"I'm sorry, Arthur. He won't make it through the night."

Arthur Pendragon was many things. King, knight, a leader, a warrior, a diplomat, a husband, and a best friend.

But right now none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was his friend dying in the middle of the forest hours from help.

The bandits had come from nowhere, aiming to take hostages, shooting down the horses and then most of the escort.

The knights had fought bravely, as a knight should, only for Merlin to leap into the path of an incoming rider, who sliced open his stomach.

What really made it horrible was that he had seen this type of wound before.

Merlin had healed them.

"Make camp." Arthur ordered. "I'll take care of Merlin."

The remaining five knights nodded, spreading bedrolls and other supplies salvaged from the horses around the campsite.

Arthur took first watch, sitting with his back to a tree, Merlin's head by his feet. If it wasn't for the palness he would look like he was sleeping.

A creak in the forest had the king alert and wary, sword in hand.

Eyes reflecting the firelight in the bushes, about four feet off the ground, watching him.

A deer. Arthur thought.

Until it stepped from the bushes.

It was completely silver, its coat shimmering with translucent shades that dances as hypnotically as a flame. It's hooves with shining like freshly polished armor, its antlers as gleaming as a beloved blade.

It shuffled over, silent as a specter, carefully picking it'a way towards them.

It wasn't until it was it was only a hairsbreath from Merlin's boots that Arthur snapped out of his awestruck trance.

He raised his sword. "Go on. Get."

The stag seemed to take offense to that, stamping it's hooves, making the first noise since it arrived, and looking pointedly at Merlin.

And with a heavy sigh, spun so fast it blurred into a swirl of silver, leaving a girl in its place.

She looked unperturbed at the increasing number of swords at her throat as the knights awoke to Arthur's cry.

She had eyes as blue as Merlin's and hair just as dark, although a streak of green ran through it. Her clothes were silver, matching the circlet on her brow and quiver and bow at her back.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Thalia. My friends and I have been looking for you. We found what was left of the bandits. And sought to help." She said casually, as if she didn't have half a dozen swords to her neck.

"You are a sorcerer." Arthur said firmly.

"No."

It was a new voice, causing the knights to spin around, forming a circle around Merlin.

Another child, another girl, not even ten summers, sat in the branches above them, a green cloak draped upon her shoulders, purple eyes flickering in the firelight. She held a strange bronze mask in her hand, no features except two slits for eyes.

A barn owl sat next to her, watching with a gaze far tooo intelligent for an animal.

"I like being a bird. Makes finding people much easier." The second girl  said, leaping thirty feet and landing with a soft thud. "I'm Jazz." Her purple eyes glittered with mischief.

Arthur gave her a quick once over and noted the twin daggers strapped to her back, keys engraved into the handles.

A critical eye looked Merlin over and Jazz sighed. "I can't help. I would need help."

The owl fluttered down, spinning and transforming into a woman.

She removed her mask and hood, exactly the same as Jazz's, revealing storm grey eyes and curly blonde hair.  "Then we summon a medic." A sword hung at her waist and her green cloak was lined with grey.

"I'm Annabeth. Lieutenant of the Guardians." The grey-eyed girl said. "We can help your friend. It would be best if we took you to our camp but we can have one of our healers come here or we can leave."

Thalia slipped around the swords like a leaf blowing on the breeze, coming to stand by Annabeth. She smiled and snapped her fingers.

The fire spluttered as a breeze whipped through the clearing.

"Arthur," Gwaine said, lowering his sword. "I've heard stories of these people. They call them shifters. Some think they are spirits, some think they are fae.  They help travelers and children, vanishing afterward."

"Magic?" Arthur asked, looking both afraid and hopeful.

"And Merlin's only chance," Elyan said, sheathing his sword. "I heard the same tales in the north. A little girl in my village got lost in the forest.  Three days later a man in a green cloak and bronze mask returned her before vanishing into the mist."

Arthur glanced between Annabeth and Merlin, obviously waring against his ingrained hatred of magic and this chance to save Merlin.

"I want your oath that you and your friends mean no harm to any of us." He finally conceded.

Annabeth nodded her head, her grey eyes analyzing everything about him as if she could see his thoughts. "Of course. You have our word we mean no harm."

Arthur nodded, sheathing his blade, the other knights following suit.

