Live With What You Have

The Dragon's Call Part 3

The Dragon's Call: Part 3

Merlin heard it again. It happened when he and Adrielle had lied down to sleep. A distant calling of his name. He hadn't told Adrielle or Gaius about it. He had heard it first the night he spent in the dungeons. He thought he had just been going crazy, but here it was again. This time not only did it call for him, it also called for his sister.

Adrielle. Adrielle.

A soft but commanding voice called to her in her dreams.

"Merlin," she groaned as she rolled over in bed. "Shut up and go back to sleep."

Merlin looked over at her curiously "What?"

"Stop talking to me. I'm trying to sleep," she mumbled.

"I'm not doing anything," he said as he quickly got out of bed.

"Then what are you doing?"

"You're hearing a voice call your name and I'm hearing one call mine. I'm going to investigate," Merlin whispered suddenly.

"What, no! No you can't," she said suddenly snapping awake. "Remember the talk we had earlier about not getting into trouble. Sneaking out in the middle of the night goes completely against that."

"I'm going and you can't stop me. You'll just have to come with me if you want to keep me out of trouble," Merlin said quietly as he pulled on his boots. Adrielle moaned, recognizing the stubbornness in his voice. She pulled on her flats herself and pulled her coat on over her sleeping attire. She wore dresses during the day but preferred to stick with pants and tunics at night.

The pair crept down into the main room. Gaius snored soundly from his small cot. They tiptoed quietly across the floor, until Merlin knocked into a cup on the table and sent it crashing to the floor with a loud thunk. She looked horrified from her brother to Gaius's sleeping form. He wiped his chin and rolled over in bed, but remained asleep the whole time. She sighed gratefully and made her way to the door. She turned and waited for Merlin, who had used his magic to pull the covers back over Gaius.

Adrielle and her brother quietly snuck out of the castle as the followed the sound. The steady call of their names. They followed the voice across the courtyard and down into the dungeons. The paused at the top of the steps as they spotted two guards distractedly playing with a pair of dice. Merlin's eyes flashed gold and sent the dice flying away from the table. One of the guards got up and bent over in an attempt to pick them back up. Adrielle smirked and sent the dice flying further away with a flash of her eyes. Merlin looked over at her and smirked as well. They each took turns magically flinging the dice further and further away until the guards were long gone from them, frantically trying to catch the magical dice.

They quickly and quietly hurried down the remaining steps and grabbed an unlit torch. Merlin lit it before they continued down into the bowels of the city. The calls grew louder and more defined as they descended further down the stairs. The air grew colder around them, smelling old and moldy. Deeper and deeper they walked, until the tunnel let out onto a smell ledge. The ledge looked out into a great and treacherous cavern.

There was one Uther decided to keep, Gaius's words rang through her ears. No, she thought. It can't be. There can't be a dragon down here. The voice that had been calling them suddenly chuckled. Merlin and Adrielle looked at each other unsure. A powerful breeze suddenly filled the room, blowing their hair around. With a roar a great, giant, dragon landed on a perch of stalagmites in front of them.

"I'm here," it said. It was the same voice both Merlin and Adrielle had heard. The dragon itself was huge. Even in the dark its scales glistened like he was made of gold. Its yellow eyes blinked at the pair of twins a few times before speaking again. "How small you two are for such a great destiny."