All of the white surcoat soldiers and their employer Lord Designs scream, clamping hands over their ears as they writhe in pain. Conversely, Princess throws her arms open and embraces it with a smile. She’s not the least bit afraid of the howling man or the roaring voice.
Gideon opens his eyes, slowly raising his wrinkled eyelids. Below are not two aquamarine eyes, but the slit pupils of dark honey—Dragon’s eyes. Princess smiles; Lord Designs moans through gasps.
“MONSTERRRR…”
“It’s too soon for ya to be paralyzed with terror, Mister Siegfried.”
A giant shadow passes overhead. Obstructing the moonlight, something gigantic casts a black shadow over the stained glass.
“See, I’m just the opening act.” The shadow follows his raised, broken sword. Gideon points to the autumn landscape to the right of the throne. “Now it’s time for the main act to come on stage!” he announces.
Out of nowhere, fire bursts through, burning bright-red! A massive hole opens in the wall, widening as it burns, until not even a splinter remains. The indigo sky at his back, Dragon grandly swoops in. Cutting through the billowing steam, his flexible limbs cross the wall and land on the floor, shooting tremors across the room. His glimmering ruby scales are tapered into razor-sharp spikes; waves of light are rushing along his entire body. He looks down with his golden eyes.
“Mister Dragon!!!” Princess dashes over to him, nearly tripping.
Gracefully bending his body, Dragon meets her halfway, smoothly catching the little body that jumps onto him. He pulls her in with his gently extended foreleg, hugs her close, and wraps her up in his wing. Where she touches him, his spiked scales instantly transform, rounding off into a smooth, flat surface so as not to injure Princess’ soft skin.
“Princess.”
Princess and the red dragon embrace. Gideon plods over to them, dragging his foot behind him.
“Glad to see you again, partner.”
“Me too, my friend. You completed your mission most admirably.”
“Nah, not at all.” Knight shakes his head and looks to Princess, showering her with pride. “Princess is the one who finished it off.”
“I would expect no less of our princess.” Dragon bends his long neck and kisses Princess on the forehead. “Brave Lala Lilia, my beloved little lady.”
“I love you, Mister Dragon!” Princess clings to Dragon with both arms and rains kisses on his scales.
“Ah… Yup, that’s the way it goes, isn’t it? Yup.” Knight Gideon clears his throat and holds his shield at the ready once again. Standing in front of Princess and his friend, he becomes their protective shield.
Holding strong, Knight Gideon’s voice echoes as it demands, “Annul this marriage, evil scum! Reverfeat’s rightful ruler is Lala Lilia and Lala Lilia alone!” His gold, blazing dragon eyes glower with unnerving conviction at the man hugging the ground. “There’s no room for you to come on the scene, sleazebag.”
Following suit, Dragon raises his neck and quietly looks down on Lord Designs. “Your time is up, Lord Siegfried.”
Knight and Dragon roar in unison:
“DON’T YOU LAY A FINGER ON OUR PRINCESS!”
“YOU SHALL NOT COME NEAR MY LADY!”
Struck by the two booming voices, Lord Designs jerkily jumps up like a puppet on a string. “I won’t allow IT. I WON’T forgive you BLIGHTERS!” he rants and raves. He rakes his hands through his disheveled hair, cursing, “Every last one…of you IS a FILTHY inferior SERVANT!”
“You’ve got that right—I’m nothing more than a mere servant,” Gideon answers. “A man with no other talents besides waging war. But who the hell are you?”
“I inquire the same thing. Who are you, lord?” Dragon asks mockingly.
“I am…”
Knight and Dragon do not move from their position. Nevertheless, Lord Siegfried shakily retreats. Losing the mental battle, he backs up in fear. Dripping sweat soaks his skin. His vision blurs.
“I am…”
That’s when he sees it.
He sees the blue pallid figures standing beside Knight and Dragon. The king and queen stand on either side of Princess. And crowding around them are hundreds of little girls. His two wives are at the front of the ashen-faced group. Every last one of them raises their right hand, thrusting it at him; their bloodless fingertips are just like frozen needles.
“AGH!”
His ambitions were modest in the beginning. Currying favor with his appearance and skill with words, he secured his position as the husband of a noblewoman. Then, relying on the gold, power, and private army he obtained, he rose higher and higher in the kingdom.
“I am…”
His ambitions eventually compounded in him, driving him to conduct a supplication ritual in exchange for his daughter’s soul. Depending on the Devil’s power, he wished for kingship. Reaping moral support from that one deed, he no longer shunned any method, no matter how inhumane; everything was done so that he could achieve his goal.
He was supposed to obtain the crown. The kingship was to be his. The kingship was his!
“I was born without a soul. This is the real me.” But sapphire eyes had burrowed directly into Lord Designs; a porcelain finger had thrust out at him. “Rejoice, for you accomplished everything of your own power.”
Who desired the kingship? Himself? His daughter? What did he want to do once he became King? The lies he had painted over and over again with the sticky red paint of those he crushed underfoot now cracked and peeled away. In truth, he may have already realized it long ago.
Was I nothing more than a puppet manipulated by my own daughter??
“Uff…uff…URRGH!” Clenching his jaw so tight his teeth cracked, he pursed his flattened lips, the sticky sweat trickling down his body. “UURGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH! UGYAH!”
His mouth closes off his cries; his throat won’t move to make his screams. Seething a bright-red, he backs away, shaking—quivering—trembling.
His eyes are bulging, stretched beyond their limit. Around his contracted pupils, blood vessels pop and run red. His whites strangely look larger than they should. Did his face distort because his very bones were twisted? Or was it that they became disjointed? Or did they break? Veins bulge from his temples and nose, twitching and writhing like earthworms.
The stained glass towering behind him is too ironic—the spring of life budding and blossoming in an idyllic scene.
Fingers, fingers, fingers, hundreds of thousands of fingers. He can’t escape them. There’s no scapegoat this time. Unable to endure it any longer, he turns his back to them and just as soon…
…is swallowed whole.
Into the fangs of the gigantic jaws that smash right through the glass facsimile of spring, he disappears without a peep or a cry. His end comes all too anticlimactically.
“Ah.”
Dragon and Knight both emit a sound of recognition.
“What?”
“You shouldn’t look.” Dragon blocks Princess’ view with the tip of his wing to shield the young princess from the gruesome sight before them.