Merlin turned, a grin on his face, to see the two dragons stood in the clearing.
"Merlin." Kilgarrah said, "An impressive display with the demons young warlock." His eyes seemed to travel the clearing, taking in the scene. "And if you could tell your good friend to stop pointing that metal stick at me..." He admonished, leaving Merlin to turn and see a dumbstruck look on Arthur's face and his sword drawn.
"Arthur. Put the sword away... He isn't going to hurt us."
"That's not the idea I got from it... him as time..." he answered, but lowered his sword to his side. The great dragon turned his gaze to Arthur and lowered his head, until their eyes were level.
"Things change, King Arthur... This you should know better than most." Lifting his head again, his eyes travelled over to Morgana's prone form. "And what," he continued, "would you have of me this time Merlin? I can only assume it has something to do with the witch."
"Yes."
"I will need a more detailed explanation Merlin. Yes can only mean so many things..."
Arthur interrupted them,
"Surely the word 'Yes' can only mean what it says?"
"Not always. Creatures of magic have long since perfected the art of saying one thing and meaning the other... " Kilgarrah answered, before continuing, "So young Warlock, what do you need me for? The witch is at your feet. Finish what you have started..."
"I am not going to kill her. None of us are..." before he could finish, the dragon let out a huge roar, causing the entire woods to seem to wake, and Arthur had whacked Merlin across the back of the head.
"She cant get away with this Merlin..."
"That witch must pay for what she has done... "
"Arthur! She wont. If you would just let me finish..."
As soon as the clearing had quietened, Merlin continued, a hard look masking his face.
"She should suffer as she made so many others suffer. Death woud be too quick..."
"Merlin..." Arthur had never seen such anger cloud the young mans face before, and was slightly worried. "It isn't like you to say..."
"I agree." The old dragons deep voice masked what Arthur was trying to say. "But I still fail to see what part I have to play..."
"She wants to rule? Then let her. Let her rule in a place where no humans have seen fit to travel... Do you know of such a place?"
"Young Warlock, I have flow the skies above the entire world for more years than you could imagine. Many places like this exist... the problem would be keeping her there..."
"Could you not bind her using magic of some kind?"
The dragons eyes seemed to cloud over... "Yes... But it would take the magic of three to do what you propose..."
"The Druids. Their leader would be willing to accompany us, I am sure of it..."
"Not 'us' Merlin, I am unable to do such magic... "
"Then who..."
"However, Aithusa will do what I cannot." Merlin looked over to the young, white dragon.
Speaking in the Dragon Tongue, he asked "You can do this?" He was rewarded with a nod. "Will you?" This time the answer was verbal.
"Yes..." The voice was whispery, but in such a way that the tones were filled with music... Merlin smiled both at the voice and at the fact that they had a plan. Then he froze,
"Arthur? If you are gone for any length of time... and considering that a huge roar just ripped through the forest... "
"I'll stay. I need to start to get things back in order..." he started to turn back towards the horses, but stopped and pulled Merlin into a hug. "Don't be too long, Eh? And try not to die?"
Merlin grinned. "Me? I intend to be an annoyance for quite some time yet."
At a nod from Kilgarrah, he climbed up onto his back, and settled himself into the hollow of his neck. Muttering a few words, he caused Morgana's, still limp, body to rise, and mentally glued her to Aithusa. With any luck, she would not wake until they had completed their task. With a sudden jolt, they rose into the air. It was mere moments until they were above the forest, and flying towards the Druids.
Arthur watched them until they were out of sight. Then he shook his head, bemused. Magic... Dragons... Druids... Magic... How was this all going to work...? He mounted his horse and grasped the reigns of the other, heading back to Camelot.
It took less than an hour to arrive at the Druids home, and less than ten minutes to be back in the air, with the old druid, who Merlin now knew to be called Aglain, sat behind Merlin.
