Chapter 17

"Yahoo!" I shouted with joy.

My legs stretched wide as if riding an elephant, I might as well have been, I was astride the great dragon as it flew through the air.

"what is this yahoo you keep yelling?" The great beast shouted.

"Oh well its an internet search engine." I said non-chalantly.

"Internet?" It asked

"Magical web of information" I said.

"I see, you are certainly a strange human." it said.

"You have no idea." I said.

"How much longer until we reach the child?" I asked

"Mordred is keeping her in caves by a water fall a horse days ride from here, we shall be there sooner, we will land a ways off and sneak in." it said.

"good good, you agreed very fast to help me, not that I mind but why?" I asked

"Merlin and his knights have long waged a campaign to rid the world of my kind, his knights Lancelot and Tristan have each slain many of my kind, I joined Mordred to strike at Merlin, you say you need to get to Merlin, I sense it is not to aid him." It said.

"Yes but why me over Mordred?" I asked as we started to swoop down toward the forest.

"I sense evil in Mordred, you I sense less so." It said as I gripped tighter to its large frame.

"Oh good." I said.

I braced myself as we crashed through the trees of the forest below, we settled on the ground and I quickly rolled off the great dragon dropping to the floor.

"Now since we are partners in this I will be honest with you, I am going to harm Merlin, but not directly, I will be taking a powerful artifact from him." I said.

"That is good enough for me Human." The dragon hissed.

I nodded at that, I turned around to look at the woods, I was looking for a trail.

"So how are we going to sneak up on him with you with me, Maybe you can fly around and distract them?" I said looking off into the woods, I could hear a river near by.

"No the caves are a maze you will never find the girl there" The dragon hissed.

There was a bright flash behind me and a gust of wind that threw me to the ground, I rolled over to look at the dragon, where before stood a giant reptilian dragon now stood a stunning woman dressed in black robes, she stood at 6ft, every inch of her skin that was exposed seemed to ripple with muscle, not so much that she was bulky but more like a gymnast, a smile spread across her face.

"You never asked my name human, I am Morgan Le Fey, dragon of the pendragon clan." She said as she helped me off the floor.

...

Back at the cathedral, Marian watched the two knights argue.

"I had a vision to come to camelot to join the Knights of the round." The wounded knight yelled.

"I care not for your insanity, I was ordered by Merlin to send a brave knight to fight the dragon in Mordred camp and retrieve the girl, so I did." Lancelot said calmly.

"I am not insane, I had a vision of the grail, of me with the knights, I traveled from far away lands, and fought bandits, I have risked life and limb to reach here." The wounded knight shouted.

"The grail?" Lancelot asked.

"Yes the grail, it is why I set on my quest, I also encountered a boy of royal blood, he is said to have descended from the kings line, all the way back to its founding." The wounded knight said exasperated.

"Fine, I see no reason not to send you on the same quest, I doubt the last fool will succeed anyway" Lancelot said.

Marian snorted at that from her seat in the cathedral, they both looked over at her.

"You sure about that?" She asked smiling.

"He faces a dragon, you have no idea what that entails my lady." Lancelot said.

"And you do?" Marian asked.

Lancelot pulled a necklace from under his tunic, it was a large tooth on a chain.

"I do indeed." Lancelot said smugly.

...

The forest.

"So human, your plan is to wait until nightfall and sneak in?" Morgan asked.

We had started to follow the sound of the river sneaking through the trees, Morgan had brought us down where no horse trails would pass, also it was away from any approaches one would normally make to the falls.

"Yes" I said.

"Why?" She asked.

"Because Morgan if we storm in there he may kill the girl." I said.

"And that would be bad?" She asked.

"Yes Morgan I need her alive." I said

She hissed through her teeth, I was still having trouble reconciling the beauty before me with the dragon.

"Morgan there is a time for shock and awe, and a time for stealth." I said moving through the trees.

"Shock and awe? I like the sound of that." She said grinning, even in human form she looked predatory

"You know I have heard of you, never heard anything about you being a dragon, always a witch or something?" I said.

She looked stunned.

"You have heard of me?" She asked eyebrow raised she sniffed the air.

"You are not lying either." She said.

I nodded.

"Yes vague stories, I thought you and Merlin where rival mages or something, maybe even lovers?" I said.

She snorted.

"No human is my rival, I could crush you with a thought." She said, she punctuated her point by punching a tree, it buckled under the blow and fell.

"Jesus Morgan, stealth." I said watching the tree.

"If you dragons are so tough how did the knights kill your kind?" I said.

She looked at me as if she was willing to kill.

"They killed young, only children, and still they needed that mages trickery to do it." She said anger in her voice.

"That mage? You mean Merlin?" I asked.

"Yes, the deceiver." She hissed.

I slowed my pace to look at her.

"Whats your history with him Morgan?" I asked.

She looked around at the forest and to the sky.

"You humans are ignorant of the ways of this world, we dragons are the ones who gifted you with fire, we dragons lifted you from ignorance." She said.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes, we taught you magic, there are so few Dragons, and so many of you, we thought why should we not share what we knew, you are so frail, we thought you could not cause harm." She said sadly.