Ashes (A Merthur Fanfic)

Prologue

Eyes opening slowly, Merlin groans, his lips cracked and sore. Rolling onto his side, Merlin gasps softly as his sore ribs spike pain through him, "Don't do that," he thinks to himself, before rolling onto his back, "Or that," he thinks, as his entire body shrieks with pain.

Sitting up, his hand reaches over and grabs his customary glass of water, sipping it, he grimaces at it being warm, "Stupid Egypt, I wish we didn't have to work here, I could be working in Europe with their dragons but I stupidly picked going to one of the hottest and driest places on Earth. Ugh."

*~Timeskip~*

After taking a quick cold shower and having a home made iced coffee, Merlin walks out of his tent, sneezing as a cloud of sandy dust flies up his nose. This causes a few of the dragons to growl from inside of their containments, and two even snap at Merlin irritably.

Chuckling lightly, Merlin grabs a small chunk of meat from their feeding bowl, "C'mere little one," he coos to the smallest dragon, a pretty Sand Shark. They open their jaws, revealing rows of sharp knife-like teeth. Grinning, Merlin drop the meat, and the Sand Shark catches it, eyes sparkling as their teeth grind and slice the meat into small pieces. A gruesome memory floods into his vision, of when he had a friend who had lost their fingers in a motorcycle accident, what if instead of crushing his hand underneath the bike and scraping it against the road, he never had it happen, and instead lost them to this dragon. What if that happened instead, fingers sliced open and bleeding-

-No, he'd would not think of that. Instead, he pours more meat into the feeders, and groups up with the other overseer of the programme, Gauis, "Morning Gauis, what have we got today? More dragons? Or are we going to do a bit of scientific research?" a chuckle escapes Gauis as Merlin suddenly realises what they are gonna do, "Oh no, not cleaning! Ugh..."

*~Timeskip~*

After this, Merlin takes an extremely long shower, making sure that the smell is off his skin before he suddenly collapses, as the old burns on his sides shoot pain through his body. "Shiiiiiit," Merlin groans, hair plastered down and body shaking as he tries recovering from the sudden pain, "That one was worse than normal."

He turns off the taps, stumbling out of the shower as his old burns slowly stop stinging, and Merlin gasps, eyes watering as he clutches at the sink, trying not to collapse again, "Come on," he hisses to himself, breathing slightly uneven, "You're fine, get a grip," but as he says it, a splitting headache rises, and he groans again, "G-get a grip, come on Merlin."

Wrapping a towel around his waist, Merlin rubs his cheek, feeling the few days worth of stubble scratch his palm, and his eyes flash gold as the drawer opens, and his razor floats out, snatching it from the air, Merlin quickly shaves his face, and puts on deodorant, pulling on a pair of black jeans and a Nirvana shirt.

The burns still hurt, but it is now only a dull throb. Stretching, Merlin sighs, "Guess I better go get ready for the guests."

A/N

HI GUYS!!! This is our first fan fiction, yes, a Merthur fic, feel free to give constructive criticism, and let us know if you enjoy this story. We are cowriting this, so we'll most likely get chapters put quicker.

Also, don't forget to check out our original story, Pure Darkness!

See you later!

~ColdHeart