And if they looked a little dazed, then that was their problem, not Thalia's.

"Jazz?" Annabeth asked, turning to the small girl.

Jazz nodded, before pulling a horn from her pack, the sound echoing through the forest and making the knights flinch, looking around for bandits.

"Only those we want to hear the horn will hear. Don't worry, King Arthur." Jazz smirked. "You will not be attacked tonight."

Within moments, they heard the pounding of paws on the forest floor as three wolves burst through the underbrush, turning into three boys, two blonds, and one with hair as dark as Thalia's.

The blonds immediately descended on Merlin, their hands glowing a soft gold.

"Heard the call," The black haired boy said, his green eyes almost glowing in the firelight. "How bad?" He glanced at Arthur, deeming him the biggest threat before putting a hand in his pocket.

"Not bad. Just need to finish up here and we can move on." Annabeth replied, handing a medic a roll of bandages that he and his partner used to bind the now cleaned wound. No one was faster at healing than childen of Apollo.

As soon as they were done the medics urned back into wolves.

"Here," Percy said, snapping his fingers. A blue orb of light appeared next to Arthur. "This will guide you to your citadel. Remember, Arthur Pendragon, son of Ygraine, all power corrupts. Fare thee well."

They vanished with a flash of light just as Merlin opened his eyes. "Arthur?."

Arthur would later ponder, just how desperate he had been when faced with the death of a friend.

He remembered this desperation next time he judged magic in his court.

"Fare thee well?" Thalia asked as they arrived back at camp. "Playing a bit too many fantasy games, Jackson?"

"We are literally in medieval England. I think we can be a bit old fashioned." Will said, looking rather put out. "I gotta go. Leo put down odds on how long Nico can hold the corpse pose. If he hasn't broken it yet I win ten drachmae."

"Odds?" Travis said, popping out of a tree.

"Corpse pose?" Percy asked a bit more concerned.

"See ya!" Will yelled, vanishing into the camp, Travis on his heels.

Annabeth sighed and looked at Percy. "I'll get started on packing for the next door. You go check on supplies. We need more ambrosia and the Tent of Requirement only likes you."

She seemed a bit put out by this but Percy promised he would.

Ever since they had started traveling to alternate world's the Guardians had been thrown in disarray. It had taken three weeks before anyone had enough control over their new shifting abilities, which seemed to come out at random, to deliver an old book to a certain pair of brothers.

Percy would have done it himself but the bunker was apparently warded against interdemension teenaged deities.

Who knew?

He grabbed the ambrosia from the tent of tent of requirement, a small thing that had no desire to break the laws of physics in anyway, except to give Percy whatever he wanted.

Well, whatever Annabeth told him to get.

This rule had been put in place when Percy had acquired a rather sizable stash of sweets that the Stolls, had well, stole.

This resulted in a pair of sugar crazed Capucian monkeys running wild over the camp, which meant that, having no choice, Thalia had gleefully electrocuted them to the point of unconsciousness.

So, Percy had learned his lesson, and the Stolls learned exactly how accurate Thalia could be with lightning.

All in all, a very enlightening evening.

"Any idea where we are heading next?" Percy asked, seeing Annabeth near the infirmary tent.

Annabeth removed a scroll from her bag. "Either Ancient Egypt to hand deliver a baby or Post Ice age Alaska where we will be playing the part of spirits to let a shaman know one of her tribe got himself turned into a bear."

Percy staredfor a moment before turning to the sky. "What the Hades, Chaos!"

Annabeth laughed. "After we finish those two we get a decent vacation watching over some kid."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna go pack. See ya." He leaned in and kissed her gently. "Love you, wise girl."

"I love you, too, seaweed brain. Now get going before Thalia fries us."

In the distance they could hear Will cheering. "Six and a half hours! I win!"

----------------
Long time no hear, Guardians.
As you can see I finally got my sequel down and plan to have a decent amount of references. Kudos to those who spot them.
As for the mask, I'm not sure why but I decided it would look cool. Also I read somewhere that an old tactic when using larger numbers was to switch back and forth, and when you all look the same your opponent can't tell which weapon your going to hit them with next.
Anyways, thanks for being patient, and I promise I will try to update regularly but like last time, no guarantees.
May your sword stay sharp, the gods pleased, and the monsters with runny noses.