Fic: Creature of the night (2/?)
Title: Creature of the Night (2/?)
Author: Bloodrunner666
Spoilers: All of series one.
Pairing: M/A (Like I'd bother with any other)
Word count: ~1400
Rating: PG-13 (Just for innuendo at the moment but will increase later on)
Disclaimer: No offence or infringement is meant by this blah blah blah, I unfortunately don’t own Merlin because if I did Merlin and Arthur would have come out of the closet in the first episode or gone into it **wink wink nudge nudge**.
Part 1 here: http://bloodrunner666.livejournal.com/5279.html#cutid1
Teeth, fangs, all long and sharp heading straight for him. Its eyes were locked on him, getting bigger and bigger as it came closer. Merlin felt his heart beating forcefully in his chest as if it were trying to escape his fate by breaking through his ribs. It didn’t work. Nothing of his was going anywhere apart from his soul to the next world.
The creature was an arms reach away from him when a black blur darted into view, colliding with it in midair. The force was enough to make it crash into the ground next to Merlin, throwing up earth into the air. The young warlock chocked and struggled to move away, but lungs and body screamed in protest. Through watering eyes, he could see the large cat being wrestled by what appeared to be a smaller version of it self. The smaller version was thrown off, landing on its back to the side of the creature. The larger one swiftly righted itself and pounced on the smaller form, but at the last second the smaller one rolled quickly and on to its hind legs. Clearing his eyes with frantic blinking revealed that the new addition was not a smaller version of his attacker. It was in fact a person dressed in the strangest armour he’d ever seen. The armour, if you could call it that for it was certainly not made of metal but a black snake skin-like material which covered the wearer seamlessly and completely. None of the warrior’s skin was visible, not even his eyes which were replaced by the same pupil-less, red, metallic ones of the creature. Even his swords sheaths added to the similarity by being black and either strapped to his back or hanging from the belt at his waist, giving the illusion of a tail.
The creature let out a vengeful roar before charging at Merlin’s new defender. The defender ran from the creature, keeping only a stride or two in front of it, towards a tree. Instead of running into it, he ran up the tree, using the momentum to flip over the creature. Once in the air he pulled his sword out and sunk it into and down the creatures back as he fell back to earth. Blood flowed heavily down its back, matting its fur. The cat let out a blood curdling howl and then turned to face its attacker, seething with outrage. The creature jumped, paw raised and prepared to strike the human with its full weight behind it. In a blink of an eye the warrior spun around, sword catching and slicing the creatures throat while sending him out from beneath it. Just before the monster crashed to the floor Merlin could have sworn a metallic mist rushed out its eyes and nostrils and darted out of sight. The mutilated cat now lay motionless at the stranger’s feet.
Merlin tried once again to sit up and look around, but was met with blinding pain shooting throughout his body. He didn’t have time suppress the cry escaping his lips. Before he even sunk back to the earth the stranger was at his side, placing a hand under his head to prevent him hitting it on the ground.
“Hello? Can you hear me?” A voice leaked out from under the mask.
“Yes” Merlin gasped.
“Can you tell me where it hurts?”
“Everywhere. It hurts even more when I move.”
“Does it hurt to breath?”
“No”
“Do you feel nauseas or light headed?”
“No. Just pain. And a little tired.”
“Can you wiggle your toes?”
“What?”
“Can you wiggle your toes? Please try.”
“Alright…” Merlin replied suspiciously. He then gingerly wiggled his toes and was rewarded for his effort with another bout of pain. “Ahhhhhhhhhhh! S*********@##**Ak!”
“Oh good.”
“Oh good? You like the fact that I’m in pain? Are you some sort of sadistic saviour?”
“No. It’s just better than not being able to move your toes. Pain is probably just bruising or jarring of the spinal column instead of a break which would mean permanent paralysis. No nausea or other symptoms means that there is no organ damage so your not going to die which is a shame as it really puts a damper on my twisted angel of death complex.” The stranger said in a scathing enough tone to make Merlin look ashamed. “I think its best if you just lie there and try not to move. We’ll try and get you back to; I’m assuming Camelot, in the morning. Hopefully by then you’ll be able to move without too much pain.”
“I need to get back…”
“It’s not going to happen. Even if you were fine, which your not, it would take hours to walk around this cliff and back to Camelot, by which point it will be dark. I better get a fire going before that happens. Don’t want you freezing to death eh?” And with that the stranger turned and disappeared from Merlin’s sight.
Over the next hour Merlin lay on the floor and watched as the figure flickered in and out of view, collecting firewood for the ever growing fire. At some point he returned with a chestnut horse carrying bags and equipment. By the time the fire was in full swing, night had fallen. The golden glow reminded him of Arthur’s hair. He wondered if he was gonna see him again or if he was stay in this forest forever. As soon as the thought passed through his he mentally chastised himself for being melodramatic and physically shook it off. His new companion mistook the reason for shiver and draped a blue, fur lined cloak over him before asking:
“Any better?”
“Hu? What?” Merlin spluttered, mentally shaking the image of Arthur and pointy things out of his mind.
“I said, any better?”
“Yes, thank you. The pain isn’t as bad now.”
“Good. Would you like something to eat?”
“Yes please. I’m famished.”
“I can tell. Has anything ever passed those lips of yours? You’re so skinny.”
“Yes. Lots of things have passed these lips. Some of them quite filling. I’m just very active and burn it all off!” The stranger cocked his head making Merlin blush as he realised what he had just implied.
“Then I suppose meat won’t be a problem for you.” The stranger replied, standing up and pulling a knife from a belt hanging round his waist. The belt, in addition to knives and a sword also supported little bags containing items Merlin could only imagine. Now that he was closer the young warlock was able to discern that contrary to his original thought of the suit covering the his entire body there were in fact boots of black, worn leather covering his feet into which the suit was tucked. He could also now see an old, gold ring with a picture of a bat and a dragon being separated by two crossed swords on his left hand.
Dragging his eyes away from the ring, Merlin saw that he was heading toward the now cold and dead creature.
“Are you seriously gonna eat that?”
“Do you see anything else lying around? I assure you its perfectly safe, tastes a bit funky though. Mixture of cinnamon and cheese, the type of cheese varies with the animal. I hope this isn’t applewood. I hate applewood.”
“How do you know that? How can it vary with the animal? Does that mean that there are more like it? Who are you? And what the hell does applewood taste like?”
“Breath or you going to pass out. Right, ok in order. I’ve been hunting this thing a while and it jumps from host to host changing and mutilating it as it goes. It kills anything and everything in its path. Zarael. Dunno, just know it makes me want to vomit as soon as it touches my tongue.”
Merlin stared into those creepy red eyes for a moment while matching his questions to the answers.
“Wait, so your name is Zarael?”
“Out of what I just told you, that’s what you question? Yes my name is Zarael. Zarael Mordant. And you would be?”
“Merlin of Eldor.”
“As in Emrys?”
A cold shiver went down his spine and settled as a lump of dread in his stomach. “Err…No”
“Oh, my mistake. Get some rest. We travel at first light.” And with that, Zarael slunk off into the shadows leaving Merlin to think over his day.