The endless days were long and frozen. Deep down in this cave the endless figure stood trapped in his prison of ice. Long ago Morgaine had succeeded in trapping him here with a subtle spell of freezing. Of course Merlin wore many protective wards to prevent any such spell being successful, but charms were never reliable.

Time passed…

However no one could say that they never failed to work. Merlin felt warmth upon his hand as the ring on his left index finger sizzled with its counter-magical properties. He had lost his sight after only a decade in this icy trap, the retinas blinded by the freezing cold. It was little difference to him anyway, the slight light of the caves would have eventually snow blinded him.

Time passed…

However even with five senses he was not beaten yet, sight was important of course but not everything. It could be fooled by even the simplest of spells, even the best of wizards have their off days. He would have laughed but he could neither draw nor expel air from his lungs.

Time passed…

The ice was melting, cracks formed where the spell was weakening. The force of the counter-spell had built up slowly over time, its effects relentless as the thawing after the coldest of winters. Finally the spell was undone and with a great explosion of energy the trap was destroyed. Merlin slumped to the floor, his body badly burned by the sudden release of power. “I escaped.” He smiled to himself before his eyes closed and his first breath since his escape was also his last. All was lost as his body began to necrotise, however the cells of his body threw a last vital surge of energy through his body. Merlin began to regenerate…
“I should have expected that last trick.” Merlin sat up. “She always had one more trick, traps within tricks within deceptions. What’s wrong with my voice?” Merlin stood up, and felt the tug of body weight pulling in unusual ways. “My back hurts, most unusual.” Looking down, Merlin found the source of the unusual post-regenerative pain. “I seem to have breasts now. Most unusual, I suppose it is a statistical possibility but what do I know about being a female?”
She looked around the cave and saw a sword standing in front of a suit of badly corroded armour. Merlin walked over to the sword and picked it up. The suit fragmented into dust thanks to the sudden excitement of dust particles just in front of it. “This is Peri’s sword.” She realised that the armour must also have been Peri’s. “Oh you silly girl, why did you wait here? You should have found a husband, raised a family, not this.”
“Perhaps she did have a family.”
Merlin turned around to see a young man standing in the cave entrance. “Who are you?”
“Marcus, my lady.”
“Don’t call me my lady.  Ma’am will do or you can call me by my real name.” Merlin paused for dramatic effect. “I’m Merlin, scourge of the wicked, slayer of the dragon and protector of Excalibur.  Now perhaps you can explain what you’re doing here in my cave?”
“I came here to pray for my great, great, great, great grandmother. She died in here a long time ago, she was waiting for her best friend to return.”
Merlin brushed a tear out of her eye. “She should have been with the ones who loved her at the end.”
“She told everyone that she was with the one she loved, even more than her husband. They respected her wishes and so I come here everyday to pray that she is reunited with the spirit of the one she loved. There’s just one thing, I thought you were a man.”
Merlin blushed. “I was, however there was one last trap that finished that body off. However I managed to regenerate. What does it look like? I don’t have a mirror, so I’ll have to go by your eyewitness account Marcus.”
Marcus blushed. He tried not to look at the lady’s womanly figure too much; somehow he felt that he shouldn’t. “You’re erm, very pretty. Yes, you’re pretty.”
“Is that all? Well at least I can’t look as bad as Morgaine can I?”
Marcus shook his head quickly, wondering who Morgaine was. “So what do we do now?”
“Well we’ll return you to your family and I’ll go and settle an old score with someone I should have killed a long time ago.” Merlin pointed towards the cave mouth. “You may as lead the way, I would like to see Peri’s descendants before I depart.”
“Do we have to? They’re so boring, can’t I go with you Merlin?”
“Certainly not. Where I’m going is far too dangerous for a young man.”
“I’m no older than Peri was when you took her into your service and got her knighted. This world is so boring, nothing happens anymore. There’s nothing to do...nothing is fun. I can hide if thing’s get dangerous.”
Merlin shook her head. “I’m sorry Marcus, I must do this alone.” As she set foot across the cave mouth something felt wrong. “Another spell, I’m a stupid old woman. Come on Marcus, into the TARDIS!” She took hold of Marcus’ hand and ran towards the blue box shape of the TARDIS back inside the depths of the cave.
Marcus was shoved inside the small blue box and instead of hitting the far wall of the box he ran into a mushroom shaped thing of levers and dials. “What’s this?”
“The door lever, pull it!”
Marcus pulled the lever and the door closed.
“Just in time!” Merlin began to turn dials and flick switches. “I guess a quick trip is the least I can do. I can have you back here in the blink of an eye.” She turned pale as the time rotor began to rise and fall. “I never knew how obscene that looked before, I’ll have to tinker with it later. For now I think a bath is in order and then a visit to the wardrobe room’s female section.” She looked across at her grimy companion. “A bath won’t do you any harm either Marcus.”
“What? I only had one last month!”
“Exactly.” Merlin headed out of the console room with her arm around her new best friend’s shoulder. “You know, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”
Marcus nodded and wondered what the strange woman had in store for her rival, the enigmatic and evil Morgaine.