Chapter 1
14 1/2years later….
“I’m telling you, I think that my parents have it in for me,” I say as me and my best friend Brenden walk through the forest. We weren’t supposed to be best friends, being that I’m a princess and he’s regular, but my mom allowed it to happen, saying that it would keep me level headed. See, in the dragon world, royals hang out with other royals and regular dragons that lived in the village were to never mingle with the royal kids – ever. But I wasn’t one for rules and plus, all the royal kids from the other kingdoms were too stuck up for my taste. I didn’t like any of them.
“You always think that your parents have it out for you. What else is new?” he says with a laugh.
“That’s because they always do. But it’s worse lately. They’re always whispering or talking low and when I come into the room they get quiet and just stare at me.”
“All parents do that.”
“Yeah, the ones who’ve been planning to kill their kids over the years.”
“They aren’t trying to kill you.”
“Not yet. They have to plan it first so that they can get away with it.”
“Why though?”
“Not sure,” I say as I jump over a log. I love being in the woods. It’s where I’ve always felt I’ve belonged. Ever since I was a little girl I would come in the forest and sit in it for hours. Often times I would drag Brenden along and so far that has never changed. Whatever I did, he did and that’s how it was going to stay. We were best friends forever and nothing was going to get in between us. The forest was one of the best things about the dragon world. There were regular animals in it like rabbits, birds, and snakes, but other things roamed in it as well. What those other things are, I don’t know because I’ve never seen them before and I don’t want to start this story off by lying to you.
“Well, I really don’t think that your parents are going to kill you. They love you,” he says as he throws a rock at a tree.
I look over at him and smile. He had grown up a lot from the skinny little dragon kid he used to be. He used to have buck teeth and long skinny arms and legs that seemed weird to his body. Now he was this handsome hunk that all the girls in the kingdom wanted, with muscles for days. But I still viewed him as the buck tooth kid he was so many years ago. Seeing him as a hunk was just, well, it was weird. “You’re right, but I still don’t like the fact that they are hiding something from me. I mean, they tell me everything else. Especially stuff that I’m not exactly fond of hearing. So why bother to hide something from me now?”
He laughs. “Maybe they’ll tell you when they’re ready.”
“Maybe. But I doubt it.”
“Or, you know, they could be planning your fifteenth birthday party. You will be fifteen in a week.”
I stopped walking. He was completely right. How could I forget my own birthday? Maybe I was catching teenage Alzheimer’s if there was such a thing. And I’m sure it was because I thought of it. “I forgot all about my birthday. But you’re right. They’ve been trying to surprise me for the past couple of years and so far it has never worked out for them.”
“How could you forget your own birthday? You are usually in full countdown mode by now.”
“I’ve been dealing with high school. It’s not easy you know. Full of nothing but crazy people.”
“So you’ve told me,” he says with a smirk.
That’s because it’s horrible!” I exclaim. “I don’t know what my parents were thinking sending me to that place. I’ve been tempted to set two girls on fire just this month.”
“Well, we’re here,” he says.
I look at the clearing and smile. Brenden and I have had the same hiding spot ever since we were kids. It was a beautiful clearing in the middle of the forest, in the shape of a circle. Flowers grew around the edges and two logs were in the center. It was so serene. We both came here to clear our minds from our problems. It’s as if, when we are here, nothing else in the world matters.
“You know, I think that it’s gotten more beautiful since the last time we were here,” I say as I sit down on the log that was designated as mine.
“Yeah, you may be right,” he says as he sits on the other log.
I look up at the sky as the sun beams down on my face. This is why I loved being in the dragon realm. It was so much more peaceful than life in the city. There was no hustle and bustle and nobody here was in a rush. Life was just pretty simple for the most part. I did my dragon training here and visited my dad and Brenden, but for the most part I was a newly city girl. I never caught a cab because they acted like they never saw me waving my hand or someone always stole it from me. I was even worse with the bus because I was almost always late, but it was starting to grow on me. There I blended in because there was nothing truly special about me to them. I was just another teenage girl to the world because no one knew my secret of being a dragon princess. I preferred to keep it that way, too, because they would probably lock me up in some facility and try to study me.
“So how has your dragon training been going?” asks Brenden as he throws another rock at a tree.
“It’s been going pretty good. It’s been more intense lately, though. Plus they’ve amped up my study on legends and myths,” I say as I cross my legs. “I don’t know why because I’m pretty sure all that stuff is useless. Not like I’m ever going to need it.”
“Legends and myths? Really? Why would they do that?” he asks curiously.
“You know I’m a princess. We literally have to know everything about everything, even if it isn’t true,” I say as I glance over at him.
“I’m glad I’m not a royal. My studies don’t involve dealing with legends and myths. More like defense and attack,” he says as he shakes his head.
“Yeah, be lucky you’re not because it’s a lot of work and you know I’m not fan of having to work too hard at something,” I say with a sigh.
“Oh trust me I’m glad to just be a commoner. My life is simple and I like it that way.”
