Once upon a time, there was a prince and a princess from difference countries who always played together. Of course both of them were very young and innocence at that time. They grew very close to each other and by the time the prince had to say goodbye to the princess because obviously the prince had to go back to his country; they bawled their eyes out like there was no tomorrow.  

In the morning of the departing day, both of the kids ran away. Being spoiled royal brats, they ended up hiding in the kitchen and it took no more than ten minutes for their parents to find them. Before getting dragged away by his parents, the prince promised the crying princess (even though he was crying as well).

“I’ll come back for you, my princess”

But after the prince went back to his country, things were difficult and complicated, making him unable to realize his promise. Nevertheless, he waited patiently for the day he will be able to meet the princess that he missed a lot. He spent his days remembering the twinkling pair of hazel eyes, the flush cheeks, the silky long dark hair, and the pleasant childish giggles. Time flew quickly and by the time the country calmed down, the prince already grew up into a fine young man.

The king and the queen knew their son’s heart too well, so they decided to do their son a favor for the lifetime by sending a convoy to ask for the princess’s hand. Like in other typical fairytales, the ruler of the other country a.k.a the princess’s parents, agreed. And as expected, the proposal was accepted with open arms.        

Thus, the whole kingdom was swept by the joyous news. There will be a royal wedding soon and royal wedding always means more business for the merchants, more pretty decorations for the kids, more beautiful dresses for the girls, more gossips for the old ladies, and more charities for the poor ones. Needless to say how happy the prince, himself was. He swore to never disobey his parents ever again (which is hard for the trouble maker son).

After exchanging messages with the future in-laws’s kingdom, the wedding date was set. When the flowers bloom in its fullest, when the path is covered by greenery, when the butterflies dance in the garden, when the royal garden filled with sweet natural scents, when….

In the middle of spring; in short.

After that was a chaos; good chaos because it was the wedding preparation.

----- (I don’t want to talk about the preparation any further because I’m lazy to write. So, let’s skip to the three days before the wedding) -----

It was a few days (three days) before the wedding that something bad happened. The bride, the princess whom should had arrived at the country for the wedding with her convoy that day – didn’t arrive. The bride’s convoy arrived at the full-wedding-mode castle but they looked more like war refugees than wedding convoy and of course, without the bride. Then, one of the escorts told that they had been attacked by a giant savage dragon on the way the Prince’s country. The dragon breathed fire and roasted half of the guard army, it stomped on the gift carriages with its huge foot, it smashed royal horses with its long hard scaled tail and it had snatched the princess into its sharp claws before it flew away towards the hunted mountain where the sun set. So basically, the bride had been kidnapped by a dragon.   

After the story was told, the castle silenced in horror for a few moments until the prince broke it by volunteering to save the princess; his bride. He received a clamorous cheer from everyone for his heroic (and brainless) intention but he was pulled into a closed room by his parents soon after. The king and queen tried to talk some sense into their son, to persuade him to drop his intention, to explain how dangerous it was to fight a dragon. But no, the son read too much girly fairytales where the prince always kills the dragon to save his true love without dropping a single sweat. He didn’t understand that the real dragon wasn’t as talkative, more savage predator and clearly was not easily fascinated by any pretty princess or – anything. So, the prince was firm on his decision on saving the princess. Tired of arguing with their son, the king and queen finally allowed the prince to proceed with his intention to search for the dragon, WITH the of a team of the best knights in the kingdom.  

At the crack of dawn, the prince, on the strongest horse among royal breed horses, with the knights in shining armors and a wagon full of deadly weapon for beast set off for a life gambling journey to hunt down the villain dragon and save the delicate princess (and get married and live happily ever after, the prince mentally added).           

For two days and two nights, the rescue team head to the cursed mountain on foot (correction; horses’ feet) without any rest. But later, they decided to call for their private jet to bring them to the cursed mountain within the next few hours.

…..

At the top of the mountain, there rest the enemy’s lair (don’t ask how did they know it). It was a tall ancient black tower which stood gloriously among the rest of the ruins that was rumored to be a castle long time ago. The sun was setting by the time the prince and his men arrived at the foothill. Night time is dark and darkness always represents and fosters evil powers. Hence, the knights decided to not continuing their journey until sun rise again. The prince wasn’t agree with that at all. He wanted to save the princess as soon as possible because who knew what happened to her the longer the dragon kept her, but no one listened to the young prince.

That night, the prince couldn’t sleep at all. He was annoyed that his men didn’t listen to him and worried sick about his poor wife-to-be. When he heard a deafening flap along with a strong wind shakes his tent, he quickly got up from his sleeping bag and peek outside. His jaw dropped when he saw an enormous creature with black scales and large wings covered the sky. It was the dragon.

The prince and his men were lucky because the dragon flew passed them. The prince had calmed himself down when he realized something. The dragon was heading away from the tower. So, it means no one or nothing was guarding the tower, right? They can go and save the princess without encountering the dragon if it was like this.

