Fic: The Princess and the Dragons of Many Hues
Title: The Princess and the Dragons of Many Hues
Author: shallowness
Fandom: Original/Fairy Tale
Rating: PG
Characters: A princess, her sisters, a king, a queen, a governess, servants, subjects, artists and a lover, and various dragons.
Summary: In a world where there are dragons of many hues, it took this princess to approach them.
Author's Note: 1,505 words. Inspired by rather than a fill for the prompt: Fairy Tales, any, a dragon of a different colour.
The Princess and the Dragons of Many Hues: shallowness
She was the adventurous one, for all that her parents had named her Kind Peace. As soon as she could toddle, she would visit the royal dragons’ enclosure, no matter how often she was carried away, or what scoldings she was given as a result. More than once did the servants find her napping in the midst of the yellowish, almost golden coils, not minding the heat. That the dragons didn’t mind her was no surprise, for she was of the royal blood. But you could never feel safe about a small child amongst such large beasts, and so the nursery maids would call out her name softly, ‘Your Highness, Your Highness, Princess Kind Peace.’ None of them dared clamber up the dragons’ bodies as fearlessly as she had done.
After the first time, the servants were not blamed for carelessness, as it was all too clear that the princess had a will of her own, and was drawn to the enclosure. The king blamed himself for telling her the stories of the kingdom’s golden dragon, but, as his wife pointed out, he had told the other princesses the same stories and ignited no great dragon love in them. Yet, no-one quite knew what to make of the third princess until her governess Wisdom came.
Fey enough to glimpse the future, or perhaps simply a good judge of character, Wisdom thought about her charge and decided, “Kind Peace will travel, so she must learn languages and geography, mathematics to find her way, and world history and myth. For these tamed beasts of the enclosure will not be enough for her soon.”
And indeed, when little Peace learned there were more dragons in the kingdom, she begged and begged to see them. At the age of ten, when it was hoped she was old enough to obey orders and stay safe, her father took her for a birthday treat to see the kingdom’s lesser dragons in the wild. Their dun colour made them hard to spot, although Kind Peace was nearly always the first to see them.
“She’s a wonder,” said the local guides.
These dragons’ tails were shorter, their aerial acrobatics less showy than their cousins’, but more efficient. The fire the mature ones emitted fascinated Kind Peace, and she asked if they could go closer, which made the adults around her shake their heads.
Kind Peace talked of nothing else for the rest of the year, the court agreed.
The years passed and Kind Peace’s dragon fever never burnt itself out. As well as studying with Wisdom, she learned much of the royal dragons, tending to their ills, speaking to them, as well as enjoying every second of the kingdom’s high days, when they played a ceremonial role. Those days were long for the royal family and the court, but she never complained.
“Don’t you get a stiff neck, looking up to the sky so long?” her sister Listener asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kind Peace answered. “It’s like it is for you when you practice your music, I think.”
The only birthday treat she asked for was to return to the wilds to see their cousins. At the age of sixteen, she even approached the semi-ferals and not only survived, but said that she had made friends. She then sat through scoldings for going with no companion or permission. She was punished, but her time with the dragons left more of a mark, the king acknowledged.
About that time, her eldest sister Faithful and True got married to a suitable duke, her second sister Listener playing at the wedding. The king and queen admitted to each other that Kind Peace would travel to where the dragons were. So, they prepared to make her an emissary, her mission the bettering of understanding and knowledge of dragons. It was, they decided, better that she went under the protection of the standard of the golden dragon than ran away.
The day they first talked to her of these plans and her face glowed, Peace’s parents knew they had made the right decision. With this goal in sight, Peace studied hard, consulting with diplomats and preparing to leave when she turned eighteen.
At first, it was her title that granted her safe passage, but her curiosity and her fearlessness when it came to the dragons won her respect. Kind Peace traversed the continent, saw the reds of the midlands, the blues and greys of the north, and heard of the silvers that no-one had seen for centuries past. She headed west to the islands of the greens, who reminded her the most of the dragons of her childhood.
On her twenty-first birthday, she slipped away from her party’s camp to the lair she had been studying, where an accommodating dragonlet moved his tail to make room for her. For a while, she watched the stars, soothed by the sounds of the dragons’ breathing. Then she slept and she dreamed she was flying on the wing of Until the End of Time, the dragon who had helped her ancestors establish their kingdom.
Kind Peace had faithfully written letters home over these past few years, and received tardy answers, informing her that she had a niece, a nephew and had missed Listener’s wedding. She had also kept a diary full of details of what she had seen and heard, writing as if she could hear Wisdom’s probing questions.
She had a collection of sketches of the dragons she had seen on her travels, drawn by many hands. Kind Peace had learned when she was four that she could not draw to her satisfaction. After bursting into tears over what was meant to be a copy of the standard of the golden dragon, she had never tried very hard to draw again.
