His Love

Chapter 27

Arthur scowled at the cat that had arrived back in their chambers as it played the game that it had concocted itself of jumoing off high places. Merlin sat cross legged on their rug, bathed in the golden sunlight that flitered through the high windows in the late afternoon and laughed as the cat threw himself from the gardrobe again. Merlin seemed to be speaking gently to the cat as it shook itself with a hauty look headed back to the heavy wooden furniture. Noticing his husbnad's grumpy scwowl, Merlin called the cat to him. The cat sauntered over immediatly and settled himself at the sourcerer's feet, which Arthur thought odd, given the storeis his father had been telling him about this particular cat and it's behaviours.

"You're cat keeps glaring at me" Arthur said frowning and the little tabby kitten as it tried to catched the frayed bit of rope Merlin was dragging across the floor in front of him enticingly.

"probably. He doesn't like you much" Merlin said blasely and shrugged without looking up. Arthur blinked at him in surprise.

"What do you mean? He's a cat." Arthur questioned in a concerned tone. He worried that Merlin had lost mor than just his memories sometimes. If Merlin though he could talk to animals now, Arthur would be worried. Merlin let out a laughter.

Arthur grew suspiciosu. He decided to sit down, crossed legged, next his husband, he gazed at Merlin until he caught Merlin's eyes.

"Merlin how can the cat not like me? He is a cat? Can you talk too cats?" he asked cautiously.

"Cats? No I can' talk to cats" answered Merlin, continuing to talk to the cat as it pounced at the twisted threds trailing before him. Arthur let out a long sufferring sigh and stared at his husband with a slight concern.

"You just talked to the cat Merlin." Arthur stated, worried that his husband was growing worse in the mind.

"Hes not a cat" said Merlin and turned his whole face towards Arhtur to smile wide and innocently. Arthur looked at the it.

"That's definitely cat Merlin" he said slowly as if Merlin was having difficulty unserstanding this complex concept.

"Your lucky your cute you know. He looks like a cat, but he's not a cat." Merlin confirmed confidently while looking at his husband fondly.

"What is he then?" Arthur queried in confusion, feeling concerns.

"Dragon." Merlin replied with yet another shrug and turned his attention back to the cat - dragon - creature. Arthur was dumb founded. The cat wiggled it's bottom and pounced on the rope, finally catching it and chewing on it victorously.

"Haha! Dragon? That's not a dragon, Merlin. I have seen dragons, I have been a dragon! That is a cat." Arthur grinned, he was confident, but concerned about his husband's mental state. The cat mewled softly and batted at Arthur's pointing figner. Merlin rolled his eyes.

"Alright fine he looks like a cat. I made him look like a cat in order to get him out of the dungeons because apparently I agreed to free him before I forgot. I've not had chance to sort him out yet, I can't eactly turn him into a dragon right in the Camelot courtyard!" Merlin said in one long breath sounding impaient. Arthur stared at Merlin. And stared and stared.

"Merlin. Are you saying that that cat is the Great Dragon? And you freed The Great Dragon who my father has imprisoned for two decades because he told you you said you would when you now can't remember?" He said with what he thought to be utmost patience at the warlock's stupidity. Despite the situation, he was still touched by his husband's trusting and gentle nature.

"Yes. I don't think he likes being a cat, though." Merlin replied obliviously, as he stroked Kilgarrah's soft head.

"He can't fly or breathe fire, which is just as well because I think he would have set Uther's bed chambers on fire by now if he could." Arthur was shooken. How could his warlcok be so casual about unleashing the Great Dragon? His concern for Merlin spiked, this was treason, if Uther found out what his beloved had done; it wouldn't matter to whim he was married, his father would still be bent on exacting a bloody and swift revenge for his actions, Arthur knew.

