Chapter 11

I don't own Merlin

Arthur wasn't sure what bothered him the most; the fact that dragons could talk, or that this dragon had apparently known that he would arrive and had waited for it. He had never felt wrong footed so often in such a short time as he had been in the day he had spent in Norwallia.

Merlin rolled his eyes at his side and muttered something about 'dragons' and 'dramatic', but Arthur barely listened, too focused on the huge dragon staring at him. And so he blurted out the first intelligent sentence he could think on.

"You can talk."

When looking back, it might just have been the first thing that popped into his head.

The dragon looked amused. Another thing Arthur hadn't been aware of was possible.

"So can you."

There was an awkward silence where they stared at each other, until it was broken by a snort and a half-choked laugh that was quickly disguised as a cough when Arthur sent the sorcerer a glare.

"Sorry," Merlin choked out as the fake cough developed into a real one, while he was still shaking from suppressed laughter.

"It's not funny, Merlin," Arthur hissed at him through gritted teeth.

Merlin coughed a last time and cleared his throat, before donning a serious expression with his hands clasped behind his back and chin slightly lifted.

"No, of course not," Merlin said in a quite convincing serious tone, though Arthur noticed him biting his lips that revealed how close the man was to start laughing once again.

"You might be good at keeping secrets, Merlin, but you're an awful liar," Arthur said, thinking on their conversation the night before.

Merlin just shrugged. "Nothing wrong with that."

"I guess not," Arthur admitted with a frown.

"Destiny is truly peculiar in how she makes things unfold."

Arthur nearly jumped as he was reminded of them not actually being alone. His long time on the road must truly have tired him mentally as well as physically, if he could forget being in the presence of a huge fire-breathing lizard as soon as he was no longer actively hunted.

Why had that fact turned into the feeling of safety so quickly? And why at all, when their situation hardly could be described as 'safe'?

"Destiny?" Merlin asked, suddenly very interested in the dragon's words. "You've said something like that before." The sorcerer glanced at Arthur and his eyes widened, and he snapped his head back towards the old creature. "You can't mean ..?"

Arthur narrowed his eyes at the obvious avoidance of an explanation. "Mean what?" He demanded, but both sorcerer and dragon ignored him to Arthur's frustration.

"Indeed," the dragon said. "It seems the time for the Once and Future King is approaching."

Merlin shook his head slightly, yet it didn't look like it was in denial of the words but more as a gesture of a man unsure of how to proceed. "Are you certain it's him?" He asked and side eyed Arthur with a slight frown. "He doesn't quite … fit the role."

Arthur gave a sound of disagreement. He might have no idea what they were talking about, but he was quite sure he had just been insulted. He was ignored once more.

"Maybe it is your destiny to change that." With those words the dragon spread his wings and flew away, ignoring Merlin's shout for him to come back. The sorcerer didn't look surprised only tired.

"Is it-he … always like that?" Arthur asked stumbling around the correct pronoun. Still not used to think of dragons as sentient being instead of a man-eating beast.

Merlin smiled slightly, either at his question of choice of words Arthur wasn't sure. Maybe both.

"What? Cryptic and dramatic?"

Arthur nodded.

Merlin grinned. "Always. I think he gets a kick out of it, to be honest."

On their way back to the castle, Merlin let him through the flower gardens. One of his mother's projects. Instead of hiring several professional gardeners she had employed orphan children to assist the head gardener, Cerdan, a former druid that had traded herbs and roots with colourful flowers and green hedges.

They met one of the children, Daegal, who told them that the queen would like to see them, and followed him through the intricacies paths leading through the gardens until they arrived to a small open place with a few benches surrounded by apple trees, where the queen and two well dressed ladies had gathered to talk in the morning sun. Arthur recognised Guinevere as one of the ladies and sent her a smile when she looked up. She gave him a small smile back. His stomach suddenly felt weird, and he wondered if he might have eaten his breakfast to quickly this morning

When they came closer, Arthur noticed with surprise that the queen own gown wasn't of a fine silk, but instead of a rougher material, though decorated with several fine patterns, and that there were a few dirty patches on it. She was just in the middle of wiping her hands in a kerchief that one of her ladies in waiting had given her, when she noticed them.

She gave them a huge warm smile, that Merlin reciprocated. "Mother," he greeted, " Freya, Gwen" He gave them all a small half-bow. Arthur noticed that Freya had very red cheeks though the sun wasn't very bright this early in the morning, he was quickly distracted though, as Merlin stepped closer and gave his mother a hug."

"Merlin," she said when she released him, the smile stayed in place but her voice turned a bit stern. "I didn't seen you at all yesterday. Gwen had to tell me that you had arrived."

Merlin's expression turned sheepish and Arthur watched amused as the sorcerer looked down as he scratched his neck. The Queen's opinion clearly meant a lot to the Prince. Arthur filed the fact away for later.

"Sorry mother," Merlin said as he looked up through his lashes at the queen with a small smile. He nodded towards where Arthur was standing, still a few steps away so he wasn't intruding on the conversation between mother and son. "I was busy."

"So I've heard," she said and turned to the former prince. All the sternness disappeared from her expression, and Arthur was surprised to note that her smile was just as warn and sincere as it had been when she greeted her son. "Welcome to Norwallia, Arthur."

Arthur couldn't help but smile back at the kind lady and bowed. "Thank you, your highness."

The queen's smile didn't get smaller but she waved her hand for him to rise. "Please dear, it's just Hunith."

That evening Arthur and Leon where invited to dine with the Royal Family, and though the first few minutes had been spend in awkward silence until Hunith had somehow broken it with one sentence, the rest of the evening was relaxed and surprisingly pleasant, and Arthur was finally assured that while they might not be free to leave quite yet, it might not be as horrible a situation as he thought as first.

Even if a certain prince and sorcerer had a knack for annoying him with strange insults.

Yes, that was actually the last chapter and yes, this felt mostly like the prelude to a larger story, but the focus was always meant to be on Arthur's reaction to meeting good magic.

I know I left a lot of vague hint both about what happened before this story, and what might happen in the future, but I have no plans of actually writing it. I might (and that's a big might) write some one shots (which would be posted as new chapters here, though the main story is finished), but if anyone have the time and will to write the whole story they are more than welcome. Just credit me for the beginning (and please send me a link to the story. I would love to read it.)

As always constructive criticism is always welcome (and I guess prompts for one shots, though I won't promise anything)