This is awkward, I mean, it’s not that there haven’t been knights before, but what is Nayeon supposed to do when one shows up with a duffel bag and not a single piece of metal in sight. No armor, no sword, no shield, not even a spellbook, not a single potion either! Fine, this girl was very pretty, dressed in nice linen and looking very clean for someone who has just come all the way to her castle. This girl also didn’t have a horse, for crying out loud! The dragon could hear her princess giggling at her predicament from inside the castle, this form always heightened her senses and Sana wasn’t the least bit restrained about her laughter.

Jihyo stood there, a bit sheepish but her eyes shined with hope. She was just wishing this dragon would hear her out before burning her to a crisp. Thinking back on it, though, even being burned down would be better than what was waiting for her back home. You see, Jihyo was the youngest of four, born to a family of wheat farmers, she was only destined to work to support her eldest brother, who was the one to inherit everything their father had, then be married off to some lord or something. Despite being what they were, the Parks were considered nobles, as they were the primary supplier to the king’s castle, the title never meant much though. 

Once the second daughter of the king was kidnapped by the terrible dragon, the man offered a handsome reward and the princess’ hand in marriage for anyone able to slay the beast. There had already been six others sent by their families to try and gain prestige with the royal family. It wasn’t really about necessity, Princess Jeongyeon had already been wedded to a very influential noble woman, preparing to take the throne once their father stepped down. Sana was supposed to marry and get them some advantage, until the damn beast took her, that was. Jihyo knew she would be the first choice when it came her family’s turn to send someone, she was the most disposable one among them, so she took off on her own before that.

“I salute you, your dragoness.” The young girl said nervously.

“I’m not dragoness, we are all dragon.” Nayeon squints and slithers a bit further down.

“I-I *ahem* I meant it as ‘highness’.” Jihyo explains.

Sana’s laughter got louder and the dragon made her way halfway down the wall, jaw clenching to not snap at the princess and keep herself as menacing as possible.

“Oh, I like that. I am, indeed, the noblest of creatures.” Nayeon never failed to enjoy all praise to her greatness.

“I came to humbly ask to be allowed to join your glorious household.” Jihyo took the chance to ask.

“You didn’t come to try and slay me to take the princess?”

“No.” 

“Why?” Nayeon squints a bit more, this can’t be right.

“Well, I’m the disposable one in my family. As we are nobles in title, it’s expected of my parents to send someone too. Since I knew it would be me, I decided to escape before my father had the brilliant idea.”

“And you came here?”

“You live in a magnificent castle, in the middle of nowhere, with a princess I’m sure is lovely, though I’ve never met her.” Jihyo lists. “So I decided to try my luck and hope for the best.”

“So you don’t want to kill me and marry the princess?”

“I don’t want to marry anyone!” The young lady whines. “I certainly don’t want to die just so the king can be satisfied! And if I left saying I was coming to your castle, my parents can look good to the royal family for sending one of their children, and I can beg you to allow me to stay here.”

“Okay, I don’t buy it.”

“Look, ma’am. Can I call you ma’am? I’ll call you ma’am.” The girl starts to ramble. “If I didn’t come here, i’d be forced to try and slay you, I know I won’t make a difference in my family, and i’d have to come and die because that old fool of a king can’t just accept his daughters never wanted to do his bidding and his youngest took the chance to escape.”

Jihyo was pacing now, and Nayeon, very amused, had gotten closer and laid down to watch this interesting little creature. The girl continued without noticing any of it.

“And it’s not like I have anything to look forward to either, I know that, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I told my parents I was coming to face the dragon, they were excited that I was volunteering and ran to tell the king the news, that bastard was grinning like a creep when I was dragged to the castle to tell him. And then I left. My family are farmers, we don’t have any weapons, so it wasn’t too suspicious when I just grabbed my things and left. And now I’m here because I really don’t want to be part of this stupid quest or even marry anyone.”

Sana had gotten bored of hiding and came out to watch too, it was an unusual situation after all. The princess squealed about how cute the girl was, but Jihyo was still not listening to anything.

“Not to mention I don’t even know the princess-”

“I’m Sana, nice to meet you.” The princess giggles.

“Nice to meet you too, I’m Jihyo.” She answers but doesn’t seem to register what she just did. “I’m certain the princess is a lovely person, she’s a princess, but I don’t even know if I’m into girls like that. Regardless, It’s better to come and try my luck with you guys than wait for my turn to get slaughtered.”

“You done now?” The dragon asks, absolutely amused.

“I think so, yes.” Jihyo was even panting a little.

“This is princess Sana, I don’t think you paid attention.” Nayeon introduces again and chuckles at the panicked expression the girl made at the realization.

“And it’s alright to not know what you like, you are still young.” Sana adds.

“How old are you, even?”

“I’m thirteen, your dragoness.”

“AND YOUR PARENTS WERE GOING TO SEND YOU TO GET ME BACK?” The princess’ voice rises to unimaginable heights.

