Miles Vorkosigan Fic: 'Her Knight in Shining Armour' (Miles/Elena)
Disclaimer: Miles Vorkosigan belongs to Lois McMaster Bujold.
Rating: G
Theme: D is for Dragon. Written for alphabetasoup
Characters: Miles Vorkosigan, Elena Bothari, Ivan Vorpatril.
Summary: She is the most beautiful princess in the entire kingdom and he might not be the handsomest - nor the tallest - knight in all land, but he still dreams to become her champion.
Disclaimer: Miles Vorkosigan belongs to Lois McMaster Bujold.
Theme: D is for Dragon. Written for
Characters: Miles Vorkosigan, Elena Bothari, Ivan Vorpatril.
Summary: She is the most beautiful princess in the entire kingdom and he might not be the handsomest - nor the tallest - knight in all land, but he still dreams to become her champion.
Her Knight in Shining Armour
She is a princess with sparkling eyes and long tresses as black as a raven’s wing. She is so beautiful that the entire kingdom - the entire Imperium - is enraptured by her looks. She is so captivating that men fall in love with her at first sight, so graceful that all ladies are filled with envy.
One of these ladies, a hideous, wrinkled witch who concocts potions and filters with rabbits’ legs and toads’ eyes, decides to lock the lovely princess away in an ivory tower that rises into the blue sky. The tower is so high that no stairs can reach the princess’ window, the walls so smooth that no one can climb them without slipping; the door, made of black iron, is unbreakable. Countless spells of the most ancient magic protect the ivory walls from intruders and the tower is surrounded by a swamp where many have perished.
The evil sorceress is not content with these protections. The princess is very beautiful indeed, so all the Lord Vors have fallen to her charm and will try any means to rescue her. She cannot let that happen. She thinks and thinks, she seeks guidance in the stars and sacrifices vile creatures in her smelly cauldron until she finds her answer.
A dragon. An enormous, magnificent creature with red and opalescent scales, with wings so large that can obscure the sky when they are stretched, teeth as sharp as daggers and orange flames sprouting from its mouth. The knights in the kingdom are all brave and strong and yet they perish one by one, slaughtered by the fantastic beast. The princess soon loses hope of ever being rescued from such cruel fate and starts to languish in her tower.
But he is not any knight. He might not be the handsomest - nor the tallest - knight in all kingdom, but he is astute and resourceful. He might not look dashing riding his valiant steed - he is pretty certain as well that none of the gorgeous beasts regular knights ride have undignified names such as Fat Ninny - and he might not be a general feared in all land, but he is brave and his love for the princess, as deep as the roots of the oak tree where they usually play, is the torch that guides him.
The exact nature of his stratagems to break through the many spells and barriers is hazy in his mind. It doesn’t really matter. In his fantasy, he just does something very clever nobody thought of before, and therefore he is the only one able to overcome the sorceress’ tramps.
What he does think about, and replays in his mind over and over again, is his marvellous victory over the terrible dragon. He slays the beast with the sword - that it’s actually a dagger, but that’s irrelevant in his fantasy - that his grandfather, the great warrior, gave to him. The dragon falls, defeated, in front of thousands of people who look at him in awe. But he pays no attention to them: he only has eyes for the princess, who watches everything from her lonely window in her ivory tower. He never bothers to imagine how he manages to climb the walls or how he unlocks the door. All that matters in his fantasy is the look in the princess sparkling eyes when she sees him. Awe, adoration, excitement, joy. All those feelings shine in her eyes as she breaks into a run and throws her arms around his neck, and then she -
‘Miles… Mileeeees… C’mon, midget, wake up.’
‘Don’t call me midget!’
The eight-year-old boy jumps to his feet and raises to his full height, which is not very impressing. His cousin approaches the spot under the old oak tree where he was just lying - and rescuing beautiful princesses - a moment ago, a grin on his handsome face.
‘All right, all right,’ the older boy conceded. ‘You’re not a midget… even though you look like one.’
Miles clenches his hands in tiny fists, then he relaxes. Punching Ivan would only lead him to break his own bones and he’s had enough experience in that area to know how particularly painful it is. Instead he decides on a different counterattack.
‘Well, you look like a mannequin from one of those shops where Aunt Alys buys her clothes but I don’t rub it on your face, do I?’
‘I don’t look like a… a… whatever you called me!’
‘Do too.’
‘Do not!’
Their banter reaches an abrupt end when Miles gets a glimpse of a girl that’s approaching them. A girl with hair as dark as a raven’s wing, rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes that manage to take his breath away every single time he sees her. She smiles at them both warmly.
‘Hi, boys.’
‘Hi, Elena!’ Miles replies brightly. Ivan, who still looks sour because of his cousin’s taunts, offers a dull ‘’Lo, Elena.’
‘Ivan, can I ask you a favour?’
‘I can help you,’ Miles pipes up at once. Ivan looks relieved - being around Miles has taught him to be wary of people’s polite requests - but Elena looks uneasy.
‘Thanks, Miles but… See, the kite that Da gave me got stuck in one of the pines and… Well, I thought Ivan could help me.’
Miles is not the sort of person who lets mere obstacles stop him.
‘I can get a ladder…’
‘And if you fall, you’ll break all your bones,’ Ivan cuts him in, his tone bored. ‘I’ll go, Elena.’
As he watches them go, an eight-year-old Miles Vorkosigan needs all his will to fight back tears. What saves his dignity in the end is the knowledge that all the knights who are worthy of getting mentioned in legends never surrender, no matter the odds. They persevere and conquer where others have failed, because they are brave but also because they are smart.
He might not be the handsomest, strongest or even the tallest knight of all land. But he is smart, smarter than Ivan and all the knights in fairy tales that fall prey to the evil sorceress. But above all, he is determined.
Perhaps today he is merely a child too short for his age, with a funny face and fragile bones. But one day… One day he will the man who slays Elena’s dragons and saves her, and perhaps, just perhaps, he will be the one who wins her heart.
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