by Lisa Daniels
Suddenly, the invader tussled himself free and again made a direct line to Jackie. Before Jackie could exclaim, before Durza had the time to gather enough speed, the dragon had swiped at Jackie, encasing her in his talons. She yelled and beat her fists uselessly against the scaly prison, her heart a hammer against her chest, the adrenaline in her blood spiking. No. She couldn’t be taken now. Not when she finally had a plan! “Bastard!” Jackie growled, her temper flaring, seeing the world below her through the gaps in the talons, along with desperation. No. It couldn’t end like this.
The befuddled dragon above her said no words, he only screeched and spewed flames, flapping in an erratic, stomach-lurching way. The wind struck Jackie’s cheeks and bitter tears swelled up, before she chomped them down, breathing fast, trying to think of a way out of the problem.
Trying to think of a way to return to Durza, Morgana, and Elzara. To be there for that poor knight if he succeeded in his Quest and obtained the potion for whatever loved one of his that had fallen ill.
Argggh! In a fresh wave of anger, she beat her fists against the dragon. She didn’t want to leave! The dragon juddered and shot unevenly forward. She heard the familiar growls of Durza – he was on the dragon!
The flash of relief was quickly overtaken by a dark realization. If he injures the dragon too much, I’ll…
The dragon released her from his grip, completing her dire prediction. She tumbled through the air, hurtling towards the ground hundreds of meters below, the wind tearing at her clothes, the scream yanked out of her mouth. Instinctively, she splayed her arms as the drag behind her increased. The wind dominated all sound in her ears as the world rushed up to meet her.
This is it. It’s all over…
A flash of blue angled to her from the right. Elzara! The dragon had folded her wings, trying to position herself to snatch Jackie out of the air. The ground raced closer, promising to break all her bones. Elzara let out an extra burst of speed, her wide blue eyes fixed in determination on Jackie.
Meters from the ground, Elzara snagged Jackie and continued flapping forward, as Jackie’s stomach turned upside down, and the talons enveloped her, protecting her from death. She sobbed in frightened relief as the dragon set her back on the cliff above, and Morgana instantly fussed over her, shaking.
“Just as well Elzara launched herself off when she did.”
“Future potion,” Elzara gasped in response. “Not even close. Shame it doesn’t seem to work all the time, or we would have seen that dragon long before.”
“Can’t be perfect,” Morgana said, shrugging.
In the distance, the brown dragon fell from the air like a stone, crashing into the forest below. Durza flapped back towards them, his movement unsteady, and he landed hard on the cliff before shifting and collapsing in a bruised heap.
Elzara shifted as well, groaning as she clutched her back.
Jackie shrugged off Morgana’s probing hands and hugged Elzara first, who squeaked in protest, “My back!” before shambling over to Durza, who rejected her offer of a hug, but allowed Jackie to hold his hand.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he wheezed, face twisting up in pain. Jackie shook her head.
“You’re a fucking idiot. You’re a dragon. You know how dragons work.”
She flicked him on the head, and he said, “Ow.”
“She’s not wrong,” Morgana said, scratching at her nose. “Look. I’m going to rummage around my place, see if I can find a flying artifact. Obviously having you up on High Mountain without the ability to fly might be an issue in the future.”
Jackie laughed, before kissing the back of Durza’s hand. His liquid brown eyes stared into hers, and his breathtaking face welled up in a mix of affection and concern.
She covered up her embarrassment by saying, “So, still want me to be a Quest Giver?”
Durza coughed out a laugh. “We can talk about that later.”
“Yes. We can.” Jackie sighed, looking around at her friends. Even Andrea, in her annoying princess way, was more of a friend than the people Jackie knew in the past. Peel that girl away from the rest, she could be okay.
Fuck it. Jackie would try this thing out. She’d stay for Durza. For the others. For herself.
Just as long as she didn’t get carried away by another dragon first.
It did mean a lot of work needed to be done. Midlife issues to sort through. Dragons to handle. Not messing up those ritual words.
