Chapter 10
The hut looked as though it had been blown apart from the inside out. Debris lay in scattered pieces around the epicenter, where Arthur was concerned to see Aithusa landing.
Concern turned to outright panic when he realized why she headed straight for that spot.
Dismounting, he hurried towards the unmoving form of his unconscious friend, who appeared positively ill as well as injured. The mace wound on his chest looked as though it had been tended to, but then reopened with whatever struggles Merlin had gone through.
"What happened?" Gwen murmured, kneeling beside the both of them, hands hovering over the pale man's body. Arthur shook his head mutely, taking hold of Aithusa to tug her away and allow Guinevere a better look at what needed to be done for Merlin's wound. A sudden noise caught their attention, and both looked up in time to see a pile of debris several yards ahead of them shifted aside.
Morgana stood up from it.
Instantly, Arthur was on his feet, sword drawn as he positioned himself defensively in front of Gwen and Merlin. Aithusa, hissing, jumped and flapped in order to hover beside his head.
For her part, Morgana stared at the baby dragon for a good minute before she seemed to realize who else was present. "Arthur. So, the hypocrite king has come to rescue his pet sorcerer."
Hands tightening on his sword's grip, Arthur refused to answer in anger, keeping his tone low and calm. "Dragonlord or not, Morgana, I will always come after Merlin, just as he'll always come after me. Now, I'm going to give you one chance: leave."
The witch simply stared at him, before throwing her head back and laughing. Arthur felt more than heard Gwen shifting uneasily behind him, but refused to do the same.
"You don't know!" Morana crowed, finally looking at him again. She gestured at the destruction around them. "This isn't the work of any Dragonlord power, Arthur. Your Merlin has much more magic in his veins than that."
"...What?"
Smirking, Morgana didn't deign to reply - instead, she chucked a fireball at his head. Arthur dropped, letting the spell pass over above him but not moving from his spot in front of Gwen and Merlin. His sister apparently anticipated the move, as the next fireball she conjured was larger, and aimed straight at his torso. Recognizing that he'd have to take the hit in order to shield the others, Arthur braced himself.
Except, Aithusa darted forward, and caught the thing.
All the humans present were equally startled, though Arthur found himself grinning when the dragonling launched the spell back at its creator. Morgana shrieked and had to dive to one side to avoid her own magic.
"You little fool," the witch snarled, getting back to her feet. "Dragons are supposed to be wise beyond reckoning - don't you realize you're just being turned into a glorified guard dog?!" Aithusa screeched, sounding more angry than Arthur had ever heard before. Morgana's eyes widened when the dragonling flew up to a point just a few feet above her head. It took a couple of coughing tries, but then Aithusa succeeded in breathing out a bright burst of orange flames.
Morgana dodged the main blast, but as part of her dress caught fire, Arthur took the opportunity to lunge forward at her with his sword. A barked spell was enough to push aside his attack, though the distraction gave Aithusa the opportunity to breathe flame again. Evidently, Morgana decided she didn't want to press her luck fighting the both of them, and with a shout, vanished in a whirlwind.
Letting out a huff, Arthur didn't dare let down his guard until the baby dragon did, and then both of them returned to Gwen and Merlin. The woman was still crouched in place, one hand gripping the sword she'd brought with her while the other cupped the back of Merlin's head. "Is- is she gone?"
"I think so," Arthur answered, dropping to his knees again. He frowned when Aithusa started sniffing at Merlin's neck, little growling noises coming from her throat. Gwen responded by shifting her hand lower to nudge the dragonling's snout away, only to pause with a strange expression on her face.
"Arthur, help me roll him over."
Not bothering to ask why, the man did as she asked, and both of them blanched upon spying the black spot that was under the skin of Merlin's neck - and moving.
Aithusa let out an affronted sound, as if she were insulted by the thing's presence. Sticking her nose in the air, the dragonling circled around her Lord's prone form, taking in great, deep sniffs of the air. Both Arthur and Gwen flinched when she let out a triumphant little roar.
"Aithusa, what-" Before Arthur could finish his question, the baby dragon had pounced on a pile of debris and proceeded to dig through it, until finally catching and yanking out a multi-headed serpent.
"What in the world is that?" Gwen asked, staring at the snapping, hissing heads.
