Emerald Daydream

Seven

It had been a long journey, and two days away from home had felt like a decade to the dragon, which is the reverse effect of what it should have felt like since dragons do live so long. But anyways, our heroic dragon is back at home, and very comfortable taking another nap that might last for another year or two.

EXCEPT that about a day after Lucifer had begun to sleep, trumpets began to blare again right outside of his cave. And even the stone that he'd rolled in front of the entrance couldn't block out the noise that those instruments could make. Man! Could Lucifer not just get some beauty sleep? Like leave a dragon alone for a little, OK?!

But anyways, the trumpets are blaring, the horns are a tooting, and the squires are shouting as loud as their skinny little lungs will allow.

HEAR HEAR, IT IS AT THE KING'S WISH THAT THE DRAGON LUCIFER WATCHES OVER HIS BELOVED DAUGHTER AMARRA UNTIL THE 27TH OF JUNE SIXTEEN YEARS FROM NOW, WHICH WILL BE HER EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY. A CASTLE AND SEVERAL TOWERS SHALL BE BUILT IN THIS HONOUR FOR THE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS TO CALL HER LIVING QUARTERS. IT IS ALSO THE WILL OF THE KING TO ALLOW ANY COMMON KNIGHT TO TRY FOR AMARRA'S HAND IN MARRIAGE, FOR BY THIS RULE ONLY THAT FOLLOWS, A COMMONER MAY BE ABLE TO MARRY INTO THE ROYAL BLOODLINE: YOU MUST TRAVEL ALL THE WAY FROM YOUR OWN DWELLING TO THE VOLCANO, CLIMB TO THE TOP OF IT AND DIP YOUR SWORD INTO THE MOLTEN LAVA, THEN MAKE YOUR WAY THROUGH A SWAMPY FOREST OF BRAMBLES AND SCRAGGLY TWIGS. IF YOU MAKE IT THUS FAR, YOUR SKILLS WILL BE TESTED AGAINST THE DRAGON LUCIFER AND ONLY IF YOU MANAGE TO GET PAST HIM AND INTO THE CASTLE MAY YOU TAKE AMARRA'S HAND IN MARRIAGE. YAY, YAY. THANK YOU.

The scribes scribbled furiously, copying down everything the squirrely squires are calling out to every one every where, from their high up perches in branches of dead trees. Their ink splattered fingers grip their quills, white with the stress of making sure to write everything down, word for word. And I don't know if you know how fast squires talk, but they talk pretty fast. Ever heard an auctioneer? Yeah, not that fast, but close to it. At least, in this story. Plus today there's quite a wind whipping up, swaying the trees and making the horses a bit edgy, so it's harder to hear them.

But Lucifer hears everything, and he hears it loudly. He barrels right into the stone that he himself rolled in front of the cave's mouth in his haste to eat anyone who was involved in waking him from his precious slumber for the second time now. He shoves the stone aside with a might GRUMPH, and almost grins with satisfaction as it rolls over some scribe's toes and causes a commotion! Feathers flying, ink every where, people knocking over other people, and a useless clammer boils up with the dragon's appearance.

"What." His tone is full of halting rage. "Are you. Doing. HERE." He breathes in and out very fast in order to control his fire breath, but he's no doubt OUT of control now.

"My dear dragon, we are here to build a castle!" the King replied with a humongous smile. "Just as you promised. This was our deal, remember? I build a castle on your property to house my daughter in your forest, and you have free food for the next 16 years. In fact, I received notice from some distant kingdoms that young men from across the world are already packing up and setting off to attempt to win my Amarra's hand. imagine!"

Lucifer could imagine alright. He could imagine the fresh meat, just hanging off of the young humans' bodies, waiting to be torn off and devoured by his teeth. He so craved that meat, the tender skin the broke so easily, the mark of a fresh and healthy kill. The bones would crunch easily, and would taste a little like lemon juice, and the blood would be succulent and delicious...

He heard a large squelching noise and looked down in horror to realize that he was towering over a now soaking wet King, who was soaked in the dragon's drool. The King stared up at Lucifer with angry eyes, but said nothing. The only movements he executed were to slowly wipe his dripping face and crane his neck upwards to scowl as the dragon also let out a large belch.

"This is really uncalled for, dragon," he deadpanned.

"Oh, so we're back to informally referring to each other as 'dragon' and 'King', and being semi hostile towards one another?"

The Great King Grindlewald's scowl deepened and his brow lowered until it appeared to be one long brown caterpillar crawling across his forehead, which is incidentally beaded with sweat and lined with worry slash stress lines, and falling into his eyes. In fact, I really don't know how he could still see from frowning that deeply. And frowning like that will just put more lines on his forehead, which he really can't afford since there are already like a billion gazillion like come on Mr. Great King, you're only like twenty, maybe thirty years old and you're starting to look like an old man!

Now he was mad, though. Everyone had fallen silent, just waiting, watching the scene unfold before their eyes. Some of the squires even dropped their trumpets and watched, as the dragon was humiliating the King on his terf instead of the other way around. In front of his own subjects, too! Everyone wanted to see what the Great King Grindlewald would do about it.

"Hah," said the King with no expression, brushing Lucifer off. His facial expression suddenly melted off into jovial friendliness, a sudden change that the dragon was definitely not expecting to see. "This is just friendly banter, dragon. See, I know it annoys you, so I do it any ways, Apparently it's what friends do these days to show that they are friends." His voice may have held a touch of sarcasm, or something dark, but the dragon couldn't be sure. His smile was laced with ice, but so little that no one who was looking from further away than Lucifer (who was starting right down his long snout of a nose at him) would be able to detect.

The King steps away from the underside of the dragon's belly after giving it a hearty pat. Lucifer winces on the inside, but, not wanting to show any sign of weakness, holds it in. Lucifer counts to ten the way his dragon therapist decades and decades ago had taught him, breathing in and out with each digit to control the fire. But before he could shoot back a reply, the King began to order everyone about:

"You, squires, down from there! We'll not need you right now, so just stay out of the way until our work here is done, because you'll need to be back for the official declaration."

They leapt down from the trees, nimbly landing on their feet - most of them - and scattering out of sight throughout the rest of the forest.

"You, scribes!" the King barked at the men and women in long, flowing robes - that were now covered in ink blots - and who were still struggling to clean up the mess of gazillions of sheets of paper and quills that had been dispersed throughout the forest. "Clean this up immediately and get out of my sight! If you haven't got every thing written down and recorded by the time the castle is finished, well, woe betide you." They scrambled away, tripping over their uselessly long robes and taking short, anxious glances back at the angry King, who seemed to be in the zone, in his element, if I do say so myself.

"Royal builders forward!" he declared triumphantly after everyone was out of the way. "Let's whip out the blue prints and get started!"

Slowly, brick by brick, the skeleton structure of the castle was built. It fell down several times, and Lucifer chose to "friendily annoy" the King by asking him how he chose his "Royal builders" at these choice moments.

Soon, the castle was starting to come together more fully. The dark-haired princess had ridden horse back all the way from the castle to have a look at her new living quarters, and by the looks of it she was not happy with the arrangements her father had made. She rode up, only two years only, with a haughty expression on her face that suggested she had never worked for anything in her life before. Granted she was only two, but still. Oh, ho, the symbolism, eh? Any way, she took one long scrutinizing look at the dragon and turned straight to her father to say, "This is my new daddy, daddy?"