Kris grunted as he landed roughly in the palm of Tao's hand. The giant was leaning over the ledge, and had extended his hand to catch the two falling individuals. While Tao grinned down at them, Kris hastily rolled over to make sure that Jang-mii was okay. She was lying on her side, and when he gently pulled her onto her back she groaned loudly and her eyes fluttered open. Kris was so relieved to see those beautiful eyes, that beautiful black hair. He cupped his face in her hands, sweeping strands of hair away from her face as he smiled softly down at her.

“Are you hurt? Are you okay?” he whispered as he her cheeks gently. She smiled up at him, reaching up to run her fingers through his bright red hair.

“No. I’m okay,” she murmured. She was still trembling with fright, and he rubbed her arms soothingly as he leaned over her. Before he could lean down and kiss her like he really wanted to, the hand they were laying on suddenly lurched with such force that Kris fell on top of the princess. She cried out in alarm as he landed roughly on top of her, his face landing right in the middle of her chest. Fantastic. Smoothly done, Kris. Stiff, he sat up and glanced up at the beaming giant boy.

“Boy, that was close, wasn’t it?” he smiled down at them.

“Yes. Thank you, Tao,” Jang-mii smiled brightly as she sat up beside him. The giant went slightly pink and scratched his neck bashfully. “No, really. You saved our lives,” she insisted.

“It was the least I could do. You saved my life first, after all,” he responded shyly. “Although, I didn’t expect that a big, scary dragon would turn into a little man!” he added with raised eyebrows. Kris felt Jang-mii’s eyes boring into him, but thankfully before she could ask him about his transformation, Tao jerked his hand again to set them down safely on the rock, far from the volatile edge. Kris hopped down onto the ground, then turned to hold out a hand for Jang-mii. She took it gratefully and stepped down from Tao's hand, and he was heartbroken to see that she was avoiding his gaze. She saw me. It’s over, he thought fearfully.

“Um. I think I should tend to Kris’ wounds,” Jang-mii offered quietly. Kris began to feel dread rising inside of him, and as he trudged after the princess to the giant's cave, he tried to find some way to explain himself, but unfortunately could come up with nothing. After leading them to the cave, Tao and his mother wandered back outside to probably gossip about the series of brawls that had occurred on the mountaintop. The princess sat Kris down on a makeshift bed in the corner, and she began attempting to rip apart a massive, giant-sized bandage. After a minute of watching her struggle, Kris unsheathed his dagger and quickly sliced the bandage into more appropriately sized ones. “Thank you,” she murmured, still avoiding his gaze.

“Why won’t you look at me?” he asked sadly, leaning forward to take her hands in his own. She sighed deeply, still refusing to look at him; so, he moved his hand to her face and made her look at him, and he felt his eyes lurch at how sad she looked. I did this. “Jang-mii…” he whispered miserably. “Please, would you just talk to me?” he begged her. She just kept staring at him, as if she was trying to find her words, and that miserably sad expression on her face was just shredding his heart to ribbons. Say something. Anything. Please.

“Were you going to tell me?” she asked finally. He felt his entire body grow cold, and he slowly leaned back, nervously rubbing his sweaty palms over his trousers.

“Um… Eventually,” he admitted quietly. As he uttered it, he heard how mean it sounded, and his shoulders slumped as he realized just how unfair to Jang-mii he had been. I’ve been selfish, so, so selfish. “I was afraid,” he blurted before she could assume the worst of him, and of course, it was the truth. She raised her eyebrows at him. “Because… Because I’m a selfish person, Jang-mii,” he sighed deeply. He looked down at the floor, so ashamed of himself that he could no longer bear to look at her. “I was afraid that you would hate me… So I kept it a secret. I’m so sorry…” I can’t believe I did this. I am horrible. He put his face in his hands miserably, shaking his head. “I’m such an idiot… You’ve been so good to me, you didn’t deserve this…”

“Kris,” she murmured, and the sound of her voice, so soft and pleading, made his entire body shudder. He slowly peered through his fingers at her, and she smiled gently and lifted her hands to push his hands away from his face. He pouted guilty at her, still unable to look at her, and then she cupped his face in her hands and made him look her right in the eyes. Those beautiful eyes, and those beautiful lips, and that beautiful face. It made his heart ache. “I think I understand. You suspected that Baekhyun might be up to something, and so you rescued me before he had the chance to do something. Of course, I wouldn’t understand at first, and you were scared that I might be angry with you when you changed… But even then, when you were human, you protected me, even though I could find out… That was very brave of you,” she smiled at him.

“You aren’t mad at me?” he asked quietly, finding it very hard to believe that the princess would be so quick to forgive him.

