“I’LL leave the forest. I can’t allow any more children to die in my place.”
Princess takes me by surprise. It’s the first thing she says on our way down to the cellar after my assurances. Not that I didn’t have a hunch it’d come to this.
“It’s too dangerous.” My response comes out pitifully, with a disgusting lack of strength behind it. The bright-green ribbon is burned into my mind and won’t go away. The sister ribbon is tied into Princess hair; the brave girl who stands with her head held high and her back straight in front of me.
“Relax. I don’t plan to go to the castle. I’ll just let those people know. Know where I am.”
Problem here is that she’s actually making a reasonable argument. She’s looking at things objectively and as thoughtfully as she can for a seven-year-old girl. She understands the reason behind Lord Designs’ actions and his end goal. Her intuition’s mostly fillin’ in the gaps for the things no one’s told her—but wait, forget that!
“No, no, no, no, no!” Now’s not the time to be impressed by her. “I absolutely cannot relax if ya go sayin’ that!”
“If they know where I am, they’ll lose any reason to continue kidnapping girls at random.”
See! This princess does understand everything after all!
“Little lady, are you intending on making yourself bait?!”
Looks like I’m not the only one who’s upset. Dragon’s rolling his eyes and shaking his head back and forth. He opens his wings partway, closes them, opens them again, and then closes them again. Moreover, as he said that, his voice cracked… It’s the first time I’ve heard shrill nervousness in the overgrown lizard’s deep tenor. But even when faced by two flustered old men, Princess won’t budge at all.
“I am.” She nods, keeping her cool. “Only I can stop him.”
“But—”
She goes as far as to raise her tiny hand to interrupt Dragon. “Mister Dragon, weren’t you the one who told me to become someone who won’t trample flowers whose names I do not know? Doesn’t that mean I should also be someone who does this?”
“Hrm...” Having had his own words thrown back at him, even Dragon’s holdin’ his tongue. He lowers his head and shuts his eyes.
Where’d your usual calm and composure go? C’mon, lizard, don’t go silent on me now. Find a way to persuade Princess outta this bad idea, Mister Dragon!
“The time has come. The ‘time’ Fairy Godmother spoke of.”
Whoa. Well, I can’t object anymore if you bring that up.
Her ambiguous and mysterious prophecy fits this turnin’ point in our lives to a tee. Since the prophecy’s been fulfilled, we’ve got no choice but to move on to the next stage.
“……”
Dragon looks at me.
“……”
I look at Dragon too.
We see the same thought in each other’s face.
“She got us.”
“It’s our complete and utter loss.”
“But before we do that, I’ll go bring some soup to that girl,” Princess announces, and scrambles up the stairs.
“Oh, I see, I see. I did think the house smelled awfully yummy. So she was boilin’ some soup, eh?”
In the short time it took for me to get home, she planned that far ahead. She not only thought about it, but put her thoughts into action.
“She is a remarkable hatchling. I look forward to the day she freely steps into the light of the world.” Dragon’s solemn gaze follows Princess as she heads up the stairs, bowl in hand. “A fine dragon…no the beginning steps of a queen who will one day rule.”
She completely blew away my insistence on how sentimentality and sanctimoniousness ‘bout being compassionate is unnecessary, and went straight for the heart of the matter instead. She puts what she learns into practice.
Of course she will. Princess always sees through to the true nature of things. She will make an amazing queen.
She truly possesses the intelligence and obstinacy not to impulsively sacrifice herself or others.
Princess said she was only going to let them know of her whereabouts, and she has no intention of goin’ to the castle. Put another way, she isn’t going to needlessly hand herself over to Lord Designs. She couldn’t have made this decision without unshakable trust in us.
Yes, she fiercely trusts that even if she leaves this forest, Dragon and I will protect her.
“Well, how do I put it? She’s gone an’ grown into quite the thick-skinned big-shot, our princess. Hasn’t she?”
“Hrm, she was always inherently a ‘thick-skinned big-shot’. You just drew it out of her.”
“I see, I see.” I say, casually ignorin’ him. And then I come to a start.
Hey now! Did this lizard just compliment me?
“Don’t be stupid. We did it together, yeah?”
Dragon’s eyes expand and tightly contract. His scales stir and the light reflecting off of them sways. Straining my eyes, I can see his scales are slightly spiked.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I ask.
“How may I describe this? To be openly complimented by you is…disconcertingly disturbing.”
Aah, yup. This is how it’s gotta turn out every time.
“Tch. That goes for both of us.” I turn my head aside and spit.
All of a sudden, I feel shaking. It’s slight, but an unusual tremor. Something that’s never existed in our house before just came into existence.
Gooseflesh ripples across my skin. Dragon’s scales rise to a complete razor-point this time. A scream rises from inside, just as we exchange looks.
“Princess!”
“Go, Gideon!”
“On it!” I run upstairs. I snatch my sword and shield off the wall on the way. They’re necessary now.
Our home is no longer safe.
The ceiling overhead creaks and bulges. It’s heavier. Something huge is weighin’ down the second-floor.
When did it appear? Where did it come from? There were no signs of it moving. It just suddenly appeared! Out of nowhere, in Princess’ room!
I kick open the door and charge into the room.
A monster is inside. A ridiculously large, eight-legged spider is straddling Princess’ overturned bed lookin’ like it owns the place and everything in it. A single glance tells me this freak of nature ain’t a living creature from this world or the next one over. Thing looks like it was pieced together with fragments of colorful gems and jewels to create the shape of a spider. It’s almost like stained glass just jumped out of the window one day and took on the physical form of a real spider. There’s a certain kind of godly feeling it gives. If it weren’t for our circumstances, I might’ve even found it beautiful. If it weren’t for Princess dangling from one of its eight legs, wrapped up in its oddly colorful fabric-like web.
“PRINCESS!” I draw my sword. Wait, I already drew it before I even charged into the room.
“Gideon!” Princess struggles. The web entangles her further.
“I wouldn’t struggle if I were you, Princess?” a voice advises. The spider spews out thread. It spreads into a cloth and attaches to Princess’ mouth, sealing it.
“Mm! Mmph! Mmmph!”
“See? I told you so.”
“YOU BASTAAARRRRRRD!”