These past few years, no artist had stayed with her long. The first had come with her from her court, but travel sickness made him unsuitable. She had decided she would hire a local artist wherever she went.
Only one had come close to her fascination with dragons, and his fascination with them flowed from a different source. He had given her all his drawings of the dragons, but kept his sketches of her alone, some taken by moonlight.
She had been diligent and scholarly.
Now Kind Peace found herself trying to capture the images of her dream in words. It had felt important, different, and she wondered if it had come to her because she had slept amid dragons again, or because it was her birthday. Whatever the reason, to dream of the only true golden dragon must be a sign.
Her companions - for she could not think of people who had travelled so far with her as servants, exactly - had learned where she had been, and great had been their displeasure. It was worsened because she would not give them a hearing, staying in her tent to write a screed, barely eating. When the light dimmed, she left the tent, insisting she would return to the dragons’ lair alone, for she needed to see if she could dream again.
‘Alone’ meant the others were only several hundred yards away, all armed, but the dragons accepted her. The youngest ones were the most demonstrative, but the great mother bid her welcome.
And Kind Peace slept, and she dreamt of the blues, rising above snow-capped mountains she had only seen from afar. In her dream, they sang. Kneeling on top of the tallest peak, with no idea how she had got there, Kind Peace strained to listen, almost understanding the dialect that these dragons had once shared with humans.
She woke to find that she had cried in her sleep. She apologised to the dragons if she had disturbed them, but one of the full-grown males looked her in the eye and said, “Come tonight and dream again.”
The servants were not shocked to see their mistress bow to one of the dragons. They were only relieved no local humans saw it too.
Kind Peace wrote about the second dream and grieved she had not understood the words of the song. She thought of her sister Listener, who would be better able to describe the dragonsong she had heard. It did not occur to her that Listener would never have been gifted this dream. She tried to convey the music and words she had heard in similes.
Night fell again. The princess returned to the dragons and her loyal servants to their posts. She laid her head on scales the colour of soothing verdure, her body relaxing into the warmth the dragons emanated. And yes, she dreamt. This time, she dreamt of the silver dragons that none had seen for many a year, and when she woke, Peace knew that she must go home to publish all that she had learned of dragons so far. But she would also prepare, for she now knew the route to the top of the world, where the last of the silvers waited.
Fin
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/313503.html.
Author: shallowness
Fandom: Original/Fairy Tale
Rating: PG
Characters: A princess, her sisters, a king, a queen, a governess, servants, subjects, artists and a lover, and various dragons.
Summary: In a world where there are dragons of many hues, it took this princess to approach them.
Author's Note: 1,505 words. Inspired by rather than a fill for the prompt: Fairy Tales, any, a dragon of a different colour.
The Princess and the Dragons of Many Hues: shallowness
She was the adventurous one, for all that her parents had named her Kind Peace. As soon as she could toddle, she would visit the royal dragons’ enclosure, no matter how often she was carried away, or what scoldings she was given as a result. More than once did the servants find her napping in the midst of the yellowish, almost golden coils, not minding the heat. That the dragons didn’t mind her was no surprise, for she was of the royal blood. But you could never feel safe about a small child amongst such large beasts, and so the nursery maids would call out her name softly, ‘Your Highness, Your Highness, Princess Kind Peace.’ None of them dared clamber up the dragons’ bodies as fearlessly as she had done.
After the first time, the servants were not blamed for carelessness, as it was all too clear that the princess had a will of her own, and was drawn to the enclosure. The king blamed himself for telling her the stories of the kingdom’s golden dragon, but, as his wife pointed out, he had told the other princesses the same stories and ignited no great dragon love in them. Yet, no-one quite knew what to make of the third princess until her governess Wisdom came.
Fey enough to glimpse the future, or perhaps simply a good judge of character, Wisdom thought about her charge and decided, “Kind Peace will travel, so she must learn languages and geography, mathematics to find her way, and world history and myth. For these tamed beasts of the enclosure will not be enough for her soon.”
And indeed, when little Peace learned there were more dragons in the kingdom, she begged and begged to see them. At the age of ten, when it was hoped she was old enough to obey orders and stay safe, her father took her for a birthday treat to see the kingdom’s lesser dragons in the wild. Their dun colour made them hard to spot, although Kind Peace was nearly always the first to see them.
“She’s a wonder,” said the local guides.
These dragons’ tails were shorter, their aerial acrobatics less showy than their cousins’, but more efficient. The fire the mature ones emitted fascinated Kind Peace, and she asked if they could go closer, which made the adults around her shake their heads.
Kind Peace talked of nothing else for the rest of the year, the court agreed.
