griffinmarsh

[marrinikari]

Princess Emmalina of Griffinmarsh is her parents' pride and joy.

She's as beautiful as anyone could wish, even if her hair color isn't quite the fashionable shade of blonde. It's long and flowing and perfectly tended and really, no one will mind if it's just a tad too dark. And her eyes are so unique, aren't they- and hazel is coming into style now, isn't it, so it won't matter a whit that cornflower blue is still the current trend.

Her multitude of tutors did their work well. She's not flawlessly graceful, of course, but she dances quite nicely nonetheless. She's as courteous and gracious as they could hope, even if she's sometimes a tad snide for polite company. And her watercolors are more than adequate, particularly that one of the river from the east tower (though wasn't the view from the west tower better? Well, the room's been empty for years, this was more practical, isn't she thoughtful.)

And she's certainly never any trouble. All those stories you hear- of course Cimorene's rather a dramatic case, but didn't that girl two kingdoms over recently run away from home to marry her girlfriend? Can you even imagine? Her parents must be so mortified. Thank goodness Emmalina's such a good child; she might talk back too much, but she's never done anything like that.

Really, her parents couldn't ask for a better daughter.

If only she would get married.

---

Emmalina doesn't think it's her fault, exactly. Griffinmarsh is very... average. Average size, average population, average wealth. Average princess, if she's being honest. And they hadn't had any of those recurring griffin problems in years, no matter the gossip. But for a kingdom, it's still rather... left out, if such a thing is possible. Not to mention that the marshes are rather hazardous to the unprepared; they don't get a lot of visitors. How Emmalina is supposed to marry someone when she never meets anyone has never been explained to her.

Her mother's latest plan is promising, she thinks, but it still seems to be missing a few pieces.

"Tourneys are downright thrilling," the queen assures her. "I met your father at one, back in the day! And this is one of the largest tournaments in years. They've had to split the bakeoff into two, can you imagine? Surely someone will find you to their liking."

"But we have to get there," Emmalina reminds her. "We can't exactly take the carriage through the marshes."

"The merchants have found a new route," her father tells her smugly. "Very promising. I'll send you and your mother through in a carriage with an escort, you'll be there in a week, no problems at all."

In Emmalina's experience, saying 'no problems' was just asking for them to appear. She's almost surprised an evil fairy doesn't materialize on the spot.

"You can't spare a full escort for a month," she points out.

"Well," her father says uncomfortably, "we'll only send half an escort. But you know as well as I do the griffins haven't appeared in years."

"To hear Princess Iradwel tell it, we've been attacked yearly for centuries," Emmalina says sourly.

"Emmalina," her mother says sternly. "Just because our neighbors indulge in rumor mongering does not make it appropriate for you to belittle them."

"Sorry, Mother," she sighs.

"It's all right, dear," the queen says. "Just do try to be careful at the tournament, won't you? Gossiping is unseemly in a princess."

"No, Mother."

"Very well, then. You'll be attending the grand tournament two months hence. I'll make the travel arrangements." The king beams at her. "And then we can put all this nonsense about you being unmarried behind us."

"Yes, Father."

---

Emmalina and her mother depart for the tournament exactly on time. The carriage was ready for them, as her father had promised, with the half complement of guards he could spare. (Emmalina's maid had confided that there had been more than a few fights over the honor of escorting them; the promise of watching the tourney was, apparently, more than enough incentive to brave the marshes.) They're packed, loaded and out the gate before Emmalina is even fully awake.

Her mother chatters as they drive about all the eligible young men who have registered for the tournament. Prince So-and-So is nice, but a little too old- princes marry later, of course, but hasn't it been a little long even for a prince? And Sir This-and-That is ever so handsome, but obviously an actual prince is much to be preferred. Emmalina tunes her out. She's sure she'll hear it at least twice more before the end of the trip.

She's far more concerned by the marshes.

They're huge, and treacherous, and most of the reliable paths eventually submerge. The griffins are mostly gone, but one can never really be sure, and everyone says that the presence of armed men will set them off and-

Emmalina worries.

She worries the whole time through the marshes. It takes them three days to get all the way through, and she barely sleeps. When they make it through with no more casualties than a single bag that got thrown too far over a horse, she breathes a sigh of relief and goes for her first good night's sleep in a while. They've made it out of the marsh, and out of the griffins, and now getting to the tournament will be straightforward.

Or it would have been, anyway. No one could have predicted the dragon.

Waking up was very unpleasant.

---

Half an escort might have been enough to handle bandits or even an unlikely griffin, but they were definitely unprepared for a dragon. Emmalina wakes up carefully bundled in the dragon's arms, still wrapped in her blanket, and promptly screams.

