literature

Dragon Bride

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I tugged at my bound hands, the thick ropes chafing my wrists raw. It hurt, and I was sick of hearing everyone speak to me. What a great honor it was! How proud my family must have been!

I had tried to run for it, twice, before they had taken a cane to the soles of my feet. The pain was immense, a deep pulse that traveled from my feet to the tips of my limbs.

"We’re very sorry Princess." one of the guards in the caravan assured me. "But this… you know what this means for the kingdom."

I gave him a dirty look, my joints feeling the ache of a long journey in a cart like a bale of hay or the sheep we tended in my home village. My village with clean fresh glens, springs, and grasses sweet and full. My village where my family had been for several generations.

I stared at the rose pink and off white gown, that was illfitting and unmanageable.

My throat was as raw as my wrists and my eyes were dry as midsummer in the hills. I wanted water, but none was offered. Every time I attempted to speak, a croak came out of my mouth instead of my own voice.

I wanted to shout, I wanted to lash out, I wanted to scream and cry. I was not the princess they kept calling me. I was the girl they employed years ago, as a stand in for her whippings. For when she did not read or write her lessons, or learned her etiquette properly.

I was basically a slave, but was paid for my work. My wages were sent to my family in the country, but I haven’t seen them in years. The last few years, my treatment changed and the last thirteen months was a drastic difference.

It wasn’t until this morning that I knew what it was all about. There was a dragon, in the mountains to the south of our land. The mountains and forest beyond were not ours, they were wilderness and his domain. The bordering villages every few years would give tribute, a few sheep, a cow that could no longer be milked or fish from the sea and river folk. This year, was our turn to give tribute for all the land.

Tied to the end of my cart was a dairy cow, still well in her prime, and various vegetables and fruits lined baskets inside my cart. The dragon had demanded the Princess, alive and virginal.

That was were I came in. They primped me like a show pony, shoved in a ill fitting dress and tied up in this cart. Before any of that, the King made me drink something. It burned my throat and stopped me from talking! Few had seen the princess, so we were interchangeable.

*~*~*~*~*~*

When it began to rain, I tilted my head up, tongue out to catch the drops.  They were fat and quenched my thirst. As the sheets began pouring down, I saw the men begin to set up posts to tie and leave the animals.

I tried to stand, but my bounds were yanked down. My hands were tied to a secure ring of metal in the cart. I tilted my head up, drinking what was left of the rain. I was soaked to the bone, head tilted to the sky.

A heard them yelling and them running. There was the snap of something similar to wet blankets and the ground shook as something dropped from the sky. This was the end. I was to be the meal to the dragon, so to stop it from killing everyone else.

"Go ahead." I croaked, my throat only a little less raw than before. "Kill me."

My eyes were shut tight, and I refused to let the thing see my tears. I had not cried for those bastards who tied me up. I did not cry when the whip met my skin. I would not cry.

"Who are you." The dragon spoke, confusion in their voice. It was a deep voice, like the lowing of a blood hound or a bull.

"I’m…" The words refused to form with my constricted throat. "The Princess."

"Neigh." the voice growled. "How dare he do this to me." There was movement, and something touched my lips. I kept them pursed, only to have whatever it was spill down the front of my dress. "Open your mouth, naive, or I’ll do it for you."

I opened my mouth and a sweet, thick substance ran past my lips, over my tongue and down my throat.

"H-honey!" I cried out. My eyes opened and saw the dragon, tipping a comb at my lips with their large claws just inches from my face.

"Again. Who are you." The dragon dropped the honeycomb in my lap.

I swallowed and found… the pain had lessened. “I’m.” the words formed more easily. “The princess.”

"A tribute." the dragon snickered. "In lieu of a sacrifice. How precious."

"It’s all the same isn’t it!" I shouted. "Just fill me with honey and roast me over a pike like pig! Or eat me raw! Just get it over with!"

The dragon tilted its head, brow furrowed at me. It brought its snout close, sniffing my gown and hair. The beast leaned farther in, until I had my back pressed into the cart. I tried to make myself smaller. In truth, I was terrified.

I watched as the dragon raised a claw to the hem of my dress, and began tearing off the stitches. From the dress, then the corset, my petticoats, and soon I was naked, shivering and humiliated further.

"Ah." The dragon’s hand tilted to touch my cheek. "A slave. Married, children, lover?"

"None." I tried to cover up.

"Do you know the literatures and languages of your lands." the dragon seemed to be smiling at me.

"I-I do." I looked up, meeting green-gold eyes that changed colors every so often.

"Do you want justice or vengeance?" the dragon’s black tongue flicked over her scaly lips.

I blinked, shivering hard. I thought about it hard. Weren’t the two words practically interchangeable? No… they weren’t. Was this a test?

"I want… Justice." My ropes were cut, and a boisterous laugh greeted me. I watched as the dragon burst into golden and bright red flames, and the scales of black feel in sheets like oil. The sound of it was like someone smashing glass on stone.

Where the dragon once stood was a women with wild curly mahogany hair. Her eyes were hazel, golden with red flecks and her skin was bronzed beautifully. She wore a black gown, the ends looking frayed an delicate.

"Come along little sacrifice, you have much to learn." she waved her hand, and the fabric scraps and ropes she had just ruined reformed. I stood in a new dress, that fit and—

"Could… they be trousers?" I stammered. The Dragoness perked a brow, then smirked at me. She clicked her fingers and the end of the skirts cuffed and formed into a billowy sort of pants I had never seen before.

"Come along Sacrifice." she undid the ropes for the animals and the carts and began leading the entourage of offerings down the road.

"I have a name! And What Am I to learn from— from a Dragon!" my voice was cracking from high to low pitch, my feelings about it all being well known.

"I do not wish to know your name, Sacrifice. Names are powerful things." The dragon chuckled. "As for your lessons… I shall be teaching you how to be a dragon."

She glanced over her shoulder at me. I stared at her, mouth agape. She laughed again.

"What? You didn’t actually think Dragons were born, did you?”

"If they aren’t born then how….?"

"Sacrifice…. Dragons, much like precious gemstones or coal, are made." she grinned, showing off ivory teeth that were only a little sharper than my own.

She began walking again. I followed .
based on this prompt abyzmalartist.tumblr.com/post/…

A girl is given to a dragon as a tribute. She does not go willingly, and a turn of events changes her outlook on life.
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