A/N: Here's yet another Chapter :) Chapter 5 coming soon! Love you all!

REVIEW:))

Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or anything associated with Merlin.

Day 2

"Morning!"

Arthur cracked an eye open to glare at the very annoying sorcerer at the foot of his bed. He groaned, pulling the blanket up over his shoulders and shutting his eyes again.

"Alright, so today I was thinking we could take a walk."

Yeah right. "Can't we just sleep in and take a walk later?"

"Uh, no. Sorry. Are you ready?"

Arthur threw the blankets down over his legs and sat up, staring up at the man who had the audacity to smile of all things. He fixed him with an exasperated look for good measure, "So you woke me up at dawn to take a walk? Nothing more, just a walk."

The cheeky bastard just smiled and nodded, "Breakfast is upstairs!"

In the most dramatic way he possibly could, he stood up and walked over to the wardrobe, throwing out various outfits until he found the one he wanted: a simple red tunic, leaving it unlaced to expose his chest, and brown trousers.

Once he got upstairs, everyone from the night before was sitting around the table. They all waved at him and he nodded back, pulling up a chair. Lancelot, the closet to him, passed him a plate. Will glared from a few seats away.

"Do you live here?" He decided to ask Lancelot because he had never actually seen Lancelot go to sleep anywhere in this house but he was here more often than Emrys – er, Merlin – was himself, who seemed to have a habit of abandoning his guests every night to go do whatever it was he does.

Lancelot shook his head, "I live over there," he pointed to the west, "But I come over here most of the time. Good company and all."

"Oh you come over here for the food and you know it," Merlin, who seemed to reside permanently over in his little corner, said, "So, Arthur, when is your father going to pay me back? It really does look awful."

Arthur followed his line of vision over to the shattered window on the back window. He looked back at Merlin, whose golden eyes were fixated on him, and shrugged.

Merlin rolled his eyes, winked at Lancelot like they had some kind of inside joke or something equally disturbing, and then nodded towards the door, "Ready?"

Arthur looked down at his half eaten plate and back up at him to show that, no, he was not done, but Merlin was already half out the door. He groaned, grabbing an apple and following him out, Lancelot laughing behind him.

Merlin took off in a seemingly unplanned direction. Arthur paused, "Aren't we taking the horses?"

Merlin glanced over his shoulder, "Nah, they startle easy."

"Okay..." Because apparently that was the best explanation he was going to get. He started down the path Merlin was walking in.

Merlin rambled about something or another the whole way. Arthur wasn't really paying attention, but he did catch a few snippets here and there, something about "the flowers on the side of my house refuse to grow" and "when's your father going to pay for my windows".

Arthur was too busy thinking to really care. He hated to admit it, but the people within the druid camp were having a serious effect on him. They had ate lunch with them yesterday, gathered around the fire pit, and Merlin had laughed and told stories using the flames as dancing pictures and it had all been kind of wonderful. They had been sweet, and after a few minutes of Merlin reassuring them had treated him as a friend. It had felt easy, light-hearted, fun. And now, he had to deal with the guilt over killing their king and possibly taking magic away from the world forever. And it sucked. It really fucking sucked and it was only the second day.

They had arrived upon a break in the woods, a random opening, and Merlin stood dead-center in the middle of it. He turned to Arthur, smiling like sunshine, "Ready?"

"For what, Merlin?" He said after a minute because there was nothing in sight.

Merlin smiled one last time, gold eyes crinkling, and then threw back his head and let out a deep, throaty yell, saying something in a language Arthur didn't understand. When he was done, he snapped his mouth shut and kept his eyes on the sky.

Arthur looked up and then to his right and then to his left. He spun slowly in a full circle looking for whatever it was that Merlin thought he saw. He looked back at Merlin, who was still looking at the sky like it was the most fascinating thing he'd ever seen, and scrunched up his face in confusion.

They waited for another two minutes. Arthur was counting, because he was bored. Merlin was still looking at the sky, Arthur held up his hands by his sides, making a confused gesture and dropping it when Merlin didn't even blink at him.

Then, just as Arthur was about to give up and walk home, there was a loudwhoosh and a giant, and Arthur means humungous, shadow fell over them.

