POV- Merlin

Slightly earlier on…

'I came out to help a group of innocent people from the witch that was tormenting them, because she is in search of an ally.'

Merlin grinned, a situation Arthur had handled perfectly without him this was a first, and he had been proud of that statement too, at least until he called Emrys an ally, that annoyed him slightly. He jumped to his feet, making sure he had Excalibur at his side before running off, Lancelot and Gwaine ran after him, he had almost forgotten about them 'you should stay here.' He whispered pausing slightly 'in case Arthur really does get into trouble.'

They nodded reluctantly 'fine but be careful merlin.'

He grinned 'aren't I always?' and sped off, through the trees, he could feel whatever it was morgana was draining magic from and it was strong, he didn't even have to think about the direction he was heading in he just let himself be drawn towards it.

It didn't feel like he'd been running for long but he must have, the forest was thinner here, the floor was covered in pine needles not cones as he had been where he left Gwaine and Lancelot and he was surrounded by caves, he closed his eyes and felt it, the magic flowing around him, through the floor beneath his feet, the air flowing through his hair and the trees surrounding him, he felt out for another kind of magic, more powerful than anything he had felt before, it was pure magic, but he could feel a taint of morganas evil in it. Without opening his eyes and just using his senses to feel it he ran toward it, he felt the air around him change; get cooler, damper, he was inside a cave, he snapped his eyes open, he saw nothing, just the inky black nothingness of a cave deep in the ground, he continued forward anyway trusting his senses.

After some time he saw light, just a glimpse far ahead, but he saw light, and behind him he heard noise, it sounded significantly like someone tripping over and metal clanging against stone, probably lancelot following me he thought, but he pressed himself against the wall anyway, the damp clay surface soaking his clothes, his hand held out ready, pointed in the direction of the intruder.

'Merlin don't shoot.' Gwaine squeaked holding hands up in surrender.

'Gwaine?!' he cried.' I told you not to come.' He lowered his hand and set off through the cave again, Gwaine by his side.

'Did you think we would actually let you go alone merlin?'

Merlin sighed 'I guess not, I assume Lancelot stayed though.'

'We figured someone would actually have to make an excuse to Arthur.'

Merlin nodded, even though Gwaine couldn't see it and carried on walking, the light grew and grew until eventually they reached a open cavern, the light it turned out was daylight, streaming through hundreds of holes a long way above their heads, but to Merlins joy the main source of light was fire, which was being extinguished and relit by a extremely bored looking dragon.

'KILGARRAH.' He yelled happily running around to the head of the dragon who didn't even flinch. Of course merlin realised, he can't hear me. He ran around so he was directly in the dragons eye line and jumped up and down waving his arms wildly. That got his attention. The dragon unfolded its front legs, which merlin briefly noticed had been crossed in a very ladylike manner and stood, grinning (sort of) very happily. 'Merlin.' He cried happily 'can you hear me?'

Merlin nodded. 'Can you me?'

The dragon frowned and shook his head. 'I cannot hear you young warlock.'

'That's what I asked.'

'I said, i cannot hear you young warlock.'

'That's what i… oh never mind.' Merlin sighed thinking of the clearest way to do this. 'HELP ME.' He yelled making sure he mouthed it out clearly too.

'Young warlock I do not read lips, now just be quiet and let me help you, and tell your friend to stop gawking, its rather off putting.'

Merlin turned to Gwaine, of course Gwaine hadn't actually seen or met this dragon before, he frowned at him and shook his head, Gwaines mouth closed but his eyes remained wide. Merlin shook his head, that would do.

'That will do I suppose.' Kilgharrah said warily. 'Now, I assume you have figured out that Morgana is drawing her power from an object?' Merlin nodded 'good, well you need to destroy it, and to do so you will need the sword i..' he didn't get to finish as merlin held it up cockily. 'Good. And you will need an incantation.'

Merlin frowned 'what incanta…' he stopped remembering the dragon had no idea what he was saying and just shrugged instead.

'this is an incantation that has not been used in a long time young warlock, thousands of years in fact so I will need to teach it too you, unfortunately I cannot give you the spell as I usually do but I can take you through it.'

Merlin groaned 'this is going to take some time isn't it?' Forgetting the dragon could not hear him.

'I'm afraid this will take some time.' Kilgharrah said grimly.

Merlin sighed again and sat down crossing his legs, and motioned for Gwaine to do the same.

What felt like hours later but was probably more like minutes Merlin stood uncrossing his legs, he was mostly sure he understood what to do but time was of the essence and he would just have to risk it, 'come on.' He said to Gwaine. He bowed graciously to Kilgharrah as a sign of his thanks.

'it was an honour as always.' Kilgharrah said having understood the gesture.

Merlin smiled slightly and headed through a tunnel heading from the cavern and further into the cave.

'What are you looking for?' Gwaine asked

'I'm not sure, I'll know it when I see it through.'

'Any guesses?'

'Probably a really big crystal, but knowing Morgana it could be anything.'

Gwaine nodded 'Do you know what to do?'

'Yeh.' He lied and picked up the pace.

…..

It didn't take long at all, and Merlin was right it was a crystal, a really big crystal, almost the same size as Arthurs chambers at home, Gwaine whistled loudly and Merlin gulped, did he really have enough power to do this? He could feel Morganas presence there, or at least the presence of her magic. Slowly making his way toward the crystal he felt out for the direct centre of her magic, of course she would put it in the most difficult place possible to stab he thought as he stood staring the bit of crystal centred behind the part of the wall that was jutting out. He held out the sword and angled his body right, repeating over and over the incantation Kilgharrah had given him, he felt her magic start to withdraw from the crystal as he did so and he carried on until as Kilgharrah said he could feel the crystals magic withdrawing. He knew he needed to stop at that point but he just wanted to be sure, so he repeated the incantation once more and then thrust the sword forward. The world exploded, that was the only way to explain it, the world around him, exploded.