Disclaimer: Well, this is kinda fan fiction, so yeah. I obviously don't own Merlin.


"What do you want, Young Warlock?"

"Well, um..." Merlin hesitated. This had seemed like a grand idea when he'd thought of it and Merlin had rushed down to the dungeons without really considering it much. "Nothing actually... I just thought..."

"What is it, Merlin?" the Great Dragon asked, dipping his huge head to Merlin's level.

"Well, I thought you might like to... to talk, you know, about anything... I just thought it must be... lonely down here," Merlin managed to say.

The dragon chuckled, but not in a demeaning tone. More in a warm kind of way. "What a heart you have, Merlin."

Did that mean he was happy Merlin came? Or something else? Uncertain, Merlin stayed silent.

With a scary draconian smile, the dragon said, "I would very much enjoy your company, Young Warlock, thank you."

Grinning, Merlin settled on the floor. "So do you dragons have names? Or are you all just 'Dragon'?"

The Great Dragon chuckled again. "We have names, Merlin. Mine is Kilgharrah."

"Kilgharrah," Merlin repeated, testing to make sure he pronounced it right. When the dragon did not correct him, Merlin went on, "Kilgharrah, do dragon parents name their children like people do?"

Kilgharrah shook his head. "No, Young Warlock. Dragons are named by the dragonlord who calls it from the egg."

Immediately intrigued, Merlin sat up straighter. "Dragonlord? What is that? Are they humans?"

"Yes, the dragonlords are a race of mostly human men. They carry the blood of the dragons in their veins as well as a touch of dragon magic. These men could speak the language of the dragons and command them. They were kin."

Awed, Merlin let that sink in before he asked cheekily, "But isn't the language of the dragons just a bunch of growling and roaring?"

Kilgharrah snorted in laughter. "No, Merlin, not entirely. That 'growling and roaring' is our instinctual, wild language. But the Dragon Tongue is much complicated than that."

Merlin tilted his head sideways. "Were there always dragonlords?"

"No they did not always exist, but they have for a very long time," Kilgharrah answered. "Every dragon and dragonlord knows the story of our origin. Would you like to hear it?"

Merlin nodded eagerly, barely remembering to tack on a polite, "Yes, please."

The Great Dragon, Merlin could tell, was pleased by Merlin's response. He shifted a little on his rock and then began his tale:

"Many hundreds of years ago, the dragons flew wild and rampant across Albion. They dominated the skies, the land and sea to an extent as well. But they also destroyed and ravaged. The humans had managed to survive by their ingenuity and with the aid of magic, but their numbers were dwindling.

"One great sorcerer named Gradar knew that they wouldn't be able to defeat the dragons by hunting them into extinction as they had been trying to do thus far. So the next time they felled a dragon, Gradar stopped the hunters before they ended the dragon. Cutting a deep wound into his arm, Gradar mixed his blood with that of the wounded dragon. Then he reached out and touched the dragon's mind. Together the two of them healed both their wounds. As they did so the deep, ancient magic of the world welled up around them and created a bond of kinship, of blood, that could never be broken between Gradar and the dragon.

"It was the beginning of the end of the war. The magic called down all the dragons and any human who could hear the call came also. Seeing what had happened with Gradar and the first dragon, magicians cut their arms and mingled their blood with the willing dragons. Each time, a bond was created by blood and magic.

"The way of the dragons changed drastically. Now the dragonlords called hatchlings from the egg by naming them; the dragons no longer sought total destruction and their minds were opened to the vast knowledge of the world and magic open to them. For the dragonlords, they had a new type of magic to explore – the dragon magic. So similar to their own but at the same time very different. Now also they would put into words the Dragon Tongue, instinctively knowing and understanding it. But also, when the dragonlord commanded a dragon in the Dragon Tongue, the dragon had no choice to obey. This ensured another war like it would never rise again.

"A few dragons refused to submit to magic and the dragonlords, so their own kind had to take care of them. Similarly, many of the humans were distrustful of the new dragonlords, even though many viewed them as heroes. They fought against them, but things soon settled down. Gradar christened The First Dragon as Gebryd, and so the dragonlords were born; both heralds and protectors of peace."

For a minute, Merlin sat in silence, thinking over the story he had just heard. "Wow," he breathed eventually. "How many dragonlords were there? Are there any left?"

"In the beginning their number was hundreds," Kilgharrah said sadly. "But since that time their members have waned considerably. Some of them simply did not pass down their gift to a son; others died when they first made peace with the dragons, by both vengeful men and wild dragons. Then there was the Great Hunt. People grew fearful of the dragonlords' power over the dragons and sought to destroy them. But now... after the Great Purge only one, to my knowledge, survived. And only one dragon."

Merlin felt his heart grow heavy with Kilgharrah's suffering. "You and he are the last."

"Yes we are, Young Warlock," Kilgharrah confirmed.

"That must be..." Merlin trailed off, trying to put into words the weight the dragon must feel. Unable to find any words, Merlin simply said, "I can't even imagine it."

"One day, Young Warlock, you will understand," the dragon said cryptically.

"Well," Merlin sighed after fruitlessly pondering the dragon's statement. "I should go and get some rest. I have to get up in time to get Prince Prat his breakfast and do all my chores before he bursts."

Kilgharrah chuckled. "He has not yet improved?"

Merlin grinned as he climbed to his feet. "I'm still working on him, but he's not totally terrible all the time. I think this whole destiny thing won't be so bad."

"You two are destined to be as close as brothers," the dragon told him, sounding as if he'd recited it.

"I know, I know," Merlin said. "Two sides of the same coin, you've said. I'm the brighter side, obviously."

The Great Dragon snorted. "Goodnight, Merlin."

"Goodnight, Kilgharrah. I'll come back as soon as I can." Merlin picked up his torch and hurried out of the dragon's dungeon, leaving a less lonely dragon than the one that had lived there for the past twenty years.


AN:So, first venture into a land of myth and a time of magic. I'm excited to be here! Not the first time I've written though, and I've been scouring this fandom for the better part of four months (roughly). So, I'd love it if you dropped me a review, made sure nobody was incredibly OOC, and just encouraged me. I'm planning on at about 18 chapters for this story that are roughly sketched out. Let's see if I meet my goal (which reviewing helps with, guys).

By the way, if anyone is willing to beta, I'm bad with missing grammar stuff that should stick out like a sore thumb. So if that's your area, I could use a little assistance.