"Merlin! You need to get that cat - um, dragon - well, thing out of here!" Arthur hissed looking around sneakily as though he expected his father to come striding in with the camelot grand inquisitor and take the cat and arrest Merlin. He didn't which Arthur was thankful for, but he hadn't known before how dangerous such a harmelsss little pet could be. Merlin looked glum. He had enjoyed playing with the kitten over the last few days. Arthur felt his heart wrench in two at the sad look on his husbands face, but he shook himself free of the feeling and remembered how very much worse he would feel should Merlin be caught. He had to to keep Merlin safe.

"We will ride at once. Bring the cat" Arthur stood up fluidly and pressed a kiss to Merlin's forehead before striding out of the room to prepare the horses for their speedy departure to deal with Merlin's missguided actions.

As the paid boarded their horses in the stables, the kitten squirmed in excitments. Arthur and Merlin both headed out of the grand stone gate away from the castle and towards the forest, horse hooves pounding on the ground rythmically as they headed passed a confused looking Leon. After a short ride through the woods, the pair reached a clearing in the forest, still in broad sight of the glistening white castle. Arthur halted his stee: Degore.

"This spot is as good as any Merlin" he announced gradnly. Merlin looked sad, which Arthur noticed as he demounted Degore. Gently, he aprroached his still seated husband in his horse.

"Baby, what's wrong?" he asked, reaching for the kitten. Merline sniffelled slightly before answering.

"I'll miss him."he cried softly. With a small shrug. Arthur felt pure emotion for his husband's simple declation. The dragon had helped his husband in a way that Arthur had never considered before, giving him invaluable counsel on magical matters and he knew that Merlin would miss Kilgarrah's input, more than that, he would miss the dragon's gumpy but helpful nature, he was a being of magic, like Merlin, and had always believed in the pair's destiny, his presents in the caverns under Camelot would be sorly missed. Degore whinnied, pulling Arthur from his thoughts as he cradled the kitten

"I know you will" Arthur said and pressed their forheads together as Merlin silently let his tears flow as he held the small kitten to him, curled up in his arms and prring.

"It's time now" He said and helped Merlin down from his horse. Merlin sighed and whispered something in a language that Arthur did not understand. The wizard's yes glowed golden and the kitten mewoed as it turned back into a dragon, it's little limbs stretching and the tabby fur receding into scales as it did so. The now massive beast before then let out an enourmous grown and stretched his wings wide into the sky.

"Much better! Thank you young warlock." The dragon said loudly. Merlin family nervously at the dragon.

"Have I done as you asked?" Merlin asked him.

"Yes young warlock . You have freed me from the prison of other pendragon, just as you said that you would" he said reassuringly and nodded at the charcoal haired man. Arthur frowned at the mention of his father.

"Will you leave these lands now? Or do you wish for revenge?" He asked confidently, though he was worried that if the dragon attavkee the city they would not be able to stop the vicious onslaught if his attacks. The dragon looked at the prince thoughfully with an expression on his reptillian face that Arthur could not interpret. After a short pause he said:

"No young prince, I have taken my revenge upon Urther. Youre city is safe." Arthur sighed a sigh of releif at this.

"I'm going to miss you" Merlin said with tears glistening in his wide blue eyes like the gentles waves of a mountain lake lapping against the sandy shore, pulled not by the tides and the moon but by the wind and rain around it. He took a slow step towards the magical bast and raised his hand as the Great Dragon dipped his massive head. In a move that shocked Arthur to his verycore, the warlock gave the dragon a firm scratch behind his giant scaly ear. The dragon, again to the blond Crown Prince's surprise, let out a deep rumble from his chest. Merlin grinned adorably.

"He's purring!" the wizard exclaimed. Arhtur could not help but be amused and the Kilgarroh seemed too content to care that he was being made to act like a kitten. Merlin stopped scratching the dragon.

"It is time for me to go. All things musyt change. Remember all that I have taught you." With that the great dragon beat it's huge wings and took off into the sky, soaring away until he was nothing more than a speck against the wide blue sky. Merlin's eyes shimmered with tears but he put on a brave face and smiled at his husband.

In the distance, a yell echoed through Camelot as Uther found yet another dead mouse in his boots.