Dragon Heart

Chapter 9

Wind whipped her hair as the dragon flew them over fields. "Where are we going?" Olympia asked.

"It's a surprise!" The dragon said back to her.

The night was clear and the wind was cool. Princess Olympia held both hands in the air and shouted her exuberance. There was nothing more thrilling than sailing through the air on a big green dragon. The dragon laughed before plunging down towards the ground.

"Woah!" Olympia laughed grabbing onto his scales and holding on tightly before she fell during his descent. They were in the Southern nation, on a mountaintop, overlooking a serene pond.

"What is this place?" Olympia asked.

"It's my home." The dragon answered as Olympia took the picnic basket he carried holstered on his back. She slid off him and laid the blanket on the ground. "I thought tonight, I would tell you a story." He said.

"Well this is a change." Olympia laughed plopping herself down on the blanket and going for the food in the basket. Just as Rosalie said, the dragon provided her with all her favorite foods. If she didn't know any better, she would think that he was trying to plump her up so she'd be better eating.

"Once upon a time..." The dragon started the story looking straight into Olympia's eyes. Her body uncontrollably shivered at the intimacy of the act.

"Does this story involve a hard chair?" Olympia asked.

"Shut up princess and let me tell my story." The dragon said in the deep voice that she had come to appreciate.

Once upon a time, there lived a Southern Nation Prince. On his twenty-first birthday maidens from all over the four nations were invited to a ball, where the prince was expected to choose one for his wife. Most of the maidens were quite silly and none of them could win his heart. But one girl was mildly intelligent and wildly pretty. Out of all the maidens she came the closest to winning his heart. But the prince needed more than one ball to be certain so the Northern King decided to have three.

"Three balls! I think my feet would get tired of dancing!" Olympia teased.

"But if you were there princess, he would have known in the first hour that you were the one." The dragon teased. "Your feet would have been spared."

After the second night, he still wasn't sure if the red headed maiden was right for him. But none of the other maidens sparked any of his interest so he decided that he would propose to her on the third night.

The third night came and the prince went to look for the maiden when he overheard her with one of the maids. "You, stupid little toad." He heard the maiden say to the maid. "I said I wanted white mead this is red."

"I'm sorry miss." The maid apologized but the maiden wouldn't let the simple mistake go.

"If I were as hideous as you and as bad at my job as you, I'd jump in an alligator's mouth." The maiden said.

At this point the prince showed himself to the maiden. "What is your name?" He asked the maid.

The maid's name was Gretchen. She wasn't ugly and perhaps she could have done her job a little better but everyone makes mistakes. The maiden thought for sure that Prince Andrew was going to fire the maid but instead he asked Gretchen to marry him.

"Really!" Olympia was surprised by the turn in the story.

The maiden revealed herself to be a witch and she would not have the Prince marrying a maid over her so she cursed him to turn into a dragon. But all curses are made to be broken. If the dragon gives his heart to a maiden and she gives hers in return, within one year, the dragon will become Prince Andrew once more.

The Four nations had a pact that they would band together to break any curse on any of the ruling families. So, when Prince Andrew was cursed each nation decided to take turns sending the dragon a maiden for the year.

"What happened to Gretchen?"

"Gretchen was the dragon's first maiden. They really didn't get along."

"Because she wasn't good at her job?"  

"She hated reading."  The dragon huffed.  "What kind of person hates to read.  Someone I don't care to know."  

Olympia's laugh was a soft tinkle on the night air.  It was probably for the best that he didn't get along with Gretchen.  If they had then Olympia may have never met her Prince.  

"The nations took turns sending a maiden to break the dragon's curse not as a tasty snack?" Olympia asked instead of voicing her thoughts.

"Over the years the nations forgot the true purpose of the maidens and they became scared of the dragon. But Olympia, I don't think they'll be scared much longer." Prince Andrew whispered.

Olympia...

Wake up!

Olympia...

Olympia opened her eyes. It wasn't a dream it was a memory. Maybe it was both. A sweet memory of her time with her dragon prince. But now his heart called to her. Olympia opened the drawer where she placed the heart.

There was nothing there. A cloaked figure walked out the door carrying the heart.

"I swear Mandy, you better give me the heart back!" Olympia shouted. "He wanted me to have it!" 

The figure began to run when Olympia shouted. She grabbed the troll knife that she tucked away in the drawer and chased after the intruder. Mandy had a head start and Olympia couldn't keep up. She ran outside of the protective wall and Olympia sprinted trying to keep pace. She stabbed the intruder just as they reached the outskirts of the eastern kingdom, just beyond the protection barrier.