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Merlin hadn't been expecting to almost run head first into Aithusa in the caves of ismere, hell he thinks she's just as suprised as he is! The dragon takes a few shakey steps back as Merlin holds out his hand to calm her "Aithusa" he whispers, eyes wide in shock and disbelief at the state the poor thing is in.
The dragon tilts her head slightly in recognition of the undertone of Dragonlord power she heard as he said her name "who did this too you?" He asks, keeping his voice as low as he can as he doesn't want to spook her with how upset he's feeling. She opens her mouth, but only a few weak squeaks and whines escape, which only makes Merlin all the more upset for the dragonling.
She was at least 3 years old now, yet she wasn't able to speak, what the hell had kilgharrah been doing all this time? What was Aithusa even doing in these caves? Merlin continues to stare at her with growing devastation as to how much he's missed of his hatchlings life
At both seeing and being able to slightly sense her Dragonlords anguish and confusion, Aithusa gets an idea, before she rears back and breathes out a strange silvery gold mist. Merlin is startled at first, thinking she was about to attack him but having seen and felt kilgharrah do something similar, he becomes curious as to what she's going to teach him. He doesn't feel himself pass out, Aithusa is quick to catch him before he hits the floor and move him into the place she's been resting.
When Merlin next awakens, he feels weird, like something is directing thoughts and feelings that Arn't his own. The world is also a strange bright white that seems to judder ever couple of seconds, yet a strange feeling of contentment that isn't his own floods over him. Just before Merlin can grow confused, a powerful sound can be heard and he feels what he know realises is Aithusa's excitement as the white begins to crack and fall away to reveal a dark sky, bright green trees and more importantly himself 'everything was so bright and big' a voice he's never heard before whispers softly.
He's shocked both by what he's seeing and hearing as he comes to the startling realisation that Aithusa is showing him her life from her point of view and the voice that sounds both strangely young but gruff, much like Kilgharrah's, was in fact Aithusa's mental voice! He's in awe of what she's managed to do and more than a little giddy at the fact that she is able to communicate with him even though she can't speak at all.
The memories between Merlin sending the two dragons away and Aithusa growing into a 5 month old dragon pass by extraordinarily quickly, telling him that this isn't what she was wanting him to see, but he's proud of each mile stone that passes him by none the less. The memories seem to slow and he feels something nudge him 'watch, this is where gana and I met' Aithusa whispers, startling the warlock slightly as the dragon shouldn't even know who Morgana is, never mind have a nickname for her!
None the less, Merlin watches as the dragon takes flight from Kilgharrah's nest as he's begun to call it, much to the dragons annoyance, and swoops over the familiar trees of Camelot's many forests "that's dangerous, thusa" he whispers softly, completely forgetting that said dragon can actually hear him until she huffs quietly and he knows that if a dragon could roll their eyes then that's exactly what she'd be doing at that very moment 'grumpy said that too, he wasn't very fun, dragonlord' she says in a scornful tone and Merlin has to hold his breath and fight not to flinch as she says 'dragonlord' in the exact same tone he does whenever he uses Arthur's titles to show he's beyond angry at him.
Aithusa eventually pulls him back to watching what was going on and not even a second later, something akin to distress could be felt somewhere near by 'i was young enough to feel her distress, that's what lead me to her the first time' the dragon says quietly, causing Merlin to wonder if all dragons could do that or if it was just young dragons who happen to be near by.
He sees someone, possibly Morgana, stumbling around below them before they eventually succumb to whatever has got them into the state they have got themselves into, which is when Aithusa and Merlin dive down and land not too far from who Merlin can now identify as Morgana.
As soon as he sees the wound across Morgana's stomach and the fact that she looks concussed, Merlin knows that this is a few hours, maybe even days after they took Camelot back the second time. He sighs quietly as now he understood how she got back on her feet so quickly 'she was dying, unlike some people I was there to help' Aithusa hisses through their connection, taking Merlin off guard at the hatred he can feel being aimed towards himself and knows that Morgana had shared every single bad memory she had of her former friend.