And, most importantly – trying to be happy.
She kissed Durza on the forehead and his expression brightened. Elzara grinned beside them, and Morgana nodded approvingly, her dark hair flowing in the wind.
“Let’s get you home and patched up,” Jackie said, letting Durza loop his arm over her shoulder. Together, they stumbled home.
Home. What a nice word. Full of promise and a future. Jackie grinned as she stepped out of the light of day, and into safety.
The End
Captured by Tarek
Dragons Take a Princess
(Book 6)
Chapter One
Lystra came from a rather odd family. Living in one of the smallest of all of the Hundred Kingdoms, yet saturated with one of the highest concentrations of royals per square meter, Porak Kingdom found a rather interesting source of income for its people.
It seemed at some point in the past, the brave or foolish ancestors of the current royals stumbled across a dragon lair in the Wilderness. Both sides saw a chance for prosperity and unity. Given at the time most people saw dragons as “kill on sight” and that dragons saw humans as either crunchy meat treats or princess producers – this deal was the first of its kind. And possibly the last.
The dragons wanted to become the third dragon kingdom in the Wilderness. And Porak Kingdom, well, it wanted more fame and recognition, rather than an identity as the ass-end of the world.
They struck a deal that lured all Questers to trickle into their kingdom, and a deal that had witches brewing in the royal laboratories. Most other kingdoms hated witches on sight, and had an unfortunate habit of trying to burn them at the stake. Porak Kingdom employed witches to create Quest rewards. They paid the dragons to take their princesses.
So Lystra’s childhood had mostly been preparation for being taken by a dragon.
“Now, honey,” her mother had once soothed, yanking a brush through Lystra’s sandy blonde curls. Lystra remembered it hurting, and feeling as though each strand on her scalp was slowly being ripped out. “Do you remember what Mr. Timid taught you today?”
Nine-year-old Lystra glared at herself in the mirror. “I know how to do a perfect high-pitched scream when I see a dragon flying, so he can find me faster. I know they’re attracted to the color red, and I know three ways to clean a kitchen surface, so when I’m taken, I won’t need to learn as much as other princesses when the dragon gives me chores.”
“Good girl!” Her mother, Queen Nera, smiled proudly at her eighth-youngest daughter. Due to the number of children Nera had pumped out, her body was round like a potato, and she had a rather charming matronly look going for her. “I heard you were top of your class for the scream hour. Well done!”
“The rest of the class heard it too,” Lystra muttered, already at that age of finding the lessons mostly pointless. Why bother learning all these things if she was going to be taken by a dragon anyway? They did that thing when a princess reached eighteen years old where they sent them to High Hill, and a dragon just went to High Hill to scoop up whatever unfortunate princess was waiting there. She didn’t even need to know how to scream, because the princesses offered themselves up on a platter. Every year, the royal treasury accumulated gold whenever a dragon took a princess and paid Porak for its service.
Then a new stream of Questers came along to try and rescue the princesses, or to go on self-imposed requests by Porak Kingdom, all for a taste of their witch brews.
Lystra’s favorite person when growing up was Agatha the Witch, an old, ugly woman with a
pointed chin and nose like a crescent moon, who let Lystra escape from her millions of brothers, sisters and cousins to watch as she brewed potions.
Now at eighteen years of age, Lystra was due to go to High Hill tomorrow for the ceremonial capture by a dragon. Nervous about it, she went down to Agatha’s lab, deep in the dungeons of their castle, past damp stone walls and broken stone steps, into a chamber lit by an ominous green light, and shrunken heads hanging from strings upon the ceiling. Agatha gave Lystra a toothless smile, making a sucking sound with her gums as she stirred a hissing cauldron. Flashes of green electricity flared up from the cauldron on every third clockwise stir.
“Ah, if it isn’t my favorite princess! Nervous about being captured tomorrow, are yer, sweetie?”
