Nightfall came down upon the group of travelers and so they decided to make camp for the night. As they sat around the campfire after a small meal, the Squire decided to tell a story to pass the time. After all, it was still too early to sleep and everyone enjoyed a good tale around a warm fire. Recalling a story he had heard some time ago, he began to speak.
A Tale of Mischievous Princesses Or
by Rikugou
How Curiosity can Yield Great Rewards
A long time ago, in a far away land, there was a country. For now, we shall focus on one of the many baronies. The heir of that particular estate was a handsome boy of about 18 summers with hair the color of the burning flame and eyes the violet of the setting sun's painting across the sky. Lord Tylen was his name. Ladies from around the country came to see him, hoping that they would be able to catch his eye. But he would have none of it. He was still young, he would say and he wished to have a chance at the dragon that lived near the capital. The king had sent out his heralds in search of a warrior knight that was young and strong in order to defeat the vile beast that plagued the land. The prize for such a feat was the hand of his heir, claimed to be the most beautiful female in the land.
Still, the women came, hoping to drive that wish away from his mind so that they may settle down with him. Of course, being the reckless young man that he was, was very adamant in his decision. And so, he awaited the king's heralds. After nearly a year of training and patient waiting, one of the heralds recommended him to the king. Soon, he was riding on a fast horse straight to the capital with his family's good wishes.
Tylen was at the capital within a day around the early evening hours. A guard at the front gate led him to the throne room where twenty other warriors were waiting. Of them all, he was the youngest. Shifting self-consciously from foot to foot, he turned his attention to the regal man sitting in the chair on the raised dais. On either side of him stood two people. One was a man around the same age as the king, dressed in the robes of a wizard.
The other was possibly the most beautiful woman he had ever set his eyes upon. Her skin was whiter than the purest of snow, her eyes the clear crystal blue of the sky, her hair resembled flaxen strands of the dark night, her graceful fingers...
***
"Ouch!" shouted the Squire. He rubbed his new bump and glared at his father, the one who had interrupted him with a smack across his head. "Why did you do that for?" he yelled.
The Knight sighed and idly wondered where he had gone wrong in raising his child. Maybe he shouldn't have let the boy's mother send him to a school for bards before he became a squire. He knew very well how irritating some of them could be. Going on and on about heroism and love, blowing events out of proportion. After all, he had several songs written about him about his heroic escapades. Waving his hand, he told his son to continue.
"Hn. Thank you for letting me continue," he said with a disdainful toss of his head. His eyes once again took on the excited spark and intelligently avoided the rest of the description of the princess.
***
"I have gathered you all here today to inform you of the dangerous creature that periodically feasts on the innocent people of my kingdom. From those who survived, we have gathered information about its approximate size, strength and abilities," the king said. He looked at his advisor. The wizard rummaged in his robes for a moment and took out a scroll. Unrolling it, he began to read the words aloud.
"It is said to be pure black in color and very strong. It can spit flames from its jaws and easily rip a man in two. It is about twenty feet tall with two massive wings and sharp claws," at this, he stopped to take a look at the warriors. About half of them were pale as death while the other half bore the news with stoic expressions. "For those who are brave enough to risk their lives for the good of this kingdom, you may stay. For those who think that this would be an easy way to gain connections with the king, I suggest you leave this room. Wasting your life frivolously on something that you are not serious about is the most idiotic thing a warrior could do. You are still young..."
"That is enough Wizard Gilleran," the king said, lifting a hand up to halt his advisor's harangue. "I am promising my heir's hand in marriage should one of you succeed in slaying this monster."
"Father!" the princess protested.
"Silence! We have discussed this before," he growled. Turning back to the would-be heroes, he called a servant to escort them to their rooms in the palace.
***
Tylen numbly followed the servant down the halls. He had just turned nineteen and should he choose to accept the responsibility to kill the dragon, he had a large chance of not making it to his twentieth year. He turned his mind back onto the servant leading him down the various twists and turns of the corridors. The warrior part of his mind carefully memorized the route the slight reed of a man brought them through. That part of his mind tucked the away the fact that the king would send for them the next morning. When he finally reached the room that he was assigned to, he collapsed onto the bed, still contemplating his decision. True, he wanted the fame and fortune that came with being a hero, but was it worth his very life?
Deciding he should get more information about the dragon to better understand what he would be dealing with, Tylen rolled off the bed and strode towards the throne room. Hopefully, he would be able to catch the advisor coming out. Halfway down the hall, he heard shouting. Letting his curiosity get the best of him, he followed the direction in which the noise came from. He ended up standing before elaborately carved double doors. Seeing that there wasn't anyone in all directions, he cautiously put his ear to the door.
