see him near anyone. At least not until Gwaine lets out a sudden gasp and a "fucking hell, Merlin!" Before he scrambles across the room to where they now see the man laying in a rather uncomfortable looking heap towards the front of the room. Arthur is the next to move, as none of them had ever known Merlin to stay down for long, especially since the knights themselves had all woken up around the same time.
By the time all of the knights had gotten to him, Gwaine had carefully turned their friend over and has had to stop himself from flinching back at the sight of him. They all double take at just how pale he is, hell he's practically translucent! They also notice how sweaty he is, as well as how his face is twisted painfully and his breathing is laboured and startlingly slow. Arthur and Gwaine work together to get him into a comfortable position leaning against the both of them, which is when they all notice the strange manacles on his wrists.
They notice how they seem to let off a faint glow every few seconds, which corresponds with his face twisting in pain "fuck! Did they see him do magic? I've seen something similar to these in the dungeons when I was younger" Arthur says after he carefully lifts Merlin's hand up to get a better look at what was causing his friend such distress. The group shares a look of horror at what that could possibly mean for Merlin, which leads to all of them trying to pry the gastly things off of him, to no avail.
In fact, the more they touch the things, the more Merlin reacts. At first it's subtle, but that soon changes as he whimpers and writhes in Gwaine's hold, causing the knight to watch on with heartbroken eyes, and as soon as Arthur touches them, Merlin's entire body arches up in a truly painful looking way before he lets out a heartwrenching scream that seems to last for several long minutes, even after Arthur lets go as if they'd burned him.
They all notice the way Merlin quickly deteriorates after that. His breathing becomes so slow that unless one of them keeps a hand on his chest, they would think he's stopped altogether and he some how manages to become even paler. This causes them to look for ways to get out, Gwaine tries to scramble up to the small rectangle window at the top of their cell as Arthur and Percival ram themselves against the door as hard as they can. Lancelot and Elyan join them and eventually they finally hear something give, causing Percival to move as far away from the door as he can before running and using as much as his strength to break the rest of the way through.
As soon as the exit is open and clear, everyone but Gwaine, who had given up on trying to get to the window and was once again holding Merlin in a protective yet comfortable hold, all rush out and fight there way through the bandits that were stupid enough to come at the angry and protective knights. They quickly turn the tables on their captor's and soon enough not only do they have swords, not their own but ones belonging to many of the knocked out and run through bandits, they quickly have the man who has the keys to Merlin's manacles at swordpoint.
The man puts up a fight, but not enough to stop him being run through by at least 2 different swords before Arthur snatches up the keys and rushes back to Gwaine and Merlin. They are much more careful about touching the manacles this time, using Merlin's jacket as a buffer whilst they find how to unlock them, which thankfully works. They get them off just as Merlin's breathing stutters to a complete stop, causing Gwaine to freeze and shake his head in denial as they couldn't have been too late, surely!
There's a tense few minutes where the hope slowly bleeds from them, before Merlin's eyes shoot open bright gold as he gasps for breath. Every single one of them feels the way his magic bursts out of him and wraps itself around them, as if trying to identify friend from foe, before it fades and Merlin's eyes flutter closed once more. Thankfully his breathing, whilst still laboured is slowly getting back to normal, though they are still worried at his paleness that had yet to change whatsoever.
Once they know Merlin is in a somewhat stable condition, Percy, Elyan and Leon head back out to find their weapons whilst Gwaine gets to his feet, trying not to jostle Merlin too much as he and Arthur get him into a much more comfortable position in his arms. Thankfully the bandits weren't bright enough to stash their weapons somewhere they wouldn't be able to find them, so the three knights are quick to get back. It takes a while to find their way out of the bandits hide out, but once out in the sunlight, Merlin seems to improve slightly.
It takes 2 hours to get onto a track any of the recognise, but they eventually make it back to Camelot just as the sun is setting. At this point, Merlin's usual colour has begun to come back and he had begun to stir an hour ago, muttering quiet unintelligible words that even Gwaine couldn't understand and letting out quiet humming every now and again as if trying to reassure him self that he was safe. By the time they get him to Gaius, he's trying to open his eyes, but doesn't have enough energy to do so, which leads to Gaius giving him a calming and sleeping drought when he begins to get anxious and agitated.
Once he learns about what happend, Gaius checks everyone over, bandaging and sewing them up when the ones injured finally admit to it. Once that's done, he sends them all off to get some rest, promising to keep them updated on Merlin's condition, reassuring them that he would be okay once he'd had some rest and also thanks them for looking after him and getting him home so fast. It takes a few minutes before the last of the knights leave to go to their own chambers, but each and everyone of them give Merlin a fond but worried look before they disappear.
It's almost 3 days later when Merlin's eyes finally flutter open, still slightly gold but even that was slowly going back to normal as he got his strength back. It took almost a week before he was able to get out of bed and even longer still before he was back to running around the castle again, but his friends were more than happy to keep him company in the meantime.