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Chapter 31:

Merlin left Gwaine in the stables without a second thought. His mind was already planning ahead.

He had everything he needed for the enhancement potion and the calling ritual. But he knew he couldn't leave just like that. He had no idea exactly how long he would be gone for and he couldn't leave Arthur and Camelot without protection in the meantime. They may be living a time of peace but Merlin had learned that you could never be too cautious. Especially in this kingdom.

Once more, flashes of the crystal's visions echoed in his mind and he shook his head. He couldn't let himself be distracted by them. Gaius had always told him that visions of the future couldn't be trusted. And he had no way of knowing when exactly these visions would come to pass.

He arrived in his chambers to find breakfast for him but no servant in view, which he was grateful for. He disregarded the food and went to his collections of books. He knew that he had one that specialized on protection spells because he had meant to study it before this whole dragon adventure.

When he finally found it, he took it to his nearby reading chair and began pouring over it, looking for spells powerful enough to guard a whole castle if need be without the caster having to be nearby.

He had only been reading for five minutes when the door to his chambers opened. Thinking it was his servant he didn't bother to look up and therefore almost jumped out of his seat when he heard Gwaine's voice.

"Ah! There you are! We need to talk mate."

"Gwaine. I'm kind of busy right now. Can't it wait?" The warlock answered, reaching for a nearby sheet of paper to mark his page with.

"No. I don't think so."

Merlin sighed. He should have known something like this would happen. He forced his eyes up to watch Gwaine sit down in the chair in front of his.

"I want to know what happened to you in the cave."

"Gwaine…"

"No Merlin. Either you tell me now or I go talk to Arthur about it."

"You know, that threat is beginning to become really old."

"I'm sure it still works thought… Talk to me. Please."

Merlin let out a tired breath, rubbing his left hand on his neck.

"Fine. Fine… You remember I told you that the Crystal Cave was the birth place of all magic, right?" Gwaine nodded. "Well, as its name suggests, it also contains crystals…. And with those crystals, you can glimpse the future."

Merlin felt his friend's incredulous stare on him but fixed his eyes on the fire, letting the flames hypnotize him a few seconds.

"What did you see?"

Fire and destruction.

Dragons roaring to the skies.

Hope and love.

"Nothing clear..." He hesitated, not wanting to admit the truth out loud. "It looked like dragons were fighting each other."

A heavy silence filled the room, disturbed only by the sound of cracking wood that seemed oddly loud.

"And yet, you still want to go through with your plan." Gwaine wasn't asking a question there.

Merlin pushed himself up.

"Of course I do! Visions of the future cannot be trusted! And whatever I would do to prevent them would only make them happen faster!"

The warlock forced his breath to slow down and sat down.

"Bringing the dragons back it's… It's my sacred responsibility. If I don't do it then no one will. They deserve to live their lives! And they will have to obey me!"

Gwaine raised his arms in surrender.

"Okay. Okay." He looked away for a moment then back, straight at Merlin. "Look. I'm not saying that I entirely agree with the whole plan here but… I trust you. And I want to help you."

Merlin opened his mouth to interrupt his friend. He didn't need help. But Gwaine was already carrying on, holding up a hand.

"I know I have no magic or anything but I've seen how…. Invested you get when you do magic. You will need someone to watch your back. And I want to be that person."

The warlock gaped, touched at his friend's declaration. But he was still unsure. Having Gwaine with him would mean having one more person to worry about. Yet he couldn't deny that something could go wrong and that he might be too distracted to notice.

"And you know our king and queen will never let you leave alone, no matter what."

Merlin rolled his eyes but inwardly admitted that the knight had a point.

"Well… I guess you're right."

Gwaine beamed at him.

"So, you'll take me with you? When do we leave?"

The warlock thought that he might still regret his decision.

"Not right now. First I have to make sure Camelot will be protected in my absence and that could take some time."

"Sure mate. Whenever you're ready."

Merlin thought that Gwaine looked like an overeager puppy.

"It would be earlier if you'd actually let me work."

The warlock said, gesturing towards the door.

"Oh! Yes! Yes, of course. I'll leave you to it!"

He jumped up and almost ran to the door. However, Merlin stopped him before he could get out.

"Gwaine? Just… Thank you."

The knight nodded with a small bow.

"You're welcome my friend."

And then he was out of the door, leaving Merlin alone, shaking his head at the knight's antics.

The three weeks that followed were hectic.

During the day he carried on his normal duties of Court Advisor, including going to every meetings. Arthur had certainly made it quite clear that warlock or not, there would be hell to pay if he carried on missing meetings, especially as more and more councilmen began wondering where he was going and what he was doing when he wasn't there.

The king had explained that it was better to show up if only to keep them from nosing around too much. And Merlin had no other choice but to agree.

He also took some time to carry on helping Alice settle into her role as physician, deceiving himself into believing that it wasn't so she would be ready in case the dragons really decided to seek vengeance on Camelot before he could do anything to prevent it.

And when all that was done, under the cover of night, he used his powers to implement various protection spells at every strategic point of the citadel and lower town.

As predicted, the book he had found had been very useful and he had used several spells and enchantments from it.

And he was also working on charmed armour for Arthur and the knights and a protective necklace for Gwen to wear, just in case anything happened.

He found himself realizing that he should have done all of this months ago, feeling stupid for not having thought of it.

And more often than not, during his nightly expeditions, he could feel Gwaine's shadow next to his but the man was uncharacteristically discreet enough not to bother Merlin.

It finally dawned on the warlock that this was probably what it would be like to have an older brother. It was a disturbing but warming thought.

So, how did you like this?

And, for the record, I am currently in total agony because I am waiting for amazon to send me my copy of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I didn't remember this entirely unique feeling that can only be felt when Harry Potter is concerned.