The Principessa and the Dragon
A Short little Fantasy Poem
Once upon a time,
In a magical world,
There lay a sad king.
Who didn’t trust anyone.
He was alone, but he was fierce, protective, but always quiet.
No one could make him happy.
Even his jesters saw his hollow stare.
“Please, you have everything sir.”
But he was scared to tell anyone how he felt.
But unless in battle.
He became a different man.
Loud, decisive, brittle, but never unkind.
He saw a dragon. An intimidating Queen lizard.
With pink scales and blue wings.
Green was the color of her crowning underbelly.
“Scared pathetic man thing. Your men are dead and rotting in my belly but you hide. You’re a coward. If you died, it would be better for your kingdom. Little fish, come to me, and I will swallow you whole. My breasts swoon for the best warrior in my belly.”
The King didn’t pay her any mind.
He wouldn’t let the dragon say more.
Taking his sword in his hand,
he swept the battlefield of her minion creepers.
“You fight well, but you’re not that good. Take your prize, and fight with honor. Foul fleshing.”
The bubbling cauldron shined on the green dragons belly.
The men were beyond witless.
Their men aflame from the Orom colored stone she ingested.
“Such prowess as yourself is cowardice.
Come to me, little tin man. I could never love a coward.”
He rushed forward. Carefully,
not following a move set the dragon could follow.
He jumped into a hole when the flame
covered the battlefield in a wall.
With the flame dissipating, he made his approach, and stabbed at the dragon’s belly.
Only once he approached the wounded dragon,
thinking it would surrender gracefully, the She-bitch took a bite out of his leg.
“I want you to know what you’re missing, even after I am dead. My love.”
It wasn’t the largest bite but it was the smallest tooth that did keep him off his feet for two weeks.
But as the king recovered, he didn’t seem to crave food.
He lost his voice. His eyes turned lizard green.
“How could this be? I did everything right. I can’t turn into the thing I fought. Even Orom powder does not work. Made from the she beasts innards.”
The castle’s chief medicine healers even tried to use the horn for an antidote.
But it only made the king angrier, back writhe in pain.
Over time the king grew into a mighty dragon, retreating to the mountain top, overlooking his kingdom.
Unable to be what he once was.
“How could this happen? Our kingdom is in ruin. The livestock is dying. The men are losing strength from cowardice. The women are growing hair in the most precarious of places. The birds are diseased. We need the dragon king to make things right.” The peasants said with little whispers.
Then a little blonde girl said “But I am the principessa. The princess of untold love. I’m not afraid of him. Maybe if I charmed him. It would be all right.”
“The King retreated because he might hurt someone.”
“He hasn’t to me.”
“But we need him. He’s still the king.”
“He could be my king.”The trek to the mountain top saw many tumultuous perils.
She braved a few slips, but caught herself before certain death.
The young girl was brave; even eating mushrooms that lay at her feet, disregarding her own safety.
She heard the grumbling tremor. It should have been an earth quake, violent erasures of fault lines breathing into her feet.
She saw the Dragon King, a black terrible fostering slave of selfish intent.
“Who is there? Someone to come and ask me for favors? When no one saw my deeds as a man. Now they come to find me. When they couldn’t save me from what I became.”
The girls tense eyes brows sighed for her.
“Oh great king of misfortune. I don’t see that. And all I want is to be your friend.”
The dragon turned, and stuck his tongue at her.
“Don’t be so silly. But you do offend me.”
“Why do I care what you think, girl?”
“Because everyone is afraid of you. And I am not.”
The dragon smirked. “You should be.”
“I am not. You’re a good person.”
Only his smirk disappeared and he opened his wing.
“I can smell the discoloration in your throat. It’s hurting you.”
“Yes.”
“Taste the spring ginger permeating in the mountain top. It will cool and clear your senses.”
With a small cup made out of rock, she dipped it into the small little pond, and drank it. “Tastes like beer.”
“Fermented ginger tastes thick as lava but cleans the spirits.”
She smiled, and somehow felt her throat relax. “It should taste bad but it’s good. Thank you.”
“You should hate me.”
“I don’t. I think you’re quite handsome for a dragon.”
The dragon’s cheek fluttered and stared off into the distance. He roared, with fire of pure light and shadow intertwined together coupled with fire, piercing the sky, causing thunder in result.
“I’m 438 years old. An old dragon lad. I might have killed your father, brother, or sister. And here you are.”
“And if you did, I wouldn’t hold you accountable for your misgivings. You’re my king.”
“So tell me why you have come here. Upon someone else’s request. To try and take advantage of my power.”
“To talk. I think you might have more to say.”
“No. Nobody wants to hear what I have to say.”
“Talk and I will listen.”
“But how can I trust you? When everyone else let me become a dragon?”
Pricking her palm with the Orom cup she allowed the dragon to lick the bowl and let her saliva touch his blood. “We are one now. You will bear my Dragon Child.”
He spoke and spoke even when she fell asleep. She felt so comfortable that she awoke in the dragon’s embrace and fell back to sleep. Time fell short and nothing was wrong.
Only she saw a handsome man in front of her.
“My king, you’re cured.”
“No, it’s just that I haven’t been heard in a long time. I sometimes forget what it’s like. To talk and never be heard.”
The small little beard made her warm, as she reached out and touched his slender cheek.
“I have heard you, but now your kin need you. You have duties to attend to.”
“Do you know why I stay on this mountain? Because everyone feared me.”
“Can you control yourself?”
He reared his head but the girl saw him turn back into the dragon. The contortions and the screams made her close her eyes.
“This is why I stay. Because once I feel human, I am a beast, once again.”
“If you hold my hand, then you’re not a beast.”
“No one has done that with me in a long time with me.”
“I love you, forever, my Dragon King.”
A song was made in the dragon kings honor:
A sad and lonely king
never hears the doves sing
For what was a curse born of hate
Breathy Ginger taste
Whiskers full of blood
His livestock healthy
His society restored
The birds now clean.
Now turns away with distress and mud
Our King has arrived at last.
Clouds all gone and waste undone.
At night they fly and sing,
Of love like scattered butterfly wings.
A gold orchid grows in his heart.
Made by a Princess of Untold Love.
That was a very moving romantic poem. I loved it!!