28. Epilogue

(Five years later...)

Three children ran across the sunlit grass, racing around the massive, sprawling form of a dozing white dragon. Occasionally they took a break from running to scramble over her scaly legs.

Lounging atop a sun-warmed boulder nearby , Merlin smiled to himself and reflected that babysitting duty was vastly preferable to his usual business of, well, saving the world .

With the advantage of slightly longer legs, golden-haired Branwen kept in the lead, with Arthur and Gwen's daughter Madrona tagging just behind. Madrona's little brother, still with the characteristic unsteady legs of a toddler, tripped more than he ran. But each time he hopped up with a giggle and kept going.

"Oh to be young and have actual energy." Gwaine hoisted himself up onto the cracked, mossy stone to sit next to the warlock.

With a smirk, Merlin said, " I'm the only one who should be complaining. Also Gaius maybe. You ...or your body, at least...isn't that old."

"Okay, point taken! I'll leave the complaining to you and Gaius until I'm actually old and gray this time around." Gwaine chuckled at turned back to the playing children. "Nobody's getting eaten?"

"Aithusa can handle it. I think." Merlin's grin faded slightly as he asked, "Planning to get old and gray, then?"

"If you're around, sure. Actually, got lots of people to think about, right? " Gwaine gave him a piercing look. "Still worried about me, Merlin?"

"I worry about all the people I love, Gwaine. You know that."

"Big softie that you are."

" Ha! You're one to talk."

They sat in companionable silence for a while, watching the children make several attempts at climbing Aithusa's tail. The dragon woke up just enough to give it a few tiny twitches that sent them tumbling back onto the soft spring g rass, shrieking with laughter.

We both have a lot of people to think about these days.

T hings had been relatively peaceful since Nimueh had been defeated. The few minor altercations with vengeful sorcerers since had been dealt with easily enough. What little contact they had managed to make with the world outside their island suggested that everyone left was starting over, forging into a future that looked difficult in many ways, but overall hopeful.

Perhaps unsurprisingly. Gwaine was the one who broke their silence first. "Everard and Elwin are still talking about moving away, making their own settlement."

"Probably a good idea as long as they don't go too far." Anglesey's not big enough for two kings, especially since Everard's made it to adulthood again. "You think Hertha will go with them like she suggested?"

"If everything goes well, they'll need teachers, won't they? And that's what she wants to be. Pretty much is already. At eighteen ."

"With a whole lifetime behind that."

"True. How's Mordred doing with that, by the way?"

Over the past couple years, as he grew into his teens, Mordred's memories had returned bit by bit. Merlin and Morgana, among others, had been helping him through it as best as they could. "He's doing surprisingly well still. I expected those teenage hormones to cause more problems than they have."

"They might yet. He hasn't hit the worst years yet ."

"Fair enough. I'm optimistic. He always had good in him. Besides that...I'm still mildly confused by how well you and his mother have been getting along…"

"You've said it yourself before . Morgana's straight-up a wesome when she's not evil... which is all the time now, thank gods . And she gets what it's like to suddenly get magic as an adult and be absolutely terrified of it."

"You both have it under control these days."

"Yes. But I still prefer swords, thank you very much."

" You gonna be the one to teach Percival and Haralda's twins?"

"Okay, first, they're six months old , and second, they have a very competent swordsman for a father and an axe-master for a mother. I'm not going to be teaching them anything. I'll save it for kids whose parent won't gut me for overstepping."

"Percival would never do such a thing."

"Wasn't talking about him ."

Merlin snorted. "Well, you'll have plenty of 'legacy' students eventually anyway. Leon and his wife want kids, and according to Gwen, Elyan and his girlfriend are talking about it…"

"A lot of people are. Now that growing the population is kinda a necessity instead of a problem like it was pre-apocalypse. If we don't want to go extinct, that is."

"Yeah. Everyone's looking to the future. Kids aside, even Lancelot's attempting to...to do whatever the current equivalent of dating is…"

"I've been trying very hard not to tease him about it; I know his love life still a sore subject to an extent."

"Your sacrifice is noted."

They shared an amused look, interrupted a moment later by a shout across the green Anglesey field. Arthur, Gwen, Elen, and Hayden were approaching, eliciting squeals of delight from the children scampered to meet them. Hayden's two youngest wyverns... Lapis and Lazuli, I think; he's got lots again, just like old times ...started squawking and half-flew, half-tumbled over to Aithusa, who lifted her head to rumble at them with clear amusement.

The two men on the boulder exchanged glances. "Shall we?" Gwaine said with a roguish grin.

Merlin smiled back. "All right by me."

As they slid down and went to meet the others, Merlin reflected that he couldn't be much happier than he was right now.

Maybe, now that the Once and Future King has made his triumphant return and I've fulfilled my destiny... again ...my immortality won't be so final. Maybe I'll get to move on with the others when the time comes.

But those were worries for another day, or year, or decade. Right now, according to the man known as Merlin, as Emrys, as Magic...life was good.