Between the honour of helping Emrys, riding a dragon and participating in magic with them both, he had not been able to say no. Merlin had been surprise by his eagerness, as he had always thought of the Druids to be the sort of people who kept emotions close to their chest... not to mention that he was in awe of the old Druid, and didn't realize that it was also the other way around... As they flew, Merlin began asking questions about the druid way of life, and soon came to know much about the secretive people. In return, he told Aglain of his own life. They were both interested in the small pieces of knowledge they could pick up about the dragons, for even the druids knew little of them. As the day passed into night, Merlin and Aglain ate -from he food that the druids had provided- and slept on the dragons back, after finding that the dragons were okay to fly for as long as need be. The following morning, Merlin had to send Morgana back into a sleeping state as she started to stir, and was pleased to hear that they would arrive at their destination before noon.
The sun had nearly reached its peak as they passed over a small area of land, in the middle of a huge ocean. Having never seen much of the sea, aside from one time when he and Arthur had puzzled over a pair of poisoned goblets, Merlin was amazed by the vastness of it. From above, he knew that the island they were on was not huge, but not small either. A perfect spot. Kilgarrah had dropped the Druid off at another point, a large, seemingly uninhabited large island. The great dragon then left him on a small beach, which he had no intention of leaving, having seen the size of the land beyond it. It took nearly an hour for the dragon to contact him, telepathically. They had all agreed that his signal would be the point at which they would begin their work. At a word from Kilgarrah, Merlin started speaking the spell they had agreed upon and immediately felt something in the air around him shift. Clouds started to cover a huge area of the ocean in front of him, and the water started to form waves. It took nearly half an hour to complete the spell, at which point, Merlin was exhausted. As he felt the energy shift, he released the spell, and lay down on the sand. Two hours later, the dragon swooped down and landed next to him, waking him from the light sleep he had fallen into. Climbing up onto Kilgarrah's back, he saw Aglain, sleeping lightly, on his back.
Settling down in front of him, he asked,
"Did it work?"
Aithusa answered.
"Yes... the spell of Berm udatri anglea worked... No one will ever find the island, be it ten years, one-hundred years or a thousand..."
Merlin felt the music in the young dragons voice soothing, and slowly drifted back into a light doze.
The following evening, they left Aglain with his people, after a long tale of what had happened, and Merlin climbed back onto Kilgarrah. Night had just fallen when they landed in the clering. Jumping down, Merlin looked up at the Dragon.
"Thankyou." He turned to Aithusa, "Both of you."
"It was a worthy cause young warlock, and so a justified and enjoyable task." With that, he lifted his wings and took flight.
"Goodbye... Merlin..." Aithusa said, both out loud and in his mind, before following Kilgharrah. Merlin sighed, and glanced towards Camelot, his face falling slightly.
"I guess Im walking back..." he muttered to himself, and set off. He couldnt wait to get back.
He should have known that he wouldn't be able to sneak, unnoticed, into Camelot. With Gwaine on, what appeared to be, the night shift, he was barely able to make it pat the gates before he was pulled into a bear hug.
"Merlin! Its about time you got back. Its been days... We were starting to worry..."
In less than twenty minutes, the news that he was back had spread throughout the castle, and he was having to repeat the news that Morgana was gone for good, over an over. Eventually, he managed to excuse himself and head up to Arthur's quarters. Hoping to find both him and Gwen. Knocking with his customary triple knock, he heard the words "Come in..." faintly from behind he door, and opened it.
Arthur wasn't there, but Gwen was sat, by the window, staring out at the sky. Turning, her eyes lit up slightly then fell again,
"Merlin, you're back... Arthur is with Gaius... He thinks I need medicines and whatever else to help me sleep..."
Walking over to her, Merlin pulled her into a hug.
"Im sorry Gwen... I am so sorry. But its what he wanted..."
Merlin felt her tears dropping onto his shoulder and sat her onto the bed.
"Try to sleep Gwen... He wouldn't want you to be like this... you'll make yourself ill..."
Gwen didn't reply, simply hugging him tighter and crying more fiercely. They stayed like that for a few minutes until Merlin noticed that the tears seemed to have stopped. Glancing at Gwen's face, he could see that she was already asleep, and settled her down. Getting up, he made his way to the door, slowly and quietly closing it behind him. Turning, he head off towards his own room. He had just turned the corner when he bumped into Arthur.
