Teach Me

Chapter 18

"Are you serious?" Morgana asked in disbelief the next morning as Merlin told her about everything that had happened.

Merlin nodded sadly, "I'm sorry, Morgana."

"I can't believe it," she whispered, "he's like a father to me," she started to raise her voice, "and now he wants me dead?"

"I really am sorry, but you know how Uther is about magic."

She groaned and ran a hand through her hair, "and now Camelot knows I have magic. This can't get worse. Does anyone know you have magic?"

Merlin nodded, "yes, but only Gwen and Arthur and I trust them."

Morgana looked up at him in surprise as she moved her dirty breakfast dishes to the small counter in their kitchen. "Were they mad?"

Merlin shook his head, "no actually, they both took it surprisingly well."

Morgana smiled as she wiped her plate down with a wet rag, "well it's a relief to know we still have some friends still in Camelot."

Merlin nodded, "I agree."

"So what do we do now?"

"I think we should keep a low profile for now," Merlin suggested. "There have been too many close calls and now we have a price on our heads. That's not good."

Morgana bit her lip and sat down across from him again, "could we still continue with the lessons, though. You and I are considerably better after just one week of being with the Druids."

Merlin nodded and gave her a small smile, "well, we still haven't gone through every spell in the book yet, so I guess we have to continue," he said jokingly as if it pained him.

She caught on and did the same, "oh how terrible."

They then both started laughing and Merlin brought the book out from his room, "a whole magical world at your fingertips, where do you want to start?"

* * *

"Fin luin tuilë," Merlin said as he ran a brush gently down Morgana's hair. As soon as the spell finished he returned back to his seat and smiled at his handiwork. Morgana grabbed a tiny mirror and looked at her hair. Woven in between her waves were beautiful flowers. She smiled, "that's beautiful. How did you do it?"

He explained, "the words are fin luin tuilë. Just say them how I said them."

She looked at him and said, "fin luin tuilë."

He nodded, "wonderful. Now, to actually do the spell you have to rest your hand on your hair and concentrate. Just like the elder Druids said."

Morgana nodded and whispered the words, concentrating on what she wanted the magic to do. As she whispered the words she began to braid her long hair, magically inserting the strands of flowers into her braid. When she had finished she looked up at him and smiled, "ta da!"

"Beautiful," Merlin smiled at her.

Morgana blushed and looked down. She then quietly cleared her throat and looked back at the spell book, "can we try something harder now? I've advanced significantly while we were with the Druids."

Merlin nodded and whispered, "eryn celeb balrog." Slowly, before her eyes, Morgana watched as a small silver wooden dragon appeared on the table. It was about three inches tall and was beautifully sculpted. The silver that it was covered in was painted on it so delicately that it looked like the dragon was moving. Morgana looked at it in wonder and moved closer to it to touch it when it suddenly coughed out a tiny puff of smoke. She jumped back and looked up at Merlin, "it's alive?"

Merlin shook his head, "no, not really. It's just sort of... animated. You don't have to feed it or anything but it will still interact with you."

She looked at it and held out her finger to it. The small dragon looked up at her and hopped onto her finger, cooing. She let out a tiny laugh, "hello there."

"You can call it whatever you like," Merlin told her, "it'll respond."

She smiled at it, "look at you, what ever shall I call you? What about Belegil?" She looked up at Merlin and explained, "it means 'the mighty star' in the old language."

He nodded, "I'm surprised you know the old language already."

She smirked, "what can I say, I'm a fast learner."

The small dragon cooed and hopped over to Merlin. Merlin outstretched his palm and it hopped into it. The dragon curled itself in a ball and laid its head down and looked as if it was about to fall asleep. Right before it closed its eyes it let out a sort of sneeze, sending a tiny fire ball into the air.

"Well that might be a problem..."

Merlin shook his head, "no it's not real fire. It's more like a light. If I were to touch it I wouldn't be burned. Since the dragon's not real, the fire's not real."

Morgana nodded in understanding and then closed her eyes and started to whisper a spell. By the time she finished and her eyes flashed gold, a small cushion appeared on the table. She smiled at her handiwork and Merlin rested the tiny dragon onto it. She smiled at the sleeping silver dragon, "it's beautiful."

Merlin smiled at it, "yeah."

Morgana sighed contentedly, "it's times like these that make me wonder whatever could be so bad about magic."

Merlin nodded, "It's times like these when I realize I wouldn't trade my gift for anything in the world."