After complimenting himself with a few precious words, the prince tore himself from the floor (because his legs failed him just now) and went outside to share his genius plan with his men. Unfortunately, the prince was greeted with a mess of drunken knights outside. No wonder it was so silent even with the dragon’s appearance. He frowned but knew that it was impossible to wake those knights before morning. Determined, he grabbed his sword, rode Snoopy (his horse) and charge towards the tower through the forest alone while praying the dragon will not come back quickly.     

***

He reached the tower quicker than he expected and he inwardly thanked the horse-race’s-gold-medal –holder Snoopy. He left the animal a few meters away from the ruins. The tower stood as the tallest construction and it help the prince getting to it faster. 

There was a door at the base of the tower and surprisingly, it creaked opened when the prince pushed it. He was uncertain to enter the door because it could be a trap. But he knowing that he didn’t have much time before the beast came back, he entered the door. However, much to his discomfort, it was scarily dark inside. There were lit torches on the wall but they were placed very far from each other that it only made the inside dim and creepy. It was all stairs without any door or window and the prince could touch both of the walls on his sides if he spread his arms. At first, he tired to walk quietly, but his metal gears made it difficult and after realizing that he wasted too much time by trying to be quiet, he just sprinted across the stairs as fast as he could because any possible danger awaited for him in the tower should be less scary than the dragon.

The prince couldn’t tell how close he was with the top in the dark and he was starting to feel dizzy for walking on the swirling stairs nonstop. Just as he slowed his steps to catch his breath, he received a blow right on his chest which sent him tumbling, and rolling down the stairs. He got up quickly but felt another blow on his left cheek. He was sure it was a fist and when he fell on his , he finally took a good look of what was attacking him. Yes, it was a man. A man in a dark robe, the hood rested low, making shadow covering his face and he could miss the sword on his waist when sound of metal vibrated in the small space as he drew his shining sword out. The prince was able to draw his sword out just in time to have their weapons clashed in a piercing noise.     

The prince drew out all of his combat lessons that he learned from the best fighters at the castle but he couldn’t shake the instinct that his opponent was way more skillful that he was.  His swings were stronger and quicker, his trusts were shaper and precise, and he didn’t even flinch whenever the prince’s sword scrapped his flesh. The prince was almost sure that he was losing when he remembered that he got a secret weapon. When the man lurched again, it scrapped his shoulder deep but gritting his teeth, the prince didn’t pull away, instead he grabbed his opponent with one hand while the other reached out for a palm sized hard object in his vest. He almost let the man slipped when he hit him on the inside of his elbow but he didn’t as he pulled him towards him. He pressed his secret weapon on the back of the man’s neck and switched it on.

Sound of electric shock and groan mixed and the prince might have surprised that his oppenet’s voice wasn’t as deep and as evil as he thought it should be, if his mind wasn’t too occupied in defeating the man. He let the electric shock attacked until his enemy fell limp onto the floor. He stepped away from the unconscious man and leaned against the wall while breathing hard. If he knew this rescuing mission was so difficult, he should have waited for his men. But he was this far, he couldn’t go back anymore. He swept the trickling sweat on his forehead before continuing his journey towards the top of the tower. The prince saw the bright exit just before he gave up because the stairs seemed never ending to him. Glad and excited, he used his remaining energy to dash towards the exit.     

The top of the tower wasn’t anything like what the prince imagined. It was a spacious room, with neat furniture, good lighting and wide windows on all four walls. It didn’t look like a prison. The prince examined the room carefully until his eyes landed on the spacious bed in the middle of the room. He approached it and his heart almost bloomed with joy and relief when he saw a female figure lying on the bed.

His princess.

Her dress was outworn and out of trend and her hair was cut short in pale color but it didn’t do anything to cover her beauty. Her skin was as pale as the moon, her slender body rested on the bed neatly, her long lashes met as her eyes closed, her cherry full lips apart slightly and the prince could hear the soft breathing as her chest rose and fell calmly. Her skin was as soft as he imagined when he caressed her cheek. A warm smile tugged at the prince’s lips.

“I’ve come for you, my princess.”

And he kissed her lips.

The prince saw how her eyes fluttered open slowly, revealing a pair of beautiful dark orbs and how they became bigger and bigger until he felt his stomach was kicked. He fell off the bed and groaned in pain. He heard her cursed him with profanities and just before he could try to calm her down, he was pulled backwards in strong force and damn – he was back on the floor.

The prince’s breath stuck in his throat when he saw the man whom he defeated along the stairs was holding him down. But this time, being in the full lights, he saw that the man was very young and pretty… okay, maybe handsome. But he doesn’t look any older than the prince and he wouldn’t appear scary at all if he wasn’t lifting his sword to attack. The prince rolled on his back before the sword could pierce him. He drew out his sword but in a second his hand was kicked which result in his sword flying away from his grip.  His opponent raised his sword in the air and the prince covered his face with his hands in reflect because he was defenseless right now.

