Chapter 8

Thank you for all the people who reviewed, pressed favourite, followed and just plain read this.

Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or the BBC. I do however own my knights sir Richard and Sir Liam, who will be back!


Gwaine had been thinking about the conversation he had overheard during the fight between Jace and Merlin. After getting over the shock of a few things like Merlin had magic, very powerful magic, the fact that he was a dragon lord and to top it off there was a real live dragon curled up asleep on his lap. Looking down at it Gwaine thought that it was kind of cute and it sounded like it was purring at him while he slept. If this was the same dragon that he supposed that Merlin had destroyed at that sorcerers tower a few months ago then me must have hidden it in that bag that he was carrying around. He remembered when he asked if Merlin wanted a hand carrying the bag he was shut down every time, now however it makes perfect sense. Gwaine was developing a soft spot for the dragon, what did Merlin called it again Atuuusa or something like that he will ask Merlin when he wakes up.

Hearing the sound of hooves coming towards them he took off his Camelot red cape and placed it over the sleeping dragon, once that was done his right hand found the pommel of his sword. The approaching group of horse men was a Camelot patrol and it would be a really bad if they saw the dragon. The lead knight approached them throwing his hand up in greeting which Gwaine reciprocated leaving his other hand resting on the hidden dragon in the attempt to keep it there and out of view. It was Sir Richard, one of the older Knights of Camelot, kind to anyone his friend but deadly to his enemies. Upon reaching them Sir Richard asked about how his day was going, not spotting the horse behind him with merlin ties to the saddle. When Sir Richard did, he asked with a surprised gasp, "Is that Merlin strapped to the horse?"

"Yes we were attacked by a sorcerer, he took a hit to the head but he's fine." Gwaine said half telling the truth.

"As long as he's fine, but why are you heading away from Camelot, you not lost are you?" Sir Richard asked with a worried frown.

"No, we were going to visit his mother in the village of Ealdor and since it nothing serious I thought that we would go there instead of back to Camelot. Do you recon that you could do me a favour for me?" Gwaine asked.

"Yes, what did you want?"

"Could you please tell the king that the sorcerer that attacked Camelot the other day came back for vengeance against Merlin? But can you tell him that I killed him and Merlin is fine except for a bump on the head. You know how protective he is of our dear Merlin here." Gwaine said earning a few sniggers from the patrol

"There was an attack on Camelot?"

"Yeah a couple of days ago, from the sorcerer that attacked the lower town, Merlin was there and stopped him from hurting a bunch of children, he stood up to him to save the people and give them time to escape to the citadel. I think that the sorcerer went after Merlin for revenge." Gwaine said.

"You say he's dead?" Sir Richard inquired.

"Good as, I impaled him on my sword, he should have bleed out by now." Gwaine replied with a wide smile.

"Shall I tell the king anything else?" Sir Richard asked.

"Nothing that I can think of, just tell him everything is fine and we will see him in about two weeks' time. Ohhhh and the Sorcerer that attacked us went by the name of Jace, maybe he's wanted or something." Gwaine replied.

"Well I won't keep you, you've got a long ride ahead to reach Ealdor and we've been patrolling the northern border for the last week and I'm looking forward to resting at home with my family. So see you in a couple of weeks and give Merlin my best when he wakes up." Sir Richard said grasping Gwaine's forearm in a goodbye as Gwaine mirrored the action.

"See you in two weeks." Gwaine said back to sir Richard and watched as the patrol rode past leaving Gwaine and Merlin alone.

Gwaine nudged his horse into moving with Merlins horse following beside his own. A small little chirping noise made Gwaine look down to the little bundle still in his lap. The dragons head peeked out of the edge of Gwaine cape looking around with sleepy eyes. The dragon spotted Merlin on the horse beside them and made a chirping whistling noise, when it didn't get a response from the sleeping form it made the noise again but louder. The dragon looked so innocent chirping away Gwaine was glad that they didn't kill it back at the tower, it didn't look like it could destroy any thing let alone a city, and it was just so cute. It also made Gwaine wonder if it really was the last dragon on the planet because up until two hours ago he thought that they were extinct. He knew there was another dragon and that attacked Camelot, everyone knew about the Great Golden Dragon and that fact that Arthur killed it when it attacked out of the blue one day.


As the day continued the little dragon would do it's best to wake Merlin up from his deep slumber, short of jumping on his face, Gwaine had to stop the dragon from doing that. He distracted the little dragon by feeding it food and that seemed to work for most of the afternoon but it was getting close to sundown when he started to wine louder than before. Seeing this as a sign that they should stop and make camp before it got too dark to see by, Gwaine looked around for a nice spot to stop. Spying a nice large clearing next to a stream to his left he turned the horses towards it and dismounted with the dragon cradled in his arms. Placing the young dragon down on the grass he set up the bed rolls under the leafy trees than Gwaine walked over to Merlin and started to untie the knots holding him on the horse. Picking Merlin up and carrying him on his shoulder Gwaine walked over to the bed rolls under the trees with the dragon following him every step of the way. The dragon settled down in front of Merlin's head, while Gwaine went around picking up some firewood to build a fire and get some cooking done as a surprise before Merlin woke up. The stew had been cooking for about an hour when the little dragon sat up listening to something that Gwaine could not hear then began making frightened sounds.

