The Dragon Princess

As a transformative Dragon, I was able to fly faster than any other female Dragon and to fight as well as, if not better, than most of the male Dragons.

As a warrior Princess in the land of Dragons, I had led a privileged life, with my father as the King of all the Dragons in Dragonland. He had three sons and a daughter. As his only daughter and the eldest child, I was treated as a special member of the Royal family and given my own Castle to live in, within a dense forest. I was happy walking in the forest and flying in the blue sky above it. 

However, my 18th birthday was approaching, and my father had arranged my marriage to a cruel young man in another Dragon clan in a land called Dragonia. Since I was coming of age and would soon be fertile and able to give birth to Royal Dragons, I was much in demand amongst the other Royal clans.

This fairy tale realm, based on our old folklore, reflects my life story and how I have been fashioned in the metal ring of fire around the Dragon clans.

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As a warrior Princess, I didn’t want to give up something valuable as part of a deal to escape the world I was sworn into. My family was held in high regard amongst the Dragon clans and when I was born with strawberry golden hair that transformed into red scales with golden tips, it was declared that I was a rare and special dragon. However, I never longed to be like the other Princess Dragons in the other Dragon clans, who took a more passive role and let the men do the fighting for them. I was born with a sense of social justice and fairness and I was ready to kill to defend the helpless amongst us.

Prince Brantley was my chosen Dragon mate. I knew some German and as a result, I knew that Brantley meant “Fire” in English. He was an extraordinarily strong and controlling Dragon. There were rumours that his father had been involved with Domestic Violence at home against his mother but had never hurt Prince Brantley. I knew that growing up in such a violent home situation, may have caused Prince Brantley to become a cruel and violent man too. I would rather have been married to a kinder and non-violent man, but the decision had been taken out of my hands. The time had come to meet up with my future husband.

Our family flew into Dragonia and landed on the strip outside their gothic home. We immediately transformed from Dragons back into humans. I had been asked to wear a golden ballgown to the dinner. It had been designed by the best dress maker in Dragonia and sent to me by special delivery. Firstly, I didn’t like being told what to wear. I had put up a fuss, but my father had spoken to me in his steely and determined voice, so I had capitulated and worn the figure-hugging dress that showed off more of my bustline than I would have liked. I tried to pull my long hair over the front of my chest, to cover up my assets. It was successful to a degree.    

Prince Brantley and I made eye contact and a slow smile spread across his hardened face as he looked me up and down. At that moment, the wind chose to blow my long hair off my chest and uncovered me. I felt awkward but decided to walk forward and extend my hand to his father.

“Good evening, King Brenton. It is a pleasure to meet you and your family in Dragonia.”

He shook my hand very tightly and then turned to his son.

“Prince Bentley, meet Princess Kayda, your promised wife.”

Prince Bentley stepped forward and we shook hands in an uncomfortable manner.

“Great to meet you at last, Princess Kayda. Your reputation precedes you. You are as beautiful as you are fierce.”

I squirmed as he stared at me. Could this get any more uncomfortable? I wanted to turn around and run. Then my eyes drifted over to his younger brother, Prince Drake.

Prince Drake was a tall and dark Dragon, who was an ebony colour. His curious eyes watched everything going on. I felt an instant spark between us but tried not to show any reaction. He had noticed my interest though.

I turned to him and extended my hand to him, “I’m Princess Kayda.” He slowly reached forward and shook my hand, but he almost didn’t let it go. I had to pull my hand away and walk back to my father.

Later, we were seated around the table and I was between Prince Bentley and my father. Prince Drake sat on the other side of his father and chatted easily to those around him. I learnt so much about the two brothers and how different they were. Why couldn’t I have been matched up with Prince Drake instead?

After the hearty meal, the performers put on as a show for the guests and then the dancing started. Prince Bentley asked me to dance but I declined. Then Prince Drake asked me to dance and I immediately got up and started to dance around the floor with him. Prince Bentley sat scowling at the two of us, as if he should’ve been the one dancing. I didn’t care about him, even though he had a filthy temper. The next thing, Prince Bentley jumped up and broke into our dance, pushing his brother aside. I danced awkwardly with him until he stopped and said in a menacing tone, “Out on the terrace, now!”

We wound our way out to the terrace, where we stood looking at the extensive lands below.

“Do you like what you see, Princess Kayla?”

“If you mean the view, then yes, I do like the landscape.”

“What about me? Do you like me?”

I paused. Was this a trick question? I didn’t want to say what I really felt as he had a bad temper.

“Why do you ask?” I replied, effectively answering a question with another question.

“It seems you prefer my younger brother, Prince Drake, to me. How dare you flaunt yourself with him on the dance floor? If you ever do that again …” There was an implied threat there.

“Then what, Prince Bentley. What are you going to do?” I replied.

“I’ll kill him!” he replied in a cold voice. “Nobody is going to take my bride-to-be from me.”

“I’m not your property. I will choose who I want to marry!”

He turned sharply and slapped me across the face. I was shocked but I slapped him back across his cheek.

“You are a lively one, aren’t you?” he said, rubbing his cheek, which was a flaming red from where I had slapped as hard as I could. My fingers felt as if they still had the hair growth marks on them. He obviously had fast growing beard hair if he had shaved this morning and it had grown out so fast again.

