A low guttural growl escaped the lips of the Great Dragon. "One would have thought age brought wisdom, so much for kin" The dragon turned his tail swinging and whipping Merlin to the ground. Merlin was so emotionally stunned he almost didn't register a sharp pain across his chest and upper arms.
Kilgharrah took to the skies swirling the air so harshly Merlin saw his father almost join him on the ground.
"M-Merlin, ... Son are you okay?" His father's face was a smorgasbord of emotions Merlin numbly nodded in response. Balinor looked up and opened his mouth.
"Dad, don't call him" Balinor closed his mouth, red receding from his face. Balinor slowly made eye contact with his son. "Kilgharrah tells me you have memories of the future, he says you're a dragon lord. In... in your past... or whatever it is I should call it... did we meet?"
Merlin had over a thousand years ago gotten over his father's death. Never, since he had left Camelot, had he had a problem talking about it. Yet now he felt his voice catch. "I… we met briefly. Kilgharrah was going to burn Camelot to the ground. I came for your help." His tone became more detached as he talked. It was hard to feel close to a father you never really had.
"And I helped you?" Merlin knew his father wanted Camelot to burn, and he knew Balinor wanted to make him happy.
"You taught me how to command a dragon and then you died from a wound that should have been my own." Merlin watched his fathers controlled reaction.
"Oh…" sensing an upcoming uncomfortable silence, Merlin decided to redirect conversation. Enough mushy stuff. "What do we do now, I mean I spoke her name, she's alone… Just like last time". Merlin had a laundry list of regrets collected over the thousand years, few came close to his failures with Aithusa. Merlin's young body reacted more to emotions than his thousand year old jalopy he called a body. Hot tears streamed down his face, "I failed her again".
Suddenly, Merlin wasn't sure he could change anything.
"What do you mean again?" His father's voice brought Merlin out of his dark pondering. Merlin's eyes turned jaded. "Last time, when she passed I left her in the care of another, she was captured and tortured, and she lost the ability to speak… She was a child and I hatched her"
Merlin looked to the skies and called for the young dragon, after two hours of waiting and talking to his father he went home.
"You should stay with the Great Dragon, I cannot return to Camelot with you". Merlin tried to read his father's face, "Hey please do not hold Uther's sins against Arthur or Camelot. Uther is not long for the world forgive and forget" Balinor snorted/laughed. Merlin continued, "It's my home, please don't harm it, Arthur is like a brother to me, don't ruin our relationship over something petty"
At this Balinor turned red, "something petty, like the death of your dragon kin and the destruction of our family"
Merlin gapped, "Petty was harsh, but revenge will not help you now. Let Arthur grow to be king. Leave Uthur be… and our family is not destroyed, it was just missing you". Merlin meant the statement about family to be a comfort, but his father obviously took it otherwise, Merlin sighed. "We can make up for lost time I believe mother still feels for you. Just … this is weird … I'm like a thousand years older than you. My heads a mess we'll talk later. I'm rambling. Please nothing drastic until we talk again"
When Merlin got back to the castle he remembered the stalks… it was going to be a long night. His chest was swollen and so was part of his arm. the swelling on his chest was almost so bad it broke skin, he wished he could call for Leo, too bad he wasn't born yet. Gaius it is then, after the stalks.