Gripping the hilt of his drawn sword he got up from the log that he was sitting on and approached the centre of the clearing with caution ready for anything. However he was not ready for a giant angry golden dragon that was descending right where he was standing prompting him to run back Merlin and the edge of the clearing. Gwaine knelt down and shock Merlin in the attempt to wake him up; failing that he brought his sword up on the defence. The golden dragon shook the ground as it landed facing the little white dragon. It opened up its mouth and let out a deep growl of anger causing the white dragon to cower into the ground in terror. If this was the great golden dragon that Gwaine thought it was then Arthur didn't manage to kill it after all and that the white dragon wasn't the last. Gwaine moved cautiously so that he was in front of the little dragon bringing the attention to him and away from the little one.

Fixing its golden eyes on him the great dragon surprised Gwaine by letting out a deep throated chuckle that shook the ground. After its laughing fit was over it looked over to where Merlin was laying down and Gwaine realized that there was worry in those ancient eyes. Thinking that the dragon had lost it Gwaine jumped when it said. "So one of the knights finally figured it out and you are still standing by Merlin, you really are strength aren't you."

"You can talk?" Gwaine asked surprised.

"He sure can and when he does, he normally talks in bloody riddles, it's getting him to shut up that the problem." Merlins voice piped up from behind Gwaine.

Turning Gwaine saw Merlin a few meters from him looking a lot better than he had in the last few days. Forgetting the dragons for the minute Gwaine went over to his friend to hug him but as he got closer Merlin took a step back causing Gwaine to stop in his track with a crestfallen look on his face. Not sure what to do next Gwaine waited for Merlin to make the first move, when there was silence for a couple of minutes he spoke up saying. "I'm sorry for the trick that I played with you earlier but I would never hurt you. I think that everything makes more sense now that I know about your magic and I would never tell anyone about it ether. I think it's kind of cool, imagine the amount of ale that you could make, you can make ale can't you?"

That caused a laugh out of Merlin who replied. "Out of all the things I could do with magic and you want to know if I can make ale out of thin air. Only you would ask that. Were you really joking earlier? So you're not mad about my magic?"

"No, my friend." Gwaine said shaking his head and he continued saying. "Shocked maybe for a few minutes but then I got to thinking that if you were an evil sorcerer intent on destroying Camelot then you have had multiple opportunities to do so. There for you can't be evil and frankly you are the friendliest person that I have ever met. The dragons are a big surprise though because frankly their supposed to be dead. But I don't think their evil ether, the little white one is very innocent looking and it even fell asleep on my lap like it trusted me."

"Her name is Aithusa and no she is far from evil."

"She's a she?" Gwaine asked.

"Yes and Kilgharrah is a male with a love for riddles and never gives a straight answer. Plus he's quite old even for a dragon; he can't even keep a hatchling from escaping when he should be watching her." Merlin said with a smile.

"So is a lot quicker then she looks, she sensed that you were nearby and wanted to see you and If I'm old then you should listen to me once and awhile. And don't call me old, I don't like it young warlock." Kilgharrah grumbled.

"Anyway what happened after Jace left, I don't remember riding a horse to here?" Merlin asked confused.

"Ohhhh well he kind of met the sharp end of my sword and spelled himself away but I'm pretty sure that he is dead now. The amount of blood was a dead giveaway. After he left Aithusa here had a staring contest with me while you collapsed from your injuries which shifted her focus to you. I think that she healed you of your injuries but then you would not wake up. So I strapped you to your horse and bonded with Aithusa while she slept on my lap as we continued on our way. I had to hide her from a Camelot patrol, which will tell Arthur about this latest attack and that we are fine. Aithusa hid under my cape the whole time and came out after they left. She tried to wake you but failed to many times, I also found out that she loves apples. Speaking of food I have to check on our dinner." Gwaine said as he walked over to the pot sitting on the fire.

Coming back with a couple of bowls of the stew for Merlin and himself and a few apples for Aithusa, Gwaine handed the food out. As they were eating Gwaine asked all about the times that Merlin had used Magic on his quests with Arthur and the knights, who knows and had he played any good pranks on Arthur. The evening grow later as they talked about everything that they could think of, until they grew tired and went to sleep with Kilgharrah keeping watch over them.


Hello again, it finally rained here breaking the really really REALLY long dry spell but now it's going back to being hot again. I managed to write alittle bit of the story so now I have a few chapters ahead and the updates will come every 5 days. Anyway silence is not golden so please review.

Mushushy.