"Something magical," Arthur answered her, "And clearly, Aithusa doesn't like it anymore than we do." Even as he spoke, the dragonling pinned her prey to ground, where she used her newly found flames to burn it.
The instant the dragonfire started attacking the serpent, Merlin began to twitch and writhe on the ground, his labored breathing turning into pants. Even more distressing was the increased movement of the thing in the back of his neck. With his gaze jumping back and forth between Merlin and Aithusa, Arthur realized that whatever the thing infesting his friend was, it had a connection to the serpent Aithusa was burning.
As soon as she finished destroying the trapped creature, the thing inside of Merlin gave a final shiver before seeming to shrink a bit. The dragonling seemed content with what she'd done and trotted back to them, head and wings held high.
"We can assume that was a good thing, right?" Gwen wondered aloud.
"I certainly hope so," Arthur replied, a moment before he attention was caught by a groan from the man lying beside them. "Merlin?"
"Oww..." Blue eyes slowly blinked open, their owner taking a minute to recognize the concerned faces hovering over his own. "Wh- Arth'r? Gw'n?"
"Yes, it's us," the woman told him, smiling as Aithusa insistently began to nudge at Merlin's head with her own. "You're safe now, Merlin."
"But- what happ-" The dark-haired man cut himself off, eyes widening as a hand flew to the back of his neck. "Morgana! The snake-! Arthur, you and Aithusa have to get away from me, NOW!"
"What? Why?"
"She did something- Morgana had a, a creature, some sort of serpent with many heads- she said she was going to force me to order Aithusa to kill you, and then she put that thing in me, I could feel it- trying to, to take control, but I couldn't, I can't-"
"Merlin, you need to calm down." Focusing on his friend's distress, Arthur refused to let any of the fear that had suddenly installed itself in a cold knot in his belly show on his face. "Morgana's gone. Aithusa dug out and destroyed a serpent like that. And Guinevere and I saw the thing in your neck react to its death, so I think it's safe to say you won't be doing anything Morgana wants."
Though Merlin still looked terrified, he at least stopped babbling.
"Good. Now, we're going to get you onto my horse, and then we'll take you home to Gaius, alright? He'll make sure you're truly fine, Aithusa will spend hours fussing over you, and then things can return to normal." Arthur nearly sagged in relief when Merlin finally nodded. Instead, he helped pull the smaller man to his feet, Gwen supporting his other side while Aithusa took to the air in order to flap around all their heads. Soon enough, all three humans were situated on the pair of horses and headed back to Camelot, the small white dragon flying in circles around them the entire way.
-BA-
Not until Gaius had removed the shriveled snake's head from Merlin's neck and sent the man to sleep with a draught did Arthur bring up what Morgana had said when they'd confronted her. The physician looked decidedly shifty, and tried to give the king a half-answer that only served to heighten his unease. Surprisingly, it was Gwaine (who'd returned with his search party only a few minutes before Arthur and Gwen arrived with the exhausted Merlin) that provided something resembling an explanation.
"Merlin's more than a Dragonlord, Queenie," he announced, surprising everyone in the room. "How much more, I was told in confidence and am not at liberty to say, because it's all very personal and dangerous and important. You'll have to take the matter up with Merlin when he's feeling well enough to explain."
Arthur glared at the knight, who met his gaze evenly. "I need to know, Gwaine."
"I won't argue with that. But do you need to know right this minute? No. Or even the same minute that Merlin wakes up? Not really. Did you need to know when you first met the bloke? Of bloody course not."
"You aren't exactly helping to calm my imagination."
"Well, I've never exactly been good at that. But you know what I am good at?" Gwaine paused in his pacing to brace his hands against the tabletop, leaning forward in a mirror image of Arthur's position. "Recognizing goodness and decency. And Merlin's got more than enough of both to fill this castle twice over. So stop worrying about anything else he's got plenty of, and just focus on the fact that this is your friend, who, apparently, managed to shake off a command to bring about your death."
Across the room, Gaius and Gwen watched in fascination as the king and knight held their battle of wills. Eventually, it seemed that Gwaine won, for Arthur suddenly stood, stepped away, and settled himself in a chair at the base of the stairs leading to Merlin's room.
