Chapter 6

When Gwaine heard the news, it took a minute for him to do more than stare blankly at Arthur. "...I beg you pardon? Merlin has a what?"

"A baby dragon. Apparently instead of that egg being destroyed, it hatched, the infant imprinted on Merlin and keeps seeking him out. They're both in his room right now-" The king didn't get a chance to finish before Gwaine took off down the hall, laughing his head off on the way to Gaius's chambers. A dragon! A real live baby dragon! And Arthur was letting Merlin keep it!

Gwaine distantly wondered if it would be big enough to ride anytime soon. He'd always wondered what it was like to fly.

He rushed up the stairs of the tower and burst into the physician's abode with a wide grin. It didn't dim even in the face of the raised eyebrow he received, seeing as Gaius sighed and nodded for him to continue up to the back room. Some little piece of common sense that yet persisted in Gwaine's mind had him approaching a bit more slowly, as he didn't think throwing the bedroom door open and startling a dragon, even if it was a baby, would be such a good idea.

Knocking on the door, the knight waited a moment before pushing it open and poking his head inside. On the bed, Merlin was out cold, snoring lightly as he slept atop his blanket. The little white creature curled up beside him, though, had picked its head up, and was watching Gwaine intently.

"Hello there," he whispered, fully entering and closing the door behind him. The dragon didn't react as he carefully stepped closer, only rising to its own feet when Gwaine got within arm's reach. Then it crawled up onto Merlin's chest, spread its wings out a bit, and snorted.

"No need to be defensive!" Gwaine protested in a whisper-yell, tugging the chair a bit closer so he could sit down and be a bit more eye-level with the little thing. "I'm a good friend of Merlin's, I promise he'll vouch for me."

The dragon cocked its head to one side at that, before twisting around to peer at the younger man. After a moment's consideration, it pulled its tail around to start poking Merlin in the cheek.

Gwaine was hard-pressed not to burst out laughing.

It took several minutes of determined poking, first with the dragon's tail and then its claws, to get Merlin to stir. The young man groaned, rolling onto his side and dislodging the baby, who squeaked in indignation.

"Now now, Merlin, that's just rude." Merlin's eyes snapped open, and flicked between Gwaine and the annoyed dragon several times before he groaned, draping an arm over his face.

"I could've sworn it was Gwen in here when I laid down," he mumbled.

"Maybe so, but now you've got me! Now, I demand to hear the entire insane story of how you came to get Queenie to agree to let you keep such a magnificent little beast in his castle." Gwaine's smile widened as the dragon perked up and preened.

"Oh that's done it. You're going to be one of her favorite people if you keep that flattery up."

"Good! Now come on, storytime."

"You are such a child. Fine. Do you want the entire tale, or the edited version I gave to Arthur?"

Gwaine shot him an uncharacteristically serious look. "You didn't lie to him, did you?"

"I lie to him all the time, Gwaine," Merlin said bitterly. "This particular time I only left out a few things." A moment later, it seemed the young man realized exactly what he said, and he glanced at the knight apprehensively. "Um. You won't tell him that I...?"

"Your secret's safe with me, mate. All your secrets." His words reassured Merlin, at least temporarily, until he noted the plural, which caused a confused expression to appear. "'Courage is going to need Strength and Magic in order to succeed,' remember?"

Merlin paled.

-BA-

"Sire," Leon said slowly when Arthur finished his explanation. "Are you sure this is a wise course of action?"

"Not in the slightest," the king sighed. He took a moment to look the other man in the eye, attempting to convey some meager form of reassurance. "But Gaius has informed me that Merlin is the Last Dragonlord, and apparently, that means he has the same level of responsibility to protect the last dragon as I do to protect Camelot. And Merlin himself swears he'll teach the creature to guard the kingdom, rather than burn it to the ground."

Leon's frown deepened. "...Was Merlin a Dragonlord when we rode out to have a final battle with the Great Dragon?"

