Soojin was out of breath as she ran up the hill, not being used to such strenuous activity. Her shoes were muddied, her hair was in a mess, and she was pretty sure that she was sweating buckets. It wasn’t as if she had a choice anyway. Not if she wanted to escape far away enough before anyone noticed that the princess was missing.

It was already considered a miracle she was able to slip past the palace guards, bypassing everyone through the concealed crossway. That was before she cut through the market and sprinted through the woods with the guide of a neat map she had drawn for herself. She had even tripped over some large branches, but the pain didn’t deter her from her goal. Princesses didn’t cry in public anyway.

And that was how she found herself slumped against the wall of what seemed to be a huge enclosed area. The walls of the place were built up terribly high, with the edges of the gates pointed frighteningly sharp and a gigantic stable out the back. The stables were the only thing she could see from the outside. It looked magnificent, and Soojin would’ve probably taken a moment to admire the architecture if she wasn’t so out of breath.

She looked at her map again. This had to be the right place. There was no other house in sight, and she was fairly certain her map was accurate. Most of the market people did point her towards this place. However, the dwelling looked unoccupied. Did she come all the way here for nothing?

“Hello?” She called out tentatively. “Is there anyone home?”

Suddenly, there was a thunderous roar, and the ground shook beneath her. Soojin trembled in her muddied shoes but refused to back off. She made it this far, didn’t she?

“Good day, Sir Dragon. I am Princess Oh Soojin of the Daegu Kingdom.”

According to the scriptures she had read, dragons were supposed to be able to communicate with humans. She hoped it understood Korean.

“Hello? Sir Dragon?” Soojin called out again before catching a glimpse of a shiny plaque on the front door of the stables. It read ‘LOEY’. She took a wild guess and assumed it to be the dragon’s name. “Or do you prefer Sir Loey?”

The dragon let out a rumble. It did not sound very angry, so she took it as a yes.

Stuffing the map hastily into her satchel, she cupped her hands around . “Sir Loey, I, Princess Oh Soojin of the Daegu Kingdom, have come with a humble request.”

There was no response. Sir Loey was probably confused as to why there was a princess standing outside his door when she was supposed to be terrified. Princesses were typically abducted by dragons, so it made no sense for her to be requesting something from him.

She took a deep breath and continued. “I hope this is not too much to ask from you, but please kidnap me.”

There was a moment when all Soojin could hear was the sound of the leaves rustling in the wind. Then, a massive, spectacular creature rose out of the compound and into the open sky, spreading its wings in all its glory. Sir Loey was a bright red with scales blazing in an ever-flickering flame, though he was not as long as depicted in the paintings in her palace. His wings were large and of fire escaped in short puffs, into fireballs that looked like miniature clouds. He looked majestic in the air.

The dragon landed abruptly in front of her. Still leaning against the wall, Soojin felt herself trembling in fear. Sir Loey looked enormous right in front of her and there was something piercing about his eyes she couldn’t make out. It was a rich chocolate brown and it was gazing into her soul.

She dropped into a deep curtsey. “Greetings, Sir Loey. I would like to apologize for making a sudden appearance as such, but I humbly request that you kidnap me from my family. I have much to offer. I could give you gold, grains, whatever you like. Please, just take me away.”

The dragon huffed, prompting her to look up. He flicked his tail before placing it at her feet. The moment it touched her skin, she could hear his voice. It was not out loud, but rather in her head.

The voice was very deep, much like the head general’s of her father’s best troop. “And why on earth would I want to do that?”

Soojin’s eyes widened in shock at the voice inside her head but she compelled herself to answer before the dragon found her disrespectful. “My parents have me betrothed to the neighboring kingdom’s Prince Byun Baekhyun. I do not wish to get married to that man.”

“Is it not your duty to be married to him?”

She shook her head, still shaking. “I am the third-born child of the Oh family. The Kingdom of Daegu is already prospering well with my eldest brother as the crown prince, and my eldest sister already married off to King Junmyeon of the Kims in the Seoul Kingdom. I do not see why I have to marry Prince Baekhyun as well.”

“Cease your trembling,” Sir Loey commanded. “I do not hurt those who do not deserve it. Do tell me, what is so terribly horrid about Prince Baekhyun that made you come this far just to get rid of him?”

Soojin dropped her head. “He is childish, insensitive, annoying and simply not fit to be my husband.”

“And you are not?” he asked. “You came to a dragon asking to be kidnapped to avoid this marriage. What else is behind this prince?”

There was a moment of tense silence before she replied. “He has another.”

“Your Highness, I am sure that he will grow to love you in due time. It is unwise for you to be searching for dragons in the first place.”

“But he will not!” she exclaimed. “I have read his letters to her when I went for a visit to his kingdom, the kingdom of Bucheon. I can recognize that special look he has reserved for her. A look he will never give me. Please, Sir Loey. I beg you to kidnap me. It would do no good for me to be there in my castle.”

“You are wasting your time, Princess. You should go back before your family finds out you are missing. It is an hour-long walk here, is it not?”

“An hour and a quarter,” she sniffed. “And it has been twenty minutes since I have spoken to you. I-”

His tail suddenly pulled away from her leg. He let out a huge roar, unveiling his wings which were tucked by his sides. Before Soojin could even comprehend what was going on, Sir Loey picked her up by his teeth and placed her on the other side of his dwelling, among the trees in the thick forest.

