A young Princess finds a dragon hatchling and decides to raise it in secret. Years later, the princess is now a young woman who’s sick and tired of dealing with potential suitors and decides to make her escape with the help of her reptilian companion.
“We’re doing it,” she hissed into the darkness of her room. The drapes were open, the moon was full, and two coppery eyes opened from the darkness of her closet.
“Really?” The voice hissed. “We’re really doing it?”
“Yes,” the princess hissed back in equal tone. “Yes really.”
“Not like the other times, where it was just an exaggeration?” she sounded positively coy about it.
The princess glared at the dragon. “This is the last straw.”
The dragon stretched out like a ferret and left the closet space. It was large enough that she had an entire nest with room to grow inside, though in the inky dark of the night she could only see the edge of the nearest branch of it, a few hoarded pennies poking up from the mess of it. “So what’d they do this time?”
“My magic tutor was shot!” The princess said. “Shot!”
“By your parents?” The dragon asked, cocking her coppered head to the side.
“No, but that doesn’t matter. I was only sticking around so I could learn something other than fireball, you know,” The princess said, hands on her hips.
The dragon coiled around her. This had been easier before the dragon had advanced past dog sized and thoroughly into horse sized, but the princess appreciated the gesture nonetheless.
“So…?” The dragon asked.
“So we’re getting out of here, I’m going to find another magic tutor, and this one isn’t going to get shot to pieces!” The princess hissed even lower. “Also, they want me to marry a bloody idiot again, he doesn’t even know the finer parts of engines, how is he supposed to keep the cars running? His legion of servants?! Pah.”
Hiss of agreement from the darkness.
“Excellent,” The dragon said, walking over to the window. She reared back-
“What are you doing?” The princess asked-
Then smashed the window out of the foundations in a spray of brickwork and beautiful stained glass.
“Oh,” The princess said.
The dragon looked back, impeccably smug, and flicked the princess onto her back with a twitch of her tail. “Come on, I’ll take you to the secondary hoard.”
“You have a secondary hoard?” The princess asked, clueless.
In the cool of night, where the alarms were blaring and the search lights were roaring, and the palace grounds were covered in helicopters and roving bands of search parties and other accouterments that tasted even worse than they sounded, in the dragon’s experience, they whistled through the night like a rocket. Only the void in the stars betrayed their presence, and languid and fluid as the dragon’s flight path was (practiced from years of escaping into the city to get her night work done) none could quite spot the princess in the sky.
Not that they knew to look at the sky regardless. The cold humid air of the nearest port whistled across their faces, flicking the princess’s hair back and smoothing the dirt off of the dragon’s scales. Then she landed like an arrow or a bullet, whichever you prefer for long distance princess absconding, and the two of them slid into the apartment building. The clicking of the dragon’s talons were soon replaced by another pair of footsteps entirely, and by the time they both fumbled for the light switch, the princess came face to face with her savior.
“Sup,” The dragon said, nervously, running a hand down her hair. Bright red hair gave a shock of difference from the princess’s own, narrow eyes gave her a permanent case of bitch face, though the freckles lightened that up a bit. She was wearing a starbuck’s uniform, with all of the features still there.
“Huh,” The princess said. “Gwen?”
“Yeah, cool name, right?” The dragon barista asked, sweeping inside. “So… this is my place…” She gestured, and the lights came on one by one. A pile of money sat in the corner in loose bills and coins, probably just under a thousand dollars. Clothes sat in another pile on the bed, the perfect size for roosting, but also a perfect size for being disordered to high hell and back.
Automatically, the princess walked over and started to fold them.
Gwen coughed. “So uh, yeah, this is me,” The dragon said, abashed. “Sorry about the mess, I get it might not be up to your-“
“It’s perfect,” The princess said, without looking up. Half the bed was already clean. “So where do I sleep?”
“Well, I have a couch,” The dragon coughed. “Do-does this bother you?”
“You’re allowed to do whatever you want,” The princess said, looking up finally. No trace of shock or disgust at her human living quarters. The dragon’s heart skipped a beat, and she flushed, looking away. “And besides. You’re my friend. I wouldn’t judge you for… working at starbucks?”
“That’s totally judgement!” The dragon whined.
“Starbucks?”
“I like making things,” Gwen complained, kicking her feet up on the couch. “And making things takes degrees and stuff.”
“I still remember when you knocked over all of the lamps in my room in order. Because the first one scared you and you ran into the others trying to get away.”
A deeper flush across the dragon’s face. “You don’t have to stay here-“
“I just mean that someone as great as you can do whatever you want,” The princess clarified, quickly. “If you’re happy being a barista, be a barista. I’m sure I’ll have to figure something out myself.”
“Hair dye’s in the bathroom,” The dragon said quickly.
“Have you been planning this?” The princess asked.
“I like trying on new hair colors,” The dragon said, proudly. “I think next week I’m going with all black.”
“You can just use magic,” The princess said.
“It’s not about the magic.” The dragon pouted. The princess sighed, walking over to the barista, and hugged her.
The dragon hugged back.
“So we’ll figure it out in the morning,” the princess decided.
“Excellent!” The dragon said. She didn’t break the hug.
The princess waited for her to break the hug.
She didn’t break the hug. The princess tugged herself out of it and lay across the couch.
Late that night, after the princess had finally fallen asleep, Gwen, or the dragon, was giddy. How often did a dragon get a roommate-princess as part of her hoard?
and her royal snores were awfully cute.