Chapter 3: One Year and a Day Later
I’M the Princess. I live in the forest.
I live with two old men in the cabin Fairy Godmother made out of a big old tree. One old man is Mister Dragon who I love! The other is a sourpuss but strong knight. I no longer have a castle. I still don’t wanna go back yet. Lord Siegfried lives there now. He’s the meanie who revolted and stole Father and Mother from me.
He’s Father’s relative in name but isn’t related by blood. I’m glad he isn’t. I’d be super unhappy if I resembled somebody like him. But I did want to become better friends with my older cousin Megan. She has perfectly straight blonde hair and blue eyes. She’s a pretty girl without a single freckle to ruin her white skin and is much more of a princess than me.
I wonder what she’s up to now. Is she living in my room?
“What’s the matter, my lady?” Warm breath softly tickles my ears. Mister Dragon peers down at me with worry in his eyes. His breath tickles.
“Nothing’s the matter, Mister Dragon. I just kind of...”
“Kind of…?” His long slit pupils contract in the center of his honey-colored eyes.
“I just kind of remembered something.” I didn’t need to say anymore. Mister Dragon crouches down and quietly leans his face in. I stretch up and plant a kiss on his broad forehead. His silky smooth ruby scales are warm.
“Meh-eh-eh-eh!” Our light-brown goat, Daisy, raises her head and bleats.
Warm sunlight shines down on us. Under my feet, there’s a thick, green meadow growing in a round shape. Plenty of three-leaf clovers, white flowers, and white clovers sprout up in the grass. Bumblebees busily fly around the flowers. Shaking their fluffy yellow butts, they wriggle into the petals.
I’m pretty sure this place has the most flowers in the entire forest. The forest, deep and dark, opens to this secret place like magic. A softly sloping meadow spreads out from the base of the oak trees, and a small brook is bubbling through it. And then there are the flowers. Red flowers, yellow flowers, blue flowers, purple flowers, white flowers. They bloom within the green grass. They don’t look all that numerous up close, but if you look at the meadow from far away, they’re actually everywhere. It’s different from a garden.
“Meh-eh-eh-eh!”
“Good girl. Good girl.”
Daisy nuzzles me with her face. I use my fingernails to lightly scratch the base of her horns. That’s her favorite spot. I came here today to let her eat the grass, so that she’ll give us lots of milk. Grass grows all over the place around the Millennial Tree, but Gideon told me, “The goat’ll eat everything up if ya only let it graze in one spot. Including the tree bark and roots!”
I wonder why Gideon knows how to take care of goats. He’s got a lotta other skills too, but out of all of them I was the most surprised that he’s a master at sewing! He mended the holes in my stockings and the tears in my jackets lickety-split. He’s not just fast, he’s skilled too. He even shortened the sleeves of the secondhand clothes he bought in town for me and raised the hemline to match my size. Once they got too short, he undid the stiches, lengthened it, and added new cloth.
“We have no need for tailors and seamstresses on the battlefield,” he’d said, trying to make himself look cool, but I guess it means he didn’t have a wife or lover to do it for him.
I’m just about to casually flop down on top of the grass, when—
“Princess, would you mind waiting a moment before sitting there?”
“Why?”
“Look closely. There’s a tiny flower.” Mister Dragon points with his claw to a lone, teensy-weensy flower.
Wow! How did he spot that? The flower is smaller than my pinky finger’s nail. The edges of its four petals are a deep royal purple that grows lighter towards the middle, until it reaches its yellow center.
“Mister Dragon, what’s this flower called?”
“Wildflower,” a gruff voice says behind me.
I lift my face towards him. When did he come over? The all-black knight is looming over me. But he isn’t wearing his heavy armor, or carrying his round shield either. Right now, both are hanging on the cabin walls like precious decorations. In their place, he has a large bow strapped over his shoulder, a quiver full of arrows, a knife dangling from his belt, and a bulging burlap bag in his hand. Inside it is probably birds or rabbits.
“Ain’t it a wildflower? I see ‘em popping up on the roadside pretty often.”
Hot breath blows out of Mister Dragon’s nostrils. A single puff of steam comes out, and he closes his right eye. “Every flower has a name. No flower is merely just a ‘wild’ flower.”
“Who cares if you know or not?”
“Princess, that flower is called the Morning Star Flower. It earned its name for sharing its color with the dawn sky. Or it may also be due to its shape, which resembles a star.”