“I’ll make you a deal, my lively wife. If you marry me and cause me no more problems, I won’t force you to give up your training as a warrior. If you don’t listen to me, there are many other things that I can take away from you as punishments!”

I glared at him, turned on my heel and returned to the dinner table.

As soon as I was back in the dining room, I bent over and whispered to my father that I wanted to leave immediately. Arrangements were made to return for the wedding, and we flew back home to Dragonland.

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The weeks passed and every day my level of concern about the forthcoming nuptials was increasing. To have to marry Prince Bentley seemed to be a fate worse than death. He would control me in many ways that my own family had not done. Even though I explained this to my father and my brothers, they wouldn’t listen to me. They needed the alliance, and I was part of the deal between our Dragon clans, to bring us all together. I was getting desperate and tried to brainstorm some ideas of escape.

One day, I beautifully embossed scroll arrived from Prince Drake. He explained that he had enjoyed meeting me at the dinner and was sorry that I was being forced to marry his brother but that nothing could be done. I had wished he would get involved and do something about the forced marriage but even he was hamstrung by the two powerful Kings.

All these men who appeared so powerful on the outside, were falling behind the old traditions. Did they care what the women felt and needed?

Then one day, it came to me. I would fly off and disappear to a strange Dragon land far away and hide there. It seemed cowardly but the wedding was approaching fast, and I was running out of options.

I packed a travel bag of necessities and left everything else behind. I climbed up onto the tiled roof of our castle, transformed into my Dragon form and flew off with my bag. Nobody saw me leaving.

The next day, my bed was discovered. They realised that I hadn’t slept in it and a search party was put together and sent out in all directions.

The Dragons in Dragonia were informed that I was missing. They were told that I may have been kidnapped and my family didn’t know where I was. This was true and I wanted plausible deniability, so that my family wouldn’t be blamed for my absence. They spent months searching for me and the wedding was called off as I couldn’t be found. Bentley was angry and broke furniture at his home and then chose a different Dragon Princess to marry.

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Meanwhile, I landed in my Dragon form in the strange new Dragon land. I had never visited it before. At first, I never found any Dragons there, so I searched for a cave and set up home there, being careful not to let too much smoke escape from the mouth of the cave, to give my position away.

As the days passed, I became less concerned and went out hunting in the forest of the strange new Dragon land. While hunting, I flew over a Dragon nursery of cute young Dragons and decided to cautiously approach the nursery and see whether I could find any elder Dragons there. Dragon cultures require respect for the elders, who advise the younger members of the Dragon clan on the path to take.

As soon as I landed, I heard a female voice say to me, “Welcome, Kayla! We wondered when you would emerge from hiding in your cave.”

I was startled and look around to see an incredibly old Dragon. She introduced herself as Libelle.

“We are an all-women Dragon clan, and we welcome strangers. If you want to stay, you may want to change your name in Dragoneve.” I nodded solemnly. She explained that they were looking for a new Dragon Queen and I could change my name and become their leader since I was a warrior Princess.

“I’ve decided to call myself Hippolyta although I’m not an Amazon Queen and I won’t be marrying anyone. By the way, how do we have all of these children when I don’t see any male adult Dragons here?”

She chuckled and explained that they had a male Dragon Prince who came once a year to donate sperm and to mate with any of the willing fertile females. My eyes widened in surprise. Who was this mystery Prince Dragon?

In any case, I had to get on with feeding and training the young Dragons, so I never thought about the mysterious Prince Dragon, who would be coming to Dragoneve at the start of Spring.

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The cherry blossom flowers started to open, and I was busy training the teenage Dragons when I heard a great commotion and I turned around to see a large black Dragon flying in from the south. He landed in the gardens and transformed back into a man.

My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I recognised him. It was Prince Drake!

He walked over to where I stood speechless and greeted me warmly.

“Princess Kyla, or should I say Queen Hippolyta, it is my greatest pleasure to see you again.”

I blushed a rosy pink, like a teenage schoolgirl myself and gave him a warm hug.

There was a wave of relief that he was there and that I wouldn’t have to fight some male Prince Dragon intruder. Prince Drake remained for a week and it was a comfortable stay. There was no talk of getting married as I was too independent as the Queen in Dragoneve.

However, when he left, I found out from my pregnancy test that I was pregnant with twins, his twins. Five of the other women were also pregnant and our Dragon sperm bank had a full deposit to be kept until others were in their fertile period.

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I gave birth after 10 months, to twin sons, who looked remarkably like their father, Prince Drake.

This pregnancy cycle continued until we had six children together over the following years.

I was full of hope and happiness deep in my heart. My prayers had been answered in that I wasn’t forced into an arranged marriage. I could bring up healthy children and still love their father, Prince Drake, without having to forfeit my freedom or my desire to be an independent Dragon with a warrior soul.

In my later years, one of my sons, Prince Pendragon, was appointed King of Dragoneve and he ruled with wisdom and fairness. The future of Dragoneve was secured for future generations.

When I took my last breathe, I had lived life on my own terms and was grateful for what I could give to others. Prince Drake was at my bedside and the last words I heard were, “Goodbye, my love. May we meet in Dragon Heaven on the other side.” I closed my eyes and rested.