"Uncle Merlin!" cried a child. Merlin turned around and smiled. The child was the spitting image of his father. Merlin picked the child up, smiling. "Uncle Merlin, can you tell me the story of when you met papa? It's my favorite story!"
Merlin smiled and pulled the child on his lap. "Well, it all began in the marketplace. I did not know who your father was at the time and he had challenged me to a fight. He and I fought. It was a close match. After the match was done, your grandfather had put me in cuffs and had rotten tomatoes and other rotten fruit and vegetables thrown at my face." The little prince laughed. "And after that, I worked for your father and helped protect him, just like what I am doing for you."
"Uncle Merlin, do you think that I am doing my papa proud?"
"Yes, I believe that you are," Merlin promised the child.
"Is it true that you are a Dragonlord? Can I be one too?"
"Yes I am a Dragonlord, but I am sorry, you can only be a Dragonlord if it is passed down from father to son. My father was a Dragonlord and when he passed away, I became one. Would you like to see a dragon?" The prince gasped and exclaimed, "Oh would I!" Merlin smiled and used his magic and produced a dragon out of the fire that was in a torch. The prince laughed and said, "Uncle Merlin, I want to see a real dragon!"
Gwen was nearby hearing this conversation going on, chuckling. Leon stood beside her. A year ago, Gwen had asked Sir Leon to be her husband. She knew that she had to marry again and she wanted her husband to be someone who she could trust and who would greatly accept her son. "I think we should go to the field and have Merlin call the dragon," Leon suggested, with a smile on his face. "It can be a family excursion. Arthur would love to see his first dragon I think." Gwen nodded her head and agreed. They cleared they schedules for the rest of the day, gathered the horses and met Merlin and Arthur in the courtyard. They told Merlin their plan. Merlin agreed and went with the royal family to the field that he summond Kilgarrah many years ago for many meetings.
Kilgarrah had long passed. Aithusa was the only dragon left in Albion. Slowly but surely, Merlin was retraining Aithusa and healing her. With her time with Morgana, she was greately scarred; not from Morgana herself, but from the men who had captured both of them, knowing that the dragon was one of the weak points for Morgana. No matter the evil that she had done, one thing that Merlin appreciated of Morgana, was the love for the dragon and that she treated it well and not like one of her slaves.
As Aithusa swooped down to the field, Merlin heard Prince Arthur gasp with glee. "Arthur, do not approach it just yet. Stay where you are," Merlin warned. Unlike his father, who did not listen to a word he said most of the time, the prince stayed by his mother and father until Merlin said that it was okay to approach the dragon. After Aithusa got used to the little prince, Merlin put the child on the dragon's back and sat behind him, giving a wink the the queen. He ordered Aithusa to fly. There was a great shriek of laughter.