Title:Pestilence
Name:Itzcoatl/Obsidianserpent
Rating:PG
Characters:Merlin
Warnings:None
Summary:Illustration for this story idea.(No story has actually been written based on this, so excuse the long description but otherwise the drawing will make no sense.) A strange plague hits the land while Merlin is still living in Ealdor; the crops fail, the livestock die, and then the villagers start dying as well. On her deathbed Hunith urges Merlin to flee to Camelot and Gaius. Merlin won't leave while there are still sick to look after, but when the last person dies he travels to Camelot. The pestilence reaches Camelot at the same time as he does, and Gaius searches for a cure.
What Gaius finally realises is that Merlin's magic gets its power by draining the life force of everything around him, and as he gets older, his magic gets stronger and he is inadvertently killing people and things more quickly. he has to tell Merlin that he was the cause of all the deaths in Ealdor and that he is now slowly killing Arthur and everyone in Camelot.
The illustration is set early in the story when Merlin is still in Ealdor and things are just beginning to die.
Notes: Digital pen and ink done using the Artrage programme.
On DeviantArt here
http://tinyurl.com/oewnbu3Or under the LJ-cut below