A/N: No, but seriously, what was Merlin going to do if Borden hadn't poisoned the knights and conveniently got them out of the way? I have no idea. Well, I have a few, but nothing I find likely at all.

Something was up with Merlin.

Well. Something else was up with Merlin. He was twitchier than usual and was acting out of character: having random miniature temper-tantrums whenever they slowed their pursuit of the thief; barely smiling; not picking up on their joking and pranking unless they made it obvious. He seemed almost obsessed with the notion of catching up to the mysterious egg-hunter - and the tight-lipped grimace he wore was creeping Arthur out. It simply wasn't natural for 'Merlin the Fool' to be so angry-looking all the time!

And now it was evening. Merlin was just coming back from feeding the - wait, what? Did his manservant always flap his arms about and yell at them after dinner or was there an actual problem? The warm stew must have been making him drowsy...

"Arthur, I saw him! He's heading for the tomb, he'll have taken the egg before the sun's down, come on!" Spluttering, Arthur rolled off his bedroll and into a standing position, momentarily flailing but steadying himself against a tree.

"...What?" Merlin grabbed his shoulder and shook it violently.

"THE. THIEF. IS. ON. THE. MOVE." The crazed gleam in his manservant's eyes was less than reassuring as Merlin pointed dramatically. "THIEF. EGG. THATAWAY. NOW!"

By the time the group had been chivvied into action, Arthur was wide awake. Deciding by mutual agreement to leave their belongings ("For God's sake, leave them! NO-ONE STEALS CROCKERY AND BEDCLOTHES IN A FOREST AT NIGHT!") they raced to the tower. As they neared the clearing, Merlin spotted the thief scaling a wall. They followed his lead, climbing up behind him and sprinting after him down a long corridor.

When they reached the end, the thief looked back at them and smirked before removing the whole triskellion from his bag and unlocking the door. From the back of the group, Merlin cried out a warning, but the thief ignored him and stepped forward, straight into the white cloud of gas that awaited him. Arthur covered his mouth and saw his men do the same as the gas neared them. Strangely, it dispersed just after Merlin gave a rather loud and suspiciously long, speech-like cough... But there was no time to think of that now, as his manservant had pushed his way to the front of the pack and was ahead of them, leaping up the stairs until they all stumbled into a cavernous hall, the largest Arthur had ever seen - and there it was, on a pedestal in the centre of the room.

The egg.

It was blue-white and glossy, perfectly formed. It seemed impossible that such a thing was a work of nature - but then, Arthur reminded himself, it was not. It was a work of magic, of evil, and therefore was simply luring them in with its beauty in order to destroy them (or was that lady courtiers? He never could remember).

In any case, it had to be destroyed. He began walking towards the pedestal, his knights following, Merlin at his side, when he heard a gravelly voice call out to them from the stairs.

"Give it to me!" Arthur turned and saw the thief, a little dazed but armed - and furious.

"It's not yours to take!"

"You give it to me ... And I will grant you a half share."

"No, it must be destroyed!" Arthur couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Surely you know of the attack on Camelot that happened three years ago? Creatures of magic are dangerous beasts. They cannot be controlled!"

The thief switched his attention to Merlin, who had stayed by the egg when the knights had moved towards the intruder.

"Merlin! You helped me to find the last piece of the triskellion! Don't side with them - don't be a fool! Think of the power it would bring us! The lands we could rule over! Riches!"

Shocked, Arthur turned to face his manservant.

"You?!" Seeing the trapped expression on Merlin's face, he began to swell with anger. "I knew there was something going on! Woodworm, indeed!" Suddenly, his brow furrowed and he yelled, "YOU MADE MY TROUSERS FALL DOWN TO GET TO THE KEY!" Hearing a snort from behind, Arthur whirled round and screamed, "SHUT UP, GWAINE!"

"Arthur, I-I'm sorry, alright? I had to! It was the only way!"

The thief spoke again, this time from just a few feet away, having used the distraction to edge round the knights to Merlin's side, next to the egg.

"Merlin, with this dragon at our command, we could live like kings! We will have the freedom and power to do as we wish!"

Merlin whipped round to face him, standing protectively in front of the pedestal, his contrite expression contorting into one of burning righteous anger.

"Dragons cannot be used like THAT! They must be left unshackled, free to roam the earth!" Taken aback, the thief blinked and stepped away before trying again.

"This is your chance, Merlin! Your chance to escape your meaningless life! Your worthless existence!"

"It's not my life that's pitiable, it's yours. You've wasted it... For nothing." Arthur could only fume silently. Not only was his best friend apparently a criminal and a traitor, he actually believed that -

Oh. Ohhhhhhhhhh.

"I pieced together the triskellion. I found the path that led us here. The dragon belongs to ME! Now hand it over!"

"No."

"You are not going to stop me, boy!"

"MERLIN!" Both men's heads turn to look at him. "Given that you believe so strongly in the freedom of dragons - specifically the unshackled freedom of dragons - you wouldn't happen to know anything about how the Great Dragon escaped three years ago?"

"... Ah. Um... Heh...?" Merlin cleared his throat. "Heh, heh... See, funny story - OH, NO YOU DON'T!" The thief had again used Arthur's distraction to go after the egg. Merlin shoved him bodily away from it with such force that when he barrelled into Percival, the bulky knight was actually knocked down. The thief was quick to recover, however, and he leapt to his feet, drawing his sword at holding it against Merlin's neck.

"All of you, get away from us!" Seeing that the knights were too shocked to move, the thief pressed his sword hard enough to nick Merlin's throat. "I said, get away!" This time, they scrambled to comply. "That's better. Now," he turned his attention to Merlin again. "You, boy, are going to hand me that egg - now, mind."

"I said no." A feverish gleam shone in the the thief's eyes now. He shoved his face right up to Merlin's and growled,

"You will obey me!" He began to cackle. "You will ALL obey me! When I have that egg, I shall rule the world!"

"Dragons are magical creatures, they belong to no man! They are for the benefit of all!"

The outburst was so - so un-Merlin-like that it chilled Arthur right to the core. That voice had been deep, powerful. The thief failed to recognise the dangerously uncharted waters of an angry Merlin and let out a shriek of laughter.

"What do you know? Huh?! You are but a serving boy!"

"I am the last Dragonlord." Cries of disbelief rose from the knights and the thief's face fell. "And I am warning you, leave this egg alone!"

Purple with fury, the thief glanced at the egg, then made to attack Merlin - who threw him across the hall with magic.

Arthur watched as a blank-faced and purse-lipped Merlin eyed the thief speculatively, then gave a short nod as if to confirm an assessment of his condition. The sorcerer turned to the pedestal once more and reverently reached out both hands to take the egg. As he removed it from its seat, there were several clicks and whirrs, and then a grinding thunk. For a moment, it looked like everything would be fine. Then Merlin peered at the ceiling and calmly told them to run.

Arthur was the last to wrench his feet away from the spot on which they were planted. He had only managed to be distracted from his internal conflict when a boulder had landed a foot in front of him.

But there was no time to think of that now. He'd put it away to ponder over later. For now, he would have to run.

Short but sweet, I guess. Not sure I like it, but I wanted an opinion. Oh, and just so you know, I do actually know that 'the thief' is called Julius Borden. Arthur doesn't though, and since this ended up being written in Arthur's POV (somehow), I'm afraid I have to disappoint all the readers like me who were smirking as they read this because they were perversely looking forward to telling me his name in a review. Sorry. Feel free to review anyway... please...

VVxxxx