Chapter 5

—

Merlin could feel the Dragon's laughter along his skin even before he entered the cave. He looked about, nervous and alarmed, but it was only him in Camelot's long dungeon halls.

Intrinsically, there was something very wrong about feeling grateful to be dreaming of the Dragon again. Merlin was about to enter a cave where he would face condescension, confusion, and quite probably ridicule—and he was happy about the fact?

"Thing is, you're better than him," Merlin heard.

He turned around to face Arthur. Arthur (or a dream version of him, anyway) took Merlin's hand, without a caution or a quip. It was so unlike the Arthur in the real world—and Merlin did not want to push him away.

"Ask the Dragon whatever you want," Arthur said.

"You're not coming with me?"

"I probably should," Arthur smiled, overly sweet, "since you need me."

"I do not!"

Arthur ruffled Merlin's hair.

"Hey. Stop that!"

"Stop lying, Merlin!" Arthur's voice was lighthearted in a way that seemed off to Merlin. Then he let his hand fall away from Merlin's hair, and spoke earnestly. "Things are different now. You could tell me the truth."

"Trust me, I've told you everything."

"Have you? Secrets come in threes," Arthur said. "Secrets in threes, alarms in twos, and destiny only once."

"You're not making sense!" Merlin said. "Okay, maybe you're making more sense the Dragon—but that's not saying much!"

Dream-Arthur squeezed his hand. "Come on, tell me the third secret."

Merlin looked at him blankly.

"Oh, you idiot. You don't even know it yet, do you?"

Merlin shrugged, then sighed. "We should go inside. I'm sure the Dragon will be overjoyed that you're here."

"But not like this."

"Like what?"

Arthur let go of Merlin's hand.

"Remember that you're better," Arthur said to the shell of Merlin's ear.

Then Arthur was gone. Lovely.

On to the ridicule then, Merlin supposed. He entered the cave, and the Dragon was waiting.

"Young w—"

"No. Please, just stop."

The Dragon cocked its head.

"No more riddles! I've had about as many riddles I can handle without my head exploding. Please, just tell me what the third secret is."

The Dragon sighed. "Young warlock, Destiny is a puzzle."

Merlin waited for more, but the Dragon was apparently finished.

"Yeah, thanks. I don't even know why I came here."

"You came for answers."

"Yes," Merlin said, surprised. It was weird, the Dragon saying something that actually made sense…It felt wrong… "Can you actually give me answers?"

"One, perhaps." The Dragon grinned. "Think carefully, though—what is it you want to know?"

Tell me how to fix things with Arthur, Merlin thought, but that was much too embarrassing and, he supposed, only useful in the short run. Here was a chance to finally learn something—his question should probably be a bit more useful. Perhaps not so selfish.

He sighed.

"I need to know where to find the Questing Beast."

"A noble choice. But know this, young warlock—the future is not yours to face alone. You must be prepared to bare all."

"What? No, I don't think you understa—"

"Go with the prince, alone, to the darkest part of the forest, when the sun is at its height—"

"WHAT?"

"Directions, Merlin. The answer you seek."

"OH! Oh. Yes. Er…Could you start over again?"

—

As he watched the sunrise a few feet away from the camp, Arthur wondered how to possibly set things right with Merlin.

Somehow he didn't think "Merlin, I've decided it's unacceptable for you to be in love with me if you do not plan to snog me at least seven times a day" would work especially well.

The problem was that he hadn't the faintest idea of what was going through Merlin's head. What could possibly have possessed the sorcerer to tell Arthur he loved him if he hadn't meant it? Maybe Merlin wanted to distract Arthur from the Beast, or something. But Merlin, who kept on insisting they use his magic to stop the creature, had hardly stopped mentioning the conflict. He couldn't be just distracting Arthur…And what incentive would Merlin have to lie? Telling him he loved him would hardly save Arthur's life…

It just didn't make any sense.

—

Merlin heard the noises before anyone else.

The Dragon's last words to him were incomplete, just "Time to awaken—your prince needs you—" and then Merlin awoke with a set of instructions he really needed to remember, and also a deepening feeling something was about to go absolutely, horribly wrong.

He looked around quickly, noted most of the knights were still asleep (except the knight on watch whose bedding Merlin was borrowing, but that knight was across the campfire and looked about ready to doze off at any second). So Merlin cleared a space in the earth behind Arthur's tent, scribbled the instructions in the dirt with his magic, and then opened Arthur's tent.

Arthur wasn't inside.

Merlin turned around, confused, and that was when he heard.

There was a pounding sound, as though the Beast was approaching—only it couldn't be the Beast, the Dragon had given him instructions on where to find the Beast, hadn't he? Merlin and Arthur were supposed to go to the darkest place in the forest when the sun was at its height and find the hollow tree that was burnt at both ends—none of which was here.

Merlin heard another sound, just like the last.

He looked around but couldn't see Arthur anywhere. He ran over to the knight on watch, who was checking his armor before pursuing the noise.

Merlin grabbed at the knight's hands.

"The prince…" the knight said, clearly worried.

"Just don't leave, okay? I have everything under control."

The knight looked confused. "But—but you're just a manservant. I can't possibly let you go alone."

"You have to let me go alone!" I can't do my magic with you around, Merlin thought, and willed the knight to somehow understand. "Trust me, you have to. Just…which direction did Arthur wander off?"

The knight pointed south. "If you're not back in ten minutes, Merlin, I'm going after you."

Merlin could've kissed the knight.

"Thank you! Thanks. You won't regret this!" he promised, and ran.

—

At first, Merlin saw Arthur, but no beast.

Then he saw Arthur more clearly.

The prince was moving rocks—what seemed to be really heavy rocks—into a line in the center of the clearing. As he released one, it fell to the earth with a very loud thud. A pounding sound.