She was thankful for him being gentle as he transferred her there, but was immensely confused. She did not hear or see anything out of the ordinary.

“There is a dragon here!”

Soojin froze in her spot when she heard the voice of the head general. How on earth had they managed to discover that she was gone in such a short amount of time? And now Sir Loey was there to face them on his own while she was cowering behind a tree.

“We found a piece of the princess’ dress in the forest. There is no other reason why she would be on the outskirts of Daegu.”

Sir Loey let out a large roar, breathing fire into the air around him menacingly. It was more of defense than an attack, really, and the head general noticed.

“Sir,” the second-in-command stepped forward. “Could she possibly be visiting her betrothed in the neighboring kingdom? The Bucheon Kingdom is half an hour away from this area.”

“Busan is an hour from here and Jeonju is two,” the general pointed out. “Now, why would a dragon pass up a chance to abduct our princess when she was clearly passing through this way?”

Sir Loey roared again, emitting a of fire in the process. All the soldiers except the head backed off at once. Yes, go away before I get caught! Soojin told herself. She let out a breath of relief when the general barked at a few of the soldiers to continue down the pathway to Bucheon.

It was minutes later when she saw Sir Loey approach her. His tail flicked at her feet. “How could you be so careless?”

Soojin winced at the annoyance in his tone. “My dress must have come apart when I tripped over a branch on the way here. I apologise.”

She stood up, brushing the dirt off her dress, but it did not do much to help. She looked up at him hopefully, for him to help her get out of this mess.

“This sounds like a problem for you, not for me. I did not ask to be disturbed, which was why I stayed on the outskirts of your kingdom.”

Soojin knew better than to plead with the dragon. He had already refused to help her with the kidnapping, and now he was refusing to help her with the soldiers after her. He wanted nothing to do with her. She could not find it in her to speak as clogged up.

“Alright. I will help you,” Sir Loey conceded after a moment. “But do not expect anything more from me.”

She wrapped her arms around his tail as she would towards her pet dog at home. “Thank you, Sir Loey. Oh, thank you!”

He grunted. “Come, sit on my back.”

Soojin did as she was told. “Where are you taking me?”

He leaned backwards, preparing to take flight. She gripped tighter on him. “The Kingdom of Bucheon. That is where the soldiers will most likely find you, and it is the most plausible place you would be. The only problem would be getting Prince Baekhyun to go along with you.”

She did not have time to answer him as he took off into the sky. She clung on as if her life depended on it (it technically did) and she was glad that it was not a very hot day. The wind howled in her ears and she felt the most alive than she had ever been.

That was to say a lot, since Soojin was the most adventurous out of all her siblings. She had not hesitated to climb up their coconut tree after being dared to by her eldest brother, and was the only one of her sisters to take up horseback riding. She loved sneaking off to the markets to see the bustling life there. She wanted to see the world, not get married to a man who did not even love her.

Yes, she felt alive at the moment. Never in her life had she dreamed of riding on a dragon’s back, savoring the beautiful air all around her. She felt a strong fondness for the dragon who acted cold but was in fact, very warm.

Her shoulders were still tense as they flew over the forest, the trees now looking like small shrubs, comparable to broccoli she quite enjoyed. The clouds that were so close to her looked like fluffy candy. Alas, her grip on Sir Loey was too tight for her to reach out a hand into the soft, white clouds.

Before she knew it, they had already arrived at the edge of the Byun castle. She spotted Prince Baekhyun holding his longbow and running around the field like a little child. There were only two guards at the entrance, and they had yet to notice her and the dragon (they looked like they were trying not to sleep), but it still did not make sense as to how she was going to enter the castle.

As if answering her thoughts, Sir Loey tipped over before doing a three-sixty turn in the air, making her fall down right onto Prince Baekhyun. The hard, wooden structure of his longbow dug painfully into her side.

“Princess Soojin? What on earth are you doing here?!”

“Shh,” Soojin clapped a hand over his mouth. “Don’t be so loud.”

Prince Baekhyun shook her hand off before wiping his mouth furiously. He eyed the dirt on her hand as he stood up. “Seriously, where did you come from? I’m sure I would have seen the guards letting you in.”

Soojin looked up to see that Sir Loey was gone and that there was not a single trace left behind. “I just, I-”

“You look like a mess,” Prince Baekhyun declared, pointing at her dirty outfit with his longbow. “What is going on?”

She could already hear galloping from outside the walls. She shot him a pleading look. “Prince Baekhyun, I will explain everything as soon as I have the chance to. For now, please play along.”

He stared at her for a while, eyes flickering over to the watchtower where his guards where questioning the newcomers. “Fine,” he conceded. “But I want to know everything.”

“You have my word.”

He ran his fingers through his hair, effectively messing it up. Placing his longbow over with his arrows, he grabbed her hand and ran through the fields, into the garden.

Soojin’s heart beat furiously and her legs yelled at her to stop with the physical strain. She almost forgot that she had gone on foot to see the dragon just hours before.

“You are most fortunate that I always ask my guards to leave during my training time,” he whispered. “Just act natural. If anybody asks, you have come to see me as you have missed me so.”

She rolled her eyes but decided smartly not to say anything. She was at his mercy for now.

“Prince Baekhyun! We have received- oh. Good afternoon, Princess Soojin.” The guard who was running towards their direction immediately stopped in his tracks upon seeing the two of them. Prince Baekhyun had not let go of her hand