Lystra nodded, twiddling her thumbs. She sought the words she needed to convey, and reflected on them before saying, “I’ve been preparing most of my life to be a perfect princess. Learning to cook and clean. Over-preparing for my new life, actually, before I get rescued by one Quester and then probably married off to them as a reward. But…” Now she approached the meat of the matter, the thing pervading her thoughts, “what if I hate it there? What if the dragons are all cruel and nothing like what everyone’s saying they are?”
Agatha stared at the freshly adult princess standing in front of her cauldron, and made that annoying sucking noise with her gums. “Well, I’ve spoken to a few dragons in my time. They have a strict moral code when it comes to princesses. Course you always get some rogues, but the ones yer mammy and daddy are in contact with want to represent an official, respected kingdom. They will honor their agreement. Don’t you worry.” She paused for a moment, before widening her smile. “Though some of them like to bend rules. I can offer you some protection, give you a bit of a head start.”
Lystra watched eagerly as Agatha tottered over to a shelf full of potions. One was labelled “temporary,” and the other “permanent.” She rifled through the “permanent” shelf until she found what she was looking for. A small, purple and green potion rolled into her wizened palms, and she handed it over to Lystra.
“That there’s a whopper. You drink that, and the predators of the Wilderness will struggle to see you as a food source. It’s a simple potion, but if you drink it, I think you’ll have one less fear to worry about. I have it meself. Lets me walk through the Wilderness when I’m gathering my herbs without fear of attack.”
A repel potion. Trusting Agatha, Lystra uncorked the bottle and drank it, feeling the magic settle heavily onto her bones after it travelled down her gullet and into her stomach.
“Side effects can include accidental generation of a black hole that will suck your soul up for all eternity,” Agatha added, which made Lystra glare at her. “But don’t worry. It’s like a 0.001% chance. Why, you’d have to be incredibly unlucky to get it!” She guffawed, but Lystra still wasn’t amused. However, she thanked Agatha, who reassured her once more that she’d be alright. The dragons would treat her well enough. She didn’t need to worry her pretty little princess head over the matter.
Though the idea of not being eaten by the various creatures that inhabited the Wilderness appealed to Lystra, she still felt rather anxious about the whole capturing thing.
The feast she shared with her expansive family was glorious and conversation-packed as usual, though she acted subdued throughout the whole affair and retreated to bed with a weight in her gut, wondering how her new life would pan out. Although she knew princesses could be rescued in a matter of days, she also knew of tales where some had spent years of their lives captured. Some never even returned. Those cases were rare enough, however, for most princesses to expect rescue at some point.
The next day, Lystra garbed herself in the ritual red dress, complete with a sparkling ruby pendant, and red, coruscant shoes. She went up to the ceremonial High Hill, where an appropriately constructed tower and platform awaited. Her job for the entire day was to stand on the flat tower platform and wait for whatever dragon happened to be sent from the flourishing dragon colony to scoop her up.
The wait generated undue anxiety in Lystra, who whittled away the time by sipping at glasses of water or munching on crackers. She even read a book, and an umbrella was brought up to her when the sunlight grew fierce.
Waiting for dragons sure was a tiring affair. Part of Lystra hoped that none would come at all, and she could retreat back into her castle and act like nothing had happened. Her family might be awfully upset she wasn’t accepted, but then they’d simply marry her off to a prince. Job done.
The day stretched on. She saw her mother and father muttering to themselves, and her younger sister shaking her head in a disapproving way.
“I bet if it was me up there, the dragons would be swarming to take me!” Malissa’s sharp little voice carried up on the breeze. Little brat, Lystra thought fondly. Still, she had spunk. Nice to see princesses being sassy.
She pretended she didn’t hear Malissa’s whining, and stared up at the sky, wondering if they really were coming for her.
Her heart sank when she saw a dot appear on the horizon, gradually growing larger and larger. The distinctive shape of a dragon undulated through the air, revealing scintillating red scales, the same color as her dress. She heard the crowd who had gathered to watch cheer and cry out, and her mother fanned herself, clearly satisfied to see the huge dragon head for her daughter.