The only reason Aithusa hasn't yet attacked him was because of whatever small connection she could still feel between the two of them as a dragon and her lord, but Merlin knew she would if given a reason or chance. He knew better than to shit talk to an enemies Ally, so, as much as it pained him to do so, he kept his mouth shut and his next few thoughts to himself as he watched a much younger Aithusa heal Morgana from her mortal wounds, stick around to ensure she was okay before smiling and flying off.
The next few memories are of Aithusa growing curious about the human she saved, curious enough that she visits Morgana's hovel a few times, staying out of sight until Morgana happens to see her shadow and goes out investigating one day 'she was scared and alone, just like me when kilgharrah decided I was old enough to stretch my wings and go about life alone' he hears Aithusa say, that scornful tone now directed at her other so called kin.
Though there a quiet sadness hiding just behind it, a sadness that Merlin understands more than Aithusa will ever know "I'm going to have a few choice words for that scaly bastard next time I see him" Merlin responds quietly, trying to wrap his head around the fact that kilgharrah had left a 6 month old dragon to her own devices, had allowed her to befriend and side with Morgana after saying her birth brought hope for the future!
Once again the next few memories fly past him, but he sees the way Aithusa brings Morgana comfort, especially when she's in the middle of or just after those nightmares and seeing possible futures. But those Arn't what gets his attention, at least not for long, because the one that draws him in is one that shows Morgana and Aithusa traveling somewhere and so he watches on curiously. Nothing of interest happens for awhile, not until several horses can be heard racing towards them.
The sound of them makes Merlin perk up, his entire attention on the sound and his magic rising to help drive off the possible threat, even though he can't do anything. It appears that Morgana's magic has the same idea as Merlin's, because she tries to fling the men from their horses and sends a fireball to try and slow the horses down, but what she hadn't realised, not until it was too late, was that knights that Merlin not she had ever seen before were coming from all sides, the first lot were merely a distraction so that the others could sneak up from behind and the sides.
Aithusa let's out a mighty shriek when she notices what's happening, which catches Morgana's attention. Her eyes widen and for the first time since she came back to Camelot, Merlin can see fear and confusion in her eyes "run! You have to run little one!" She yells, almost pleads with the baby dragon beside her "I don't want them to kill you, go!" She continues as the strange knights continue to close in on them "listen to her thusa" Merlin says quietly, taken aback by the loyalty he can sense between the two and now understands what the woman meant just before she put the Fomorroh in his neck.
Aithusa, dispite how frightened and confused she is, stays by Morgana's side even as the knights close in. She snarls and snaps and tries to take a man's hand off when he tries to grab her, yet they aren't deterred from whatever they were sent here to do.
Two of the men go back to their horses, at this point Merlin dispite the fact that he's merely watching and can't do anything, Aithusa and Morgana are on guard and suspicious. But none have time to do anything as one man blows two darts at them in quick succession and the other throws an alarming amount of chains to the other knights, which are quickly wrapped around a whining and struggling Aithusa and Morgana, who's fighting against whatever was in the blow darts, but rapidly loosing consciousness.
Merlin watched on in horror as manacles joined those chains and were attacked to Morgana's wrists and ankles. He knew exactly what they were used for and wondered who the hell had sent these men to capture her in the first place. Aithusa looses consciousness just before Morgana does and Merlin is all but hit in the chest by how much fear he can feel pouring from Aithusa, as well as protectiveness and anger that frightens him a little as he knows exactly what an angry dragon can do, regardless of how old they are.
