Thread: The Dragon and the Princess (Wraith and LovinglyAmira)

The dragon had been in that cursed cage for almost his entire life. He was barely a dragonling when the humans got him and he grew in a cage, a cage created by magic that grew once with him. At first he'd tried his best to escape, by any means. He'd tried making calls to his brethren, yet they went unanswered. Was it really possible for him to be the last of his kind? It was what he wondered every day and every night as he gazed at the stars. At the very least they hadn't taken that away from him. It was nigh uncomfortable to be unable to spread his wings as they grew, and he even wondered, if one day he was to be set free, would he know how to fly? But such questions were hard to answer and most likely posed an impossible problem. He'd never be free. Not by any stretch of imagination. The cage wasn't guarded, the humans were confident enough that the magic they employed was strong enough. But so he believed as well seeing as trying any physical method did not succeed. All he was left to do was sit and wait, watch as humans walked by his cage every day, mocking him. It seemed to give them a lot of satisfaction and they thrived on it. Humans were truly vile to the bone, there was no doubt about it, and his kin had been awfully wrong not to destroy them, erase them and cleanse them through fire. The peaceful way hadn't worked and it led to their extinction. The dragon had learned the human tongue perfectly. It made sense, hearing them talk every day for nearly two hundred years helped slowly give him an understanding of the meanings of their words. And what else was he to do in all that spare time? It was strange to think about the fact that he barely knew anything from his mother tongue, but even if he would have it would've been of no use. He wouldn't have someone to speak it with. It was the reality that broke him. He was the last survivor of his kind and that would only be until humans had decided they had enough of him. Then, most likely, he'd end up as a trophy, head mounted up above the city gates or maybe in the throne room. But until then, humiliation and misery would be his companions as he watched people pass by his cage day by day. Teachers brought pupils to show them the part of history that the humans were most proud of. To tell them how vile and savage dragons were and how Theodrik Dragonbane was a hero of mankind for eliminating such a threat. If only those children would've known that this was far from the truth as it could be. Today had been different right from the beginning, right from when the caravan passed by the cage. Those beings, they... they looked like humans but had long and pointy ears and all of them were beautiful and pristine much unlike many humans who were physically flawed in so many aspects. And not only that was what drew the dragon's attention but these beings, they emanated a strange energy, possibly magic that seemed oh, so familiar. Were they also humans? He could not quite tell for in the time of his capturing, he had not seen elves before. He watched with his large, golden eyes, relishing in the sight that was truly pleasant after having to look at those pesky humans for so long. Oh, how his heart longed to escape the cage or to tell those beings of his anguish and torture at the hands of the vile mortal beings. The pleasant sight was not long-lived and soon enough the dragon was left alone once more, save for the people who kept passing by, regarding him with spite and utter hatred. How he'd have loved to burn them all. Yet he couldn't quite know that his chance to do it would come so much sooner than he'd expect. The day passed slow and boring, repetitive, just another drop in the bucket of aeons. The dragon's only option was to stay quiet and listen to the rumor. Of course he'd heard when the beloved queen had died, years ago. But now it seemed that she was to be replaced? The commoners spoke a great deal, some talking of how they envied the king for managing to get an elven consort, some others simply pitying the elf for having to endure a fate worse than death by marrying that oaf, a drunken idiot without measure who didn't deserve the name that Theodrik had earned. and some simply not caring enough to gossip. And with the coming of the night the rumor only died down as the streets emptied, save for the stoic guards that patrolled with torches in their hands. They seemed to pay no attention at all to the dragon, not even nearly as much as the commoners did, and that was good because else, what was to come would've been far more difficult to pull off. The dragon had barely curled up, decided to take a moment's rest if nothing else, perhaps to sleep a little, when a feeling far too familiar struck him all the way from the neck to the end of the tail. It was the same energy that he'd felt earlier as he watched the elven caravan. Of course, it could've been just one of the strange creatures taking a nightly stroll, yet it soon all proved to be something more than that. He watched the curious being as she approached the cage, trying to convince him, in the most broken human tongue he'd heard, that she was a friend. That she was not a threat and that she wanted to break him out. Why? What could she possibly gain from this? He'd have wanted to ask so many questions yet in his dragon form, he could not speak. So instead he turned and watched almost perplexed as the elf found the strangest kind of solution. He didn't believe that was to work, but again, curiosity had him watch. What the elf had failed to realize in her attempts was that at least one guard had picked up on the sound that the stone hitting metal caused, and soon, the rumor only turned worse with several guards already rushing to apprehend the culprit. The alarm bell was rung just at the moment when miraculously, the elf's trick worked. It only served to usher in the commotion that followed as more of the guards began swarming to the city's square, armed and ready to face the wrath of the newly freed dragon. It wouldn't be long before the entire garrison of the city would be present, too, and so the dragon had little time to ponder. He let out a bellowing roar of primal rage, announcing his newly found freedom and the doom of those who had treated him so wrongly for so long. However, between vengeance and showing his gratitude to the one who saved him, he quickly decided as he watched a couple of guards trying to rush in and catch the elf. His enormous body moved, long tail forming a protective barrier behind the elf, spread wings covering her head and the dragon's head catching between its behemoth jaws the first soldier who rushed in, crunching him savagely and turning him into a mangled mess of flesh, bone and the destroyed metal armor he wore. His tail struck vigorously against the ground before swiping, tossing the soldiers behind him as if they were mere strawmen. It was the time of reckoning. He could feel minor stings as a few arrows pierced small spaces between his huge scales, nothing more but needles that didn't affect him in any way. As expected, more soldiers swarmed to the scene as the dragon did away with a few more guards, grabbing them in his huge fangs and throwing them away viciously or using his large claws to simply swipe, take out as many at once as he could. Climb on my back he finally managed to say, though say was a bit too much. He wasn't even sure it would work but he still tried to at least communicate to the being with mere thoughts. He didn't quite yet know what this being was, but she saved him and for that he'd be eternally grateful.