"Merlin!" He pulled him into a hug and Merlin heard glass shatter to the floor. "Damn it," Arthur cursed, "Those were for Gwen..."
"She's sleeping..." Merlin told him.
"Really? Did you do that? Or was she already..."
"She cried herself to sleep..." Merlin started, then immediately backtracked at Arthur's expression, "But she is fine... She just needed a chance to let it out..."
Arthur sighed,
"Well... that's good... I guess..." then he looked Merlin up and down, "Speaking of sleep, you look like you are about to fall over. What happened? I've already heard some of the knights-"
"Gwaine..." Merlin groaned. "How about I tell you first hand?" Merlin asked, then yawned. "Tomorrow?" Arthur grinned,
"You got it. Now move it."
Merlin didn't have the energy to argue, realizing that with everything that had happened, sleep seemed like a good idea. Making his way up to his room, he barely managed to reply to any of the greetings and questions that were fired at him, and could hardly give Gaius a decent run through of all that had happened. Making it to his bed, he kicked off his boots and fell down without bothering to change. His head had barely hit the pillow before he was asleep.
Two weeks Later
It was early morning and Merlin grinned as he entered Arthur's rooms to find him still asleep. Gwen had been awake early every morning for the last two weeks, and had been spending her mornings either with Merlin or doing something to help in the town. So Merlin felt no guilt as he opened the curtain and directed the light so that it shone light directly onto Arthur's face. Groaning, he opened his eyes and sat up. As soon as he made out the grinning face, he flopped back down and pulled the covers over his head.
"Does the concept of a good nights sleep mean anything to you Merlin?"
"Yes... But a healthy breakfast is supposed to charge you up for a busy day..." Setting the tray, he had bought up, down on he small table beside the bed, he threw Arthur's clothes at him.
"Come on... They finally cleared the debris away from the wall an the rest of the town last night. They can finally begin rebuilding everything."
Arthur groaned again and sat up.
"But I thought you were helping with that... Why are you waking me up at some godforsaken hour in the morning?"
"Because Gwen is already up and in the town... Because it is actually not too early in the morning..."
"What time is it exactly?" Arthur asked, starting to glare at Merlin,
"Well... The sun rose about... oohh... one hour ago... so... seven...ish?"
"And was there another reason for waking me? Think very carefully before answering that..."
"Because I bet with Gwaine that I could have a half civilised conversation with you before he woke up..."
Merlin laughed as he dodged the pillow that Arthur half-heartedly threw at him, and made his way to the door.
"Eat your breakfast, it will get cold!" This time, the pillow actually hit him as he ducked out of the door, and he laughed as he heard Arthur cursing behind it.
Arthur glared at the closed door and then, involuntarily, grinned, reaching out for his clothes. Some things never changed...
Knowing that Arthur would shortly be following him, Merlin made his way down to the courtyard, hoping to find Gwaine and tell him that he had won their bet. And he also had to help with building... and hauling... and organizing... and hunting down the rat that had 'accidentaly' found its way into Arthur's quarters... Then there were the talks with the kings and Queens of the other kingdoms, the peace treaties and unions... The Albion Treaty had a ring to it... Merlin sighed at the list that was stacking up in his head... then grinned. He wouldn't have it any other way...
Somewhere...
Morgana opened her eyes and stared around... Where was she? Reaching out with her mind, she realized two things.
One, she was alone... No humans were anywhere near her.
And two, she was surrounded by some sort of impenetrable, magical web... She was trapped.
As her anger and helplessness built up, she screamed. One word... "MERLIN!"
Okay so... Finished... Wow.
This story continues with my series, How Things Change. I'm planning on doing thirteen mini fics, so that it is like a proper episode style series.
The First is Called, How Things Change No.1, Out Of Control (though there is a one-off set before it called Wits, Acrobatics, Steel and Magic)
Hope to see you there :D
Anyways, Hope you enjoyed reading and Much love to regular and non-regular readers alike!
Raven Out xx