The princess's dragon

A dream

Alexander pinned Lilliana to the ground of the old barn where they laid, making her immobile. Her gown was on the ground along with her crown.  Lilliana smiled gently at him then head butted him hard. His grip loosened, Lilliana used the opportunity to flip him over and pinned him face first into the dirt. He tried valiantly to free himself but eventually gave up. "Calling uncle already?" She said oviously enjoying herself.

"Yes..."Alexander said sourly. Lilliana jumped up and brushed off her borrowed stable hand outfit. Alexander stood on his own and grabbed his sword and threw it at her.  She caught it in her hand and started shadow sword fighting.

"This is so much better than math lessons."Lilliana said as she started to work up a sweat.

"We're going to get caught if you keep skipping lessons to train with me." Alexander said correcting her form.

"Oh come on. They just think I'm screwing around in the forest picking flowers and shit. Plus what's the harm if we get caught." she said with a shrug.

"Whats the harm? Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you could get me into if we're caught, I could lose everything because you wanted to mess around with swords." He said shocked how careless she was being.

Lilliana was taken aback by how angry Alexander was,"I'm not messing around."she said quitely setting the sword down.

"Then what are we doing? Lilli I've been helping you train for over a year but you never told me what you were training for. I was willing to put up with it before because you're my best friend but I'm not anymore. You've been skipping lessons, sneaking into my room, last week you almost got us caught when you got that old sword stuck in that rock." he said.

Lilliana sighed," We never did get that sword out. Alas poor Excalibur I will miss you." she said with a dramatic sigh.

Alexander snorted,"I don't see why you gave that hunk of junk such an extravagant name," he said and Lilliana stuck her tongue out at him. Alexander responded by hugging her tightly,"Seriously Lilliana why are we doing this I know there's a reason and I need to know."

Lilliana hesitated then sighed,"I should have know I couldn't keep this sercet. Well you know how next month in honor of mine and Brianna's   birthday there's going to be a contest of strength."she said looking uncharacteristically shy. Alexander nodded, it was big news especially among the squires with many viewing it as an opportunity to best their Masters and graduate to full knighthood."Well what they don't know is that my father plans on offering a boon to the winner. They may make any request to the king and must he hear it. My plan is to win the competition and ask him to grant my wish." she said.

"What wish?" Alexander asked.

"I...I,"she trailed off then tightened her jaw and put her head up,"I want to be a knight!"

Alexander was dumbfounded by her statement, there was no way her plan was going to work and he opened his mouth to tell her that but there he saw the look in her eyes. He could see her conviction and determination but he could also see the fear. He could tell that she knew how crazy this idea was but she was going to do it anyway, that she had to do it. So instead of lecturing her he hugged her,"So how can I help?"