"Hey!" The dragon says indignantly. "Why all the yelling? I was very nice about this, you know."

Emmalina doesn't respond. She's busy screaming.

"I even brought your blanket," the dragon says, sounding aggrieved. "I didn't have time to file my nails, and I wouldn't want to damage you after I went to all the trouble of fetching you in the first place."

Emmalina pauses her screaming to catch her breath, then starts again. "Don't eat me! Please!"

"Eat you?" the dragon asks, confused. "Why would I eat you? I just said I'd gone to all this trouble! No, no, my last princess finally got rescued last month, and it's rather annoying having her gone. Helpful creatures, princesses. So I've been looking for a new one. I must say, I didn't think I'd have to go all this way, but here you are, so it all worked out, didn't it?"

"Not for me!" Emmalina wails. "I'm supposed to be at a tournament with my mother! I'm supposed to meet princes and knights and fall in love and live ha- happily ever a- afterrrr."

"Tournament?" the dragon says. "No, no, there's no tournament near here. No self respecting dragon would fly past that many knights! Don't be silly."

This shocks Emmalina almost into silence. "But- but I was going-"

"You were right where your father said you would be," the dragon says happily. "And you'll meet all sorts of knights and princes when they come to rescue you, and until then I'll have a princess to help with the cooking and tidying. Won't it be nice?"

"Of course," Emmalina mutters, because that's polite, she's always polite, she's a good daughter-

She cries the rest of the way to the Mountains of Morning.

---

The dragon, who introduces himself as Morath, helps Emmalina settle in. Once she accepts that Morath truly has no interest in eating her, it becomes easier. Her fury with her parents is surprisingly motivating; she sets herself to learning how to be a dragon's princess, and who cares if her parents would approve, because at least Morath is honest about it all. She learns the basics of cooking, and Morath has an enchanted broom and mop that help her through most of the cleaning. There's only two other princesses in the caves near Morath's, and Emmalina is polite to them whenever they appear to socialize, but they seem to find her parents' plan helpful and romantic, so Emmalina silently resolves to never be their friend.

Days turn to weeks. Emmalina adjusts to life with Morath well enough to have some free time outside cooking and cleaning; she reads, or organizes Morath's treasure. He doesn't have a lot of treasure- he's not particularly rich as dragons go- but he's good enough about keeping magical items separate that she can play dress up with the safer pieces, which she finds quite entertaining. Some of the older pieces are just stunning. Leave rings here, shields there, weapons in the back corner... She can do this. It's easier than keeping track of the relative ranks of dukes, counts and barons, if she's honest about it.

Weeks turn to months. Emmalina's far from home, and word only spreads through the knightly grapevine so quickly; she's had just a handful of would-be rescuers. Morath is very nice about it. He defeats them neatly, never damaging them too badly, but sends them back looking just injured enough to tell tales and garner sympathy. Emmalina hasn't decided how she feels about it all. It might be nice to be rescued. Certainly if she met a rescuer she liked enough, which she hasn't yet. She would be more than happy to never pull out the enchanted mop ever again. But on the other hand... then her parents would get what they wanted.

And they don't deserve it.

Comments

[abeance]

"I've heard that it does that, yeah."

[follow_the_leader]

"...what would you do if I didn't want to go home?" she asks abruptly.

[abeance]

"What, if you want to stay here? I'm not going to kidnap you, I'm a knight, not a dragon. Bit peculiar but not my business."

[follow_the_leader]

"I just-" she sighs. "You're right, I know. It's peculiar. And I don't know if I can stay here, not forever. I'm not exactly Queen Cimorene. But I can't go home either, so." She shrugs. "No refuge camp for stray princesses where you're from?" she jokes weakly.

[abeance]

"I mean, if you want to get married that's a whole 'nother thing but that isn't an invariable package deal with the rescuing part and I for one would need to think about that, not that you don't seem very nice," says Jann. "...Queen Cimorene didn't stay with her dragon forever, she got married and queened. How refugee-ish are we talking here? If I bring you home Raxwell's a pretty nice place to live but it doesn't have, ah, established public services for stray princesses, really."

[follow_the_leader]

It takes Emmalina a few minutes of blushing and stammering to come up with a response. "Sorry, not what I meant- I mean- you're very nice too?" she manages, then takes a second to compose herself.

"I meant, I don't really have useful skills," she clarifies. "If you think there's somewhere in Raxwell I could learn as I go, at least? I... think I could do that. Would rather do that. I did all right learning cooking." She's not going to be a famous chef, but she's decent.