The pain didn’t reach the prince but instead, his name was called.

“Henry?”

The prince opened his eyes and peeked behind his hands. It was his opponent who called his name and his weapon had been lowered down as his eyes wide and fixed on the prince. The prince stared back dumbly and that was when he noticed the pair of hazel eyes and the dark short hair. He blinked, not believing the conclusion that his mind just came out with. But his mind was sure of it and he really couldn’t come out with better explanation. So, gulping, he asked in uncertain;

“Amber?”

Then, there was a thunderous roar and everyone’s attention fell onto an approaching black dragon in the sky through the window. The giant creature was very close to them but there was no sign of reducing its speed and he heard the girl on the bed shrieked.

“Kris, no! STOP!!!”

But it was too late, as the beast crushed onto the wall. The prince heard loud destruction noises, some shrieks, crumbling noises and of course; pain before everything went black.

***

When the prince woke up again, he heard some arguing voices even before he could open his eyes.

“ you, Kris! Why the did you slammed the tower down?”

“Hey, not my fault I’m still not used to dragon form.”

“It’s your fault for being dumb!”

“Your fault for asking me to buy pizza. Don’t you freaking know delivery service?”

“You face!”

“Penguin!”

“Are you alright?”

The prince saw his former opponent squatting in front of sprawling-on-the-ground him. He saw how they were surrounded by ruins and dusty remains. He She helped the prince to get up and the prince couldn’t stop staring at the person on his side because he was beyond shocked of this.     

“Are you really Amber?” he asked, voice too small from intended.

Her lips stretched slightly and she nodded. There was an awkward silence before the prince spoke again.

“What happened?”

The princess’ eyes widen  and the prince realized he was being unclear.

“I mean, you were supposed to get kidnapped by the dragon…” The princess’ laughter cut his sentence and this time he was sure the person in front of him was the girl that he promised to long time ago. No one laughs like that, only his princess.

“and we’re supposed to get married.” He added in almost a whisper but Amber’s laughter stopped abruptly at that.  

She gave him a sad look and the prince hated it because it as if he had made her sad. She sighed softly before saying;

“I’ll tell you what happened.”

***

It happened that the princess that the prince left long time ago grew up while taking a great interest in battle skills and swordsmanship. As it happened the princess started to act less princess-like. She cut her hair short, replaced her dresses with weapons, mingled with barbaric soldiers and fought like a man (even better). The king and queen worried that their daughter will not be able to get married if she goes on like that. Thus, they tried many things to turn their princess into a proper princess again, but none worked. So, a few months ago, when a marriage proposal came from the neighboring kingdom for their precious princess, they saw a golden chance and agreed right away – without the princess’ knowledge. When the princess knew, she was furious demand the wedding to be cancelled right away but it was too late. The wedding date was set and the king and the queen threaten her to go on with the marriage. Of course, but she was never tamed. In desperation, she seeks help from a witch.

                On her way to the other country for the wedding, the witch kept her promise. It happened like what the prince was told by the surviving guards. Yes, a dragon attacked the convoy and princess gone together with the dragon but what they didn’t tell was the princess rode the dragon as she escaped.  

                The princess, together with the witch and the dragon rested at the tower to avoid being found by her parent’s army. She was ready to set off for her journey to the outer world when a certain stupid prince broke into the tower, paralyzed her with a shot gun and another dumb dragon destroyed the tower accidently.

***

When the princess finished her story, the morning sun peeked from the horizon, morning lights basked them in a comfortable warm and turn the tip of the princess’s hair into golden, made her fair skin glowed, her eyes shimmering and her small smile appeared sweet – beautiful.

The prince swallowed something.   

“Amber, so are you still going?” a deep voice broke the prince’s thought.

It was a tall man with a God-like face features and beside him was the girl that the prince saw on the bed last night and she was folding her arms on her chest; pouting. The prince didn’t mind the girl too much but the man spoke to Amber, thus, the prince quickly stamped him as his rival.

“Yeah.” The princess stood up and patted dust off from her pants. The prince followed her.

“Go? Where are you going?”

The princess shot him the widest smile he had seen so far.

“To travel around the world!”

There were a lot of things that the prince wanted to say but in the end he knew he couldn’t stop the princess from going. His chest hurt because he after everything that happened, he might have agreed to cancel their wedding, for it was because the princess wished for it and the prince… his heart still hadn’t changed. So, when the princess was getting ready to depart, the prince took her hand into his.

“You might be leaving right now,” He looked at the princess straight into her eyes, “but please promise me that you’ll come back for me like I did.”

He imagined at lot of reactions but what he received wasn’t one of it.

The princess smiled after she surpassed her shock. She pulled her hand away from the prince’s and punched him on his shoulder playfully (honestly, a bit too hard for the prince).

“See you again, wimp.” She sneered before she got on her horse and rode off.

The prince watched the princess figure disappeared with his hand pressed on the spot where she bumped him. It was warm.