By the time Merlin finished getting the horses settled and fed in the barn, and was back inside the inn, he was sure he would never dry, ever. Arthur was no longer sitting by the counter and the woman behind it waved at him, sending a wink his way as he walked through, toward the stairs. He grinned as he climbed them, finally, someone who didn't think he was gay.

He had managed to get a look at the key Arthur had taken out from under his nose, beforehand and knew where to go. Room seven. When he reached it, he just walked right in, as he normally did anywhere else and was not surprised at all to see Arthur out of his shirt. Merlin wished to get out of his own wet clothes, but getting naked in front of the king was sort of out of the question. Though, Merlin could not see why, since Arthur liked to get naked in front of him all the time.

Arthur dropped his pants soon after that, tucking himself into one of the small beds in the room, there were two beds, so at least Merlin wouldn't have to sleep on the floor again. It wasn't dark outside yet, even with the dark clouds that were causing all the rain. And, it wasn't quite late enough to go to sleep, but there was nothing else to do. Merlin just stood there, however. He needed to find something for dinner and start a fire in the small fireplace, so their clothes would dry overnight, but he felt as frozen as his horse did earlier. He felt his teeth chattering inside his mouth.

"Are you cold, Merlin?" Arthur asked then, and Merlin found that a rather stupid question to ask.

"Yes," he answered anyway.

"Your lips are blue."

"Thank you for letting me know, Sire…" he rolled his eyes and forced his unwilling bones to move toward the fireplace. He kneled down and cursed everyone he ever knew again, wishing for just a second, that he was the king and Arthur was the damned servant. That would be a nice change.

"All this rain will make a good summer harvest," Arthur mused from behind him and he nodded, sighing. He quietly muttered a spell to make the fire start and hoped Arthur didn't hear. " If only it didn't make everything so…wet."

He hadn't noticed, Merlin smiled as he stood back up and basked in the already crackling fire. He turned around to find Arthur's eyes on him and he flushed slightly, his clothes made strange slushy noises, as they rubbed against him.

"You had better get out of those clothes, Merlin, before they stick to you permanently," Arthur told him, falling back onto his elbows in the bed. Merlin felt rather uncomfortable about this suddenly. He had never really taken his clothes off in front of the king before and wasn't really very keen on doing it now.

Merlin felt like he was on show, like in some of those taverns Gwaine had told him about, as he took off his shirt, Arthur's eyes still on him. He didn't like it, but didn't quite know how to tell the king not to look at him while he undressed. Though, he thought it was common knowledge that you didn't stare at someone when they took their clothes off.

He placed their clothes and boots by the fire and ran for the bed as if his life depended on it, mostly because he was uncomfortable and only slightly because he was still freezing. The blankets, although thin, warmed him quickly, enough, he was sure, to turn his lips back to their normal color. But that didn't help the fact that it was still too early to sleep and he was getting rather hungry.

"All the food I packed is all cold and wet now," Merlin complained, scowling. He looked over at Arthur to see him looking much the same.

"It's your fault," Arthur explained, "If you had hurried up, we could have left earlier and perhaps gotten here before the rain."

"No, I don't think so," Merlin disagreed, shaking his head. "I think it was you, taking too long trying to shoot that rabbit."

"If I had shot that rabbit perhaps we would have had something to eat," Arthur retorted, sounding annoyed. "Or perhaps if you weren't such a big girl and fallen in the mud…"

"You pushed me!"

"And you deserved it!"

The night was prolonged and restless, filled with hungry complaining and blaming, (which was mostly done by Arthur,) by morning Merlin could hardly wait to get up, and go find something to eat. He was up before Arthur, who snored in the small bed. He dressed quickly; their clothes mostly dry, thanks to the magic fire he had made last night. He headed out and down the stairs then, prepared to do just about anything for something to eat. The same woman stood behind the counter, this time, all alone, all the burly men gone.

"Good morning," she smiled, as he walked over. "Sleep well?"

He shrugged as he sat at one of the stools. "Kind of hard to do, when your friend snores like a bore." She giggled at this and Merlin smiled. "I'm a bit hungry too; all of our food was ruined in the rain."