-BA-
Waking up with a small dragon snout in his ear was a familiar and not entirely pleasant sensation. Merlin scrunched his face up.
"Aithusa, please move." The screech that went off immediately beside his ear had the young man grimacing, but then he was too busy with an excited dragonling to care. "Yes, alright, all right, I'm glad you're okay too-"
"Mer mer mer mer mer mer my Mer!"
"-yes I'm your Mer, just please stop jumping on me, that hurts, Aithusa-"
"I'm not sure whether I should be amused or horrified." Pushing one of Aithusa's flapping wings out of the way, Merlin just barely managed to get a glimpse of Arthur leaning in the doorway.
"What are you talking about, you prat?"
"The fact that you can't control a ten pound baby dragon - I don't know if it's amusing you're that pathetic, or horrified at the implications for the continued existence of my city once she gets bigger."
"Don't be ridiculous. When she's bigger, she'll actually listen when I tell her to do, or stop, something." That said, Merlin finally managed to pin Aithusa down in a happily purring lump at his side, away from the sore area on his chest.
"She seemed to obey your command to stick close to me quite well. Assuming, of course, you'd actually told her to do so." Arthur took a seat beside his bed.
"...I'd forgotten about that," Merlin muttered, turning his eyes to the ceiling about with a frown. "I think it was less a proper command, and more a long, frantic chant inside my head for her to protect you. Of course, I was in a fair amount of pain at the time, so maybe I was really giving her the order to pester you, and it got messed up instead." Arthur didn't give any response other than to hum non-committedly and stare at Merlin to the point he shifted uneasily. "What? What is it?"
A few moments later, the king blinked, and shook his head. "Nothing. Just making sure you're really alright."
"Be right as rain in a couple of days, just you see."
"Hmph."
"...Arthur, are you sure nothing's wrong?"
The blonde let out a short, harsh bark of laughter, rubbing at his face. "No, plenty of things are wrong. A traitor amongst my council, Morgana attempting to turn you against me, our usual good luck of falling tree branches turning on its head with that rockslide that cut us off from each other - you didn't have anything to do with that, did you?"
Merlin abruptly stiffened, and tried not to show it. "What do you mean?"
"Do Dragonlord powers come out in other ways at all? Like other forms of magic I've seen?"
"N- not that I'm aware of..."
Arthur sighed. "Right. Of course not." He sat pensively for a while longer, before ruffling Merlin's hair and getting to his feet. "Alright, you. Get some rest, and I expect to see you bright and early for work in three days."
"Of course, Sire! In between now and then, would you like me to have Aithusa be the one to deliver your meals and do your laundry? She's gotten quite used to helping me after all-"
"Oh shut up, you idiot. Aithusa?" The dragonling picked her head up to look at the king. "You have my full permission to pester him all you like, provided he's kept in bed for as long as it takes those wounds to heal." She chirped an acceptance and proceeded to assault Merlin's head again, squeaking and bouncing about and being a general nuisance. Merlin did his best to protest, both Arthur's prerogative and Aithusa's enthusiastic fulfillment of it, but didn't have much luck as most of his attention went towards trying to calm the dragonling down.
Arthur grinned as he left. Any retribution Merlin later delivered would be well worth the it.
A/N: Uuuuuugh.
I apologize for the longer-than-expected delay - finals week was awful, not so much because of tests but thanks to my depression taking things up a level from its usual state. I'm honestly lucky I managed to make the thousand mile drive home from college without deliberately going off the road in an effort to kill myself. First week back's been a mixed back with my mother, but Dad at least has finally been clued in to how bad things have been lately, and talking to him today about his own experiences with such problems helped. (Plus, his house has internet, which hers does not, and being able to read and write fan fic does wonders for lowering my stress levels, funnily enough.)
Next chapter's more of an interlude than anything else, but at least it's already written and can be posted at the earliest opportunity next week. After that, things are more up in the air - I need to put in serious work on my novel before the Texas Writers League Conference this summer, and that means most if not all of my fan fiction projects are going to be put on hold. I'll write when I can, but chances are you guys won't see chapter 12 until early July at the soonest. Sorry.
Hope you lovely readers will still be here when I make my (hopefully triumphant) return,
-Tri