***
"I told you time and again! You will marry one of those warriors by the time the dragon is dead or I will send you to the farthest reaches of this kingdom to live the rest of your life in a monastery!" the king yelled.
"I refuse to even be in their presence! Did you see the way they were staring at me? Like rabid wolves I tell you! Wolves!" the princess yelled back at him.
"If you did not refuse every suitor that came for your hand in marriage we certainly would not be having this conversation in the first place!" he said.
"If you had not sent for men that were more than twenty years my senior," here she stopped to take a breath of air, "I would not have refused every old goat that crossed my path!" she yelled, her voice reverberating off the walls.
***
Tylen was slightly surprised that the vibrations did not break down the walls of the palace. Placing his ear back on the door, he studiously listened for the rest of the conversation.
***
"Enough! If your mother had not stuffed your head full of idiotic stories of love and romance we would not be in this mess," the king snarled. He turned on his heel and stomped off through another door.
The princess fell to her knees and sobbed quietly. "If mother and Alessandria had not died we would not be fighting at all," she cried. She slammed a fist against the floor as tears clouded her vision.
***
An assassin had killed the queen and her daughter during an innocent trip through the countryside. When the guards had finally captured the culprit, he had slit his own throat, refusing to be alive at the hands of the king. Afterwards, the king had fallen into a depression and had; in some twisted logic that only a man saddened by the loss of something precious could have, blamed it on the younger heir of the kingdom.
Alexias was the innocent victim in the whole event. Second children of the royal family usually married later than the first heir. They had a better chance of a happy relationship than the first-born. Alessandria had been nearly nineteen when she was killed and engaged to the prince of the next kingdom. The younger princess was currently sixteen. With a reason like that to fuel his passion to kill the dragon, he was determined to succeed in his quest. Tylen didn't care about marriage at the moment and if the princess didn't want to marry him, he had no problem with that. Steeling himself against his resolve, he marched to his bedroom to get some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be the start of his heroic quest.
***
The next day, Tylen got up bright and early in the morning to do his morning sword practices. A servant had helpfully pointed him in the direction of the training grounds for the soldiers of the palace. Unsheathing his sword, he went through his usual routine. After an hour of a shadow fight with his invisible opponent, he decided he should go get something to eat. On the way there, he bumped into a raven-haired teenage boy.
"I'm very sorry sir. I wasn't watching where I was going," the boy said before scampering off.
That was a rather weird encounter. There was something very familiar about that boy but I can't place a finger on it, Tylen thought to himself. Shrugging to himself, he continued on to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat. After eating a light breakfast, a page ran into the kitchen to call him. Grabbing his sword, he quickly followed the nimble little boy to the throne room.
Pushing open the door, he was a bit embarrassed to see that he was the last one to arrive. Ducking his head, he stood in the same spot he was in last night. Tylen noticed that there was a smaller amount of people than yesterday. Good, that increased his chances of defeating the dragon. Looking around, he was slightly surprised that the princess wasn't standing next to her father. Tylen glanced at the king and immediately regretted it. The man's eyes were stone cold and expressionless and his facial cast could easily garner fear from even the most steadfast of warriors.
"The princess is currently...unavailable at the moment but she shall be present when one of you succeed in killing the dragon," the king said in a cold tone. "I am providing each of you with a squire that knows the geography of the area the beast is hunting in. I suggest you take advantage of the guide I am giving you. In order for you to prove your triumph against the creature, you must have some sort of trophy. The head of the dragon would do. You may leave immediately after this or stay several days more. Now get to it!"
All of them filed out. The biggest warrior attracted their attention when he boldly exclaimed that he was going to carry the body of the dragon back to the palace. The other ten soldiers, except Tylen, protested loudly. The red head surreptitiously walked back to his room to gather his things. He wanted as big as a head start he could possibly get. The other warriors were all older than him and a generalization he found was true was that they were usually more experienced.
Afterwards, he walked down to the stables to get his horse. At the stables, the boy he had bumped into earlier was standing in front of his horse's stall. The black mare had taken a liking to the boy, rather unusual since she bit anyone who got close to her with the exception of himself. "Her name is Nightwing," Tylen said conversationally.
The boy jumped nearly a foot in the air and turned a rather feminine face towards him. "She's beautiful," he complimented.
"Thank you. I must apologize for bumping into you this morning. It was rather rude of me to nearly run you over," he said, opening the stall. His hands went through the familiar motions of saddling his horse.