Arthur had all of two seconds to react before a giant dragon landed less than twenty feet from him. He was large, with large, white wings that were almost transparent in the sun folded behind its back. His long, white scaled neck was twisted down to look at Merlin with bright blue eyes that were almost more human than Merlin himself. Not that Arthur had time to notice that. He was too busy focusing on the four large horns protruding from his head, and the teeth, gosh the teeth.

He didn't bring his sword, he wishes he would have, so instead he focused on rolling out of the way, closer to the shelter of the woods.

He's about to take off in a sprint, every man for himself, when he hears Merlin laughing behind him.

"What the hell are you laughing about!?" Arthur tried to whisper in a tone that conveyed both 'hey, we need to get out of here. Now' and 'you're an idiot'.

"Nothing. This is Aithusa," He pointed behind him nonchalantly like he was introducing a casual friend not a freaking dragon.

"You have a dragon?" He stayed his distance. Domesticated dragon or not, he was not taking his chances, "Of course you have a dragon."

Merlin scrunched up his face in a very ugly way, "What? No. She's not my pet. Have a heart, Arthur. She's a friend of mine."

"You made friends with a dragon." Arthur said after an awkward pause.

He was also ninety percent sure his heart had stopped working about a minute and half ago. Merlin just shrugged, turning back and speaking to the dragon as if they were just having a casual drink together. Arthur shook his head, deciding to take a step forward because how often was it that he got to be this close to a dragon and not die.

Aithusa or whatever turned towards Arthur, cocking her head to the side.

"So you want to go for a ride?"

Arthur turned from where he was studying Aithusa with half interest half fear, "What? No."

"Come on. It'll be fun."

"No, it really won't."

"You're such a spoil sport," Aithusa leaned down to push her nose against Merlin's outstretched hand, "Come on. If you don't, I swear I'll make fun of you for the rest of my life."

"Well luckily for me that's only another week or two."

Aithusa turned at that, her shockingly human eyes narrowing in on him. She growled, opening her mouth in a hiss. Like a damn cat.

Merlin smiled, and tapped on her nose. She bowed low, spreading her wing out so it made something of a ramp, Merlin walking up it like it was an everyday occurrence. He perched himself on her back, in between two of the many spikes that ran down her back, and compared to her, he looked like a damn flea.

"Alright, then I'll be back later. Have fun being boring," Merlin said, gripping one of the horns and Aithusa prepared to take off.

"Wait!" Arthur shouted before he even knew what the hell he was doing. Merlin stared at him expectantly and so did the damn dragon, "Fuck it."

And he walked straight up that damn wing and plopped down in front of the spike Merlin was behind. He turned over his shoulder and muttered, "I swear to God, if I die…"

He didn't even to get finish his thought because suddenly Aithusa pushed off the ground, her powerful wings pushing them farther and farther up. Arthur's stomach was in his throat as she pushed forward, ducking her head to cut through the air.

It was like euphoria.

The wind stung a little, due to the speed, causing him to tear up but he didn't much mind because this was incredible. The ground stretched out below them, wide and open and large, all visible to Arthur. Arthur clung to the spike as she folded her wings in and dove down, skimming along the water, flying just above it, close enough that Arthur could have hung down and touched the water himself.

He jumped as he heard a yell from behind him, twisting to see Merlin, both hands spread wide like an eagle and yelling at the top of his lungs.

Arthur watched him in that moment. The way his gold eyes were spread wide, his grin even wider, and the way he looked like this was what he lived for, these simple moments of pure freedom.

Aithusa leveled out at some point, staying above the tree line and slowing to a speed that didn't sting Arthur's eyes. Arthur just watched the ground pass below them, over all the land he had never ventured over. Aithusa twisted her neck to look at Arthur and he swore he saw her grin.

She landed near a lake, and lowered her wing for Arthur and Merlin to get off.

"So? Worth it, right?" Merlin said as he soon as he got off.

Arthur looked back up at Aithusa, who had taken to curling up in a ball off to the side near the tree line, her huge body taking up half of the opening, "Do you do that a lot?"

