my heart is calling you

heart of a stone
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Once upon a time, there was a narcissist young prince who brought nothing but demolition to the kingdom.

Prince Zuho was supposed to be the next king of Fantasia, taking the throne after his father who died so suddenly that it took everyone by surprise. However, to be a king, one must have a queen. The royal family wasn’t on the best terms with any particular kingdom, so they knew they didn’t stand a chance; there was no way any king from the other kingdoms would offer their daughter’s hand to him. In order to benefit from the abrupt and slightly infuriating situation, the royal family did what they did best; throwing balls. Their only chance was to find the right one for prince Zuho while a ball would take place in the palace, all princesses and their families from the 12 kingdoms invited.

The night took a dramatic turn when the infamous witch of the kingdom ‒ the dreaded Seolhyun ‒ turned up, offering her only daughter’s hand to the soon-to-be-king. The prince himself merely laughed off her offer, dismissing the witch and threatening to imprison her for violating the event because she was there despite not being invited. The witch, enraged by the immense rudeness of the young prince, cursed him and the whole kingdom, casting a spell on Fantasia, so that no one would be able to come in and out of the kingdom as it would be shielded by an unbreakable glass dome. Prince Zuho laughed at her antics, assuming that she was being delusional, and called his guards to put both Seolhyun and her daughter into one of the cells in the dark and muddy basement of the palace.

“Misfortunate will come for you when you least expect it, and nothing can break the curse, only a truly selfless heart instead of your stone-cold one.”

These were the last words of the witch before she was dragged away along her daughter, the remains of her evil laughter resonating against the walls. Prince Zuho shook his head to get rid of the unpleasant feeling that was engulfing his restless heart and tried to act like nothing had happened. He made sure to reassure the frightened guests that nothing would happen neither to the kingdom, nor to them because the witch was merely exaggerating.

After that, the ball went on as if was supposed to, yet the prince was indignant. After the ball was over and he retreated to his bed, insomnia knocked on his door and stayed with him through the whole night. He had enough time to make his decision, and he made sure not to let anyone know about it.

 The next day, when the cowardly prince was about to leave Fantasia and leave everything from his stupid royal family to the trivial people of the kingdom, he literally bumped into the massive walls of the dome the witch was talking about. Not to mention that he actually found himself turning into shimmering, scarlet scales with a fringe of gold spikes around a snub-snouted face and protruding eyes. His smooth human skin was replaced by greasiness and he even radiated a special kind of odour.

Baek Zuho had to realize that he turned into a real dragon. To be precise, he was cursed to become a dragon.

Misfortunate will come for you when you least expect it.

The damage was done. Not only was the kingdom trapped inside a dome, but the coward prince was also trapped with the consequences of his selfish actions. He put his own life on the line as the witch’s words left little to no to the imagination. If his stone heart doesn’t change, he wouldn’t see another day as a human being and Fantasia would forever be doomed.

As a coward he was, he rather hid inside an abandoned cave than in the palace because he would scare everyone off around him anyway. Considering that he couldn’t speak, nor could he use any kind of body language that was convenient for both him and humans, there was no chance he could make himself understood. Though he wasn’t sure that he wanted to be understood in the first place.

 

Of course, as it usually happens, everything changed one day.

It was maybe a week or so after he turned into this giant monster and hid inside the cave to avoid any interaction with humans. Luckily, no other animal and no human being had dared to step foot inside his territory (he liked to call it his territory now), so he was alone, spending most of his time sleeping or searching for food outside of the cave. After all, he was a living creature. Even though he would have rather died of shame than to live as a dragon for the rest of his life (let’s be honest, no one has succeeded to teach him how to be humbler), he couldn’t shake off his ravenous hunger. Not to mention his very obvious animal instincts that prompted him to hunt for food.

He lived a quite peaceful life in his new-found home even though guilt was almost eating him up alive. He couldn’t shake off his unwanted thoughts concerning the threats of the witch and the way the dome would affect the kingdom. What was his family thinking? What did they think when they heard that he was nowhere to be found? Were they searching for him at that very moment? How did the isolation affect the life of the people in the kingdom? How did it change Fantasia’s commerce and economy?

The internal turmoil was too much for him to bear, small wonder he didn’t want to spend too much time dwelling on what had happened and how he could have prevented it. It was already the past now, and he himself had to bear the consequences of his actions quite literally. He didn’t have time to pity everyone else in Fantasia. People never liked him anyway; he was considered odd ever since he was born.