"It was entirely my fault. I wasn't looking. Do you happen to be Lord Tylen? I was told that Nightwing was your horse," he said, cocking his head.
"That I am. And what do I owe for the pleasure of your company?" he said with a smile.
"I'm Alex, your squire until you defeat the dragon or die in battle," the slight boy said.
"Glad to meet you. Hopefully the former rather than the latter does happen," Tylen sighed.
"I saw you practicing this morning. You're rather good. My father says that he had never seen such skill in a person as young as you are. The other soldiers are already in their mid twenties and thirties but you, you are still a teenager," Alex said, clasping his hands together. "I will gladly help you in your search for the dragon and fame. After all, killing a dragon is a heroic effort on anyone's part. I am sure that you will be able to succeed in your noble quest to conquer the dark creature and let this kingdom go back to its peaceful and tranquil...
***
"Ouch!" shouted the Squire yet again.
"You were rambling again. Get on with the point of the story," the Knight ordered.
"I felt you the first time," he pouted. But nonetheless, he continued. Besides, he was almost done anyway.
***
After saddling up and getting a packhorse for his supplies, his new squire and himself set off to find the dragon.
They spent two entire months searching futilely for the creature and coincidentally, the attacks stopped. There was no news about anyone killing the dragon so that couldn't be it. Also, Tylen found his feelings for his squire to have changed as well. He himself was very aware that he held no attraction for his own gender and yet he found himself worrying himself nearly to death every time the boy was away from his side and feeling strangely whole when Alex was with him. Was it because of Alex's uncanny resemblance to a rather pretty girl or was the fact that there were no women chasing after him getting to his head?
Tylen sighed at his controversial feelings. Now was not the time to be doing this, it was time to be ridding the world of one rather vicious creature. Almost as if he had called the dragon to be, there was a scream from the other side of town. Thanking the gods that he was still armored up, he grabbed his sword and shield. Alex, being faster than he was, held the reins of Nightwing who was pawing at the ground with excitement.
When he reached the origin of the scream, he spotted the large black mass that could only be the dragon. It certainly wasn't twenty feet tall but it was certainly taller than ten at least. Holding his sword up, he shouted at the beast. "Foul creature of Hell, I demand that you cease this useless killing of this kingdom's people!"
All he got was a roar in response before the thing began charging at him. Tylen wheeled his horse around and urged Nightwing into a gallop away from the village. He had no wish to injure the innocent townspeople.
He reached for the pack at his side, glad for the insightfulness of his squire to pack some javelins. Turning around skillfully in his saddle, he threw the spike at the rampaging dragon, grinning proudly behind his helm when he saw it pierce through the skin of the beast.
The dragon snarled in anger and Tylen's violet eyes widened in alarm when he saw a glowing red ball appear within its open maw. He turned back around in his saddle and pulled the reins of his horse to the side, making her take a sharp turn just in time to avoid a ball of flame from hitting him. He gasped in alarm when he saw the charred remains of the tree he had passed mere moments ago.
The black-scaled dragon all of a sudden stopped at some invisible signal. It opened large bat-like wings and flew off, probably to fight another day.
The young warrior removed his helm and shook his red hair free from its confinement as he stared at the quickly disappearing black dot in the sky. What had just happened? he thought to himself as he set Nightwing off on a tired canter back towards the town. The townspeople had obviously seen him galloping off with the dragon at his heels. They cheered his safe arrival back at the village and offered complimentary items, such as food, clothing and whatnots. Tylen gently waved them off and tiredly strode into the inn he had been staying in for the past two months. Sighing his weariness, he began to remove some of the cumbersome armor.
Silently, he walked up the stairs to the room he shared with his squire. He opened the door and closed it silently only to see the naked expanse of his squire's back. Alex gasped and turned around in surprise to reveal his naked chest. Correction, her naked chest. His squire was a female! "What in God's name is going on?!" Tylen shouted.
Alex grabbed the sheets and wrapped them around her top at the same time she threw a glare at him. The red head spotted the unraveled ends of a rather long strip of bandage. Tylen's mouth opened and closed as if he was a landed fish when he recognized the glare. "You-you're-you're the princess!" he sputtered. Why hadn't he noticed? he mentally yelled at himself.
"You finally noticed Tylen?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. Alexias grabbed her shirt and pulled it over her head. "I thought that you would have noticed right away. After all, the soldiers that father had found were only there for my hand in marriage. Each and every one of them would not have been as determined as you," she said as she ran her hand through her short ebony locks. "I cut off four feet worth of hair to get out of the palace and I had not thought it would be worth it at first."
"W-Why not?" Tylen stuttered.
