The Dragon Princess

As the first snowflake settled, it whispered secrets of a winter tale waiting to unfold. The tale of how…well actually, let’s start with the very beginning.

It all started with my early morning flight one winter day. I always loved to join the snow in the air, soaring through its majestic white magic. The feeling of the flakes sticking to my wings brought the feeling of freshness. A freshness I dearly longed for each year. The rest of the year I spent mostly cooped up in my cave.

All the other dragons would be out stealing cattle or treasure or destroying kingdoms just for sport. But I didn’t find those things amusing. And trying to socialize with other dragons would only end up in a mess. Dragons weren’t social creatures. At least the other dragons weren’t.

So, since I didn’t fit in, I hid till winter when all the others were sleeping in their caves. And now I had my chance to spread my wings and finally feel alive.

It didn’t take long for the snow to thicken into a fierce downfall. A snow storm this early in winter? What a shame. Guess it was back to the cave for me.

As I was flying, I thought I saw something small down on the ground. A human, if my eyes weren’t lying. But what would a human be doing out in this weather?

To make sure, I flew closer to the ground to confirm. Indeed it was! A female human trudging through the snowy mess in an elegant dress. My oh my, was she in trouble?

Seeing how I was a nice dragon, I scooped her up with my claws. Gently, of course. The wind howled too deeply to be able to ask her first if she needed help, and I felt the answer was obvious. A creature as delicate as a human would die out here. So, I would bring her to my cave and save her life.

I couldn’t help but smile a little. This was actually a bit exciting. I would have someone to talk to! A friend possibly! I had never talked to a human before, so I was also a bit nervous.

The girl struggled, kicked, and cried. I understood why she might not be happy now, but she would understand soon and hopefully forgive me.

Once at my cave, I set her down as gently as I could. A job well done I might say, since not even a single rip was on her dress. Only her hair got quite messy.

Turning to her, I tried to smile but quickly hid my teeth. What if I still had lamb stuck in them from my last meal!?

Her face shot back at me furious. “How dare you steal a princess, you bad dragon!”

I sat down and bowed my head in an apology. “Oh my…I didn’t know you were a princess. I am so sorry. But it wasn’t my intention to steal you! I was simply saving you from the snow storm!”

She almost jumped back at my voice. “You are a girl dragon?!”

I gave a small laugh, trying not to let any flames escape. “Why, yes of course. There are female dragons in this world. Not many, but a few.”

“I order you to take me back right now.”

My tail flicked back and forth in amusement. “You are not afraid of me I see. That is good! Since I am not a bad dragon.”

She tried to calm back some of her long brown hair. “No, I am not afraid of you, monster. Eat me for all I care.”

“Eat you?! I would never do such a thing! Like I said, I was only trying to save you. And I will let you go once the snow storm has passed.”

She turned and folded her arms without answer.

I straightened my head high over her small body. “You are an angry one, aren’t you?”

“Not so close!” She shrieked, taking a step back. “Keep your dragon breath away from me!”

“My apologies! It’s just I have never been this close to a human before, so it’s very amusing. I’m sorry I don’t have any food to offer you or anything. But I do wonder, if you are a princess, what were you doing out in that storm alone?”

She found a rock to sit upon but kept her annoyed posture. “Why would I tell you?”

I pouted. “I’m just trying to make conversation. I was hoping…we could be friends.”

Her face only flashed a deeper look of anger. “Friends?! Who would want to be friends with a dragon?!”

I laid my head on the cold floor as my wings drooped down. She was probably right. No dragon wanted to be my friend and probably no human would want to be either. It was a curse being a dragon. And to think I still had another thousand or two years left to live...alone in this cave…

The princess looked at me curiously when she noticed my sulking. A minute of silence went by till she spoke, grumbling to herself. “Of course this would happen. Why of course a dragon would take me the moment I leave the castle.”

I finally raised my head but kept my body down. “What are you so mad about?” I asked, ignoring her question.

“For obvious reasons! I was taken by a dragon!”

“No…I mean beyond that. I sense it…in your soul. There is a deep bitterness rooted in you. What is it from?”

