A Summer Of Missing Princesses

Pete was quiet the whole trip back out of the castle as the guard flanked us. However, as soon as we are outside and the guards have left, he begins speaking again.

“Soooo... You’re about the same age as the princess, I would suppose...” Pete says, pushing up his glasses a little.

“Am I?” I ask.

“Yeah, you look like it,” Pete says, grinning.

“And how old are you?” I question.

“Eh... It’s hard to keep track of such things... I’d suppose I am a twenty year old,” Pete says.

I stop dead in my tracks and so he stops. I turn and glare at him.

“You’re a creep!” I yell.

“Hey! Hey! Hey now! It’s not like that!” Pete says, sweating nervously.

“If she really is the same age as me, that makes her a child!” I scold.

“Ah, it sounds bad when you put it that way... Really, though, she’s only five years younger than me,” Pete says.

“But she’s a child currently! You can’t have a relationship with her!” I argue.

“Hey, the king agreed! It’s all good!” Pete says.

“Now I’m starting to think she ran away rather than was kidnapped...” I mutter out loud.

“Where do you think you’re going anyhow?” Pete asks, changing the subject.

“To find the missing princess,” I say.

“I have a pretty good idea of where she may be and THAT way is not it!” Pete says.

“How can you be so sure?” I ask.

“I have this deep rooted knowledge. My mentor told me to trust my inner knowledge. By the way, dragons love princesses and there is a dragon pit the opposite direction of where you are headed,” Pete says.

I watch as he slips his glasses off and nervously chews on the ear piece.

“Oh... I never really thought about such a connection...” I say.

“Ah... But it is true! Eeee... But I am terrified of dragons!” Pete cries out, trembling.

Not so tough now. Just as I suspected. I smile confidently.

“Well! Come on, then! Let’s go pop in and see if the dragons have Princess Mór!” I say.

“Aieeeeee!” Pete squeals.

“Either you come with me or the king has your life,” I say.

“Great. Death or death,” Pete mutters and follows after me, “You’ll protect me, won’t you?”

“I have no reason to protect you. But I will,” I say.

He sighs in relief and follows after me. Snyvolon, as it turns out, is like a valley. On either side there are mountain ranges and on the other sides, oceans and beaches lined with sharp rocks. The whole walk, Pete babbles on about this and that. About how he is secretly half rat, but uses magic to disguise himself as a human. Also about how much he has done for the king of Snyvolon. I don’t need his help for anything. If anything, he needs my help. After a long time of walking, we both are exhausted.

“I can’t take any more steps!” Pete complains, “My feet burn!”

“Don’t you have any magic for that?” I ask.

“Not really, no,” he says with a sigh.

“I guess you’ll just have to deal with it then. My feet are kind of tired too,” I say.

“Let’s sit, then,” Pete says, plopping onto the ground and instantly pretending to die.

“Is it much further?” I ask.

“No, not really, no,” Pete says, shaking his head, “Sit with me a moment.”

“No. I’d rather stand, thanks,” I say.

“Aw...” Pete says.

He continues sitting there and I stand a little ways away. He stares at me through his thick U-shaped glasses.

“Do you know about the eastern world?” I ask after some silence.

“Of course I do. Nobody believes me when I talk about it. My cousin lives in Mycono Kingdom,” Pete says.

“Does he? I was just there!” I say.

“Yeah... I haven’t met him in this life yet, but my mentor told me all about him,” Pete says.

“What do you mean, “this life”?” I ask.

“I died about twenty years ago... I made a huge mistake and nobody was willing to forgive me. Even now they look at me accusingly. I don’t even remember exactly what I did...” Pete says with a sigh.

“Oh, I’m sorry...” I say.

“Are you afraid that I’ll hurt you?” Pete asks.

“No...” I say.

“Sit with me, then. Surely your legs are tired,” Pete prompts.

I give up refusing and sit, but not too close to him. He smiles, but I can tell his feelings are hurt. We sit in silence for a bit, then I stand again.

“The longer we wait, the more likely it is that the princess will have been eaten,” I say.

“Oh. We have to walk again?” Pete asks, pouting.

I hold out my hand to help him up. He reluctantly accepts my offer and rises to his feet.

“Then let’s do this thing,” Pete says, taking a deep breath.

I pull my hand away from his after I am sure his feet are firmly planted. There is no reason why I should hold hands with a creep for longer than necessary. We continue on and make it to the edge of the dragon pit. It is far larger than I had anticipated. The edges of the pit are jagged like sharp teeth and as wide as the pit is, it seems to be twice as deep, or, perhaps, four times as deep. Like a gaping gorge, it grins evilly up at us. Pete’s already pale face grows even paler and I can see him shaking in fear.