Arthur opened his mouth to answer, but paused. "That- I don't- well, I suppose he must have been."

"I hate to bring this up Sire, but, if that's the case, can we be sure the beast was killed at all?"

-BA-

Elyan choked when Gwen gave him the news, Percival freezing beside them. "Merlin has a what? And Arthur's actually letting him keep it?!"

"Her name is Aithusa, and she's an absolute sweetheart," Gwen said primly.

"It's a dragon!"

"A baby dragon, Elyan, one that's going to grow up learning to protect the city. And even if she does start to develop bad habits, Merlin will make sure to send her far away where she won't bother anyone."

"I can't believe you're saying that. Dragon, Gwen! Fire-breathing magical monster! What was Arthur thinking?!"

"There's more to it, isn't there?" Percival interrupted, gently setting a hand on Elyan's shoulder to calm him down. Gwen sighed.

"Yes, there's a lot more to it."

-BA-

Aithusa squeaked unhappily as Merlin wiped the tears off of his face. Gwaine had long since abandoned the chair in order to sit beside his friend on the bed, one arm wrapped tightly around the younger man's thin shoulders as he grieved. The knight could remember being upset as well when his own father died, but at least he hadn't seen the deed in person, or been the one being protected when it happened. In the back of his mind, Gwaine wondered if Merlin had been able to cry on anyone's shoulder when Balinor was killed. Certainly not Arthur's, that was for sure.

"So, oh-most-powerful-Dragonlord-who-secretly-saved-the-kingdom," he said once his friend calmed down a bit. "Now that we've got all the sorry details of that particular story out of the way, want to tell me anything else I should know?"

From there, Merlin tentatively got into the prophecy the Great Dragon told him about, the one concerning Emrys and The Once and Future King. That led into a brief recounting of the other assorted magical monsters and threats he'd fought over the years to keep Arthur safe, including a very different version of events concerning Uther's death.

"I'd hoped to prove to Arthur magic could be used for good," Merlin mumbled, "but instead I went and threw all hope of that down the well."

"It's why you stick around, isn't it - trying to work towards getting Queenie to repeal the ban on magic."

"Well, that was the start of it, I guess. But after a while, I started seeing the good man he is, the great king he'll be. Now, I just want to keep him alive, for Camelot's sake."

"Hmph." Gwaine ruffled Merlin's hair at that. "You, my friend, are a sap. Protecting royal prats, hatching baby dragons, is there any good deed you won't go out of your way to do?"

"Apparently not," the servant replied with a small grin. That happy expression vanished a few moments later, though, as they heard the sound of the door slamming open out in the main room.

Heavily tromping feet approached, and then it was the door to Merlin's room which was thrown open, revealing a very irate Arthur.

"Don't tell me I've done something wrong now, I haven't even gotten off my bed since you left!" Merlin protested before the king had a chance to say anything.

"What happened with the Great Dragon, Merlin?" Arthur growled. He stomped closer, while Gwen and the rest of the knights crowded in the doorway behind him. "As in, what really happened, not the story you told me. Considering that I now know you were already a Dragonlord at the time, bound to protect all dragons."

Merlin's jaw dropped. "I didn't tell you that!"

"No, Gaius did. About you, about Balinor, all of it!"

"Right," Gwaine interrupted when Merlin slumped and Aithusa clambered up onto his shoulder, rubbing her head against the young man's chin. "That's enough out of you. Outside, now."

"What- Gwaine!" Taken by surprise, Arthur didn't have a chance to push back when the knight shoved him out and into the crowd on the stairs. Pulling the door shut behind him to give Merlin some privacy, Gwaine glared at the lot of them.

