Summary: Arthur meets a mysterious young man and instantly feels a bond with the stranger. But he does not know this man was born with powerful gift that he uses to fashion himself as a modern-day super hero "Merlin". This power threatens to destroy the sudden love he has discovered, as well as Merlin.
A/N: Although this a chapter story, I try to write each chapter as a small story in itself. I'm a slow writer, but a dogged one that must complete what she starts.
Chapter 1: Do You Believe in Love at First Sight?
I first met his dog, and I'm still not sure it really was a dog. I had been taking a long walk after a fight with my ex-girlfriend, or perhaps my father -either one could make rattle me so much that I would have to run or walk long and quiet distances to clear my head. I had a special place to wander for this remedy, a vast piece of coast where the river that flowed through the town met the sea. It was a sickly urban river that also took rubbish, trash and once a human body with it, but it was peaceful and I would not come across many people. Admiring the views of distant mansions in the hills, I could walk the paths around little mud puddles of scavenging birds and migrating ducks safe within their tall saffron castles of grass.
I remember that it was cold that day with a gentle marine wind blowing in my face. I had looked back over my shoulder because I had heard something moving. Then I felt the ground beneath me waver. If I had not known for a fact I was far from a African country I would have been convinced I felt an elephant was coming towards me. While I was pondering that perhaps one escaped from the zoo, or that I was experiencing an earthquake or distant bomb attack, a great wave of sound rolled in through the tall reeds in front of me and a beast appeared. Yes, a beast, a half buffalo/half sperm whale creature with paws as big as car tires, or at least they seemed to me at the time, running towards me. I am going to die, I told myself, my last coherent thought before the certain bloody segmenting of my body into tiny of pieces of limbs and severed eyeballs beyond recognition. A calmness passed through me, a sensation that often carried me past life threatening events before, and I am certain I would have been killed if not for a forceful cry of "HUT!" that caused the half-buffalo beast to freeze in mid-attack so suddenly that its wrinkly skin kept going forward and the spit hanging from its jowls flung like mud into my face.
"Dragon!" a voice called. "What has gotten into you?"
Unbelievable! My arms and eyes were still in place. I felt I had just faced the firing squad, but somehow the bullets missed me. My relief soon subsided and by the time its owner arrived I was so angry that my body felt like it was going to implode, or spontaneously combust.
"I'm sorry, he-he has never done something like this -unwarranted." The voice had a peculiar lilting quality; it was slightly deep and a little husky. The sun was behind its source, so I had to squint. Though I could only see a wavy back-lit form I got an impression there was some mystery in that dark figure. It did not deter my anger.
I let out a string of expletives that ended with a coherent "I'm calling the police on this beast! I'm lucky to be alive!" I stopped when I heard a low and threatening growl emanate from my would-be attacker. Only then did I realize the beast was actually the most hideous dog I had ever seen, with scaly skin and a sagging angry face like a week-old jack-o-lantern. Its yellow tortoise-like eyes glared at me in a way that told me that it would allow no harm to come to its master, verbal or otherwise. The dog-beast did not need its size to fight predators, appearance alone frightened a person into submission.
"Please don't, he is a nice dog-" His owner stepped partially out of the sun's way and only then could I see a slightly muscular young man, somewhat thin, with anxious look of worry. "Please, he has had all his shots, and I have him under voice control."
I was angry, embarrassed, and relieved. I could only look dumbfounded at this dog-beast owner. He was dressed haphazardly, as if he chose each item form a dollar store without checking for sizes. He was wearing a rain jacket whose pockets bulged with papers and carried over his shoulder a satchel full of books. No one would have called him conventionally attractive but to me he seemed handsome with his pale skin, strong cheekbones, and well-defined lips. The first sudden feelings I had for this man was a kind of homesickness, like an old longing for your ancestral home, the place you've been trying to go back to unknowingly.
The dog-beast owner seemed more bewildered than anything else and he studied me intently, his face turgid; I could not fathom what was thinking. Something soft and fragile emanated from him, rare and alien to this conventional world, that poured cold ice into my anger and I found myself saying "It is all right then. No harm was done."
It was the friendliness in his voice that must have calmed me - a kind and honest simplicity. Something I hadn't heard from anyone for so long and I hadn't realized how much I missed it. And I seemed to know him already, though, of course, I did not know him from Adam.
My abrupt forgiveness seemed to ease the dog-beast owner's concern and his body noticeably relaxed. He smiled at me, his face turned bright with a light that went right into my breastbone, right into my heart, piercing me hard and fast there. He lifted a tiny green thread from inside his jacket pocket and said "I do carry a leash, just in case."
"That's a leash? That thing wouldn't hold back a rabbit much less -" I waved at the general direction of his dog, not sure if I should even call it a dog.
He made a little laugh, and when he did, dimples formed on his cheeks and a blush spread from his forehead and over his neck and, I imagined, down past his red scarf toward his torso. It gave me the similar sensation of letting a lover lift my shirt to kiss my stomach low, very low.
Do you believe in love at first sight? I never did. I use to believe love was a temporary infliction nature used to get more babies into the world. But now I am sure I fell in love right then.
He took off his knitted cap and clutched it in his hands like he just walked into a church and had to show some respect to me. His hair was jet black, and he wore it very short in a way that displayed two large but graceful ears. With the sun shining behind them I could see a hint of tiny red capillaries in each lobe.
"Thanks for understanding, again I'm so sorry about ..." his voice trailed off.
I was utterly hooked, astonished, and partially ashamed of being hooked and astonished. "Like I said, no harm was done." I could only whispered it.
I didn't say anything else, and he gave me a little grin, a slight crinkling of his eyes because he saw that I was still standing there, still waiting and watching and paying attention. He was standing there and I was standing there, neither of us sure what to do now that the drama was over.
Then, clearing my throat, I said, "Dragon is an appropriate name for it, considering its size." I had wanted to say 'considering it was the largest most ugly half-buffalo/half-god-knows-what creature I had ever seen in my life', but something stopped me. No way could say that to his eager face, so young and silly that it made me long, paradoxically, to protect him forever.
"Oh no," he chuckled a little once again. "He got his name from a scar on his chest. See? It looks like a dragon." He pointed down to Dragon somewhere, and the beast, I swear, smiled back up at him. This man seemed to exude congeniality from every cell. It affected me quite strongly, and I began to flush with a weird happiness. I felt that I'd known and loved him before, sometime long ago, and that I should have memories of endless, sensual nights with kisses and caresses over crumpled sheets, a slim body and warm mouth all already known to me.
I was about to say "I'm a dragon too, a Pendragon," but about half way up the trail there was a little crowd of people coming, and I could hear them laughing, an alien sound against keening of seagulls, the steady slap of waves, and our quiet conversation. The intruders seemed to make him nervous for he mumbled a hasty "Sorry" before turning and walking away down a lesser-used path. Dragon lumbered large and obediently behind him with a great amount of gracefulness, which surprised me considering its ugliness and size.
I was so stunned that I let him walk away, just like that he was leaving me. Oh God help me, it was love right there, right there, a true and proper love. Only I would not admit such absurdity, not then. I could only leave him too.
We both turned our heads back as we walked away: I to view him at a distance and verify what I had seen, and he to look back at the place where I had been standing. I don't remember walking the miles back to my car, or driving home.
*He had a physical power and a presence that was breathtaking and golden, like the vast fields of rapeseed blooms back home. But he left behind a small dark-blue space in his wake, a deep and rich azure of royalty. I had only seen that color happen once before. No wonder Dragon did not like him.*