“Anybody home?” I call into the pit.

My voice echoes over and over again.

“We’re dragon food for real now, kid!” Pete shrieks.

“Guess we should climb in there and check? Or are you too scared?” I ask.

“I’m too scared!” Pete bawls.

I know I’m supposed to take him with me, but at this point, it seems too unreasonably mean to force him to follow.

“Don’t leave without me, though. If you return without the princess, the king will kill you,” I say.

“Gah! You’re right! And I’ll just be hanging out...at the edge of this extremely scary pit...filled with hungry dragons...” Pete says.

Each piece of his sentence becomes higher and higher pitched until he is squeaking. I turn and start climbing down into the pit. I can feel his beady little eyes staring after me.

After what seems like forever, I reach the bottom and find myself surrounded by sleeping dragons. I tip toe silently around, looking to see if any of them have Princess Mór. As I am tip toeing around, I notice a tunnel going deep into the rock face. The entrance is fairly large so I peer in.

Seeing nothing, I explore deeper into the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel is a very large room and in the room is a cage. In the cage is Princess Mór!

“Princess... I’m here to save you,” I whisper to her.

She opens her eyes and sees me. She struggles at her chains, trying to get free.

“Where is the key?” I ask, locating the lock.

Mór’s eyes widen and at first I don’t realize why she is so scared. Then, I feel the ground shudder. What ever dragon is holding Princess Mór hostage has come to stop me!

“HREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” the dragon shrieks, entering the room.

“Oh no...” I say.

I touch my helmet and the mask appears. I am ready for battle. This dragon is a huge red one with a long tail and no wings. On the tip of its tail is a large ice crystal. I find this to be odd because it is obviously a fire dragon.

“HRRRRMMMM!” the dragon cries out, seeing me.

“Maybe we can talk this through!” I suggest.

Apparently that makes the dragon angry because then it shoots fire at me. I roll out of the way just in time.

“Or not! I can fight!” I say.

I pull out my sword and shield. As the dragon moves, its heavy foot steps rattle everything, even the cage the princess is being held in.

“That’s an Infernore!” I hear the princess cry out from the cage.

The muffler must have fallen from all the shaking. I try to hit Infernore with my sword, but his tough scales knock me back.

“No no! That won’t work!” Mór cries out.

“What am I supposed to do then?!” I ask.

“HURRRRRRRRAHCK!” Infornore growls and spits fire at me again.

I narrowly avoid that attack and glance at the princess.

“The crystal! If it melts, Infernore dies!” Mór explains.

“Thanks! Now how do I get it?!” I ask, jumping onto Infernore’s tail as it is whipping around.

“I don’t know that!” Mór admits after a bit.

“Oh great...” I moan, still clinging on.

“HRAH! HRAH!” Infernore complains, trying to shake me off.

Suddenly, another dragon bursts into the room. This one is almost completely white with a few light yellow scales and beady red eyes.

“Oh great! Another one?!” I ask.

“I’ve never seen that one in my life!” Mór exclaims.

“I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING IN BUT I DO NOT LIKE IT ONE BIT!” the new dragon roars.

I smile, recognizing who it is.

“Hey, Pete! I see you’ve finally decided to come down here!” I say.

“I HATE IT! HELP!” Pete shrieks.

Infernore blows fire at Pete.

“AIYEEEEEEEE!” Pete wails, flying out of the way.

“I need to get rid of this ice crystal!” I inform Pete as he is flying around, avoiding blasts of fire.

“Oh yeah?! Well...” Pete says and dives at Infernore.

He swoops in and chomps on Infernore’s tail. Infernore shrieks in pain.

“Thanks!” I say.

Pete swallows the tip of Infernore’s tail and freezes up instantly.

“...Now how I expected this to end, but okay,” Mór says.

Infernore keeps shrieking and begins swelling up. He explodes into dust and a shiny key appears. I walk past frozen Pete and take the key, unlocking the cage.

“Thank you guys so much...” Mór says, “I should never have run away... It’s just... My father was going to sell me!”

Mór begins crying and hugs onto me.

“I’m so sorry...” I say.

“But... Pete’s frozen now. That means I can live freely again,” Mór says.

“Say... Do you think your father would mind if I took you with me? I have two princesses with me already,” I say.

“What? Like, an actual adventure?! That’d be amazing!” Mór says.

“Sorry, Pete. I hope you like your new cave,” I say and turn away, leading Mór with me.