For once, her constant angered expression was replaced with a hint of surprise. But only for a second…then it went right back to bitter. “There is a lot to be mad about. My life has been ruined over and over. My mother was killed when attacked by another kingdom. My father since has gone mad and has stopped acting as king. Our kingdom is starting to crumble, and now I am being forced to marry a prince who I don’t know so that he can take over and rule. And I never wanted to be a princess in the first place!” She yelled the last part.

“Oh my…I am sorry.” And I did truly mean it.

Her eyes shot up at mine in disgust. “Easy for you to say! You have the easiest life there ever could be. You are a dragon! You don’t ever have to be told what to do. If someone wrongs you, you can simply gobble them up for dinner.”

I nodded my head, though I knew she totally had misjudged my life. She had a chance to marry a prince! Any companionship sounded better to me than being alone. “You know though…being a dragon isn’t as great as it might seem. You humans have a lot of nice things that we dragons don’t have.”

She stood up and looked right into my eyes. “I would much rather be a dragon any day. And if I were, I would fly around without a care in the world and never be told what to do ever again.”

An idea then came to me…a wonderful idea… “You really mean that? You would rather have the life of a dragon than your life?”

“Yes, I would.”

“Well, I would rather have your life than mine…any human life. I would take any… So, we are in luck! There is a magical pillar in the north woods. It lets a dragon and a human swap bodies!”

She stared at me with an unimpressed look. “Isn’t that only a myth?”

I now stood to my feet in excitement. “No, it’s real! It’s just very rare that it’s ever used since most dragons would hate the idea of being in a frail, helpless, powerless, puny, weak…”

She cut me off. “Okay, okay! I get the picture. You don’t have to make a long list to put down the human race.”

“Alright! It’s a deal then! We leave once the snow stops.”

My eyes watched that snow like a hawk. And once the last flake made its glorious way down, I grabbed the princess with a back claw and took flight. She screamed all over again and kept kicking. Silly human...how else did she expect to get there?

The flight took around five minutes. Landing through the trees made it more difficult, but I managed. Okay...maybe I tripped a few times and busted into a few branches, but we made it all in one piece! The snow gave us a soft landing place.

She huffed, trying to catch her breath once we were down on the ground again. “You are going to get me killed that way!”

I smiled. “No, of course not! I have good pressure sensitivity. I would never accidentally squish you.”

“I could hardly breathe the whole time!”

“Oh, well yes…I had to squeeze you just enough or else I would have dropped you. You wiggle way too much, so that’s your own fault. Anyway, stop your fussing. We are here, and you can be a dragon in minutes.”

I pointed a claw to the pillar that was about the height of two people but still slightly shorter than a dragon. The shape was simple, but inside held a beautiful and shining purple gem. She turned to it and even her eyes stared in awe.

“Sometimes, I go here just to look at it.” I admitted. “It’s so very pretty.”

“How does it work?” She asked in a skeptical tone.

“We chant a spell and then the switch will happen. At least that’s what I’ve been told. But just to be clear…once we do switch places, you won’t want to ever switch back will you?”

“No never!”

I breathed in with relief. “That’s good, because I most definitely won’t want to switch back either. And also, if one of us were to die, then it would be impossible anyway.”

“You crazy dragon… You’re stupid to want my life. And don’t dragons live forever? Your new life will be so short as a human.”

“No...not forever, but a long time.” I almost warned her about the loneliness but kept silent, fearing she might change her mind. “Alright, I am going to start the spell now. Freely mooly dumbly dee, oxon moron mooy mee.”

The girl’s face looked at me confused as if it were all a joke until the light of the gem started to glow even brighter. A glittering mist started to swirl around us. Soon, the purple gas grew so thick, I couldn’t see her or myself. My body felt very strange. For a moment I couldn’t feel anything at all.

The magic cleared, and we could see each other. Or rather…I saw myself…the old dragon self…but it wasn’t me anymore. I was now low to the ground, looking high up and standing where she had been. The dragon before me took a startled step back. She jerked her head up and flapped her wings, sending a few tree branches crashing to the ground. They almost fell on us along with globs of snow.

“Stop!” I cried. “You are big now! You have to be careful.” I then paused at my own voice...so small and strange. It was the same voice I was used to hearing the princess fuss with, but now coming out of my own mouth, it felt totally strange. I then extended my hand and examined my frail skin. No more strong scales to protect it.