Well, I had hoped…
The red dragon swooped closer, and now she saw the teeth and the dark shadowed eyes, heard the wing beats as they pushed the air, and she forced herself to stand up straight and smile. She decided to forgo the whole screaming thing. The dragon also clutched something in his talons. Finally, the dragon landed on the platform and bowed his neck to the princess. She clambered up, finding the scales warm and smooth, and settled at the end of his neck, just in front of his shoulder bones and where the wings burst out. The dragon lifted his head and roared triumphantly, spouting orange flames into the sky as the crowd below cheered. The dragon released the sack from his talons, leaving a spill of gold and artifacts, then he took a few sharp strides, running off the platform and elevating through the air.
Lystra clung to his back, partially terrified and giddy as the world view changed, and the wind screamed past. Her fur clothes helped protect against the cold, and she saw her insane family jumping up and down, waving and cheering as the dragon carted her off to his lair.
She didn’t know what awaited her. She didn’t know how boring life would be with a dragon, though she at least knew how to clean.
I hope someone rescues me soon.
She rested her cheek against the dragon’s neck, immeasurable sadness seeping through her.
Chapter Two
Arriving at the dragon almost-kingdom, she saw a hub of activity. Several forts had already been carved into the mountain face, and dragons in both human and dragon forms wandered the landscape, some of them with princesses in tow. What surprised her was the arena built into part of the mountain, where she saw a dragon facing off against a Quester band now, under the screams and cheers of a watching crowd. The dragon in the arena, a huge black monstrosity, faced off against five Questers, who looked pathetic in comparison. She heard an announcer, his voice magnified as he commented on the match, but didn’t catch everything that was said.
“Trying the pinwheel dodge. Ooh, that didn’t end well…” One of the Questers could be seen flying through the air, as the black dragon’s tail lashed him out of the arena. “And it’s over for that one… Sigun’s whacked him out!”
When the dragon landed at his home, a rather well-crafted cavern of a sort, with appealing paintings of serpentine figures dotting the cave entrance, he happily ambled inside to a well-lit room, dome-shaped, with a ceiling painted in star patterns.
Lystra looked around, impressed, even though she didn’t want to show any evidence at all that she liked what she saw. Why, she certainly didn’t intend to enjoy herself here. But the way the cavern had
been set out looked quite attractive. Chairs were arranged artfully around the room. One was by a bookcase, another around a circular table with a golden tablecloth, and yet another near the kitchen with a book placed on the cushion, which suggested that whoever cooked here also liked reading as they did so. A cauldron simmered with green smoke, and some cutlery danced on the kitchen surface. Apparently, the knife was trying to teach the fork how to tango.
Beyond the main room lay a corridor with other little rooms, each sealed by a reinforced wooden door revealed in the yellow lighting. Lystra slid off the dragon, who then promptly morphed into his human form. Her eyebrows jerked upward in surprise. She didn’t know what she expected, really. Some twisted old dragon looking his age, or maybe displaying a nervous tic in his eye. Instead, she stared into a youthful, clever face, with light brown eyes that gazed into hers with mild interest. He had a large jawline, making his face wide yet friendly, and chestnut-colored bristle framed his cheeks and chin. A wild mane of shaggy hair erupted from his head, nothing like the preened, immaculate appearance of a prince. Yet somehow, under that wildness, he appeared… well, good looking. Annoyingly so. He contained broad muscles, a substantial chest concealed by a leather jerkin which left his arms exposed – the kind of arms that could probably flex with a watermelon wedged inside and explode it. He had the makings of a warrior or knight, though he could do with a good trim to the head.
Really, Lystra hadn’t expected that at all. Her cheeks pinkened slightly, even as the dragon examined her from head to toe.
“Hello,” she said. It came out awkwardly.
The dragon ignored her hello, which she thought was rather rude, and prowled around her, still inspecting.