“You’re more than just a commoner. You’re my best friend,” I say as I nudge him.
“And you are mine. It’s getting late. I think it’s time that we should be getting back,” he says.
I look up at the sky and see that the sun is setting. It makes the sky beautiful shades of oranges, reds, and yellows. I never paid sunsets much attention, but this one was one of the most beautiful I’d ever seen. “You’re right. Plus, I’m going back home tonight. School life, you know.”
He stands up off of his log and helps me up off of mine. “You say school is like dragon training right?”
I nod my head. “Yes, except for with more hateful teachers and crazy students who are so caught up in one another that it’s sad.”
He laughs. “That doesn’t sound pleasant.”
“That’s because it isn’t. I hate it. Homework. Classwork. Tests. Quizzes on stuff they never even teach us in class in the first place or that it’s in the book that they know no kid alive is ever going to read. Only three more years of torture left and I’m out of there.”
“Three years?”
“Yeah that’s when I’ll graduate high school. If I make it out alive,” I say as we walk back through the forest.
“So it’s over faster than dragon training?”
“Yeah, it is.”
“I like the sound of it already.”
I laugh. “Yeah, because you don’t have to deal with it. I’m telling you it’s not as easy as it seems.”
He looks at me and smiles. “Yeah, well, at least you don’t have to deal with being here all of the time. Nothing ever happens. Just the same ole’ same ole.”
“Yeah, I know. There’s no war or nothing. Everyone just seems peaceful and content.”
“That’s because your dad is a great king.”
I roll my eyes. “So I’ve been told.”
We step out of the forest and back into the village. People are closing down their shops and are going in for the ni
ght. Our village, Salavania, was fairly small. Only about one-hundred fifty dragon families lived there and my dad knew them each by name. Whereas I would only recognize faces. I wasn’t the Queen yet, though. I had other things on my mind. Besides, I had years to learn them. I walk Brenden to his house and he smiles.
“See you this weekend, right?” he asks.
“Yeah, after a long torturous week in high school,” I say with a laugh.
“Be safe.”
“I always am.”
I watch as he walks into his house and shuts the door. I walk toward the castle to meet my dad so that he could take me back to the other realm. He said that it was important that I learned to live in every realm. I saw it as he just really didn’t want his daughter hanging around or that he had another secret family. But I knew that was due to all of the reality TV and man hating movies I watch when I’m home because I have no social life. I walk into the castle and into the throne room where I knew my dad was.
The throne room is the most beautiful room in the castle. It’s filled with gold, jewels, armor, and swords. Dragons like shiny stuff, that’s why whenever we’re depicted in movies we’re always around shiny gold. It’s one of the few things movies get right about us. That other stuff is flat out wrong. We don’t generally guard princesses in towers and will only attack a human, or anyone, for that matter if they pose a threat. As far as I know, no one I know has killed a human, but it wasn’t the type of thing you readily admitted.
I walk closer to the throne and my dad is sitting there in his dragon form. He is a beautiful blue dragon with silver scales on his stomach. I am a pink dragon, the only one born in our village, and I have gold scales that run down the middle of my back and along my stomach. They say that it’s a sign of greatness to have gold scales, but I didn’t see anything so great about me. At least not yet. He smiles as I get close to him and I can’t help but smile back.
“So, are you ready to go home?” he asks.
“No, but it’s not like I really have a choice,” I say as I sit on the carpet.
“You know that it’s important for you to know what it’s like to live in all realms. It’s part of your dragon training.”
“I know, dad. You’ve told me that over and over again.”
He laughs. “Well you know how I like to remind you.”
I roll my eyes. “Believe me, I know.”
“Well go gather your stuff together while I transform and put myself into some regular clothes.”
“Okay dad. And don’t take forever, because you know how mom is.”
He laughs. “You’re right about that, sweetie.”
I walk out of the throne room and into the room that was mine. My room was decorated with jewels and a mural of me as a dragon was painted onto the wall. I love being in this room because it made me feel important. Plus, it is three times the size of my room in the city. I grab my book bag and some clothes I brought with me and head out of the room. I walk back into the throne room and my dad is standing there smiling. I smile back at him. My dad was an okay looking guy. I wasn’t just saying that because I mostly resembled him, either. He had dark skin, light brown hair eyes, perfect teeth, and an angular nose. I was lighter than him but we had the same nose and chin.
“Are you ready to go, princess?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, you don’t sound too excited.”
“I’m not. I really wish that I could just stay here, but I know that I can’t.”
“You would be correct. But one day you won’t have to leave here. You can just stay.”
“I know dad. I know.”
“Well, come on, sweetheart. Your mother and I need to talk to you about some things anyway.”
I look up at him, but I don’t say anything. Anytime your parents come at you with the ‘we need to talk to you’ talk, it usually means one thing: Disaster. And I handled disaster the way that I handled everything else. Horribly. Tonight is going to be a long night. I can just feel it in my bones.