“How do I fly?!” The old princess demanded.

I took a few steps closer then tripped. My hands caught my fall as pain shot through them. “Ouch!”

The other dragons had liked to make fun of me and called me clumsy. And even though I didn’t want to admit it, maybe it was only sometimes true, but now in a human body, it was all the worse. “How do you walk with only two legs!?”

“It’s quite easy!” The dragon huffed.

“I think not…” I said, trying to simply stand again. Even that was difficult, and I had to grab onto a nearby tree to get up. “Alright, small steps,” I tried to coach myself.

This time, I took a successful step. Then two and three! I smiled very proud of myself, even though I still held onto a tree.

“Stop acting so gleeful and teach me how to fly!”

“Alright, but first we must get out of the forest. There is a clearing right over there.”

“But I can barely fit past the trees!”

“Yes, and I can hardly walk. This is a problem…I didn’t think about these things…”

“Well, you better figure it out!” She demanded.

I started to crawl on all fours. “For now, this will be faster.”

“But you will get my dress dirty!”

“It’s not your dress anymore is it!? And it will only get wet in the snow.”

“Well…you make a point…”

“Alright, just follow me, and we will make it out of the forest.”

Crawling around with human nubs took quite a long time. Especially with the snow to slow me down. The dragon princess acted very annoyed seeing how she had to wait a minute to take only a step. But finally we made it.

Once in the open, she stretched out her wings to flap. Her huge body started to lift off the ground. I could hardly breathe from the force of the wind. Human bodies were even more frail than I once had thought.

To my surprise, she had no difficulty flying. She sailed high up and roared with laughter. Her turns were smooth...and dare I even admit it...maybe even more smooth than I once had flown. Now, I only stooped on the ground helpless, looking high up at her. She even breathed a large batch of fire with ease.

After a while, she finally landed gracefully beside me.

I stared in awe. “I guess, I do not need to teach you how to fly after all.”

“Flying is amazing! You are stupid to give it up! And no, I am not wanting to change back!”

“I wasn’t going to ask…but I need to be taught how to walk…”

She laughed with almost an evil smirk. “I can’t teach you! It’s something you have to figure out on your own. You foolish dragon…but you aren’t a dragon anymore.”

“You are so rude…I feel sorry for the prince that has to marry you.”

“Oh no, little foolish one.” She laughed again. “It is you that he has to marry now!”

Oh….Oh? Oh! Why had that never occurred to me before? Although, I could probably run away from being a princess and go in hiding and live as a normal, poor human being. But I wouldn’t have any idea how to get food or survive. Living as the princess would be much easier. And hadn’t she said their kingdom had been doing poorly? Maybe I could do them some good. Though I knew very little of human living.

Hmm… Marry a prince? The idea was starting to grow on me. I wouldn’t be lonely anymore.

“Say, princess, er I mean dragon. What is the prince like?”

“I can’t say. I have never met him. That’s why I was running away, because he was coming soon.”

“Oh! And what is my name?”

“Princess Abigail.”

It was a bit strange, but something was nice about it.

“Your name is Xenlachizia.”

The dragon’s face snarled. “Now that is the most stupid name ever! No, I won’t have that name. I won’t have any name. I will simply be known as the dragon that destroyed that wretched kingdom that killed my mother! Now stop bothering me, I have revenge to seek.”

“Wait!” I pleaded. “You aren’t serious are you!? Are you going to attack a kingdom!?”

She let out some flames in a laugh. “Isn’t that what dragons do?”

“Usually…but I—”

“But nothing! It’s my body now, and I will do what I like. Those people deserve to die. I’m going now.”

I could only hope she didn’t mean it… I would hate to think people died because I let a crazy woman have my dragon body… But there wasn’t anything I could do about it now.

I cried out one last time before she took off. “Won’t you at least take me back to the castle?”

“No, you foolish one. But don’t worry, I’m sure there is already a search party and you will be found soon. Goodbye, and have a nice life.”

With that, she lifted off the ground and left me all alone. What a rude princess she was and now what a rude dragon she would be.