The years passed and Kind Peace’s dragon fever never burnt itself out. As well as studying with Wisdom, she learned much of the royal dragons, tending to their ills, speaking to them, as well as enjoying every second of the kingdom’s high days, when they played a ceremonial role. Those days were long for the royal family and the court, but she never complained.
“Don’t you get a stiff neck, looking up to the sky so long?” her sister Listener asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kind Peace answered. “It’s like it is for you when you practice your music, I think.”
The only birthday treat she asked for was to return to the wilds to see their cousins. At the age of sixteen, she even approached the semi-ferals and not only survived, but said that she had made friends. She then sat through scoldings for going with no companion or permission. She was punished, but her time with the dragons left more of a mark, the king acknowledged.
About that time, her eldest sister Faithful and True got married to a suitable duke, her second sister Listener playing at the wedding. The king and queen admitted to each other that Kind Peace would travel to where the dragons were. So, they prepared to make her an emissary, her mission the bettering of understanding and knowledge of dragons. It was, they decided, better that she went under the protection of the standard of the golden dragon than ran away.
The day they first talked to her of these plans and her face glowed, Peace’s parents knew they had made the right decision. With this goal in sight, Peace studied hard, consulting with diplomats and preparing to leave when she turned eighteen.
At first, it was her title that granted her safe passage, but her curiosity and her fearlessness when it came to the dragons won her respect. Kind Peace traversed the continent, saw the reds of the midlands, the blues and greys of the north, and heard of the silvers that no-one had seen for centuries past. She headed west to the islands of the greens, who reminded her the most of the dragons of her childhood.
On her twenty-first birthday, she slipped away from her party’s camp to the lair she had been studying, where an accommodating dragonlet moved his tail to make room for her. For a while, she watched the stars, soothed by the sounds of the dragons’ breathing. Then she slept and she dreamed she was flying on the wing of Until the End of Time, the dragon who had helped her ancestors establish their kingdom.
Kind Peace had faithfully written letters home over these past few years, and received tardy answers, informing her that she had a niece, a nephew and had missed Listener’s wedding. She had also kept a diary full of details of what she had seen and heard, writing as if she could hear Wisdom’s probing questions.
She had a collection of sketches of the dragons she had seen on her travels, drawn by many hands. Kind Peace had learned when she was four that she could not draw to her satisfaction. After bursting into tears over what was meant to be a copy of the standard of the golden dragon, she had never tried very hard to draw again.
These past few years, no artist had stayed with her long. The first had come with her from her court, but travel sickness made him unsuitable. She had decided she would hire a local artist wherever she went.
Only one had come close to her fascination with dragons, and his fascination with them flowed from a different source. He had given her all his drawings of the dragons, but kept his sketches of her alone, some taken by moonlight.
She had been diligent and scholarly.
Now Kind Peace found herself trying to capture the images of her dream in words. It had felt important, different, and she wondered if it had come to her because she had slept amid dragons again, or because it was her birthday. Whatever the reason, to dream of the only true golden dragon must be a sign.
Her companions - for she could not think of people who had travelled so far with her as servants, exactly - had learned where she had been, and great had been their displeasure. It was worsened because she would not give them a hearing, staying in her tent to write a screed, barely eating. When the light dimmed, she left the tent, insisting she would return to the dragons’ lair alone, for she needed to see if she could dream again.
‘Alone’ meant the others were only several hundred yards away, all armed, but the dragons accepted her. The youngest ones were the most demonstrative, but the great mother bid her welcome.
And Kind Peace slept, and she dreamt of the blues, rising above snow-capped mountains she had only seen from afar. In her dream, they sang. Kneeling on top of the tallest peak, with no idea how she had got there, Kind Peace strained to listen, almost understanding the dialect that these dragons had once shared with humans.
She woke to find that she had cried in her sleep. She apologised to the dragons if she had disturbed them, but one of the full-grown males looked her in the eye and said, “Come tonight and dream again.”
The servants were not shocked to see their mistress bow to one of the dragons. They were only relieved no local humans saw it too.
Kind Peace wrote about the second dream and grieved she had not understood the words of the song. She thought of her sister Listener, who would be better able to describe the dragonsong she had heard. It did not occur to her that Listener would never have been gifted this dream. She tried to convey the music and words she had heard in similes.
Night fell again. The princess returned to the dragons and her loyal servants to their posts. She laid her head on scales the colour of soothing verdure, her body relaxing into the warmth the dragons emanated. And yes, she dreamt. This time, she dreamt of the silver dragons that none had seen for many a year, and when she woke, Peace knew that she must go home to publish all that she had learned of dragons so far. But she would also prepare, for she now knew the route to the top of the world, where the last of the silvers waited.
Fin
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/313503.html.