"What, fly?" He shrugged, and stopped by the lake. He waved his hand over the sandy part and tendrils of red magic flew from his hand, weaving together and slowly weaving a blanket. When he was done, he plopped down on the blanket, patting the spot next to him. Arthur slowly sat down. Merlin smiled at him and then turned to look at the lake, "I do it as much as I can. Are you hungry?"

Arthur shrugged.

"Give me your hand."

Arthur gave him an indecorous look, "No."

Merlin rolled his eyes and grabbed Arthur's hand. Shockingly, his hands were callused, instead of smooth like Arthur thought a sorcerer's hands would be. Merlin whispered something, and gold tendrils spread out from his fingers toArthur's palm, circulating and slowly, a bundle of grapes started to form inArthur's palm, a deeper purple than Arthur had ever seen. When he was done, Merlin retracted his hand and turned his eyes back to the lake.

"Are these safe to eat?"

"They're not poisonous if that's really what you're asking."

Arthur took a second, but eventually popped one in his mouth. It was better than any grape Arthur had ever had but he was never going to tell Merlin that.

They both watched the lake for a minute, until Arthur cleared his throat, "Why are you doing this?"

Merlin looked at him, tilting his head. He seemed to be reading Arthur's thoughts. He nodded after a second of staring at him and regarded the lake again, "I just want to show you what you're ridding the world of."

Arthur swallowed, "I don't want to kill anyone, you know? It's just something I have to do."

Merlin smiled sadly, "You don't have to do everything your father tells you,Arthur."

Arthur decided that was a battle for a different day, instead he whispered, "No one should be as powerful as you, Merlin. It's a threat to us all."

Merlin stopped for a minute before he said quietly, "I'm not a threat, Arthur. I was never going to hurt you or Camelot. But I do agree with you, that no one should be this powerful."

Arthur's eyes snapped to him, "What?"

"I didn't ask to be this way," he said after a minute, "We can't choose our destiny, you of all people should know that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Merlin says and his voice is different.

Arthur's looking back over the lake when he decides to ask, mostly out of politeness, "Where are you from?"

"Ealdor," And Arthur has heard of it before, the tiny village nestled in Cendred's kingdom, poverty ridden and dying. "My mother raised me there until we were forced to move."

"Is she still alive?"

Merlin nods, and then after a minute, "I haven't seen her in years. We still write, I mean, but I haven't visited her in awhile or anything. I'm scared to."

"Why?"

"One of you will hurt her. You'll use her as leverage against me and it'll work. She's my mother after all," He turns to Arthur and smiles, "That's why I won't tell you where she is. It's better if you don't know."

"She's not a sorceress though?"

Merlin shook his head, "No. My dad was, but not her. So I don't really know where this comes from," he raised his hand and flame spread over his palm. Merlin looked sad for a second before he closed his palm, "How bout you?"

"Neither of my parents were sorcerers," he popped another grape in his mouth.

Merlin rolled his eyes, a short laugh escaping, "Shut up."

"My mother died while giving birth to me. And my father hates you."

"Nice family," Merlin laughs.

Arthur laughs too and then says, "So is this where you take everyone you're trying to charm into liking you?"

Merlin grins, "Well everyone usually likes me right off the bat, so I've only taken a handful of people here."

Arthur smiles, but guilt twists at the bottom of his stomach and he falters. He looks down at his hands, twisting a grape back and forth between his thumb until it bursts, "I am sorry."

Merlin shook his head, looking over the water, raising his hand and allowing the waves to fold to his will. Arthur watched with mild fascination, mild fear. The sorcerer dropped his hand, the waves crashing back into the sea. "Tell me of Camelot."

"What do you want to know?"

"Anything. Everything."

So that's what Arthur does. He tells him of growing up in a land that both persecuted and loved its people, of the creatures he had come across, he told him of Gwen and Morgana, Gaius and Uther. He told him of the battles won and the battles lost, all while Merlin listened, his hand weaving grape vines into Arthur's palm.

That night, after Aithusa took them back, Merlin disappeared towards the woods, taking a horse with him. Arthur spent the remainder of the day reading a book and training with his knights.

REVIEW.