"One thing you lot need to get into your heads right now - Merlin's had to put up with a great deal more shite than any of us realized before, most of which tends to pull him in several different directions at once. And he's scared of telling anyone about all of it, because apparently when he freely shares, the people he does so with end up dead. Like Lancelot." They all flinched at that. "So, when he explains about what really happened with the dragon, Arthur, you are not going to pitch a fit. Nor are any of you going to push that Merlin share more than he's comfortable with - he'll do so only when he thinks it's safe, for himself and us as well. Got it?"

Stunned by the serious speech they'd just been treated to, the group of five each nodded or agreed in turn. It was a greatly subdued Arthur who re-entered the room, to see Merlin curled into a ball on the bed, with his arms wrapped around Aithusa and his face tucked against her hide, shoulders quivering.

"Merlin," he said quietly. "I'm sorry about your father."

-BA-

When Gaius returned to his chambers some time later, he was rather alarmed to find Arthur, Gwen, Gwaine, Percival, Leon, and Elyan all gathered in Merlin's room as the young man told them about Kilgharrah. Instead of interrupting, however, the physician hovered at the base of the stairs for a while, listening and watching.

What he observed was, simply put, astounding.

Arthur in particular was listening to Merlin's words with a thoughtful expression on his face, clearly absorbing all that was said without reacting in a typical, furious fashion.

Perhaps Gaius made the right call after all by informing the king about a portion of Merlin's secret responsibilities. He wondered what else would come of his boy opening up more and more to those he trusted.

In the meantime, Aithusa looked quite pleased with herself, perched upon the shoulder of her Lord. Gaius entertained a vague notion that the hatchling thought she deserved credit for the event, as it was, in a way, a direct result of her constant returns to Merlin.

-BA-

The other members of the Royal Council, unsurprisingly, did not take well the presence of another dragon in Camelot, even if it was a tiny baby not yet capable of breathing flame.

Servants throughout the castle were put on edge by the knowledge as well, though at least the majority of them were familiar with and trusted Merlin to some degree, and trusted the young king as well.

When word reached lower town, there was practically a riot before Arthur went out to calm his people, the Round Table knights beside him. Gaius, too, made a short speech, claiming that if raised properly, the young dragon would become a great defender of Camelot, something indispensable if they were attacked again by Morgana or any other invasion force. By the time night fell, people returned to their homes still disgruntled, but no longer making ready to storm the castle and demand the beast's death.

The next morning, Merlin fetched Arthur's breakfast from the kitchens with Aithusa riding on his shoulders.

Everyone within the large room came to a halt when they spotted her, which caused Merlin's face to grow rather red as he collected the platter of food for the king and a bread roll for himself. As he was turning to depart again, however, a call caused him to pause.

"Is it going to need any special food?" The head cook, a rather robust and fearsome woman, asked. She looked uncharacteristically nervous.

Merlin shrugged as best he was able. "A plate of meat scraps at mealtime, perhaps the odd egg now and then. And that's only until she's big enough to hunt for herself in the forest."

"What's it going to hunt?" One of the more curious scullery maids asked before he could go.

"Squirrels, rabbits, birds, just small things for a long time. Maybe deer in a few more years."

"How fast is it going to grow? Will we need to worry about supplementing its hunts from our stores?"

"Well, um, I'm not exactly sure. It'll be a long time before she gets bigger than a horse, though - the Great Dragon was only so large after centuries of slow growth. As for food out of the castle's supply, I don't think that'll be necessary except in bad weather, when she can't be out flying around." Merlin made his escape then before more kitchen servants could overcome their apprehension and voice further questions. He didn't think Arthur would appreciate a late breakfast just because he'd been satisfying people's curiosity.

"Don't tell anyone," he said to Aithusa as they trekked through the halls, ignoring various worried glances and whispers. "But when I'm on time, this is actually my favorite time of day. Getting Arthur out of bed is always fun... Well, at least until he starts assigning chores and being his usual not-so-charming self, the prat. But until then I tend to enjoy it-"

Coming around a corner, Merlin had to halt abruptly, for Arthur's uncle Agravaine was standing in his path with a dark scowl.