The Dragon's New Groove

Discovering New Things

Gaius' entire body freezes up and his eyes widen comically. He looks like a deer when Kilgharrah sneaks up on them in his dragon form. He turns his head down to hide a smirk.

"Merlin." It's a statement, not a question.

"Gaius." Merlin mimicks.

"Please tell me that's not who I think it is, sitting in my chambers."

Merlin very guiltily looks down at the nibbled lettuce. "Who do you think it is?"

Gaius doesn't answer that, but he does turn his full attention on Kilgharrah, and gives him his best you better explain yourself right now eyebrow.

"Long time no see, Physician."

Gaius puts the plants in his hand down and stays as far as he can from Kilgharrah.

"What are you doing here, Kilgharrah? I thought Merlin forbade you from ever setting foot in Camelot again."

"He did," Kilgharrah stands, distancing himself from the crunchy leaf water, "but I'm an old soul, Gaius. I don't know how much longer I have left and I'd rather not spend it alone in another dark cave. So I've asked my last remaining kin if I could stay with him."

Gaius puts on his most disbelieving face.

"And Merlin let you? Do you have any idea of what kind of position you've put us in? What if someone finds out the truth?"

"I could always kill everyone," Kilgharrah mutters.

Merlin barks out his name, "Kilgharrah! You promised you wouldn't kill anyone else! That was one of the rules!"

"It was just a suggestion, Merlin. The best way to keep secrets is by having no one else to share them with."

Kilgharrah can feel Gaius' eyes burning into the back of his skull and he can plainly see the regret of letting him into Camelot on Merlin's.

A twinge of something extremely uncomfortable coils in his chest, and he tries his best to not let his discomfort show.

"Kilgharrah, would you please leave us? I need to have a talk with Merlin."

He can take the hint that he's not wanted, no matter how much it hurts, and nods, leaving the room.

Honestly, what was he expecting, barging into Merlin's life like this? Of course there would be objections and mistrust. He had attacked Camelot after all.

It was such a stupid thing to do, it didn't even make him feel any better. It actually made him angrier that Uther was dead.

Kilgharrah needs to find his tomb. He won't desecrate it, he promised he wouldn't do anything to cause trouble, but he needs to see it for himself.

Maybe it'll make him feel better once he finally sees that Uther is dead. 

From what he's heard from Merlin, the king had been rotting away ever since Uther was outed as Morgana's father. A slow and miserable death is what he deserved and Kilgharrah needs to see that it happened.

How the hell is he supposed to find the King's tomb though? This is literally the first time he's been inside the castle. He'll just have to wander around.

———

Corridor after boring corridor and he spots no familiar faces or a dimwitted King. He's almost about to give up when the Knight who was with Arthur in the woods comes barreling around the corner and crashes into Kilgharrah. The Knight falls, very ungracefully, grunting in obvious pain.