“No,” she nodded. “At first, I was sad that you would hide something from me… I just wanted to understand why. Now that you’ve told me, I do understand. It was… very brave of you to admit something like that to me.” A smile slowly crept onto his lips. She’s not mad at me… he thought as relief flooded through him, so powerfully that he collapsed backwards on the bed. Jang-mii smiled coyly before crawling onto the bed beside him, and he couldn’t help but encircle her waist with one arm.

“You’re really not mad at me?” he asked her again.

“No!” she laughed, smiling sweetly at him. She ran her hands through his hair over and over, and it felt wonderful. “It’s really okay. I mean, now you don’t have to wander off now, and I don’t ever have to wonder where you are... You’ll be with me all the time now,” she beamed, scooting close to him. He went slightly red as her chest pressed against his, and she was still combing through his hair with her slender fingers. Oh… This is nice… He thought blankly. Then cruel reality set in, and he sighed deeply as he dropped his gaze.

“But, you know… I spend most of my time as the dragon. I’m only human for about two hours a day,” he frowned, pressing his forehead to hers.

“That’s okay,” she told him softly. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll love you regardless of what form you’re in. Because the heart is the same inside.” She ran one of her hands up his chest, stopping over the place his heart was beating furiously. “Your heart is beating so fast,” she murmured as she looked up at him. Her eyes were so wide, and as he gazed in them he felt like he became lost. So beautiful. So, so, beautiful, he thought dreamily.

“That’s because I can’t believe a gorgeous princess like you would ever even think about being with someone like me,” he chuckled softly. He reached up to place his hand on the back of her head, curling his fingers into the luscious black strands. He felt bad, keeping the rest of the information from her, like the fact that he wasn’t some wandering knight but in fact her long-lost fiancé, but he simply couldn’t bring himself to tell her. Not yet. She isn’t ready yet, he told himself. She giggled, and he found himself reminded of how much he adored the sound of her laughter. He leaned forward to press his lips against hers, and she let out this sound that sent shivers up his spine. Aroused, he angled his head and kissed her more passionately, and then he was rolling her over to press her down into the little makeshift bed. She gasped lightly, and he couldn’t help but slip his tongue into and entangle it with her own. He felt the goosebumps rising on her skin as he ran his hands up her arms, and her back arched slightly as he pushed the kiss even deeper. His head began to swim, probably because he wasn’t breathing at all, and so he forced himself to pull back, and the two of them just lay there breathing hard and stared into each other's eyes.

“Kris…” she murmured breathlessly, and just the sound of her whispering his name made him want to start kissing her all over again. However, every hair on his body stood on end when he heard a polite but awkward cough, and he stiffly turned his head to see Tao standing uncomfortably in the entrance of the cave. He sat up, clearing his throat as he rolled off of Jang-mii and waved slightly at him.

“Um. I came to see how the little dragon man was doing,” the boy said awkwardly.

“Oh, um, he’s doing great, actually,” Jang-mii cried as she sat up, her hair sticking up in various places. She hastily smoothed it down, coughing uncomfortably. “Thankfully, he didn’t get too hurt too badly during the fight. But what about you? You got beaten up so badly…” she frowned up at him. Kris had to admit that he was a little jealous that the princess was so concerned for the small giant, and he wondered what had occurred to make the princess so fond of him.

“Oh, don’t worry about me,” he answered, but Kris looked doubtfully at the giant as he limped across the cave to sit down cross-legged in front of the two humans. He was leaning heavily to one side, as heavy bruising spotted his side. “If anything, I’m better than ever! Everyone thinks I’m tough!” he cried triumphantly and threw his hands in the air, then hissed in pain. “Of course, I’m a little sore,” he admitted cheekily. “Actually, I wanted to thank you. You saved me,” he smiled at Kris suddenly. Kris fought down the urge to tell him that he actually didn’t care about the giant at all, and put a smile on his face.

“You’re welcome. Any friend of Jang-mii is a friend of mine,” he responded graciously.

“So, um… I-I guess you forgive me for the whole kidnapping her?” Tao smiled shyly. Kris’ mouth twitched as the phantoms of his wounds ached, and recalled Tao carrying off the sobbing Jang-mii, while he screamed in agony. He felt Jang-mii place her hand on his upper arm, and he swallowed his anger to smile again.

“Of course,” he nodded tersely, and the giant seemed to not sense his hesitation, because a large grin split his face.

“Fantastic! I’m so relieved,” he smiled widely, and he realized then how childish the boy was. Mentally, he’s probably no older than thirteen, he thought with a frown. Whatever reason he took Jang-mii for must be something a child would do. He found that he couldn’t be mad at him; the boy seemed to adore Jang-mii and had her best interest in mind. “So… I guess you’ll be going back now,” he frowned suddenly at the princess.

“Yes,” she acknowledged sadly.