"I thought you would be just as self-centered as those fools who pride themselves for their strength. But all I've seen so far is a determined warrior trying to truly get rid of this dragon. I was ready to dislike you upon sight because I had to be your squire. After all, if I left you, you would have went back to father and he would be combing the kingdom trying to find me. I found myself liking you after a while and I think I just may learn to love you," she said, tilting her head to the side.
"I'm glad to know so," Tylen said, not knowing what to say. He was very glad to find out that he was not peculiar in his preferences.
"I have deemed you worthy of my help in destroying the dragon," Alexias said, getting up from the bed.
"B-But you're the princess! I can't risk your life! Your father would kill me!" he squeaked.
"My mother was a powerful mage before she died. I inherited her powers. I'm just as good as she was, if not better since father's family seem to have some magic in their blood as well. By tomorrow, sun down, that dragon will be erased from the face of this kingdom," she said, a determined gleam in her blue eyes.
***
The next day, Alexias kicked him up bright and early. Grumbling, he got out of bed to freshen up. After splashing his face several times with cold water, he felt slightly more human. Today, the princess had gotten rid of her squire wardrobe and donned an outfit he usually wore. The pair of black leather breeches, black silk shirt and black boots she wore made her appear almost ephemeral. Her pale skin wasn't helping any either. Tylen was wearing about the same thing underneath the heavy armor he wore. Together they rode out into the countryside.
They reached a clearing when Alexias told him to stop. She lifted to slender hands into the air, golden Power cupped within her palms. The gentle breeze blew the soft wisps of her bangs from her face as she concentrated on some unknown object. A roar in the distance made Tylen grip his sword harder.
"Be ready to attack it with all you have or this will probably be the last time we ever see the sky again," Alexias yelled at him. Nodding, he gently prodded Nightwing to go forward. A sudden tremor in the ground announced the presence of the black dragon. Almost as if it was an illusion, the shape of the dragon wavered before solidifying.
With a mighty war cry, Tylen kicked his horse into a full gallop, charging at the beast. Alexias was throwing in colored balls of pure energy at the beast while he hacked steadfastly at the creature. After what seemed like an eternity, it breathed its last breath of air and collapsed.
"We did it!" Alexias squealed.
Tylen got off his horse on wobbly legs and collapsed upon the grass. The raven-haired princess launched herself at him and gave him a sloppy kiss on the lips. "We killed it," Tylen breathed. "We killed it!" he said incredulously. With a happy cry of laughter he got up off the grass and twirled the slight princess around in a circle, enjoying the giggles he wrung out of her. He hugged the shorthaired girl to his chest and sighed contentedly.
***
Several men were paid to carry the corpse to the capital. When they crossed the gates, a crowd gathered around the pair and cheered. The guards at the door of the palace opened the door happily. As the massive carcass of the dragon was wheeled in, the king walked out into the courtyard.
Tylen walked up to the king and kneeled before him. "I, Lord Tylen of Raven's Keep, do declare that the dragon plaguing this peaceful kingdom has been vanquished. Additionally, I have found and returned your daughter safely."
"Excellent! Wizard Gilleran. Contact the cook and tell her to prepare a feast for tonight's dinner. We shall have a celebration for the betrothal of my daughter and Lord Tylen as well as for the death of the black dragon!" he said. The king turned on his heel in a flurry of robes followed by his bodyguards. Tylen stood up.
Alexias smiled and walked over to Tylen's side. "So, are you staying for dinner?" she asked.
"I guess I am. And with your permission, I would like to have dinner with you for the rest of my life," Tylen said. He kneeled once again and took Alexias's hand in his. "Will you marry me?"
"Father said I am engaged to you," she said, a blush staining her cheeks.
"Fair princess, I am asking you and not your father. If I did not have the pleasure of hearing you say yes to my betrothal, I would not have married you. It wouldn't do to make a fair maiden be unhappy for her entire life," he said.
The princess nodded shyly and the crowd, who had been watching the entire thing, cheered loudly. And to think that Tylen would have never taken on the quest if he had not listened upon the conversation between the king and princess. It shows you that curiosity does pay in certain cases.
***
The Squire finished his story and looked around the campfire to see...everyone was asleep other than his father. "Hey!" he exclaimed, affronted by what he saw.
"Go to sleep. We have a long day tomorrow," the Knight said as he walked to his bedroll.
"They should have at least stayed up out of respect," the Squire mumbled. He sighed and followed his father's example.
-END-
Comments? Criticisms? Definitions?
--Rikugou
Started: 11.26.00
Finished: 11.26.00