Merlin: Dawn of the Dragonlord

Chapter 2: Dream

Author’s note:

This chapter is a flashback.  I won’t make too many of those, but this one is useful.

MERLIN: DAWN OF THE DRAGONLORD

Chapter 2: Dreams

####Five days ago ######

It had to be a dream.  There was nothing real about that place.  His feet were resting on a black pool of water and yet he wasn’t sinking.  He felt light as though he didn’t have a body; he was like a ghost.  Around him it was utterly dark but still he felt a hand on his shoulder.  He turned around and he saw Arthur smiling at him.  There was something unworldly about the way the light was shining on the prince’s golden hair.  He was so bright that it made everything else look that much darker.  Standing behind Arthur was the bent shape of Gaius, older somehow, looking wise and worried.  Gwaine was there too; Gwen and Lancelot appeared and disappeared in a flash of light; Kilgharra, the Great Dragon, bowed low to him.  Behind his silhouette, he could see his mother, Ellyan and Percival, and then all of the knights; everyone he had ever known – loved – was there.

And then, a terrible low growling voice rang in his ears and his head, filling him up with something that he didn’t want to know or hear.

Arthur will die.

“No!” he uttered, covering his ears with his hands.  “I won’t let it happen.”

Arthur will die.  It is time now.

He wheeled around.  The ghostly form of Arthur was still there, but he was no longer smiling.  He seemed sad and his eyes were glassy and cold.  He was dead.  All of the people behind him were vanishing one by one: his mother, the knights, Ellyan, Percival, Gwaine, Gaius.  They were all leaving him.  A great emptiness filled his heart as the darkness spread around him, reaching even the shape of Arthur that faded and blew away like ashes in the wind.    

“No!  Please!” he cried out more forcefully.  “What can I do?”

The same words rang over and over.  Arthur will die.  Arthur will die.

“Please!  No!  Tell me!”

It is time now.  We need your light.

But they were all gone and all he knew now was worthlessness and dread.  

Arthur will die.

“Merlin!”

He felt his body shake.  His head was hurting.  He was sinking into mind-numbing fear.

“No!  I won’ let him die. No!”

“Merlin!”

Suddenly, his eyes snapped opened and he was staring into bright white light.  A pair of beady eyes was looking at him.

“Gaius…”

His voice broke.  He brought his hand to his forehead and immediately knew that he was covered in sweat.

“Another dream?” said Gaius with worry in his voice.

Merlin merely nodded while trying to sit up in his bed.  There was no way that he was going back into that dream again tonight.

“Why is this happening Gaius?”

“I don’t know,” said the physician while taking his wrist to check his pulse.  “I don’t have all the answers I’m afraid.”

Merlin knew at least part of the answer, but it wasn’t a comforting thought.  

“Something ominous is coming.  It surrounds Arthur, but I don’t know what.”

Gaius’s reassuring smile faded.

“Yes, Arthur seems at the center of your dreams, but you also forget another important person.”

“Who?”

Gaius’s expression was a mixture of pride and dread.  

“You, Merlin.”

“Me?  The idiot manservant?  Who am I next to Arthur Pendragon?”

Gaius threw him one of his reproachful glances.

“I think you underestimate your importance in this story, Merlin.”

The young warlock merely snorted in reply.  Gaius checked his pulse again, and his eyes, and the color of his skin, and the speed of his breathing.  He only seemed half-satisfied but Merlin had no patience when it came to being the sick person as opposed to the physician.

When Gaius took out a cloth to wipe Merlin’s forehead, the young sorcerer said, “I think I’m fine now.  It’s almost dawn.  I have some mending to do and…”

“None of that, Merlin,” said Gaius.  “You can still get a few more hours of rest.  I will give you a sleeping draught.”

“Like Morgana,” said Merlin darkly.

It was not a secret between them that Merlin’s dreams were becoming more frequent and more foreboding.  Yet his dreams were not clear images like those he had seen in the crystal cave; they were more feelings, distant voices and shadows.  Whether or not they were going to grow into something more, he didn’t really want to know.  As far as he was concerned, he only wanted a good night’s sleep.

From the way that Gaius was eyeing him now, he could only conclude that the physician had guessed his thoughts.

“No, I don’t think your gift is like Morgana’s,” he said.  “Your dreams remind me of what the Dragonlords were notorious for.  It used to be that their connection to the deep magic gave them the ability to feel certain changes.  They knew when war was brewing.  They knew when a course of action would bring about chaos or doom.  As you can imagine, it was a useful power to have for kings and rulers.”

Merlin was glad for the change of subject.  Moreover, there were more then one interesting notions in what Gaius had just said.

“Dragonlords were not kings,” said Merlin, feeling curious and fully awake now.

Gaius smiled mysteriously.  “I imagine that some of them were.”

“Were?” burst out Merlin, catching up.  “Do you think that Balinor…?”

But Gaius was yawning loudly now and avoiding Merlin’s gaze too.  

“It’s late enough.  Do your mending if you like, I’m going to get a few more hours of sleep.”

Merlin felt as thought he had only been allowed to glance at the phrase of a particularly interesting book.

“Gaius!” he cried out, curiosity getting the better of him.  

“This is a conversation for another night, Merlin.  Good night!”

“Gaius!”

“Good night, Merlin!”

This had been their last conversation.  Merlin woke up very late and Arthur scolded him for being a lazy, worthless servant.  Gaius went to the outskirts villages for his monthly visit.  Sir Leon confirmed seeing the physician leaving the citadel on the usual path.

And then, just like that, he had been taken.