First things first, he didn’t even know how to read because he couldn’t. He couldn’t concentrate on the words written down, and when he did, those words just seemed like they were hovering in front of his eyes. Letters never made sense to him no matter how much his teachers tried to get him to at least identify the different characters. He already failed the royal family with his inability to read, so his pretty rebellious and mocking personality didn’t exactly help to improve his image. Not to mention his carelessness and lack of responsibility, especially towards his studies and the future of Fantasia.

He never wanted to be a king, he was merely born into a royal family, that’s why he never bothered to show any kind of enthusiasm when people talked about him taking the throne one day. He knew he was next in line, yet he had no desire to actually rule the kingdom. Maybe, just maybe, he wished deep down that if he had been neglecting his studies, then his family would want to get rid of him before he can become a real king.

Nevertheless, his father died and all the hopes of avoiding the thrown were gone with him. He almost accepted the inevitability of becoming the next king and living like his father – living like he was a superior to the people of the kingdom, to the people around him and to his own relatives. That’s what he was taught by his father, that’s what he witnessed with his own eyes. Small wonder he turned into such a presumptuous boy; he never saw a good example.

 

Then, one day everything changed. It was as if someone had set fire to the ashes that were left off after his dreams had been burned down and the flames ignited the pitch-black sky of his hopeless future.

While he was sleeping, a petite yet feisty female showed up in the cave, and the dragon woke up only when he heard the unmistakable growling of a hungry animal; the girl who dared to set foot into the cave was seemingly chased by a beast – one of the almighty half-wolf, half-lion creatures called wolions that were well-known in Fantasia for their cruelty and immense thirst for shedding blood. As expected, blood was already dripping down the beast’s jaw, so Zuho was pretty sure that the animal had already had a feast before it led its eyes on the girl.

As opposed to the female’s height, she didn’t seem fragile at all. She looked as if she had been trained to fight because she had all kinds of knives and dangerous weapons hanging from her waist pack. She was even holding a sharp knife in her right hand, trying to protect herself as much as she could, yet the beast knocked it out of her hand in such a short span of time.

She was quick to react; she reached for another weapon immediately, but the wolion wasn’t stupid either. It jumped on top of her and pinned her to the ground. She was visibly struggling to push it away, the difference between their weights obvious even to the eye.

Everything happened as if Zuho was watching the scene only from afar. However, something in him prompted him to act, so when he finally got back to his senses, he came out of the darkness to make himself seen. When the beast caught sight of the dragon, he wasn’t so focused on the girl anymore, therefore the female had the chance to escape from its grip.

On the other hand, the wolion wasn’t one to give it up easily. Even though it was intimidated (and slightly confused) due to the abrupt appearance of the dragon, it didn’t let her go until Zuho finally made his move and walked closer. When he was close enough, he reached out with one of his masculine clawed talons and grabbed the beast. He threw the wolion away, hoping that it was enough of a reason for it to back off.

The dragon immediately turned its head to the girl whose jaw literally dropped to the floor, her fists suddenly loosening up. Her almond-shaped, caramel-brown eyes were filled with thousands of questions, her bafflement melding in with sheer terror. Zuho couldn’t tell if it was because she was afraid of the dragon or because she was so shocked to actually bump into one in the cave she wanted to use as her safe haven. To be precise, she was saved by a dragon.

Much to Zuho’s dismay, the wolion didn’t disappear right away. Maybe it was angered even more by the dragon’s not-so-gentle attack or it simply didn’t want to leave behind such a pray. No matter the reason, Zuho felt an indescribable pain in his tail, realizing that the wolion must have sunk its teeth into his flesh.

He had to admit that it hurt like hell; he hadn’t experienced any kind of physical pain that was as overwhelming and as powerful as the wolion’s attack. He wasn’t used to being defeated (or being in a fight for that matter), so he must have screamed out loud if he had been a human. Nevertheless, as a dragon, it was a bit different; his pain could only be heard as a sound somewhere between whaling and whimpering. Nothing artificial or suppressed, his cry of sorrow was loud and raw. The cave shook a little at the volume.

Without giving it a second thought, the animal side of Zuho immediately came to surface and after turning around and facing the beast, searing fire came out of his nostrils without him realizing what he was actually doing, and he managed to burn down the area in front of him including the wolion itself. The creature let out a final whimper before it collapsed to the floor and life left his body for good.

Zuho would have never thought that dragons could kill wolions with fire. Wolions were considered strong and undefeatable; he was sure they could be killed but it was the wolionhunters job, he didn’t really ponder if other animals were able to hurt them so badly.