[abeance]

"I don't know, like, a restaurateur who I can put in a word for you with," says Jann, scratching the back of his neck. "I'm guessing the duchess'd probably take enough of a shine to you to help you along some but I haven't got a speck of detail, this has never happened before."

[follow_the_leader]

Emmalina shrugs. "I suppose it's worth a try?" she says tentatively. Unspoken is the thought that, in the worst case, she can always just... come back. Unless Morath picks up a new princess with miraculous speed, she knows enough about dragons to guess he'd welcome the bragging rights about 'reclaiming his lost princess'. And this is her first knight to show any interest in something other than taking her right back to Griffinmarsh to claim half her kingdom from her parents. "If you want, I mean- I'd feel bad, delaying your trip to the caves."





Inside the cave, Morath cracks an eye open. Emmalina's been a good sort as princesses go. And this knight seems like a reasonable fellow, for a knight. Not like those others. Greedy, that's what they were, the lot of them. Just in it for the gold or the kingdoms or what have you. This fellow's a real knight, just like the good old days. Morath indulges in a fit of nostalgia for a moment, then sighs when he hears them still talking. Was this not enough of an excuse? Is he going to have to go out and nudge them? He hopes not. He'd really rather not move.

[abeance]

"I'm not in a hurry. Dad's not getting any more turned to stone."

[follow_the_leader]

"...oh," Emmalina murmurs. "I'm so sorry."

[abeance]

"Happened before I was born, don't worry about it."

[follow_the_leader]

"...he'd be in the cave with the well, right?" she asks, blinking at him. "That's not that far... do you have a map?"

[abeance]

"He's at home, I need to bring the water back. I do have a map."

[follow_the_leader]

"I can just... take you there? If you want. I don't want to delay you."

[abeance]

"Really? That's very nice of you! But what about your dragon, hadn't I better wait for him to be fightable and then fight him, there's a procedure for making off with a princess while the dragon isn't home but you said he's home."

[follow_the_leader]

"He was sleeping when I left..." Emmalina says doubtfully. "You could probably call that 'not here', if you want. If you stretch it?" She smiles. "I wouldn't tell. But I should grab a few of my things, so, I can check on him if that would help?"






Elsewhere, Morath rolls his eyes. Fake snoring is annoying. All that focus on not puffing out smoke from his nostrils. Can't they get on with it already?

[abeance]

"Mmm... grab your stuff, if he doesn't wake up we'll treat it like he nipped out," says Jann, nodding decisively.

[follow_the_leader]

Trying not to think about what she's doing- she's trying to escape from a dragon, what if he's mad, what if he eats them- but he said that's not done any more? Ugh, not thinking about it- Emmalina goes to fetch her things. It only takes a few minutes; she didn't exactly pack for her move here. Some spare clothes and keepsakes and she's all set. She pauses on the way out, staring thoughtfully at the bed. It wasn't bad here. There were good times.

She tiptoes past Morath's room and breathes a sigh of relief to hear his snores.



(Snore, Morath thinks tiredly. Snore, snore, more snore.)




Good enough, Emmalina decides. He shouldn't wake up soon, if he's that deeply asleep. Besides, he's always groggy when he wakes up; it will give them extra time. And surely he wouldn't expect them to head for the Caves, either? She returns outside to Jann, smiling timidly. "I... I have everything. And he's still dead asleep."



SNORE.

[abeance]

"Swell. Off we go. My horse is tied up thisaway."

His horse is a strawberry roan and noses her in a friendly way when they get closer.

[follow_the_leader]

"Oh, aren't you just the prettiest girl?" Emmalina says delightedly as she walks up to say hello to the roan. "Yes, hello, it's nice to meet you too."

[abeance]

"Her name's Morganite!" says Jann, untying the horse. "I can walk while you ride, if you like? I don't think I want her carrying two in rocky territory like this."

[follow_the_leader]

Emmalina giggles as Morganite lips at her hair, then extracts herself and sobers. "I'm not sure you can even bring her in the Caves?" she says as she sizes up Morganite. "I don't know how she'd take the darkness, or the magic caverns, or anything. And the rocks will only get worse."

[abeance]

"Yeah, but it's a ways from here to the entrance, isn't it? I'd rather find somewhere nearish the caves to park her."

[follow_the_leader]

Emmalina nods. "There's a closer entrance but I don't know the password and there's always dragons around." She looks at Morganite's gear and shrugs helplessly. "Thank you for the offer, that's very nice of you. Whatever's faster, maybe? I can't imagine I walk faster than you but without a side saddle I'm not sure riding's any better."

[abeance]

"We can both walk, give her a break." He takes hold of her reins. "Lead the way, princess."