White Dragon Stories

Fairy tale

Since he was a child, he had heard and loved the fairy tales of the prince that set out to save a beautiful princess from a gruesome dragon. After defeating the magical beast the prince would marry the princess, who fell head over heels in love with her savior, and both would live happy ever after.
First he had dreamed to become a prince somehow, because only a prince could save the princess from her captor – a dream that should never come true, he had thought. Later he decided that he could do it without such a title! He wanted to be a hero! A hero did not need to be a prince. He could be as noble as all those "nobles"! As soon as the princess had fallen in love with him and then married him, he would not only be a prince, but a king!
However, there was a little thing that made all his dreams into exactly that: dreams! Fairy tales were stories not reality! There were no princess kidnapped by a dragon for him to save. This world had princesses and princes, they had people to save and maybe he would really save someone one day, but there were no dragons. Those creatures only existed in stories. Somehow it was sad, he would have liked to meet one. On the other hand, it might be better that way. No human would be able to handle a beast with such immense physical strength, magical ability and wisdom.

Still, Alibaba grew up with the dream of fighting a dragon and thereby saving a princess. A beautiful and kind princess of a powerful kingdom! Then no one would make fun of him anymore, because he never had a woman. It was hard to grow up with Kassim, who was so popular with women. Maybe he had problems with being popular, because he had those "childish" dreams? But what was wrong with dreams? With "childish" dreams? On the other side, he only had mentioned his dreams to his closest friends, who still mocked him from time to time due to them. It was mean of them, but Alibaba knew they did not meant it bad with him. Friends sometimes teased each other, he did the same with them.
They all had grown up in the slums of Balbadd, an island kingdom once ruled by King Rashid, Alibaba's father, and now in the hands of Ahbmad Saluja, Rashid Saluja's first born son and therefore Alibaba's older half-brother. However he learned about it only after his mother had died and only told Kassim about it – after Rashid's death Alibaba had been thrown out of the palace again – and losing his title and position as prince. He had never seen himself as prince, despite that it gave him hope that he might really fight a dragon and save a cute girl, thereby becoming a hero! His hopes were crushed when he left the palace, but it did not hurt much, because he never really had felt at home and in the right place there.

When he returned into the slums, he was welcomed back with a warm smile. Kassim and the so called Frog Troup were his family, yet he decided to leave them once again, when he heard a rumor about a princess on an isolated island, which was kidnapped by a mysteries creature – a dragon – and held captive there for many years.
At the beginning it was just rumor on the market and Alibaba had not paid much attention to it. He loved listening to the people talking about it and made his own stories around it – of course, he did not said them out loud – but he kept his hope for them to be true down. And of course the rumors got more and more bizarre, but entertaining. Things only got interesting, when he was delivering something to a sailor. Alibaba had found work by a small business man and due to that had to make a lot of deliveries all over Balbadd. This time he had to go to the harbor, there he overheard two soldiers of a different country – if he wasn't mistaken they were from the Kou Empire, which gained more and more political power in Balbadd lately –, who talked about a person of their country still being missing. That piece of information was not that important, since they could also just talk about any relative or noble, what was important was the mentioning of the emperor and the empress and how sad the empress was over her lost child. So there was indeed a princess in trouble! And not any princess! It was the one of the Kou Empire! He had heard that the princesses of the Kou Empire were all beautiful ladies. Excitement rose inside him! The soldiers more or less also confirmed that the princess was hold captive on an isolated island somewhere near the sea territory of Balbadd, maybe it even was still in the sea territory and maybe that was the reason, why the Kou Empire was invading the government. Entering another's country's territory was always a delicate thing. As far as Alibaba knew, the Kou government had already taken over the rights over the sea territory and therefore could send their boats everywhere they want inside it. If the island was near the boarders or even inside it, then they could do what they want. However, if it wasn't they needed to negotiate with whoever was in charge of that territory or take that country over, just like they did or still were doing with Balbadd.
It was an amusing thought to find the princess before them and make her his bride! He could not only fulfill his dreams, but also save his country. Yes, this was perfect! He, a former prince, would save a beautiful princess of a powerful country, who would fall in love with him and marries him, while he also would save his people from the invasion of the Kou Empire and thereby became a hero and then he would live happy ever after with his wife and their children!