Chapter 24
Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or the BBC. I do however own my knights Sir Richard and Sir Liam, who will be back!
Thank you for all the people who reviewed, pressed favourite, followed and just plain read this.
Sorry I had to reload the chapter as I had to fix a few things, so If you had already read this then please ignore. Thank you to Aerist for pointing it out to me.
Previously.
The night went quick after a dinner of what Merlin had in his bag, which consisted of some dried meat and an apple for himself. After laying out his bed gear Merlin returned to sit by the fire so that he could ask Kilgharrah some of the questions that had been running rampart in his head when this all began and there was no way that the dragon was getting out of this one.
As he sat there staring at the fire, Aithusa came and rested her head in his lap and fell asleep, After a few minutes of silence Merlin looked up at Kilgharrah seeing whether or not the giant dragon was going to be truthful in his answers or was he going to lie to him. But what should be the first question that he should ask him should he go for the harder ones first or should he just stick to the easier ones first. Making up his mind Merlin cleared his throat gaining the bigger dragons attention.
"Kilgharrah; what was my father like?" Merlin asked.
"Balinor was one of the most caring of the dragon lords that I had the privilege to meet. There was nothing that I wouldn't do for him; and I am ashamed that I inevitably was his downfall. I let him down by letting into my rage and I will remember him for the rest of my life young warlock." Kilgharrah replied.
"He didn't die for you." Merlin muttered thinking about that horrible day.
"No, but he died because of me! Because of my anger that I had for Camelot and Uther Pendragon. If I had not raged against Camelot then you and the young prince wouldn't have had to find him." Kilgharrah sighed.
"I don't blame you Kilgharrah; and if I ever did then I forgave you long ago." Merlin said softly looking away.
"I know young warlock." Kilgharrah soothed.
After a minute of thoughtful silence, Merlin turned back to the golden dragon and said. "What was the dragon lords like before Uther killed them all? Where did they live?" Merlin asked.
"What's with all the questions young warlock?" Kilgharrah rumbled. Damn he figured me out!
"It's just the confrontation with a sorcerer the other day had me wondering that apart from what I have read in books, I don't know a thing about my father and what he was. What I am. I thought that you might be able to shed some light on that aspect of my life." Merlin replied.
"I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability's but first tell me the name of this sorcerer." The dragon sighed.
"I think he said his name was Jace or something." Merlin said.
"THAT SCUM IS STILL ALIVE!" Kilgharrah exploded causing Aithusa to jolt awake in a panic hitting Merlin in the face with her snout.
Merlin yelled out in pain and threw up his hands to his face as Aithusa's snout made contact with his nose. The crunch could be heard though out the cavern. Merlin sat there groaning with his hands covering his broken nose as it bleed everywhere soaking his shirt. Aithusa huddled around him making soothing noises as Kilgharrah watched on wincing at the amount of blood rushing from the broken nose. As Merlin finally managed to stop the bleeding he turned to the little white dragon and sighed. He was going to tell her off but the look on her face he couldn't resist letting her get away with it. After all it was an accident.
"I'm so sorry young warlock. I didn't mean to frighten young Aithusa like that." Kilgharrah said apologetic.
"It's fine Kilgharrah; you had no way of knowing that you would spook Aithusa like that. I don't blame ether of you." Merlin said turning to look at Aithusa who was looking like she would break in to tears in a second.
"I'm sorry." A tiny high pitched voice said.
At first Merlin thought that he imagined it but the look on Kilgharrah's face realized that there was indeed someone else here. Looking around for the source of the voice it piped up again slightly louder but still shy. "I'm sorry"
"Hello is someone there?" Merlin questioned the room.
"Merlin." Kilgharrah said.
"What; don't tell me that you didn't hear that?" Merlin asked looking around still.
"Merlin I think that your missing out the obvious here," Kilgharrah sighed and pointed a claw in Merlin direction.
"What?" Merlin asked tuning his head around trying to see what the giant dragon was pointing at.
"Sometimes I wonder about you young warlock." Kilgharrah said shaking his massive head.
"Down here." Tiny voice piped up again.
It finally hit Merlin that it was Aithusa that was the one who was talking, all another step in her growth. Merlin was so proud of how she had grown and was sure that she was destined to have a great future. Hopefully one day she will be able to fly free over the skies of Camelot and beyond without being hunted by anyone. By the look on Kilgharrah's face he too is proud of her as he had the same goofy look on his face as a new father whose child had start to talk.
"So little Aithusa; you've started to talk." Kilgharrah said.
"Sorry human father." Aithusa said at Merlin.
"I don't blame you little one." Merlin soothed as he wiped his hands on the ground nest to him so that he could pick up the young dragon. She nestled into his lap and looked up at him with her big eyes. She leaned up to get a closer look at his broken nose but he shook his head knowing that she wanted to heal his nose. Merlin didn't want her to use up her strength over a broken nose, it will heal by its self soon enough. He was not looking forward to having the two black eyes look; maybe he might try to heal it with magic even though he is horrible at healing magic as he had little success with it on other people let alone on himself.
