He leaned in closer and sniffed me. “You do not smell like a servant girl. You smell…”
He closed his eyes, the scales around his eyes shivering as if trying to remember something. I just hoped I didn’t smell like his next meal. His eyes opened again, studying me closer. One hand moved to my hair as he gently waved a curl around his finger. The yellow of my hair looked almost like a ray of sunshine against his black claws.
“You are part of my hoard now. You are too pretty to let go,” he said as he moved around the dungeon on his hind legs.
“What? You can’t just keep me! I have people to get to,” I screamed as I hit the hand holding me, doing absolutely zero damage.
“I am your people now as you are mine,” he rumbled as he deposited me in a massive golden cage.
“What is this?” I asked, looking around the gilded bars running up high to a hole in the delicate framework that looked like something had burst out of it.
“The cage they kept me in until I was too big and broke free,” he growled.
I noticed his wing standing at an odd angle, as if he had hurt it during his escape. My heart ached for this creature that seemed to have endured so much.
“Why did they put you in the cage?” I asked.
He moved so close to me I could feel his hot breath fan my face through the bars. “Because I am a monster.”
I flinched as he threw my words back at me. I had been mostly startled that he grabbed me, scared he was going to devour me whole.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
He cocked his head as if trying to determine why I was asking him.
“I do not remember,” he said after a long pause. “What is yours?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m El-Elly,” I said quickly, recovering before offering him my real name.
We might not be the biggest kingdom, but he might have heard of Princess Elowen since we were neighbors, and I had been betrothed to the crown prince of this land.
“Elly,” he murmured as if tasting my name in his mouth.
His voice flowed through me, and suddenly I wanted to offer him my real name just so I could hear it roll off his tongue. What was wrong with me? Why was this Dragon affecting me so much?
I was here to find my betrothed, who he probably ate, and not to get strange feelings for a monster. However, he might be able to help with my problem since my first option was out of the window or in his stomach.
“Why not fly away to a faraway country where no one will bother you, rather than hide inside this old abandoned castle?” I asked.
He held up his crooked wing, showing an old wound that seemed to have never healed properly. “I cannot fly.”
“Oh, maybe I can help you,” I said.
“How?” he asked.
“My mother was a healer, and she taught me some things,” I said.
The queen had healed so many people in our country until she herself succumbed to the strange illness sweeping across our land. She always taught me that being a queen meant putting the needs of your people before your own, so that was why I traveled all the way here to look for my betrothed in hopes of help.
“Why?” he asked.
“Because nobody deserves to be hurt, and possibly because if I’m useful to you, you won’t eat me,” I said.
He snorted, blowing a small flame through the bars, making me duck. The fire singed my hair, making me squeak as I patted it to put it out. The stench of my burned lock filled the air.
“I apologize, Elly. I will not eat you, nor do I have any intention of hurting you.”
“Why not let me go then?”