"I figured as much," she said then and reached under the counter, pulling out a plate of huge breads. "I made these for you two, to take with you."

"What was very kind of you," Merlin told her, he couldn't help himself, he took a piece of bread and took a bite, it was still warm.

"You are quite cute, I wouldn't want you to go hungry and loose some if that cute to starvation," she said then, shamelessly flirting and Merlin didn't mind at all. "Do you think I'll be seeing you pass though again anytime soon?"

"Not likely," someone else answered for Merlin, and that would be Arthur, who Merlin could hear stomping over. Instead of taking a piece of bread off the plate, he took the one Merlin had tried and shoved it into his mouth, greedily. "Let's go, I still want to get a bit of hunting in before we return."

Merlin huffed, standing up. The woman still smiled, but the it had changed from flirtatious, to confused. He suddenly wanted to hit Arthur; the big dollophad had to ruin everything.

"It was nice meeting you anyway…" the woman trailed off, searching for his name, he smiled at her kindly, trying to answer her, but...

"Merlin, his name is Merlin," Arthur was quick to answer again, taking more of the bread off the plate, before shoving Merlin along, toward the door. "And he's gay."

"Oh…" was all the woman said, as Merlin very much tried to turn around and whack Arthur over the head. It would be worth the week he would spend in the cells. But alas, Arthur was too strong and pushing him toward the door too hard for him to do much more fighting. Outside, however, once the woman was shut away in the inn. Merlin let Arthur have it.

"Why did you do that?!" he yelled, as they walked around the building, toward the barn, to get their horses. "Why did you tell her?!"

"Why were you allowing her to throw herself at you when she has no chance?" Arthur asked, raising his eyebrows. "I think you just like the attention."

"I don't!" Merlin retorted, pulling open the door, to find their horses huddled together. He walked to his and brushed her mane, still very annoyed with Arthur. He hadn't been overly interested in the woman, she was pretty of course, but it was more the point of it all. "You can't tell every girl who flirts with me that I'm gay!"

"Why not?" Arthur asked, as he mounted his horse, with a smirk. "Is it not the truth?"

Merlin didn't answer, he didn't have time to, as Arthur kicked his horse into motion and they trotted out of the barn. No, it's not the truth, Merlin wanted to say so very badly, as he soon did the same with his horse, following Arthur back into the woods.

After awhile Merlin let his annoyance with Arthur fade away, as they rode through trees and brush. It was after what felt like hours, but was probably only an hour or two; that they finally stopped, in a small clearing. Merlin watched as Arthur jumped off his horse and looked around, grabbing for his crossbow.

"There was a deer just over there, did you see it?" he asked, on high alert, eyes traveling through the thick trees to Merlin's left.

"No," Merlin answered, honestly, he never looked for animals. A sorceress, and people trying to kill Arthur, he looked for those, not a defenseless woodland creature. There was a ruffle in the bushes and Arthur made a 'AHA' noise and chased after it. Merlin rolled his eyes and stayed in the clearing, but got off his horse, finding that his legs were rather numb. He bent over and rubbed them, rolling his eyes yet again, he just really wished they would go back to Camelot. They were meant to be back yesterday evening, which meant people were probably already worrying where they were. Agravaine might have even sent out a search party.

There was another ruffle of brush and Merlin just kept on rubbing his legs, figuring it was Arthur; he didn't bother to look up. He only acknowledged the sound when he heard soft pitter-pattering on the ground before him.

"Not find your precious deer, ah prat?" he asked, but got no reply. Arthur always indulged in there banter game, and when he didn't this concerned Merlin, it always meant something was wrong, he stood up then. "Arthur?" But who stood before him was not Arthur, or even a human. "Oh shit..."

The white, baby dragon, small and very carious, almost like a puppy, recognized Merlin and jumped, wings fluttering quickly to support the weight. Small coos escaped her dragon lips as she danced around Merlin, in some sort of strange way. That, if Merlin were not faced with the horrible fear that Arthur would return any second, would actually be, quite adorable.

"No, sh!" he told her, shaking his hands but this seemed to encourage her more, she let out tiny balls of fire from her mouth to impress him. "No…no go, go home!" he told her, at a loss for what to do. "Where's Kilgharrah?"

