It’s your destiny, he told himself, pacing before the narrow window. The few armor plates he’d managed to affix thus far weighed heavy on his limbs. The rest scattered over the table in the dim stone room. He was supposed to be tying them on and parading out to the noblemen awaiting him in the throne room—the king who had decreed his skill and strength would suffice for the task at hand.
If Aidan had known what they’d been testing him for, then he would’ve faltered a bit more in his training. Maybe that was cowardly, but he was too scared to stave away his shame at the moment. Every clunk of his feet against the cold floor reminded him of what was to come. Every time he glanced out the window, he wondered if this was the last time he’d ever gaze upon those serene emerald hills rolling away from the castle.
Almost everyone who had ventured into the forest hadn’t returned. Out of the three who had, two were too far injured to be of any use anymore—and the other, too ashamed to have failed in his mission, had been found at the bottom of his well a few days later.
Aidan would either succeed (if some heavenly power was on his side); or, most likely, die. or come limping back home to a lifetime’s worth of disappointment.
But he wasn’t supposed to worry about any of that. His life’s purpose was to defend the castle and the people over which it ruled. The knights had scoured the villages like his long ago, when he was young enough that the memory of the day had been reduced to nothing more than a fuzzy impression.
The knights had stood him up in a lineup with the other boys. One of them had taken his hand and told him he was going away, to a place where he would become a great warrior and an honorable man. It didn’t matter what had happened to the man and woman who’d stood in the doorway of the sagging house, watching their son be guided away for the first and last time. Or to the children who’d called out to Aidan from the yard, chirping the his name in an off-key chorus. He didn’t even remember their names.
I have to succeed.
From that day forth, the knights had molded Aidan, shaping him into exactly the warrior he’d always thought he should’ve been. But the little boy who’d cried as the knights had led him away had never really gone away—he’d just been buried under a hardened exterior and years of rigorous discipline.
Only the soft touch of the sunlight could judge the shaking of Aidan’s knees and the tears he tried to deny were crawling down his face.
A shadow flitted across the window. Aidan would have thought it a bird, only it blocked the entire opening—and it stopped to linger.
The boy halted in his pacing. His already shallow breathing hitched faster as he turned to behold what was there.
The sunlight haloed behind the creature, blazing a deep sapphire against its scales. Leathery wings quivered in the gentlest of shivers to keep the beast afloat. The one of its eyes Aidan could see gleamed in an icy periwinkle.
The boy would have screamed, despite the affront to his dignity.
But the second most shocking development of the past few minutes perched upon the dragon’s back.
Dressed in a simple gown instead of the silky, flowing ensembles Aidan was used to, the girl almost wasn’t recognizable. But he knew her cascade of golden hair and the contours of the face he’d seen all too often on the portraits in the castle halls.
The princess grinned. “I heard you were the next one chosen to try to kill my friend here. Thought they’d keep trying to pull from the experienced talent instead of the newbies, but…” She tightened her lips. “I suppose they figure the knights-in-training are more—expendable?”
The words soured in Aidan’s stomach. He floundered for the briefest of moments in a desire to defend his superiors; but then something frightened and sad weighed in his stomach instead. “Wh-what—Your Highness—are you doing out there?”
The princess glanced behind her, the wind tousling at her hair. “Exploring. Living. And, in particular to this moment, asking you if you want to leave that castle.”
Did Aidan? This was his life’s duty, after all—more important than his safety or his need to have stayed with his family all those years ago. He had to kill the dragon and rescue the princess.
The very same dragon and princess now flying in an unexpected harmony outside the window.
“Wh-what—are you doing with—?” Aidan gestured, unsure what words to use to describe the creature.
The princess turned back to him. “Oh—well…” She shrugged, a meekness filtering into the movement. “He didn’t exactly kidnap me. I, uh…I got cold feet thinking about my wedding, and I ran away. I didn’t really expect it to be permanent or anything; but I wanted to—clear my head. Some highway robbers almost did me in, but my new friend here saved my life.” She patted the dragon’s back, then reached up to scratch behind his ear. He emitted a low rumble almost akin to purring, if the cat were ten times its normal size and suffered from a parched throat. “So, are you coming or what?”
The young knight blinked. What would his captain say about this? He’d be angry, wouldn’t he? Aidan had potential—everyone had told him so. They wouldn’t let him go without a fight.
But even then…could his captain fight a dragon?
The boy glanced down at the heavy plates of armor clinging to his arms and legs. He dug his teeth into his lip before he reached down to yank on a leather strap. In a determined series of twists and tugs, he loosened each piece, allowing them to clatter to the floor. Then he stepped free of the pile and treaded towards the window, where he planted his hands on the sill. A last tremor of fear skittered down the boy’s spine, but he forced himself to gaze up into the dragon’s aged, icy eyes, then the princess’s young, eager ones. “I want to go.”
The princess held out her hand, helping tug Aidan onto the dragon’s back as the boy climbed out the window.
“All right…” She swabbed over the dragon’s glinting sapphire scales. “On to our tower.”
The dragon reared back and flapped its wings in a powerful snap, the sound ringing almost painfully in Aidan’s ears. He slung his arms around the princess, squeezing his eyes shut as the three glided up into the sky.
After a moment, he cracked them just enough to watch the castle dwindle away to a dark gray dot on the grass below. The surrounding city scattered in stone shards over a soft green blanket. Aidan had never imagined the capital as small…and yet, there it was.
Clouds enveloped the trio. Strangely enough, Aidan’s fear slid off him as easily as his discarded armor had fallen away moments ago. He loosened his hold, daring to relax enough to lay his palms flat against the dragon’s back.
The princess twisted to offer the boy another grin, this one striped with stray golden hairs. “Isn’t this fun?!”
Aidan’s smile may have been wobbly, but it was the most genuine one he’d given in a very long time. It birthed from someplace within him that hadn’t seen reason to wake in a while. “Yeah.”
Leave a comment