The Dragon and the Princess
Chapter 4 The Dragon, The Wizard and The Princess

“Friendship isn’t about whom you’ve known the longest, it’s about who came and never left your side.”

After some time dawn rose, and the dragon realised he had been gliding around thinking for many hours now. He had been away inside, as he often went, and came back to see where he was. Amazingly he had unknowingly flown back to the village he had left the wizard at and sure enough, far beneath him there he was. He was with someone, but the dragon could not make out who this person was so he decided to fly down to say hello to his old friend. As he drifted down he could make out now that it was a girl. She was radiantly beautiful, with big blue eyes, long hair and a delicate tall form. The wizard looked up, in a stupor, and immediately recognised his friend, “Dragon! You came back! Yay! Stay with us a while, let me introduce you to my beloved, the Princess!” “How do you do,” said the dragon as he landed, and he held out his hand in salutation. “Hello, dragon, I’ve heard a lot about you, it’s very nice to meet you,” she said.

The dragon wasn’t sure if he felt something then, but he was certainly taken quite aback by the princess’ beauty. She was almost certainly the most pretty thing he had ever seen and she had a way about her that was fascinating. She was also clearly a princess, and had the airs and graces, strength, intelligence, manners, honour and all the other virtues that only royalty had. She appeared quite innocent to the dragon and, knowing the wizard, he wondered how they had met and how she had ended up with the wizard and his bawdy ways. Perhaps she was bored, as royalty often get, or the wizard had used his magic, or perhaps a bit of both. The dragon quickly caught himself thinking these not very nice things and put them out of his mind. The wizard could be very attractive often times and he was not without his charms. It was just that they didn’t seem well matched.

The three of them quickly became friends and had many new adventures and gaye times. These times were, once the wizard had persuaded the princess to join them, also again fuelled by his many powders and potions, and the three of them had lots of fun. Occasionally the wizard and the princess would argue, and sometimes the dragon would feel a bit left out, and he would, obviously, wonder frequently about his own companion and where they might be. But on the whole they had great fun, mixing with old friends and new, going to parties and village fayres, and festivals and so on. One day at one of these parties, the dragon found himself returning to his thoughts about the princess, and as he watched and listened to her speaking to some friends, he thought how much he liked her, how much wisdom and virtue she had. Again he put these thoughts out of his mind, but he also felt as though perhaps she felt something too.

Indeed on another occasion, he felt her almost explicitly say that she did feel something for the dragon, but the dragon refused to believe or see the signs, since he could not feel this way about his friend’s love. This was not helped by being aware that the wizard, when he was away from the princess, would visit other maidens and occasionally females, both, nowhere near the standing or beauty as the princess; she was a princess after all. Sometimes this was in a trance, but often times, it was in the intoxication of his own ego, which he had increased because of the curse his father, the sorcerer had put on him. “You must not tell the princess!” he would command the dragon, and the dragon, out of loyalty would obey, but it hurt him greatly inside to do this, and hurt him even more because of his growing feelings for the princess. “Run away with me!” he jokingly said to the princess sometimes, “We can build a house in the forest and have adventures and live happily ever after!” “Yes!” she would say, but he refused to believe that she was serious, indeed she probably was not, he didn’t know whether he was serious either and the honour of friendship kept him from thinking for too long about these things.

On a few occasions, the dragon found himself alone with the princess and they had a great time together, laughing and chatting well; the dragon felt a strong connection in these times and was sad that she was taken and that he could do nothing. He thought she was such a happy and light filled being and that her heart was bright and open; and that she was full of joy. There was something there, between them. Oftentimes the wizard and the princess would abandon the dragon, as is only to be expected. He would feel a tinge of jealousy at these times. Maybe not jealousy, perhaps anger. The dragon would chase maidens and have fun with other friends such as the pirate (who hated everyone, especially women and The Creator, he was not very fun to be with), and others to take his mind off things, but he was deeply unsatisfied again. This time even more so. None of the maidens he met were good enough (but he went with them anyway, fooling himself into being in love) and he was really not enjoying the “fun” times. The golden dragon even thought about flying as high as he could, folding his wings up and letting himself drop to the ground and just ending it all.

Eventually, this all became too much for the dragon and he resolved to fly off and continue his search for ‘Those Who Submit.’ One day, after another night of potions and powders and “revelry” he got up in the middle of the night when the wizard and the princess were fast asleep and slipped away into the moon light. The dragon thought about all that had happened, and about his search for an end to his loneliness. It was true, as we have seen, the dragon had had many unsuitable pairings with females or maidens, but he felt he had learnt much and had gained much from these experiences. The wizard had said that he fell in love too easily and too quickly, but this wasn’t true at all, in fact it was because it was very hard for the golden dragon to fall in love that he went full steam ahead when he did like a feminine, ignoring the unworthy parts of her. But it was always doomed to failure. He was after all a golden dragon, and they just ordinaries, and ordinaries do not mix well with legendary golden beings. They were just no match for the golden dragon.

The dragon spied, while deep in this thought, a mountain pool, and he caught his reflection in it. He was shocked to see that he was not as golden any more, his wings not so magnificent, and he looked very, very weary; almost sick. He realised that his time with the wizard and his ego, with his friendship, that was not such a good friendship when all is said and done, and with his spells and potions; had all taken their toll on him and he was shocked. He landed next to the pool and cried. He cried all night and beseeched The Creator to help him. Nothing happened, no one came, and he sunk deeper into his unhappiness and cried himself to sleep.