“Will… Will you come visit me?” he asked hopefully, and the princess slipped off of the little bed to patter over to the giant, resting a hand on his large knee.

“Of course I will!” she smiled brightly up at him. “As often as I can.” The giant grinned, and bent down to scoop the princess into his hand and lift her to his face. She kissed his nose, and he giggled happily, making the entire cave rumble. She really is beautiful. Inside and out, Kris thought warmly as he watched the exchange, and then he felt the familiar feeling, and he knew his time was up. He slipped out of the cave unseen, walking out into the moonlight. The storm had long since passed, leaving a clear blue-black sky glittering with thousands of stars. As he collapsed onto the rain-slicked rock, he released a pained groan, shaking his head miserably as the magic began its work. A few of the giants peered curiously out of their caves as he grew, wrapped in intense light, and skittishly wandered over when he lay panting in his dragon form. Was that really an hour? He thought, thinking of Jang-mii wrapped in his arms only moments ago. He sadly rose to his clawed feet, wishing to all the gods that he could still hold her, to caress her and kiss her and touch her…

“Oh. I suppose it’s time to go,” he heard Tao murmur. He turned his massive scaled head to see the giant standing in the cave entrance with Jang-mii still in his hand. The boy shuffled over, extending his arm so that the princess could hop off of his hand and onto Kris’ back. She climbed up to his neck, grabbing onto one of the protruding spikes lining his spine. “I’ll miss you,” he sniffed as he began to cry.

“Don’t be sad,” Jang-mii said, but he could tell from her voice that she was on the verge of tears as well. “I’ll see you soon, Tao. Thank you, for everything.” After the two had said their goodbyes, Kris shook his shoulders slightly, stretching as he extended his great, bat-like wings. The giants gasped and hurriedly stepped back as he flapped them, making a powerful gust of wind rip through the crowd; then, he was ascending into the sky, rising into the stars to bear his princess home. He felt her stretch out onto his back, leaning her head against his neck as she his scales softly. “Kris?” she asked quietly, but loud enough to be heard over the rushing wind. He glanced back at her slightly to acknowledge that he had heard.

“I want to stop Baekhyun,” she admitted, and he had to be honest, the notion surprised him. He blinked at her, and she sat up slightly as she stared out at the brilliant night sky. She looked sad again, and Kris wished for nothing more than to be able to take her into his arms and tell her that everything would be all right, but he couldn’t. It was agonizing. “He’s terrorizing my people, and my father doesn’t know, and probably won’t know until it’s too late. It falls to me to defend my country, but… I don’t know what to do. I’m not strong enough to face down his army, or even him alone. Sometimes I wish that I was born a prince,” she admitted. “Then I wouldn’t exist simply to be married off… I could protect my people with my own two hands, with a sword and a shield and my heart…” She hung her head miserably and smiled ruefully. “But that’s just not how the world works, is it? No amount of wishing can make that come true. Just like it couldn’t bring Kris hack.”

No. No, that’s not true, I’m here, I’m here! He wanted to scream, but all that came out was a low growl. She smiled wider, rubbing his neck gently. “You’re right. I have you,” she murmured, and mixed in with the misery he saw genuine happiness dancing in the depths of her eyes. “I know you’ll help me. Right?” He nodded vigorously, and she leaned forward to hug him. “Thank you, Kris. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me,” she whispered, and he felt his heart cleave in two. He wondered how she would feel if he told her the whole truth, and wondered if she would forgive him as easily as she had before. No. It’s different. She would think I abandoned her, that I left her to fall into the clutches of someone like Baekhyun, he thought grumpily. Conflicted, he sailed through the sky, leaving the twin-peaked mountain and the scorched field far behind.

By the time he arrived at his mountain abode, the princess had drifted off to sleep. He moved as stiffly as possible to keep from waking her, lumbering into the dark cave without bothering to light the torches as normal. He stretched out into the soft sand, then lifted his head to gently grab Jang-mii by the dress and lower her onto the ground in front of him. As he set her down, she instinctually gravitated to the heat radiating off of him, and snuggled up against his chest. She whispered his name again, and again he hated the blasted witch for cursing him, and hated himself for being stupid enough to sneak into her home. By all rights, he should be human, and should be lying in a canopy bed with Jang-mii between his arms, but instead he was a beast, lying in a cold, dank cave and unable to hold the woman he loved most in the world, the girl who had held his heart captive since he was eight years old.

I will break this curse, he resolved. I will destroy Baekhyun. I will take away everything in the world that makes her unhappy, he promised as he laid his head down, right beside her so that he could marvel at her beauty. Moonlight spilled over her, and in that moment she looked like a goddess, glowing softly as she slept. I’m still selfish, he thought in bitter amusement. I don’t want it for her. I want it for me, so I can be the prince she deserves.