"This is a really bad idea."
"Yes Merlin, you've already said."
"Maybe we should just sleep on it?"
"I've been sleeping most of the day. Now keep going."
There was a long beat as the two continued down a winding, twisting, staircase in silence.
"Does Gwen know about this?"
"Oh for crying out loud Merlin! Will you just keep moving? We could have been there by now if you didn't keep stopping every five minutes to try and convince me to turn back."
"Fine but when you become roast prince, don't say I didn't warn you."
They continued on, winding down deeper and deeper...
"How on earth did you ever find this place to begin with?" asked Arthur, as they took yet another turn in what seemed to be a maze of corridors and passageways.
"Uhhhh, I heard him calling me inside my head when I first got to Camelot?"
Arthur sighed. "That doesn't sound ominous at all."
"Very ominous, you're right, so let's turn-"
"No! We are talking to the dragon and that's final."
However, Arthur felt a great deal less confident than he sounded. But Merlin was clearly so reluctant that Arthur couldn't let him see any of his own doubt or they'd never get there, and as much Arthur kept second guessing his own decision...he also couldn't see another way.
Camelot would always be in peril, the past would always haunt them, unless steps were taken.
He heard an echo first, up ahead, the sound of something large moving perhaps, or was it just a huge gust of wind? But wind, this far underground?
The pair stepped through a stone archway onto a ledge that looked out over a large, open cavern. At first that was all he could make out. Merlin stepped forward and placed the torch he'd been holding into a sconce on the wall and with a few whispered words, increased the light from it, spreading it further into the blackness of the cavern.
There was a large heavy chain, bolted into the wall, Arthur suspected, with something far more powerful than mere human strength and metal, and the chain disappeared out into the cavern.
Arthur couldn't explain it, but his very skin crawled, as if his instincts were warning him of danger, or a predictor nearby. He wondered if this was how a deer felt when a hunter was at hand...
And then suddenly there was a whoosh of wings and wind and from the depths of the cavern the dragon flew up. It took all of Arthur's self-control not to turn and run. As it was, both he and Merlin took an involuntary step back as the dragon landed nearby, the beat of the wind come off his wings knocking into them both.
The dragon stared down at Arthur, his expression far from friendly. Disdain might perhaps be the best word, mixed with only the very slightest curiosity.
"Er, hello," said Merlin weakly. Arthur noticed how Merlin seemed to shift ever so slightly so that he was slightly between Arthur and the dragon.
"Young warlock." The dragon did not take his eyes off Arthur.
"I uh, got someone here who wants to meet you."
"So I see."
Arthur braced himself and came forward, standing beside Merlin. "My name is Arthur Pendragon."
"I know who you are," the dragon growled.
Right, so definitely ticked off about being locked away underground all these years.
"I understand," he said trying his best to look steadily on at the dragon, "that you have been a friend of Merlin's."
The dragon gave a low, rumbling chuckle. "Friend? I have certainly guided the young warlock towards his destiny...and yours. He has not always listened as he should."
"I also understand you have ample reason to hate the Pendragons and Camelot."
"How very magnanimous of you to be so understanding." There was no mistaking the fury in the dragon's voice now or the slight jerk and jangle of the chains that bound him. "I was betrayed!"
"I'm not here to make excuses or justifications-"
"Then what are you here for, princeling?" came the furious reply.
Even in the moment, faced by a very angry dragon, Merlin could not resist a snort of laughter at Arthur being addressed as 'princeling. Arthur shot him a glare and then turned back to the dragon. But he had a feeling Merlin was not going to forget 'princeling' any time soon.
"Things have happened up in the castle. I don't know how much you know about the druid delegation and Elaine-"
"I know everything there is to know about what has transpired. Dragon magic and our second sight is complex, and I have now seen the path you were thrown down, and the future that was, only to be re-written."
Arthur nodded. "Good. That saves me from a second story time. So, you know what happened...and you know the part you played in it."
The dragon seemed to rear up slightly, as if preparing himself. Arthur could sense Merlin in turn tensing beside him, but Arthur himself focused on keeping his own body language as neutral as possible.
"Is that what you are here for son of Uther? To slay the last dragon, while I am bound and chained, so you can ensure the future safety of Camelot?"
"No. I'm not here to kill you: I'm here to free you."
"What?" Merlin blinked at him.
"Well Merlin will probably have to do the actual freeing but I'm here to tell him to do it."
The dragon seemed equally stunned. "You seek to free me?"
"You should never have been imprisoned. To keep you locked away in here was inhuman. I understand that it is in your power to cause a great deal of destruction to Camelot if you choose. I know that better than anyone. If you choose to attack, we will do what we can to stop you. And maybe I'm a fool for trusting that you will consider a different path. But I hope you do. To keep you locked up in here, while Camelot claims to be trying to make itself a new way of peace...it's hypocrisy. We have to let go of the past. Someone has to take the first step. Someone has to be willing to stop the endless cycles of revenge and fear and hate. If the future you once told Merlin of is ever to be a reality...then I choose to begin it now, in the moment. And you must make your own choices. Merlin?" He nodded towards the chain.
Merlin stared at him, to the dragon and then back again. He opened his mouth, perhaps to protest and then stopped, seemed to take a moment to think and then instead nodded slowly. "All right." He turned again to the dragon. "Will...will you promise not to attack Camelot?"
