Merlin could barely contain his happiness. The last dragon egg was safe and right in front him.
"Is it still alive?", Merlin wondered.
"It can live for more than a thousand years.", Kilgharrah answered overjoyed.
"When will it hatch?", Merlin asked again.
"Young dragons were called into the world by the Dragonlords. Only they had the power to summon them from the egg. As the last Dragonlord, this solemn duty falls to you, Merlin."
"How do I summon it?"
"You must give the dragon a name."
Merlin concentrates and then... "Aithusa"
From the dark blue egg pokes out a little head, then the dragon's little paws. The hatchling kept breaking the shell until it emerged fully. Merlin was in shock. Instead of smiling, he kept staring at the hatchling wide-eyed. The dragonling's bones could easily be seen from the skin and instead of a shining dark blue, it was sickly pale blue. And when it started taking its first steps, it was walking with only three of its four legs.
"Kilgharrah, what is it? What's the matter with Aithusa?", Merlin asked, shock and worry radiating from him.
"Oh no."
"What is it?!"
"Merlin...he's sick."
"How sick?"
"Very. It's a very rare disease that affected the hatchlings but still it existed. And now Aithusa has it."
"What does it mean for him?"
" That at some point, slowly and painfully... he will die."
"No..."
At that point Aithusa crooned sadly. Merlin turned his head to look at him. It couldn't be... He was going to die. Others wouldn't have given a damn to a sick-from-its-birth hatchling. They would have thought it horrible and ugly and they wouldn't have wanted it at all - they would have abanoned it.
But Merlin couldn't. Because Aithusa was his dragon, his responsibility. Aithusa was beautiful in his eyes and his heart was already racing with love for the creature. He hadn't realised he was staring at his dragonling, until said creature crooned sadly again, looking at Merlin with piercing blue eyes full of love and hope that his dragonlord would accept him as his own. Merlin went immediately by his side and he crouched. Then he started stroking him and he smiled at the dragon. Aithusa felt the acceptance and love and his croons started to fade as he was nuzzling against Merlin's hand.
They finally came to a stop when he put his head in his dragonlord's chest and made himself comfortable. Merlin picked up his little miracle and put an arm around the dragon protectively, tears prickling in his eyes. They stayed like that for several minutes. Then Merlin kissed the dragon on its forehead as said dragon nuzzled more inside Merlin's chest.
And then he let the tears fall.