Now, the boiling anger was enough to awaken the real dragon inside of him, letting him see what kind of power he could use if he really wanted to fight someone. He had never realized he could spit fire just like that.

“Oh saints, you are bleeding!”

The petite female shrieked as she caught sight of the open wound on the dragon’s tail that was as deep as a water well. Zuho winced as another rush of stinging pain went through him, electrifying every single one of his cells.

“Let me help you!” the girl exclaimed frantically and rushed to the dragon to examine the wound from up close. She narrowed her eyes and wrinkled her nose as she looked over the bleeding part of his body. After a few seconds, she already got herself a bottle from her waist pack and poured a bit of its content onto his skin.

The dragon let out another heartwrenching whimper. He was sure that she had put some kind of antiseptic on his wound because it stung just like the ones the royal physician used on his scars when he was a kid and hurt himself while climbing a tree or jumping from different objects. It was the same kind of pain; the one that all the air out of your lungs and makes you speechless.

“Easy, easy…” She shushed him gently, her tone a melody that he couldn’t decipher. There was something inhumanly confident about her whole being; she seemed so at ease even if she had seen a wolion’s death with her own eyes. She seemed so used to extraordinary creatures that Zuho was more confused than ever. “It’s okay, calm down! It’s okay, just keep breathing! Or I don’t even know if it’s the right thing to say to you.” She let out a nervous laughter as the last words left .

Who knew what was the right thing to say in such a situation? She was a human being, he was a dragon. These two were never on good terms – at least not in theory. Dragons and humans met only when they were after each other. Zuho wasn’t being delusional either; the girl could have been someone who despised dragons as they were said to be one of the most dangerous and unpredictable creatures in the kingdom. Rumour has it that they had killed more humans than any other animal combined.

Yet, there she was pampering him like he was a baby. She wasn’t afraid of him and she wasn’t even disgusted of him. It’s true that her hands were shaking, and her heart was beating so loudly that he could clearly hear it, yet she didn’t make a mistake and caused him more pain than he was already in.

“You know, I wouldn’t do this for you if you didn’t save me. I’m actually a…” She mumbled while she was working diligently, feeling the need to break the suffocating tension between the two of them. She stopped halfway through her sentence and casted a side-glance at Zuho as if she had been afraid of blurting out something personal. They maintained the intense eye-contact for a good minute before she finally gulped and continued as if nothing had happened.

“Let’s just say that I don’t have the best relationship with dragons. In general. I don’t like them, and they don’t like me either. It’s just how it is,” she concluded with a forced smile, her teeth showing.

Zuho was pretty sure something was off but the pain he felt was more excruciating than his curiosity towards the unfamiliar female. Not like he knew a lot of people in the kingdom – especially not anyone of the lower class –, yet he found it peculiar that he hadn’t ever seen her before. She must not have worked for the royal family then. Also, who would know how to fight and who would carry a waist pack full of knives, weapons and bottles of antiseptic? She must have had a tough job (or she was merely careful in case she runs into a wolion and a dragon on the same day).

“I don’t even know why I’m talking to a dragon. I must be going crazy.” She giggled nervously, her embarrassment showing. She may have looked all fierce and almighty when it came to be fighting an animal, but when she was doing anything that had nothing to do with knives and doing somersaults to avoid getting hurt, she was almost ridiculously odd.

Zuho found her embarrassment almost endearing… Almost. If the bite didn’t hurt that much, he may have considered her cute. Considering that she poured half a bottle of antiseptic onto his skin without letting him know beforehand, he wouldn’t necessarily use the word cute for her actions.

“I wish I could a

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Kathys
#1
Let me tell you how much I absolutely loved the idea of dragon Zuho! That boy really looks so ethereal, he reminds me of an anime character most of the times, so this medieval prince/dragon character was just made for him. I really loved how you showed his side of the story even without him being able to talk with the girl and it was cute how they had gotten closer. Oh and the twist by the end was so fairy-tale like but I adored everything about it. SF9 definitely deserves more high-quality fictions like yours, so thank you for hosting a collab and writing such a great piece for it!
hlakupaw #2
I remember reading this on tumblr, great story. It's hard to come by a good fanfic featuring sf9 because they aren't all that famous. Can't wait to read more stories from you, you have a talent for writing.
ukisslover26
#3
Chapter 1: Thank you for yet another beautiful story!!
Forfirith
#4
Chapter 1: Ooohhhhh this was so unique and interesting.
I really enjoyed this story. The concept was so special and really enjoyable to read !
Thank you for sharing with us! <3