Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin! I only own my OC, and any other characters or plotlines I make up along the way!
AN: Oh man, I didn't realize I took such a long break. I'm so sorry! Forgive me!
Enjoy!
"I never dared dream of such a moment," Kilgharrah mused.
Merlin and I recently found out about a dragon egg that had been laid, apparently the very last one in existence. Ergo, we called Kilgharrah to tell him.
"Until now, I believed the egg would never be found, that I would be the last of my kind," he continued.
"So the legend is true?" Merlin went on.
"This is a chance in a thousand," Kilgharrah informed us. "You must retrieve the egg."
"We know," I nodded, though it was sadly.
"Then what is the matter?" Kilgharrah wondered.
"Gaius has forbidden it," Merlin supplied as he avoided Kilgharrah's gaze.
"Merlin!" he exclaimed. "You are a Dragonlord! It is a gift passed down from your father, and a gift that you will pass on to your own child." My hand went to my stomach at the mention of our baby. "He gave up everything in his life to save me. What do you think he would say?" Kilgharrah went soft. "The egg harbours the last of my kind. I beg you, Merlin. In your father's name, promise me that you will do everything in your power to rescue it."
Merlin looked over to me first, and I nodded. It was something that we just had to do. He looked back over to Kilgharrah. "You have my promise"
Merlin's plan to get the egg was rather ridiculous, and I almost had to beg him not to go through with it, to think of a different plan. Not just because it would embarrass him, but also because it would embarrass me.
In the council chamber, where a meeting was going on, Merlin stood quietly in the background, like he always did. But because he was quiet, he could enact his plan.
"We need to strengthen all our outlying defences as Odin's," Agravaine started, and it took everything in me not to sneer at him. "But it is the northern borders that are particularly vulnerable."
"There's always been so, and the reason's obvious," Arthur thought. "If you look at the terrain here-"
He cut himself off as his trousers fell to his knees. To everyone else, it was a bizarre thing that happened out of nowhere, but I knew that it was Merlin's plan, the one that I told him not to go through with because it was embarrassing. The keys to where the egg was being held was on his pants, and Merlin figured that this was the best way to get them.
"Allow me to help you, sire!" he called cheerfully as he ran over to Arthur, grabbing his trousers.
"No!" Arthur protested, but Merlin was already holding on to his pants. "No! Merlin!"
"Your Majesty!" Merlin insisted.
"Merlin!" Arthur shouted as the two fell to the ground.
"Majesty!"
"Get off me!"
"I'm trying to help you, sire!" Merlin said as Arthur finally got out of his grip. He got to his feet and pulled up his own trousers. After all this embarrassment, I certainly hoped that he had the key.
"There we go," Merlin said proudly. "Will there be anything else, sire?"
Arthur looked at him incredulously. "No!"
With a bow, Merlin backed out of the room quickly, and with the way his body was positioned, I knew he had the key. I felt myself deflate a little in relief, but I quickly perked back up as all the councilmen looked over to me with bewildered looks on their faces. They didn't say it out loud, but I knew they were all thinking, "How did you marry him?"
I offered a weak smile. "He's very helpful."
Arthur shook his head as he turned back to the map. "I certainly hope your child inherits its mother's...well, everything."
The next day, the warning bells woke me up. After a hasty change, I ran down to the vaults, where Agravaine, Merlin, and Arthur were already waiting. On the way down, I ran into Gaius, who gave me a suspicious look. "Do you know what's going on?"
I hated lying to Gaius, but I took my husband's side on this. "I don't have the faintest idea," I replied as we reached the vault.
"The lock hasn't been damaged, which would suggest whoever it was had a key," Agravaine reported as he opened the door for Gaius and I to enter.
I went over and stood next to Merlin as Gaius continued, "Strange."
"Of all these treasures, this is all they were interested in," Arthur thought aloud as he went over and opened the little box. "What was in here?"
"I believe, sire, one third of a Triskellian, a type of key," Gaius answered. "A key that, according to legend, opens the ancient tomb of Ashkanar."
"I remember my father talk of such a tomb," Arthur said. "It contained a dragon's egg."
"It has been said," Gaius nodded.
"You don't believe it to be true?" Arthur wondered.
"Well, it is possible, sire," Gaius responded. "The wealth and wisdom of Ashkanar are without equal."
"Is the egg still there?" Agravaine asked.
"I can't be certain. But, to my knowledge, no one has disturbed the tomb for more than four hundred years," Gaius threw a pointed looked at Merlin and I.
"But with this Triskellian, someone could," Arthur filled in the blanks.
"Sire, a dragon's egg can live for a thousand years," Agravaine added. "Even today, it could still hatch, and another dragon would be born into this world."
"So, all my father's work to rid the world of these monsters would be undone," Arthur guessed.
"That must be our fear," Agravaine nodded.
"Then we have no choice," Arthur said as he made for the door. "We must hunt down this intruder, destroy the egg."
My stomach dropped all the way to my feet as Merlin and I looked over at each other in horror.
Oh no.
As much as I begged and begged, neither Merlin nor Arthur would let me go with them. Merlin, because he insisted that it was too dangerous for me and the baby, and Arthur, because he wanted me to look after Camelot while he was gone. Jeez, if being pregnant and fill-in Queen meant I got to miss out on all the action, I wanted to give birth right now and make Arthur marry Gwen.
