The next morning Merlin woke up shrouded in warmth. Arthur's bed was very comfy and he may even have been tempted to stay there a little while longer - except that Arthur's snoring was also very loud. Merlin rolled out of bed, carefully dropped to the bedroom floor, and padded from the room in his nightclothes. Gaius had promised him a present after all.

He got several confused looks on his journey through the castle corridors, and a few affectionate coos from the maidservants, but no one thought to stop him. Before long, Merlin spotted someone he recognised.

"'Scuse me!" His mother had taught him that this was the right way to get someone's attention. "C'n'yew help me?"

"Good morning Merlin." It was Leon, the knight with curly hair, who knelt down to speak to him. "Are you sure you should be wandering about alone? And with no shoes?"

Merlin looked down at his feet and laughed - he hadn't realised he was wearing no shoes!

"I gotta present," he explained to Leon. "F'om Gaius."

"A present? Important business." Leon lifted the boy straight up and onto his shoulders. "I'll take you to him now, how's that?"

"Yes please!"

"Here you go, as promised."

"'Ank yew." Merlin took the wooden toy from Gaius and turned it over reverentially in his hands. "Issit a d'agon?"

"That's right," Gaius answered, a little absent-mindedly as he moved his potions and herbs up high and far out of reach of curious young hands. "Do you like dragons?"

"'S got magic."

"Hmm?"

"'S happy magic."

Gaius turned from his task to look anew at the wooden carving. Merlin had told him the dragon was a gift from Balinor, something he had carved for his newly discovered son the night before he died. Could it be possible he had placed a spell on it, some kind of protective charm?

"MERLIN!"

Merlin jumped and clutched the dragon tight to his chest. The door slammed open and there was King Arthur, sloppily dressed and hair uncombed.

"What have I told you about staying close?!"

Merlin hid behind Gaius's legs.

"Arthur," Gaius chastised. "He's only small."

"He has to learn Gaius!"

"Learn what? To fear you?" Gaius raised a disapproving eyebrow. "I must say I never subscribed to your father's methods of parenting. As you may recall it was me you came to whenever you had a problem or got into trouble, not him."

Arthur huffed, mostly annoyed because he knew Gaius was right. Grudgingly, he said, "I'm sorry, Merlin. I'm not angry. I just... I thought you'd run away again."

Merlin peeked out from behind Gaius's knees. "Sorry, Arfur." He proffered his toy as a peace offering. "D'yew wanna play d'agons wi'me?"

Arthur shook his head and the little warlock looked crestfallen - until Arthur said with a sly grin, "I think I'd rather meet an actual dragon, if it's all the same to you."

Once Merlin was dressed and had eaten breakfast (none of which, Arthur double checked, had made its way into the young boy's pockets), he went with the King, Queen and Iseldir to a clearing where he could call the Great Dragon.

Iseldir was tired, having spent most of the previous night researching how to undo Merlin's protective enchantment. He had managed it, thankfully, and the castle was back to a relative normal. Now hopefully they might get Merlin back to the same.

"Where'ssa d'agon?" Merlin looked around the clearing as if it might be hiding somewhere in the trees. "Does he live here?"

"Well," Gwen said falteringly. "We were hoping you might call him."

"D'AGON!" Merlin bellowed, young lungs surprisingly loud. "Come out d'agon!"

"Not like that," Arthur interrupted hastily, looking to Iseldir for help. The Druid Chieftain stepped forward.

"Merlin," he said kindly. "We need you to call the dragon in a magical way. Can you feel your magic?"

Merlin nodded enthusiastically. "Alluva time!"

"Good. Now close your eyes."

"No peeking," Arthur added when he spotted the little boy slitting open an eyelid. "Do what Iseldir says, Merlin."

This time Merlin squeezed his eyes tight. "Did it!"

"Now, focus on my voice and repeat after me. O drakon, e male so ftengometta tesd'hup'anankes."

Arthur had heard Merlin summon a dragon before, several times now. Iseldir spoke as if he were reading a book, but Merlin always spoke dragon tongue as if it came from his very soul.

"Ohh... d'agon... uhh..."

"That's alright Merlin. Don't think about the words too much. Just focus on your magic. O drakon, e male so ftengometta tesd'hup'anankes."

Merlin went quiet. His fists clenched. For a moment Arthur thought he might have given up - but then he whispered something. It was low, soft, and didn't sound at all like what Iseldir said. It didn't even sound like the dragon tongue Arthur had heard before. It did sound powerful though, even in the voice of one so young.

"Was that it?" Gwen asked after a few moments of silence. "Is he coming?"

The answer resounded through the air as distant wingbeats. Merlin gasped and pointed up at the sky, where Aithusah rocketed into view. The baby dragon roared in delight when she beheld her dragonlord and dropped towards him gleefully.

"'Thusa!"

"How does he know her name?!" Arthur asked incredulously.

"It is the Dragonlord's way," Iseldir answered. Kilgharrah's enormous shadow had just become visible on the horizon. "They are kin."

Kilgharrah landed and Merlin rushed forward. "'Garah!"

Huge, bronze eyes softened as they looked down upon the little boy. "My my, young warlock. What, pray tell, have you gotten yourself into?"

Arthur relayed everything that had happened since the mercenary attack while Merlin played with Aithusah.

"I know of this place," Kilgharrah said once Arthur had finished his tale. "There was an enclave who lived there, dedicated to the healing arts. They were wiped out during Uther's purge."

Arthur winced involuntarily, resisting the impulse to apologise. Kilgharrah either didn't notice or chose not to comment on his discomfort, continuing,

"The cave's magic was designed to heal any wound, mortal or otherwise. Many travelled there who could find relief for old battle scars nowhere else."

"That makes sense. When I awoke it wasn't just the wound from the crossbow bolt that had been healed. It was everything. It was like being reborn."

"Indeed." Kilgharrah, Arthur was amused to notice, flicked his tail like a cat when he was deep in thought. "Am I right to believe that Merlin was once wounded at the hands of the sorceress Nimueh?"

Since discovering the truth of Merlin's magic, Arthur had learnt of many hidden injuries the warlock had gotten in the process of protecting him. The one story which had stuck with him most of all, however, was that of the Questing Beast. The idea that Merlin would trade his life for him... it warmed his heart and set it cold in equal measure. "He tried to use the Cup of Life, but Nimueh intervened. He still has a scar on his chest from the battle."

"Then this might explain it. Nimueh was a High Priestess of the Triple Goddess. Her magic should have killed Merlin. He survived only because of his own, unprecedented power."

Gwen frowned, not following. "What has this got to do with the cave's magic?"

"The enclave will have written their spells to heal all, but the scar left by Nimueh's magic cannot be healed unless by another High Priestess. The magic, unable to fix Merlin's hurts in its usual way, adapted and found another method to rid him of his old wounds. Rather than repairing the skin, it transformed Merlin to an unblemished version of himself. A version from before the fight with Nimueh occurred."

"But why a four-year-old? Why not the version of him before Nimueh's attack?"

"Because he still had scars then," Arthur realised, the pieces falling together at last. "Merlin said the last thing he remembered before waking up was playing in a tree with Will."

"Right before he broke his arm," Gwen finished, remembering Hunith's favourite tale from her son's childhood. "The magic reverted him to a version of himself with no injuries or scars. Not even a trace of a broken bone that healed long ago."

They all took this in for a few moments, the only sound Merlin's laughter as he chased Aithusah from one end of the clearing to the other.

"I only know of one being powerful enough to undo this kind of enchantment," the dragon said eventually. "The Lady of the Lake."