Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 52915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 265(@200wpm)___ 212(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 265(@200wpm)___ 212(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
I retreat to the bath chamber, because I do not want to be seen by the dragon. I feel the primal impulse to hide from a creature so terrifying even the king himself has fear of it.
The bath chamber is a comforting place, walls lined with salves, unctions, and other pretty things. The scents are soothing, and the bath runs constantly, water flowing in at one end and out at the other, like a never ending hot bath. It has the appearance of a hot spring, slightly bubbly and steaming.
It is the sort of place I could spend hours relaxing and exploring, relaxing, floating, picking jars from the shelves and trying their contents. I start doing just that with a crystalline jar filled with what looks like rose petals. I wonder how much from my world is also present on this one. I am very much struggling to accept the alien nature of this world, especially as it appears to be so very similar to at least a version of our own. I have to wonder if fairytales come from the past, or if they were somehow imported from this place? That would explain why there are no dragon fossils. Perhaps dinosaurs are dragons. Maybe…
GRROOOARRRR!
While I am trying to distract myself with theories about alternative planets, I hear a roar again. It’s no longer a distant rumble. It is a much closer, infinitely more ferocious sound. It makes the thick walls surrounding me reverberate. I feel it under my feet, and I feel it in my bones.
The dragon has arrived, and with its arrival comes the knowledge deep in those same bones that there is absolutely no way I could ever hope to escape it if the creature were to decide to come for me. It cannot see me, but I know that it knows I am here. It is not coming for Charming. It is coming for me. I know this with the innate instinct all prey must have in order to survive.
I feel… not quite hunted. I feel wanted. I feel almost as though the dragon is calling my name, though the sound it has made is not remotely close to speech of any kind I know.
I find myself opening the chamber door and moving toward the sound. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it remains a powerful impulse in all of us. Much of my attire has changed since I was abducted, but when I reach down and into my gown I discover that the pocket from my leggings remains, and so does my phone. I open the camera, setting it to record. That’s an impulse that has been drummed into me all these years. Pics or it didn’t happen. I won’t even be able to prove this to myself without some kind of footage to go back to.
My phone is on 42% battery as I start recording, holding it up in front of my face like a small rectangular shield, I move toward the door King Charming told me not to open. The timer is counting, reinforcing the reality. 00.00.01 00.00.02 I see the world through this screen and it stops me from having to experience anything directly.
There is a dragon. At least, I think there is. There has to be.
I see something large and scaled writhing outside the window, just parts of it, but clearly they belong to a much larger creature and I have been primed to know precisely what it is.
When I draw close enough to the window, I see that there is indeed a dragon outside, a great green scaled thing. It seems restless, and angry. It lashes about, tail and head flailing as it lets out a feral, primal scream. I stare aghast at the creature. I remember telling Chip that dragons aren't real. But the thing I am looking at is definitely real.
I do not see the king. Has he already been consumed? Has my fairytale romance descended into darkness already? That feels like it would be just my luck. Meet a king, get abducted by a king, have the king be eaten within the first five minutes of arriving on a fucking alien planet.
“Charming!” I yell his name and throw open the door. The dragon is too large a creature to fit through the small aperture, so I do not think that I am in any real danger. Or maybe I’m not really thinking at all, maybe I’m just following another one of my impulses, the same ones that got me into this mess.
Without a door between us, the dragon becomes much more real. It smells like power and sulphur. I see the scales rippling with the movements of the great creature. The spaces between those scales open up with the motion and I see a glimmer of bright gold beneath them. This dragon is pretty fucking cool to look at. I feel a sense of growing awe and attraction to it, some of which makes sense, and some of which feels perverse.