It takes what feels like hours for the poor dragon to come around again, her eyes open slowly and her nose sniffs inquisitively to see where those horrid men had taken her. She's met with the smell of fear, pure unadulterated fear, which makes her whine quietly as she's never felt anything like this before. When her tired eyes finally clear of their blurriness, she finds herself somewhere dark and what she thinks is tall and round. She lets out another whine as she scratches at the wall she feels beside her, but before she can do anymore than that, the top of the space opens, causing light to flood in and blind her.
It makes both her and Merlin groan at the suddenness of it, though it's then she sees that she isn't alone, that Morgana is there too. Morgana who looks even more dishevelled than Merlin's ever seen her, as she blinks and blocks some of the blinding light so that she can tell who she's going to kill next in order to get out of here. Aithusa does the same, though she skitters across the floor so she's slightly behind her friend now, but she looks up and sees a very tall, very scary looking man who is grinning down at them like a cat who's finally got the cream.
It takes Merlin all of 3 seconds to recognize him as Sarrum, king of Amata and he shudders at the sight of him. The man hated magic and everyone who used it even more than Uther ever did.
His mother made sure he knew about both magic hating kings when he was growing up, and to see him now with both Aithusa and Morgana as his prisoners scared him to no end. Talks of his torture had been heard all over Albion and maybe even beyond. Those who capture the man's attention either end up dead or come back out of it as a mere shell of what they once were.
Merlin doesn't pay attention to what the man says, he doesn't think he has the stomach for it and soon it's pitch black once again. It's at this point that he feels himself and Aithusa seperate from one another, he's no longer watching from her perspective but watching as an outsider. He's no longer in the pitch black, he can see both Aithusa and Morgana again, but that doesn't mean he's any more relaxed. In fact he's rather nervous about what it is he's about to see now that he can watch his dragonling's expressions.
He has no idea how long it's been since the two got put in here, but he sees how Aithusa slowly grows until she's about as long as Morgana is tall. He also notices that Sarrum holds back food and water until both Morgana and Aithusa are barely able to stay awake, yet even when he does get a guard to throw food in, it's scraps barely even enough to properly feed a dog. Those scraps are enough to help Aithusa grown until she's about half the size of the pit they are in, which is when Merlin worries over how much bigger she'll end up growing in here.
He's already noticed the way her back legs and feet have bent wrong, due to the fact that she isn't able to move around very much and is constantly sat on her haunches so that Morgana had space to sit some what comfortably, even though she's still got manacles that attached to the wall behind her. Merlin feels his dragonling's hunger, it's just as painful as it was when he was growing up, but after having at least 2 full meals a day after going to Camelot it's almost torture.
The cries that Aithusa let's out at night are the worst things Merlin has ever heard in his life, mix that with the whimpers and quiet begging for her to calm down from Morgana, Merlin finds himself crying at her plight. Morgana seems to grow even more insane the longer she's left in the dark, she begins to talk to herself, her eyes grow almost feral and her hair grows well past what Merlin is used to seeing and begins to mat together so much that Merlin finds himself reaching out to try and help her.
When Aithusa outgrows the pit and ends up curled up painfully, Merlin is forced to feel every bit of her pain. He isn't sure if the dragon making him watch has been holding back or if this is when all the pain finally hit her, but Merlin cried out and curled up on himself just as the dragon had to try and get it to stop. Her cries grow worse after that and Merlin can't help the painful sobs that escape him as the reality of just how badly he'd failed his dragonling and friend finally hits him 'we were stuck there for 2 years, dragonlord. Do you understand now? This is what happened to me' Aithusa says in a strangely gentle voice, that only makes Merlin sob harder.
He reaches his magic out towards the dragon's and let's it wrap around her like a hug "I'm so sorry, Aithusa, I've let everyone down" he says as he just about manages to calm himself down enough to speak. The dragon merely lets out a hum as she moves away from his magic, something that makes Merlin deflate and with that he's pulled out of her memories and gently placed back inside his own mind 'until we meet again, dragonlord' she sounds ever so slightly amused and warmer when she says 'dragonlord' this time and he can only wonder when the two will cross paths again.