Merlin stopped running and slowed down to a walk. Arthur, who must have heard him, never even turned around.

"Arthur…" Merlin said. "What are you doing?"

"Building a castle." Arthur still didn't turn around.

"What? Arthur, are you—"

"When I was little, whenever I asked about my mother, the king would send me out of the room. He always responded the same way, and there was never anything I could do—so eventually I just stopped asking. But sometimes I couldn't help myself," Arthur released another boulder. Thud.

Merlin watched, without moving.

"When I was five I asked my father again. He sent me away, and my nursemaid discovered me crying. I wouldn't tell her what was wrong, because I knew better than to try and ask him about my mother. I knew not to ask. So the nursemaid handed me a set of blocks and told me to build a castle. A better one than ours."

"Arthur…" Merlin said softly.

"Merlin, I don't know where this Beast is." There was another thud, as Arthur released a rock. "I don't know why it's here, or have even the slightest idea how to find it. I know you have magic, which I have always been told was evil. I haven't forgotten for a second that magic killed my mother."

Merlin began walking to Arthur .

"And I know you're not evil, so magic can't always be evil." Thud. "Only, I don't know, not really. And we're not like we used to be, and I don't understand that, don't have time to understand that. And I have to find a Beast, only I have no idea where he is."

Arthur stopped, and sat down on the stones. He put a hand over his eyes.

"I was building a better castle."

Merlin stepped forward, closing the space between them. He took Arthur's hand, and Arthur looked at him.

"Stand up," Merlin said gently.

He didn't let go of Arthur, even after he pulled the prince away from his rocks. He turned them both so they could see Arthur's work.

"Áfæstnian," he whispered, and raised an open palm to face the stones, "burgstede burgþelu burggeat áfæstnian."

Before their eyes, the stones rearranged themselves into a small fort. Leaves and twigs flew to complete the structure, shaping an open door. Even once it completed, the pair stood in silence for a moment.

"It's hardly a castle," Merlin murmured.

"Is it sturdy?" Arthur asked. Merlin couldn't read his voice…but the prince didn't let go of Merlin's hand, either.

"No idea."

"Well, you made it, so I don't think we'll tempt fate by going inside. Last thing Camelot needs right now would be to lose the two of us. Even if we can't find this damn Beast."

"Arthur…"

"Still. I couldn't do that."

"True," Merlin admitted.

Arthur couldn't help leaning his head against Merlin's shoulder, just a little. He didn't get much sleep, he told himself.

Merlin, knowing they would never speak of this again, put a hand down to stroke Arthur's hair.

"You'll build something much, much better," Merlin said softly. "Arthur. You'll build a kingdom."

"If we can just ever get rid of this Beast."

"Come on," Merlin said. He turned his eyes to the fort once more. "Ábréotan," he said, and the stones quietly flew back to their original places. Arthur let go of Merlin, and they turned to leave. Merlin stopped for a second—he couldn't help himself—and turned back to face the clearing.

Arthur placed a hand on Merlin's shoulder, and after a moment Merlin began walking again.

They didn't say a word as they made their way back to the camp.

—

The knights were all awake and preparing to leave when Arthur and Merlin reached them.

"Settle down everyone," Arthur said. "I apologize for causing everyone to sound the alarm."

The knights reacted with a mixture of shock and confusion. Merlin also noted Arthur wasn't the only one impatient to finally get his hands on the Beast. Many of the knights muttered complaints—apparently they had been looking forward to finally fighting something after four days of empty searching. Galahad, at least, attempted to return morale.

"We woke you once for a false alarm, you were just returning the favor," Galahad joked.

"Sorry," added the knight who had been on watch.

"It's fine," Arthur said. "Complete your morning preparations. I'll be with you shortly."

Merlin moved to help pack up the bedding he had borrowed, but then Arthur called his name.

"You're coming with me," Arthur said, and began walking toward his tent.

—

"So that was the second false alarm," Arthur noted when they reach the tent.

Merlin stops. The second alarm…where has he heard that before?

"Two false alarms. I don't like that," Arthur said.

"Neither do I…" Merlin began, and then he remembered: "Alarms in twos, destiny only once. Secrets in threes."

What was the third secret?

"I know where the Beast is, Arthur. Or at least where we can find him."

"You do? What? How?"

No secrets. Merlin thought. He didn't know the third secret yet, but he didn't want to risk hiding much of anything from Arthur at this point.

"We should talk about yesterday before I tell you."

Arthur sighed. "Merlin, you know where the Beast is! We should focus on that, not what I said…just, all of it. You should try to forget that."

"But I can't forget," Merlin said. His hand moved up to Arthur's cheek, which Arthur found completely impertinent, and also rather hot. And then Merlin fell silent.

Arthur waited.

"I hit you, yesterday," Merlin finally said. He yanked his hand away as he admitted it.

Arthur stared laughing. Really, really hard. "Merlin! That's the least of our worries."

Merlin looked upset. "Why?"

"Because there's a Questing Beast running about, you idiot. And it's not as if your slap actually hurt…"

Upon seeing Merlin's dejected expression, Arthur tried to school his face into something more serious.

"Not like it hurt physically, I mean," he attempted. "Emotionally, it was very painful. I was deeply wounded. In my emotions. They might be sore for days."

"Shut up, you prat."

"My emotions might never recover."

"Just shut up and I'll tell you where the Beast is!"

Arthur grinned wide, for the first time far too long. "Now we're finally getting somewhere."

A/N: I'm running a bit behind on my writing schedule, partially because I've also started a shorter modern Merlin AU. My goal is to complete another chapter of Of Dreams & Dragons by the end of the week, but if you don't see any more posted here next Sunday, check my profile because there's a good chance I'll have uploaded the modern AU instead!