This may not last very long, but I'm going to attempt to put a new spin on some Merlin episodes. I had a lot of questions, and answering them seemed like fun. What would happen if the dragon hadn't been there to advise him? What would some of Merlin's decisions been, and what other changes might have happened if Arthur heard about what his father had done and become secretly pro-magic? I'm already partially done the first episode, which is not a simple transcription but something I'm attempting to work on my story-telling with. This is more of a prologue than a first chapter, and it isn't the style I will be using for the other chapters.
I enjoy the title Unadvised, which can describe an action as both something reckless and something uninformed. This is exactly what Merlin will be, for now.
Arthur watched the dragon fly away, not certain whether he was proud of or horrified at what he had just done. It may have promised never to harm the kingdom he would one day rule, but he had learnt the truth of its imprisonment only the night before, and he doubted that it would not seek revenge. He had to admit to himself that he would, in its place.
At dinner the previous night, his father had spoken for the first time in a long time about his purge of magic-users. Arthur had been growing uneasy about the standard methods of testing for magic - drowning, burning, hanging, beheading - and seeing this, Uther had added that he did keep one magical prisoner still. The last dragon, he had said proudly, remained in the caverns below the castle, where it could not whisper its poisons to anyone.
This was the part he had found most alarming. The creature was capable of speech and thought, but had been tricked into believing that it could live in peace and had come to hear Uther's apology and penance. His father had instead killed the last dragonlord, and had forged chains and dug a cavern underneath his own castle to keep the last dragon captive. It was a trick that Cenred seemed capable of, and one he had previously believed Camelot was above.
Arthur had then consulted Gaius, the elderly court physician who had seen all of this supposed justice and the time of magic before it, asking for the truth. He had been hesitant to share his true thoughts on the events of nearly twenty years ago, but once he had seen that Arthur was serious, he had given a brief summary of Uther's purge and explained the reasons behind it.
He had been absolutely shocked by the news, though looking back at small things his father had said and done, he knew that he shouldn't have been. Arthur had known for years that his father wasn't as merciful or just as he'd like to believe, but he had not expected his own unwitting role in what he now supposed was a slaughter. His father had made an enchantress cast a spell to give him an heir, and when the consequences he had refused to hear of proved too much, he had blamed anything but himself. Witches, warlocks, sorcerers, dragonlords, and all magical creatures from pixies to dragons were to be killed on sight or tested for magic in brutal ways.
Arthur had had no idea what to think. Thanking Gaius, who cautioned him against opposing his father, he had left in a haze of misery and shock, remaining in his chambers for much of the next day and behaving less than civilly towards the king's ward, Morgana, when she had stopped by to talk. He could remember nothing that left him as conflicted as this news had.
The next night, after declining to dine with Uther and claiming to be ill, he had walked beyond the dungeons. Arthur didn't know where this cavern could be, but he hardly believed after Uther's boasting that there would be sufficient guards, and there were few paths outside of the cells. He grabbed a torch from the wall to carry with him for light.
The cavern holding the dragon was empty, and for a single, tense moment, he had thought that someone might have gone to free the dragon first. He wouldn't have put it past Morgana, who had been so outraged that night at dinner that she had left the table.
The dragon, after an intensely dramatic pause, had flown up to a nearby perch in an array of dull gold scales and bronze claws. Arthur had not missed the clinking of thick chains around its nearest claw, and its gold eyes had not missed the sword hanging in his scabbard that he made no attempt to touch. In a voice that seemed centuries old, it had asked him if he had come to gloat as his father had.
Those words were what finally cemented in his mind that the dragon had to be freed. The moonlight filtering through to light the rocks eerily had to come from somewhere, and the fetters clearly had a purpose. He had asked it if it could escape, if released from its chains.
The dragon had watched him with a surprise that seemed foreign on such a reptilian face and replied that the only thing that could break its chains was a sword forged in a dragon's breath. It obviously mistrusted him, and he had expected no less. This was a test, and Arthur had to trust in magic before anything magical could trust him.
He had laid down his sword, stood with no weapons, and listened as it advised him on the ways immortal swords could be misused. He no longer had any intention of killing magical creatures with it, and he could imagine well the sort of power it could wield in the hands of the merciless. After he had nodded respectfully, it had told him to back up out of the cavern.
Arthur watched as the dragon opened its jaws and breathed fire onto his sword, feeling a sudden heat as the passageway illuminated. When it told him that he was safe, he had walked back in and touched the sword's blade quickly, then realised that it was barely warm and and picked it up to examine it. The sword had seemed slightly heavier and had a better balance than it had a few moments previously.
The walk down to the dragon's chains may have been one of the hardest things he had done in his short life. He had been terrified out of his mind of the consequences, but absolutely certain that the action he was taking was right. The thought of what his father might do if he discovered the dragon was free tugged at his mind with every step, making him uneasy but all the more determined.
Arthur had made the dragon swear not to harm Camelot before he struck the chains with his newly-enchanted sword, and it had mentioned something vague and cryptic about its freedom boding well for the future of Albion and Emrys before it had flown up and away.
He stared up at the ceiling after it had gone, wondering if he had dreamed the last few hours. It all seemed too absurd to have really happened, no matter that the dragon's tail had only disappeared a few moments ago. He had freed the Great Dragon.
Deciding that he would rather not be implicated if the dragon was seen, he sheathed the sword and left the cavern quietly.
The next morning, he dined with Uther and said nothing at all on the subject.