The young warlock glanced up from the book he was holding. It was a thick old thing with many pages torn slightly and yet it still held a place in Merlin's heart. The beautiful calligraphy and the magnificent drawings were etched in his mind as his eyes turned from their usual piercing blue to the liquid gold that showed the presence of his magic. He had learnt so much from this book that Gaius had given him; a gift from a man who was so much like a father and guided him in his everyday life.

The Great Dragon had told Merlin that he had a great destiny in which Albion was to rise under the rule of the future king- Prince Arthur- and it was his job to protect the royal. To do this he had to improve his magical skills which he already had a natural feel for. Many people may see this as a chore- having two lives where one was magical and secret and the other was looking after a royal prat every day- but in reality the secret part of him was beautiful, it was like stroking the fur of a tiny kitten or hearing the whistle of the wind blow through the leaves on the trees, it was Merlin's life and every breath he took fuelled the growth of power inside him.

Merlin altered the position of his legs so that he was kneeling closer to the forest floor and firmly gripped the book open in his left hand while scooping up a layer of fine earth in his right. He held this hand open loosely and brought it up to his mouth where he blew the earth gently out of his grip and said the words in his mind dracones ignem. The scattered particles immediately lit up into miniature flames and grouped together to form small dragons which looped around each other while flying through a small area of the forest air. One of them had larger wings than the rest and when the others settled on the forest floor and started chasing each other in delight it carried on traveling upwards as if being kept afloat by an invisible blow from below.

Merlin's face softened at the sight of his new friends and his mouth stretched into a wide grin at the playfulness of the creatures before him. He kept an eye on the lonely fire dragon and couldn't help but feel a hint of kinship for him, after all, they both felt alone among their kind and in a way this made him sad. His eyes faded of their glow slightly and one by one the dragons lost theirs also and flickered out of existence. Two of the dragons lasted longer than the others; one was running after another of its brothers and made to pounce before letting out a cry of anguish when in landed on nothing. Its lament was cut short as it also lost its burst of life.

Now only one dragon remained and it did not seem to notice the loss of its brothers- to the contrary it glided on an air current towards Merlin as if it was the freest and happiest creature in the world. It settled on the boy's shoulder and rubbed its small head against Merlin's rather long neck in comparison and to the warlocks surprise he didn't burn but felt warmth spread through him and eat away at the sorrow in his heart. This dragon was more like Merlin than any other being in the forest that day for it was also lonely and had felt the need of a companion, not just that but rather than fade away like the others of its kind had before him the Dragon appeared to grow stronger and stayed with Merlin for many more years with the fire of his body still alight.

Sometimes it is still said that at night a small ball of fire will been seen flying past a sleeping child's window and if that child were to wake and to look at the flames closer it would see the shape of a flying lizard and far of in the distance the silhouette of a boy calling for his friend to come home.