At this she made a gasping noise and shot straight up in the air, and then dove back down, landing on the grass in some kind of proud way. That didn't answer Merlin's question at all, however. She seemed to be showing off, showing Merlin that she could fly now, somewhat, and as impressive as that was, he just really wanted her to go, before Arthur came back.

"You need to go, go find Kilgharrah!" he told her, not using his Dragonlord tongue, because he wasn't quite sure how she would take it, and he was quite sure her small wings were not yet strong enough to fly her to wherever she needed to go. And the last option he had was to call for Kilgharrah, which was just simply out of the question with Arthur around. In fact, most of these options were out of the question with Arthur around, Merlin was pretty sure Arthur would notice a small, baby dragon flying around, or the growl of a dragonlords demand. Merlin racked his brain for an idea and just really wished she would stop jumping right in front of him, but just then, he heard Arthur call.

"Go find Kilgharrah!" he told her one last time, as he walked through the bushes Arthur had just went through moments ago. He didn't look back, trying to show her he was in charge and that he meant it. He found Arthur just a few seconds later, leaning on a tree, crossbow hung over his shoulder. "Did you find the deer?"

"No," Arthur sighed, looking over to Merlin. "I heard you talking; I thought you might have gotten yourself into trouble again."

"No," Merlin shook his head, maybe a little too much, trying to play innocent. "I was just talking to the horses."

"You are a very strange man…" Arthur told him, giving him the 'you're not normal' look, which Merlin had gotten from him enough times to know very well. "Well, let's get on with it, I want to get back to-"

"No…" Merlin stepped in front of him, worried Aithusa was still there, she didn't seem to like listening very much. "Let's stay here…"

"Why would we stay here?" Arthur asked, giving him that look again. "You are acting very strange…"

He pushed Merlin out of his way then and walked ahead, Merlin pancked, not sure what else to do. He ran after Arthur, found Arthur right as he was going through the last of the bushes and…

"No, Arthur…wait…" he tackled him, to the ground. Arthur let out a yell of surprise, that might of sounded a bit like Merlin's name and Merlin pinned him, fear for the dragon and for himself thick in his body. He was being a really big idiot right now.

"What the hell are you doing?" Arthur barked, trying to shoulder Merlin in the face but missing, and finally went limb, falling flat onto his back. This was very awkward, very. "Can you possibly explain to me why the hell you just tackled me?"

"I could, but I, uh…"

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now?" Arthur asked, and it was a valid question. But Merlin was too busy looking up, checking around; there were the horses, still tethered to that tree, there was grass, dirt, a rock…but no Aithusa, Merlin sighed in relief, but then remembered who he was currently straddling. "MERLIN!"

"I was...I just…I thought I heard bandits."

"So you tackled me?"

"I was trying to protect you," Merlin lied. Arthur nodded, still lying underneath Merlin, and as Merlin once again remembered this fact, it became very awkward again. But just then, more ruffling in the trees was heard and Merlin panicked.

"What was that?" Arthur asked, looking over, to the trees across the way. Merlin knew what it was.

"Maybe it's the bandits," he suggested though, to try and give the dragon a moment to leave, if she was smart enough to.

"It doesn't sound like bandits," Arthur said, thoughtfully.

"Maybe the deer…"

"That doesn't sound like a deer either," Arthur said, getting too suspicious for his own good and pushed Merlin off him, standing up. He pulled out his sword, that had been pressing against Merlin's knee just seconds ago, and proceeded to the trees. Merlin scrambled to his feet and watched in fear, inching closer and closer, biting his lip and wondering how he could per sway Arthur not to kill the baby dragon without looking like he had anything to do with its birth.

"Arthur…" he said, almost in a whisper, as the king pulled back the low hanging branches of the tree's, with the hilt of his sword, to find a white, baby dragon, breathing fire on a rather large bug.

"Dear Lord…"

(A/N: The next chapter of this story will be the last, but remember there will be the second part, that will take you through the rest of season 4, right now, we've only been through...ep 4 I think, the next one will be after ep 6, (which is one of my favorites!) Anyway, I want to give it up to Moon Fox for commenting on every chapter of this story in like a few hours time. It was AWESOME!)