The dragon looked down its snout for a very long minute at Merlin and then shook its head. "I have made enough bargains with you, young warlock. If I am to be set free, I will not shackle myself to more."
Merlin sighed and then turned to Arthur. "You're sure about this?"
Arthur nodded. "It's the only way."
"Draw your sword then."
Arthur drew it and Merlin raised his hand, as if about to cast a spell and then hesitated. He looked back once more at the dragon. "I just have one question."
"And what is that, young warlock?"
"When...back when we rescued Mordred, you warned me that if we went through with the rescue attempt that I wouldn't be able to fulfill my destiny, that Modred would kill Arthur one day. Is that still true? Or was what happened in that awful future, with Mordred taking over and killing Arthur, was that the future that you saw? Or is Arthur still in danger from Modred?"
Arthur blinked. So that was why Merlin of the future had tried to insist he not fight Mordred in battle...
The dragon tilted its head and chuckled as if amused by some private joke. "It is very hard to say. Perhaps the prince has been saved from your refusal to head my warning...and perhaps not. Perhaps that was the future I saw and did not know it." His voice turned graver now. "Time magic is dangerous and dark. It twists destinies and muddies the waters of time. What once was clear, is now disturbed and unreadable even by myself. It will be sometime before it settles, and the water runs clear enough for me to read it once again. It is possible that what I saw was that future. Or it is possible that Modred's path may lie along new lines now. It is also possible that your own destiny has been lost forever young warlock, along with the hope and promise of Albion. Only time will tell..."
Merlin took a deep, breath and nodded, turning back to Arthur. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Together." And his eyes glowed golden and whispered words of magic, and power shot from his hand engulfing Arthur's sword. Arthur slammed the blade against the chain, fused into the wall, and it shattered to pieces like glass.
With a roar a dragon soared upward, the blast of wind from his wings knocking into both men and sending them to the ground, as the beast soared up higher and higher, and with a deafening crash, he broke out into the night sky...
"Ooooh, I really hope we didn't just make a horrible mistake," muttered Merlin.
"You and me both."
The two looked at each other, and maybe it was the absurdity of what they'd just done, or possible exhaustion from some very long days, or possibly even the freedom of temporarily breaking out from the shared burdens of both the future and the past, but they both started to laugh.
Uther was still standing on the castle walls, when he heard the crash, and the cries from the watchmen at the gates, and on the night air he heard a noise he had not heard for a very, very long time, the whoosh of giant wings beating through the air. But it was a noise you never forgot once you'd heard it once.
There was a blast of fire and several screams, but the fire was not directed at city, rather above it, a streak of warning or rage.
And there was the Kilgharrah locked away so long ago that until Arthur's story of that morning, Uther had practically forgotten him or his prison. The dragon was getting closer now, and Uther had the unmistakable sensation of being seen by the beast, as it needed the castle wall.
Memories of what Arthur had told of the dragon's destruction flashed through Uther's mind, and now the dragon was feet away. Uther stumbled backwards, and the dragon latched onto the wall, its huge claws digging into stone, sending several blocks crashing to the ground beneath.
Uther's hand fumbled for his sword. Several knights rushed out into the courtyard.
He was convinced any moment now he would feel the hot blast of dragon's fire, the brief excruciating burning pain before certain death...
But the dragon simply stood there on its perch.
Several of the knights strung arrows through their bows and were just taking aim before Uther's brain caught up and held out a hand.
"Hold fire!" He yelled down below.
The dragon continued to stare at him.
"What...what do you want?" Uther's nerves twisted but he had faced many battles, many enemies, many dangers, and he had faced death more than once, and he was determined to face this last one unflinching, and so he pulled himself together, and stepped forward. Just one step, but it was enough to pull himself back together, or at least as much as one could when faced with a dragon.
"I want to burn you alive. I want to raise Camelot to ash, rumble, and ruin. I want vengeance! Do you know what it is like to be betrayed, and then held prisoner for year upon year, in solitude and hunger, for crimes one never committed? To have little but one's own rage and despair to contemplate?"
Uther thought of Arthur. He thought of Morgana. Of Guinevere. Of the grandchild yet to be born. He thought of the people of Camelot that he had led so wrongly for so many years...
"Camelot is not to blame for my crimes," he said. "If you spare the city, I will order my knights to stand down."
"It would be a mercy to all if I ushered in the reign of King Arthur sooner and cut short your own. He will make a far better king than you ever did."
"...I know." And Uther did know it, and in this moment was glad of it.
"He is also a better man than you, but that can be said about most men. You never deserved him as a son."
"...I know."
For a very long minute and then another, the dragon continued to study him. In the castle courtyard more knights had arrived, watching up tensely, unwilling to make a move while the king had both ordered them to hold fire and was also so close to the dragon.
At last however, Kilgharrah nodded. "Remember this moment Uther Pendragon, for the rest of your life, however long that may be. You have your son to thank that you live to see another dawn. But mark my words: if you forget the lessons of your son, I will return and I will burn you."
And with that the dragon spread its wings. It opened its jaws, and Uther saw a glow of red, and felt wet, damp heat, and then a scorching blast of flame shot high above, across the castle, through the night sky: a blast of warning and a searing promise.
Then the dragon soared upward, circling the castle once, twice, its wings beating through the night, another flash of flame burned above Uther's head, emblazing across the darkness and his vision, burning into his memory, and then the dragon flew eastward and towards a new dawn.
The End