“The dawn sky…” I repeat.
He’s right. The edges and tips are the color of the night sky, while the white towards the center is the light of daybreak.
“It’s Fairy Godmother’s color.”
“You are absolutely right, Princess. This is Lady of Dawn’s color.” Mister Dragon seems happy. His throat rumbles like he’s purring as he nods repeatedly. “Ladies are truly splendid creatures. They take the time to cherish the world with their open minds and hearts—”
“Hmph.” Gideon turns his face to the side and snorts. “I don’t care about some flower I can’t eat.”
WHOOOOM!
Hot wind shoots above my head. His interruption sure upset Mister Dragon all right. Mister Dragon lifts his long neck off the ground and shuts Gideon up with a fierce glare. Or maybe he’s just disgusted with Gideon.
“Whew.” Gideon’s used to it. He swiftly drops to the ground and waits it out.
“Use discretion when you speak. Your interjections already leave unfavorable impressions on Princess and influence her sensibilities poorly.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Frankly put, you are turning her wild and uncivilized.”
Shoot… Did he see me? Was he watching me practice roundhouse kicks? Or when Gideon was teaching me how to win a fight? (The basics of winning a fight is stomping on your opponent’s foot and making them flinch.)
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” Gideon’s laughing. With his gruff voice while showing his teeth. He’s being really brash. “Wild is good. More than good—it’s great. Look here, Dragon, I’m teachin’ our little princess how to survive.”
Mister Dragon’s wings loudly snap open, blocking the sunlight. But he doesn’t unfurl them all the way. Instead, he starts to close them right away—slowly and sneakily. Then Mister Dragon completely moves his line of sight away from Gideon. He’s looking at only me.
“…Listen to me well, Princess. All plants have names. Please grow up as someone who will not step on flowers just because their names are unknown to you.”
I look at my feet—at the little, tiny flower representing the dawn sky—at the Morning Star Flower. It shares the same color as my dear Fairy Godmother. Until Mister Dragon told me, I didn’t even notice it was there. What a weird feeling. It’s no longer just a wildflower. I can’t do something like step on it.
So I nod. And look up into those honey-colored eyes.
“I will, Mister Dragon.”
Gideon stares at me with his mouth hanging open. Mister Dragon seems to have noticed him too. He tilts his large neck to the side and observes Gideon closely. Puzzled, he restlessly blinks. Gideon awkwardly scratches his head. A smidge of red appears under Gideon’s eyes.
What’s this reaction? Is he possibly embarrassed? Old Man Gideon’s being bashful?
“I agree with that sentiment. As much as I hate to say it.”
“You agree, eh?” Mister Dragon’s giant tail whips back and forth. Then his tail draws a red arc through the sky as it comes to coil around his body in one smooth motion. He does it without displacing a single flower, a stalk of grass, or even the frailest of leaves. Every time I watch him move his tail I’m amazed. “You do know that you could applaud my childrearing in a more honest manner?” He prompts.
Gideon doesn’t answer. He simply folds his arms against his chest and turns his face away again.
“You truly are not an honest man.”
“Meh-eh-eh-eh!” Daisy bleats loudly. It’s almost like she’s agreeing with him.
“Hmph. C’mon. Time to go back!”
“Head back ahead of us. Princess and I will stay here a little longer.”
“Yup, we’ll stay here.”
“Ah…fine.”
Gideon’s black back disappears into the distance. He always slouches, his shoulders slumped forward, walking bowlegged. He should walk with his shoulders held high and his back straight.
Today marks a year since I came to this forest. Tomorrow will make it a year and a day. It might not look like it, but I’m on much better terms with that man than before. Things were horrible at first.
“Now’s not the time to be goin’ on about that sentimental and sanctimonious crap about being virtuous or compassionate! What this child needs right now is the power to survive!”
“Then I will be the one to undertake what you deem as sanctimonious. You just need to instruct her in the skills and knowledge you possess.”
“I’d do that without ya tellin’ me to, ya stupid lizard.”
“…Vulgar Knight.”
“Whaaaat?!”
Gideon had put his hand on his sword’s hilt, and Mister Dragon had sent his scales on edge, red light rushing along them, as he bared his teeth. So I quickly jumped between them with my arms open.
“Fighting is bad.”
“…Yes, m’lady.”
“You are correct, Little Princess.”
It really had been a rough time.