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The first dragon Merlin ever flew on was a Great Dragon named Kilgarrah. He was 19 when it happened.
Kilgarrah was the first dragon Merlin had ever met. He’d got lost in a cave one day, while going for an adventure because what else do you do when you’re 19, bored and live in the countryside?
He’d lived in the countryside long enough to know that caves were often best avoided unless you had a map, a torch and a group of people with you. When alone and in a place you hadn’t ever really paid any attention to before, caves were normally quite a big risk. But Merlin was 19, bored and lived in the countryside, so he went wandering into the cave anyway.
Then he started to hear a voice talking to him. The obvious thing to do when you go into a cave by yourself and then you start to hear someone with an unfamiliar voice talking to you by name is to leave as fast as possible.
Merlin is not to be blamed for the fact that he did not leave the cave as fast as possible once he heard a strange voice calling out his name from somewhere further in the cave. “Hello? Who are you? How can you see me?”
He walked further in, until it reached the point where he needed to get a torch out. Then he hesitated.
“Merlin.” the voice said again.
Merlin got his torch out and walked on.
This was how he ended up in a cavern deep underground, standing on a natural ledge made of rock and staring down at an enormous brown dragon on the floor below him.
“That’s a dragon.”
“Yes, I am a dragon.”
The dragon spoke and Merlin nearly fell off the ledge with shock when he realised that it was the dragon that had been talking to him all the way through the cave.
“Were you unaware that dragons live in these parts, boy?”
Merlin shook his head and took a cautious step backwards. “No. I- I knew that there were dragons the lived around here, I just didn’t realise that they lived in caves or in this cave or that they could talk or-”
“You really do know nothing.” the dragon drawled. “That does not bode well for someone with your gifts.”
“My gifts?” Merlin briefly wondered if his gift was hearing mystical creatures talk when they shouldn’t do.
“Yes. Your gifts with dragons.”
“I have gifts with dragons?” Merlin asked, amazed and confused.
“Yes, boy. You have gifts with dragons.”
“How can I have gifts with dragons when I haven’t met a dragon before today?”
“You haven’t met a dragon before today?” the dragon asked, bewildered.
Merlin shook his head.
“How much do you know about dragons?”
“Not much.”
The dragon sighed. “I guess we should start from the beginning, really, but the beginning is a very boring place to be. My name is Kilgarrah, I am a Great Dragon, I have been alive for going on three hundred years now, I have seen kingdoms fall and monarchs die, but then again so have you because those things all the time but being old just simple means that I’ve seen a fair bit of it. Your name is Merlin, you have something of a dragon’s soul within you, which your imbecilic father would have told you if he hadn’t gone rushing off to live in another country and then ended up staying there.”
“How do you know about my father?” Merlin asked. “How did you know that he left us?”
“Because being a Great Dragon of my age makes me somewhat magical.” Kilgarrah said. “And I have an exceptional memory and a lot of contacts, but all those things are beside the point. Here is the point: what do you do with your life at the moment?”
“I’m very confused right now.”
The dragon sighed. “Do you go to school? University? Do you have a job?”
“I work at Tesco. My uncle’s the pharmacist there and he got me a job in the-”
“Who is your uncle? Your father’s brother? Or your mother’s?”
“Well, really, he’s my mother’s uncle-”
“Gaius?” the dragon sounded astonished. “He’s still alive?”
“He’s only 60.”
“And has he told you anything about dragons?”
“Not really.”
Kilgarrah said something in a language Merlin didn’t understand. “Well tell him that Kilgarrah said it’s about time you started learning about dragons. Start with what he knows, then get some books, and then you really ought to get into dragon school. Shouldn't be too hard for you once you've had some basic knowledge filled in."
"But why me? Why dragons? And why me with dragons?"
Kilgarrah laughed. "There are some steps. I suggest you come down here."
"Are you going to eat me? Or kill me?"
"No. Have you ever flown before?"
"No."
"How about you and me go for a little flight now, then?"
Great. Merlin thought. Now he's going to kill me by making me fall off his back while we're flying. "I would love to."
-
Merlin climbed down the stairs, holding onto the wall next to it with one hand. He stood next to Kilgarrah, the largest creature he had ever seen in his entire life. "Climb up. Then let's go."
Merlin climbed up onto Kilgarrah's back, using scales and spikes as handholds and footholds. He sat between two large knobs running along the dragon's spine, just in front of his shoulder blades- wing blades?
Kilgarrah turned around and headed further into the dark of the cave.
"Where are we going?"
"Out of the cave."
In less than a minute, Kilgarrah rounded a corner and daylight appeared. They were standing in a cave opening part way up a cliff face, looking out over a valley. "Up, up and away. Hold on."
Merlin held on. Kilgarrah jumped off the cave floor and soared out above the valley.
Merlin clung on tightly and for the first few moments, fear gripped his mind so tightly that there was no room for any thoughts of anything sensible.
And then?
He looked down at the landscape below them, he saw the enormous wingspan of the dragon he was flying on, he saw scales in sunlight and treetops and clouds and the utter magnificence of dragons.
He didn't want to come down.