'Are you out of your mind?' said Princess Leila, with her hands on her hips. 'It’s a dragon. A DRAGON! I am staying right here.'
'But princess ...' began the Knight.
'And take that silly armour off, will you?' interrupted the Princess, flapping her hands. 'It's making my eyes water. What do you do, spend your days scrubbing it until you can see your reflection?'
She turned and trundled back into the cave from which she had come.
The Knight took his helmet off and sighed. Looks like he had come all this way for nothing. What was he going to tell the King? The poor man had promised half the jewels in his entire kingdom for the safe return of his daughter. Whereas his daughter … The Knight shook his head.
Debating whether to go after the Princess or head back to the castle, he was about to climb his horse when …
BOOM!
All around him, the silent forest exploded in a flash of light. Birds flew off burning trees and squirrels ran up his armour in their haste to get away from the flames. His horse bolted into the trees and didn’t look back. The cave lay exposed as the trees around it caught fire and slowly withered away.
The Knight snapped his helmet back on, shook off the squirrels and ran full tilt into the cave, coughing as the smoke entered his lungs.
‘PRINCESS!’ he cried, desperately waving at the smoke but it didn’t budge.
‘PRINCESS!’ he shouted again. Only silence greeted him.
Trying not to think about the Dragon’s sharp jaws snapping shut on his outstretched arms, he began to slowly grope his way forward. He stumbled over loose stones littering the cave floor.
‘PRINCESS!’
‘Shut up will you?’ hissed a voice in his ear. Alarmed, he jumped back.
‘Princess?’ he said uncertainly. He didn’t know why he was whispering.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ said the Princess again and took hold of his hand, leading him back the way from which he had come.
The Knight walked uncertainly behind her, stumbling now and again.
Out in the open air, the Knight stood coughing and wheezing, trying to get some air into his lungs.
‘Told you … not … to … mix with … Dragons,’ he spluttered.
The Princess glared at him.
‘I will have you know that the Dragon was a perfect gentleman. Or … a gentle egg, rather. It was his mother that was the problem.’
‘Wait … what?’ said the Knight. He coughed once more.
‘Well, for starters, she has really bad manners, blowing up the cave like that just because she found me playing with her egg,’ said the Princess. She started pacing around the clearing. The Knight watched her wear a circle into the smoking grass.
‘We really should get out of here,’ he said, with a nervous glance back at the cave.
‘No,’ said the Princess, turning to look at the Knight. ‘I want a Dragon. We are going to steal that egg.’
What happens next?
So the princess wants to steal a dragon’s egg. Is she successful and what about the poor knight who really doesn’t want to get mixed up in this?
Stay tuned!
