The Aftermath (Merlin)

Chapter Three: Awake

The raven haired boy awoke to the sounds of birds chirping merrily, the sun was beaming down onto his face, in complete parallel to weather they had endured the previous day. Merlin moved his head sideways noticing his sleeping King beside him peacefully, filled with joy he smiled as he looked back to the cloudless blue sky.

His head still throbbed but it was nothing in comparison to the day before, by the positioning of the sun he could assume it was around 9 o'clock - perfect time for breakfast the young warlock thought.

As he began to get up he felt a sharp pain in his chest, it wasn't the same kind as yesterday, no this time it was different, it wasn't excruciating it was more like a dull ache, Merlin let out a small groan as it was uncomfortable. The groan was enough to alert the dragon of Merlins consciousness

"Ahhh you're awake"

The raven boy took his hand off his chest, and played off the pain as if it had never happened

"Good morning Kilgharrah" Merlin chirped with clear joy in his voice

"It would seem so, are you feeling alright?"

the dragon asked concern, for he knew that Merlin was definitely not okay, not only could he sense the pain within the young warlock but he knew the price the boy would have to pay for his actions.

"Never better" Merlin lied.

Kilgharrah looked upon his friend in disappointment, knowing that he was lying to him. Merlin ignored the glare he received from the dragon, he didn't know what he knew, but he sure as hell knew he didn't want to talk about it - at least not yet. His priority was looking after the king and returning him to Camelot, after all the entire kingdom was awaiting his return since the victory at Camlan.

Merlin sent Kilgharrah off into the Forrest asking if he could fetch him some food that he could cook. The young dragon lord was surprised when the dragon didn't retort with some sarcastic comment and instead bowed his head and left without hesitation.

Meanwhile Merlin had collected some dry wood from the outskirts of the clearing, never taking one eye off his sleeping friend. Something was different though, as he ventured further into nature the normal beautiful sounds and amazing feelings he would endure thanks to his warlock abilities were much more faint, he put it down to his exhausted state from the powerful spell he had performed, but deep down he knew there was something more to it...

Returning to Arthur, Merlin set down the sticks he had collected and used magic to light them "forbearnan".

Checking on Arthur's wound, making sure it was still healed - It was - He sat down crossing his knees and sighed awaiting the return of Kilgharrah.

5 minutes had passed and the dragon has still not returned, it was at this time Merlin decided that he would take a look at his chest, which still contained a dull ache. He took his red tunic off and looked down at his chest. To anybody's eyes but his own they wouldn't be able to find any trace of the pain seen as his body was absolutely littered in scars and burns, but Merlin knew every scar on his body and how he got it, and his eyes easily diverted through the mess that was his skin to a small black spot on the centre of his chest. No bigger than the size of a pea. The spot had branches protruding from it in all different directions, the branches where small and didn't grow any longer than 2 inches. Merlin was perplexed by this marking as he had never seen anything like it, but with no clear signs of fatality or any way to heal it, the mans gaze moved towards other parts of his body. The warlock knew he had always done what he thought was right, especially for Camelot, for his friends and for Arthur. In every sense of the word he was good but as he looked down at his jarred skin, there was no smoothness, chunks of skin were missing, All he could see was the skin of a monster. Maybe that was the reason he always wore long baggy oversized clothes, never revealing any of his monstrous skin.