An Unusual Fairy Tale

It was long, long, long ago when this fairy tale took place.

It happened so long ago it lost its name, and soon became long forgotten altogether.

But I know this tale; I will tell you, so listen closely, I won't repeat it for you.

~~

The story originally takes place in a palace, with a princess in it. She was loved by all of her subjects, and ruled fairly. At her right hand side was her trusted knight, and he was also the head of the royal guard. Any orders that she gave, the knight would make sure they were followed through. The knight was loyal and always at her side; for he loved her with all his heart, but it was never meant to be with all the suitors coming to her palace daily.

The princess' subjects weren't the only ones that loved her. A lone dragon lived in the valley, and had seen the kindness the princess showed to everyone. The dragon lived all by itself with it's jewels and precious metals it had collected over the years. The large horde wasn't good company though, and soon the dragon decided it would take the princess for itself. No one had a clue of what the dragon was plotting, for all the villagers in the land knew, the dragon was merely a legend, or a tale to scare children into being good.

The day it happened, the sky was cloudy and it looked like it was threatening to rain at any moment. The princess had just finished up seeing all her suitors for the day and wanted to head back to her chambers. Her knight accompanied her like usual.

"My lady, the suitors are becoming more and more desperate for your approval it seems," The knight murmured to her as he walked alongside her, his shiny armor clanging with every step.

The princess merely fixed her crown and huffed, "So I've noticed, but all they want is the title of King. My father entrusted me with this kingdom the day he died, I can't let it fall into the wrong hands."

"I know that my lady," The knight replied. "But it seems you'll have to choose soon or they'll start looking at the noble women..."

"I still have time, don't worry." She glanced back at the knight who tried hard to just stare straight ahead and not think of when he would have to walk her down the aisle in her father's place.

The knight stopped talking after a bit, knowing better than to continue on this subject. He halted in front of her room. "Here we are my lady,"

"Thank you," She responded before walking into her room and greeted by her maids and servants. The knight nodded before sighing and turning to leave for the stables to tend to his steed.

~~

The knight was brushing his large, black horse when a giant shadow crossed over the whole palace. He dropped his brush and looked upwards towards the sky, only catching a glimpse of the giant dragon. Instantly, he unsheathed his sword, shouting out orders to all the other knights in the stables. He started to run towards the palace doors, hoping the dragon wouldn't take the princess. Hopefully all it would want was some livestock or treasure, anything but the princess, the knight thought as he raced for the princess' room.

By the time he raced up all of the staircases and reached the princess' chambers, he could hear high pitched screaming. He kicked the door open and saw the maids and servants cowering in a corner, screaming their lungs out. He saw the giant gaping hole in the wall that the dragon created. It clung to the wall outside and reached with one arm to grab the princess who was bravely standing in front of her servants.

"What do you want dragon?!" She questioned it, a fiery look in her eyes.

The dragon huffed and smoke drifted from its nostrils. "I want you," It rumbled from deep in its chest.

"Stay back my lady!" The knight raced forward to save the princess but the dragon snapped its head in his direction. The princess glanced back at the knight just as the dragon breathed smoldering hot fire at the knight. The knight was lucky enough to raise his silver shield in time but could still feel the blistering heat on his face. He tried not to back down, but by the time the fire and smoke cleared, the princess was gone and the dragon was already flying off towards the horizon.

"NO!" The knight screamed as he watched them go.

~~

The dragon brought the princess back to his cave with tons of shiny things. There was no way it was going to let her go after going through all that effort to kidnap her in the first place.

"What do you want with me exactly?" The princess questioned, not happy about her current predicament.

The dragon sighed as it lied down, wrapping its long tail around the princess, as well as blocking her only escape route. "I'm just so lonely here... And you seem so kind and nice to everyone, I thought it'd be nice to have some company." The dragon put its head down and looked up at the princess with sad eyes.

This struck a chord in the princess, she knew what it was like to feel alone, and sighed a bit too now. She couldn't just leave the dragon here, but she knew her knight was coming for her soon. "I suppose I can stay with you for a little bit at least..."

The dragon's eyes lit up at this and grinned. "Really?"

The princess nodded in response and couldn't help but smile back a bit at the dragon.

~~

Meanwhile, with the knight...

"Hya! Faster!" The knight shouted at his horse as it raced out of the town surrounding the palace. He didn't have much time to cross the countryside and get to where the dragon lived.

He held onto the horse's reins firmly and gritted his teeth, thinking about all the ways he could have saved the princess. But instead he was too slow to react, and now here he was, playing a game of chase with this dragon, and there was still the chance of dying when fighting off the dragon. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts of this. When he was sworn into the royal guard he promised to give his life for the royal family no matter what, and because of that he grew up with no fear of death.

The sun was starting to slip below the west horizon, and the knight was hoping that the princess was still alright. He tried to push his steed to go faster, and kept his eyes locked on the mountains far up ahead that were home to the beast.

~~

By the time the knight reached the mountains, the silvery crescent moon was already high above his head. He had been riding on for a long time, and finally he made it. He grimaced as he imagined the fight he'd have to go through. He unsheathed his gleaming broadsword as he started to climb up the mountain path. His horse refused to go any higher, so the knight was forced to tie up the poor thing to a tree so it wouldn't run away. This confirmed that it was home to the dragon.