When they returned, Merlin filled me in on everything. Apparently, Borden only wanted the dragon egg for power; he didn't want to free it at all. Borden and Merlin fought, but Merlin blasted him with magic, which in turn made the cave that they were in collapse and perish. Borden died in there, obviously, but Merlin lied and told the others that the dragon egg perished in there too.
Merlin and I chose to have dinner with Gaius, and just as we started to clean up, Gaius started up a conversation. "Shame about the egg," he said.
"Yes," I said as I avoided eye contact.
"You weren't able to save it?" he went on.
Merlin shook his head. "No."
Gaius looked at the two of us for a long moment while we kept ourselves busy, Merlin stacking the dishes and me wiping the table. We looked back up at us, and Gaius tilted his head to the side, like he didn't believe us. Merlin and I looked to each other, and we burst out into laughs as Gaius joined us.
Merlin got up from the table and ran back to his former bedroom. He emerged with the egg and walked back over to us. "All the jewels, all the treasures, Gaius, they don't compare," he said as he pulled it out carefully and handed it to the court physician.
"And it was nearly lost because of you two," he scolded.
We had the decency to look ashamed, because really, we initiated everything. "I'm sorry, Gaius. I was too quick to act," Merlin apologized.
"You have to think things through. Ashkanar did exactly that. He had the foresight to conceal this for more than four hundred years." Gaius looked down at the egg. "And now it's down to you, Merlin." He handed it back to the last Dragonlord. "For you to decide what you intend to do with it."
"I thought about that. I'm going to make sure it goes back to where it belongs," Merlin nodded.
Later that night, Merlin and I snuck out of the castle so that we could release the dragon egg into the world. Merlin summoned Kilgharrah at the same time, and just as Merlin placed the egg on a tree stump, Kilgharrah came flying in and landed in front of the stump, where he was happily looking down at the egg.
"Is it still alive?" Merlin asked.
"It can live for more than a thousand years," Kilgharrah informed us, which made the two of us break out into grins.
"So, you are no longer the last of your kind," Merlin grinned up at him.
Kilgharrah chuckled. "It would seem not."
"When will it hatch?" I asked eagerly.
"Young dragons were called into the world by the Dragonlords," Kligharrah explained. "Only they had the power to summon them from the egg. As the last Dragonlord, this solemn duty falls to you, Merlin."
"How do I summon it?" Merlin wondered.
"You must give the dragon a name," the dragon responded.
Merlin closed his eyes and thought for a long moment. Then, he opened his eyes and whispered, "Aithusa."
At the sound of his name, the egg began to crack and shake, signalling the birth of the dragon. One piece of the egg caved in, and a white head popped out of the egg, revealing the cutest dragon I'd ever seen.
"A white dragon is, indeed, a rare thing...and fitting," Kilgharrah started as Merlin and I stared at the dragon in wonder and awe. "For in the dragon tongue, you named him after the light of the sun. No dragon birth is without meaning. "
I was crying in amazement at this point, and when I looked over at Merlin, he was crying too. I leaned into my husband's side as he wrapped his arm around me, hugging me to his chest.
"Sometimes the meaning is hard to see, but this time I believe it is clear," Kilgharrah continued. "The white dragon bodes well for Albion, for you, Arthur, Elizabeth, and for the land that you three will build together."
I laughed through my tears as I looked down at the little dragon. At the same time, I felt a weird shift in my stomach, and I gasped loudly as my arm immediately snaked around my middle.
"What? What's wrong?" Merlin demanded, sensing my change in mood. His eyes widened when he noticed my arm around the baby. "What happened?"
I cried even harder, which obviously gave Merlin the wrong idea. "What happened? What happened to the baby?!" he kept going.
I turned my head to look at him. "He...he moved."
"What?" Merlin wondered, looking at my stomach.
I choked out a half-laugh, half-sob. "He moved!"
Merlin also started to cry, and he hugged me into his side as he kissed the side of my head. I looked back over at the dragon, who was playfully making noises and looking around his new environment in wonder.
Aithusa.
TBC...
Shitty chapter because it was a shitty episode, but I'll try to update soon! To be truthful, I've been losing my love for fanfiction a little, but A) I'm hoping that getting back to writing will bring it back, and B) I've started this fanfic, and I'm not gonna give up on it.
REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!
THE ADVENTURES OF ELIZABETH MALINOR CONTINUE...
"You are still untested as a king," Agravaine tells Arthur.
"I can't just kill a man in cold blood," Arthur insists.
"You must do what you need to assert your authority on this land," Agravaine says.
"I don't care what kind of king that your father was, I care about what kind of king you are, and the king that you choose to be!" Elizabeth yells at Arthur. "And what you choose to do will define that for the rest of your life."
"Do you really have the guts to kill me?" the man asks.
"You've always shown mercy in battle," Merlin reminds Arthur. "This isn't like you."
"The whole of Camelot will pay for this!" Queen Annis declares.
"Arthur will not win, because I have the power to ensure that he doesn't," Morgana reveals.
"I made the wrong decision. Now I've brought this war upon Camelot myself," Arthur says somberly.
The army of Camelot looks over Queen Annis's army.
Until next time!