"You don't need to fix this; I don't want you to use your magic on something so trivial." Merlin said when Aithusa started to look at it like she was analysing it so that she could fix it with magic.
"But it was my fault." Aithusa squeaked.
"It was an accident, that's all." Merlin told her.
"But it must hurt." Aithusa wined.
"It will heal." Merlin comforted her.
"Young warlock, before did you say that a sorcerer named Jace talked to you?" Kilgharrah inquired trying to stay calm this time.
"He didn't talk to me; he attacked Camelot to get at me." Merlin replied.
"He attacked Camelot?" Kilgharrah asked stunned.
"The first time." Merlin said.
"It happened more than once?" Kilgharrah asked shocked.
"On the road to Ealdor." Merlin sighed.
After a minute of silence as Merlin waited for the dragon to work though the information that was presented to him, he thought that the only time that he had seen the dragon lose any sort of control was when the great dragon has attacked Camelot. So to see him become angry at only a name, Merlin thought that there must have been some sort of past between the dead sorcerer and the great dragon. Just when he was about to ask what was it about Jace that made the dragon so angry when Kilgharrah opened up his snout and said. "If Jace is back then people are sure to be killed."
"Not anymore he won't." Merlin said.
"Now who's talking in riddles." Kilgharrah grumbled electing a smile from Merlin.
"He's dead, Gwaine ran him though with his sword after Aithusa spotted him from gutting me." Merlin said.
"So that is why you ran off so suddenly." Kilgharrah asked the little white dragon who nodded.
"I felt that human father here was in danger so I had to help him." Aithusa replied.
"Human father?" Merlin questioned.
"You did hatch her, so technically you are her father." Kilgharrah chuckled.
"I'm very glad that I got to her before anyone else did." Merlin said smiling down at the dragon at his lap.
"So Jace is dead then. I never thought that I would see the day when that monster finally died." Kilgharrah sighed.
"Why?" Merlin asked curiously.
"He had a vendetta against your family or more precise your father. He seemed to think that your father killed his family, but it was dark magic that did it. Jace's own dark magic to precise but he seemed to think that your father killed them when the spell was interrupted; it backfired killing them in the process. Your father had no way of knowing that there were children in the building or he wouldn't have gone in the way that he did." Kilgharrah explained.
"So he went after my father after that?" Merlin inquired.
"No, Jace went into hiding, but he continued to kill people. Most of them families, his sick mind thought that they represented his family, since he can't be happy no one can. Plus it was something to get back at your father; a little you didn't catch me now you have to deal with all the dead bodies in my wake and I'm not going to stop till I'm dead sort of thing. It was a sad year that, that monster did stop and didn't get caught. Your father blamed himself for all the victims." Kilgharrah sighed.
"Where was this?"
"I can't tell you; that you have to ask that of your mother." Kilgharrah said shaking his head.
"What does my mother have to do with his?" Merlin asked quickly.
"It's not my story to tell, when you get back ask your mother about all of this. Ask her about Balinor and Jace, she should tell you as you are old enough now to understand the decisions that they choose and what happened for them to make the choices in the first place." Kilgharrah replied.
No matter what Merlin tried, Kilgharrah wouldn't answer the questions that Merlin wanted to know, hoping that he would have better luck tomorrow he went to sleep with all the new information running rampant in his head. It was no wonder that he was plagued with nightmares though out the night, it only stoped when Aithusa nestled into his side keeping him warm and comfortable. With that the night didn't seem as long as it had earlier.
Waking up in cave was not something that Merlin ever got use to, yes he was poor but at least he had a roof over his head and a soft blanket in Ealdor. When he first came to Camelot, he marvelled at the fact that he had a bed and a pillow, as well as a room to himself. He never had those types of luxury items in such a small village like Ealdor, he never told Arthur or any of the other knights that fact, most of the knights would have had similar experiences growing up. Arthur just wouldn't get it and it showed on Arthur's first visit to Ealdor all those years ago. Maybe one of these days he would point it out to Arthur that most people are not as fortunate to grow up in a castle with lots of food and help for everything.
Thinking about what the great dragon had told him last night Merlin wanted nothing more than to order the dragon to fly him back to Ealdor just so that he could get the answers that he wanted but he knew that Aithusa needed him there for the time being. Now that she had shown signs of starting to talk, Merlin needed to teach her more as he was her Dragon Lord, Kilgharrah had said that it might take a few weeks for her to get the hang of it. In the meantime life for both Merlin and the Dragons fell into a routine as the week wore on; Merlin's favourite thing to do was watch the sun set every night with the dragons beside him. They were his kin, he felt very comfortable around him, he was sure that they both felt the same way.
He would miss this sight when he finally decided to leave. Merlin knew that his holidays were more than half way done and he still had to get back to Ealdor to ask his mother the questions that had been running around his mind for the last week. Making up his mind he told the dragons that he needed a lift back to Ealdor tomorrow. They were both sad to see he go as they were getting into a routine.
AN:Hello to all, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please review as it makes me happy knowing what you think, the good or the bad. I shall see you guy's next week!
Mushushy.