He found himself in front of a gaping hole in the side of the mountain; no doubt the dragon's cave. "Hey!" The knight shouted, unafraid of what he was about to face.

Inside, the dragon had been taking a nap with its princess and started to stir when the knight's voice echoed through the cave. It lifted its head and blinked the sleep from its eyes. Smoke puffed out from its nostrils. The princess was still sound asleep, unaware of what was about to happen.

Slowly, the dragon uncurled itself from the princess and headed for the entrance, as quiet as a shadow itself. Outside, the knight was becoming impatient. "Hey, dragon! Show yourself already, unless you're too much of a coward!" The knight spat angrily. He just wanted to defeat this dragon and bring his knight back to the palace and have everything return to normal.

The dragon practically slithered out of its cave and towered over the knight. It narrowed its eyes. "You've come back, but it's a lost cause for you. The princess will be staying with me, she said so herself."

"I don't believe you! The princess would never just abandon her throne and people like that!" The knight responded, pointing his sword up at the dragon. "Fight me already, the princess is returning back home with me!"

"You're just going to get yourself killed!" The dragon roared in reply before lunging at the knight.

The sword clashed with the dragon's hard scales, nowhere close to inflicting an actual injury. "How ticklish," The dragon growled deeply as it started to circle him.

"I'll find your weak spot and kill you myself!"

"I'd like to see you try," The dragon laughed.

"Hyaa!" The knight lunged at the dragon with his sword again. "Die foul beast!"

This continued on for what felt like hours, but was only in fact a few minutes. Suddenly, one beautiful, goddess-like voice rang out. "Stop it you two!"

The dragon snapped its neck around while the knight scrambled not to drop his sword. It was the princess. She was the only one with the ability to stop those two. "My lady!" Cried the knight, doing a stiff bow, before realizing what the situation was again and glared up at the dragon who huffed smoke in amusement.

"Both of you, cut it out already!" She snapped. "You woke me up!" The knight gulped at this, knowing that was a bad mistake.

"My apologies my lady, but can't you see I'm in the middle of doing something?" The knight gestured to the dragon, although he was relieved so she was okay and not harmed at all.

"And can't you see that I'm stopping you two?" She retaliated. She huffed and put her hands on her hips. "Honestly, what am I going to do about you two?"

"My lady, you talk as if we're all friends here..." The knight started to point out.

"I'm not going back," The princess suddenly said bluntly, snapping the knight out of it.

"Wait, what? Excuse me, my lady, but it seems I must have misheard you. What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, that I'm staying here."

"But, why?"

"It's my choice."

"Well, yes I know that, but can you explain why?"

"The dragon doesn't have any true friends. It's all by itself here. And I'm surrounded by fakes that pretend to be my friends, but they just want to be known as on good terms with royalty. You wouldn't understand."

The knight was taken back by this, he staggered back as if he had actually been stabbed by her words. He thought they were friends, thought. But really, he was still just her loyal knight, she must have only thought of him as that, that he only followed her orders and stuck to her side just because of that reason. He lowered his gaze so he was staring down at his feet now. He couldn't bite his tongue this time. "Fine, stay here with this retched beast. But what am I to say to the kingdom?" He tried to make sure his voice didn't waver at all; he couldn't show any weakness, he couldn't show the princess his true feelings.

The princess took off her crown and walked over to the knight. "Bring them this back, tell them that's all you found at the dragon's cave, and claim that you killed the dragon for revenge. I'm sure you can find someone willing to run the kingdom after that."

It was a good idea, but how could the claim of killing the dragon stand to a mob of angry villagers and the royal guard? Sure, the knight was strong, but couldn't actually handle the dragon by himself.

The knight nodded now and swallowed. He held onto the crown tightly, and the princess' warm hands fell away from his cold, gloved ones. "I'll do as you wish my lady..."

The dragon watched this exchange, and couldn't help but feel slightly bad for the knight. "Go on, or else your kingdom will start looking for other answers." The dragon said.

The knight didn't look up at either the princess or dragon. He turned to head back down the mountain to go see his horse. "This is goodbye then my lady..."

"You can always come visit," She responded, but her voice sounded almost hollow.

"I shouldn't, if I kept disappearing from the castle gates, I'd be questioned... Perhaps, we'll meet each other in another life." The knight whispered, before smiling slightly to himself from under his helmet, which the princess couldn't see. She also couldn't see his tears that slipped down his pale cheeks.

~~
The knight rode quickly back to the palace, but by the time he reached it, his horse was exhausted and simply walked into the gates. He was welcomed back with all sorts of shouts from fellow knights, and then questioned about the princess and her whereabouts. The knight had her crown clutched tightly in his right hand.

He thrust his arm up in the air and shouted, "THE PRINCESS IS DEAD! THE DRAGON KILLED HER! THIS WAS ALL I COULD GET BACK OF OUR BELOVED PRINCESS! I KILLED THE DRAGON BUT I WAS TOO LATE!" The knight's helmet fell off and landed on the ground with a harsh, metallic clang. He was crying as he held the princess' crown up to the sky. Other knights took the news in. Some, collapsed on the ground in tears as well, while others were silent.

Anyone else who knew the real truth would think that the knight was just a very good actor, but in reality he really was crying, just over the fact that he would no longer be able to see the one he loved the most anymore.

Perhaps, we'll meet each other in another life...