“Shush, darling, you are only three years ahead.” The beast nudges the other with her nose. “Can you even hold a sword?”

“No, I can’t.” Jihyo gets shy again. “The closest to what you’d call a weapon I’ve ever held is a rake to clean the leaves in the garden.”

“That’s not even in the same ballpark.” Sana huffs indignantly. “Tell you what, can you cook?”

“You aren’t seriously thinking about accepting her.” Nayeon counters.

“Yeonnie, I love you, but neither of us can cook to save our lives. We tried, but I’m getting bored of ordering from the tavern down the road.”

“But this kid-”

“She came to escape the ty life she had, same as me when you showed up at one of the balls my father so adores and I didn’t think twice about leaving with you.”

“Fine.” The dragon, then, turns to the kid who was very nervously watching them. “Can you cook or not?”

“I like to think I can. My mother always said it was the only thing I was ever good for.”

“It’s decided, then! You are welcome to stay and be our new official cook!” Sana chirps and moves to lace her arms with the girl. “Come, it’s already past lunchtime and I’m starving!”

Jihyo is dragged into the castle, still very confused. If these two really are as terrible as they claim, it would explain the raids on crops that have been happening lately. She can hear the dragon huff outside, but it sounds suspiciously good humored. The princess was babbling about anything and everything, not seeming to mind the girl’s lack of answer. They arrive at the kitchens, most likely so that some food could be made, Jihyo took it as her skill test.

“So, make us some lunch and we’ll see about you staying.” Sana chirps and takes a seat.

“If you can really cook, that is.” Another woman enters, beautiful, powerful and smelling a bit like smoke. “Move along, kid.”

“I know, Yeonnie looks hypnotizing in her human form, but we are very hungry right now, so if you could get to cooking.” And those eyes are what make the girl snap out of it.

“I-a… Food, yes. I make food.” Jihyo stumbles to look at what they had.

Nayeon looks as smug as ever, Sana just chuckles but both find it cute. Jihyo busies herself with going around the kitchen, which was enormous, and finds enough for a stew and a few pastries. She opts for a lamb stew and some chicken pies, having wasted most of her time running around the coop to grab a chicken. That was until Nayeon got fed up with waiting and used her magic for the bird to walk into Jihyo’s arms. 

Two hours later, they had a huge pot of stew that smelled amazing, a full platter of chicken pies and come berry crumble for dessert. If she hadn’t seen the majestic form outside, Jihyo would be questioning where all the food went inside Nayeon, the same way she was doing with Sana. It was a very good meal, but nothing like whatever the princess had grown accustomed to, or what the dragon might have savored during her long life. Sure, Jihyo was happy they enjoyed it so much, and that it might be the push she needed for them to accept her as the new member of this household.

“Okay, you can stay.” Nayeon declared as she scooped the last bit of crumble into .

“Quick change of heart for someone who was so against it.” Sana said, letting a small burp escape.

“Like you haven’t had the best meal in a while. We should just be honest and just admit neither of us can cook to save our lives.”

“Oh yeah, I can’t imagine not having this great food if we let this cutie walk away.” The princess walked around the table to hug their new cook.

“So I can stay?” Jihyo asks hopefully.

“Kid, You aren’t going anywhere.” The dragon waves her hand lazily.

“Can I get the chef’s room?”

“What room?” Sana was curious.

“That one.” Jihyo points to a door at the end of the corridor. “I know I’m just a girl out of nowhere and all, but there’s only three of us here an-”

“Oh, shush.” Nayeon interrupts. “You are our new head chef, you can have all the rooms you want, as long as you keep feeding us this well.”

“That, and I feel you should know we don’t really have much of anything in stock.”

“Oh, I saw.” Jihyo shrugs. “I’ll start a small kitchen garden and we’ll see about the coop and what I need to fix there. Also, I’m thinking of rebuilding the pigpen and put some there too.”

“You know I can just go and take all of those from the villages, right?” Nayeon wondered.

“I know, but that would make the king angrier and send more people and the point of living in an isolated castle will be lost.”

“When you say it like that, then we’ll begin working tomorrow!” The dragon had to agree.

“Why not today?” The girl asked.

“Because today we are giving you a tour of the castle and then you’ll start dinner because it’s been a month since we were last able to produce anything edible that weren’t boiled eggs and some bland porridge.”

The princess declares and pulls their new housemate out of the kitchen. Jihyo was slightly worried about how have these two survived this long, Sana had been abducted two years ago. The dragon could just kidnap some cattle and eat them, but the princess certainly needed some more nutrition. But that was in the past now, Jihyo was there and she would make sure these two would be well fed for life. And living with two beautiful women was always nice, she could go further down that road in the future, but for now, she’s just appreciating how Sana smells of oak moss and Nayeon of incense, and those two make great cuddling buddies, dragging her around this wonderful, and surprisingly clean, castle in the middle of nowhere.