LJ Idol Wheel of Chaos: "Rare Treasure"
Nov. 20th, 2025 03:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
halfshellvenusRare Treasure
LJ Idol Wheel of Chaos | Week 15A Writeoff | 1825 words
Open topic
x-x-x-x-x
There once was a dragon who loved a maiden, the brightest jewel in his or any other kingdom.
The dragon's name was Firesong, and he first glimpsed the maiden while traveling over the tips of the Fangold Forest on his way to the Western Wastes. The girl's long, long hair shone like burnished gold—like a river of sunlight—and her blue gown was like a piece of summer sky.
In all of his four-hundred years, the dragon had never seen anything so stunning.
He circled back around again for another look at her, for Firesong's vision was piercingly fine, able to spot a single diamond or ruby from hundreds of yards away. She was indeed beautiful, this girl whose name he did not know.
But now she was wary, there at the base of a large tree that she hoped could somehow hide her.
"What is thy name, fair maiden?" the dragon boomed.
The branches on the nearby trees trembled from the force of his words, and the girl quaked in terror.
The dragon was quite embarrassed. "Forgive me," he said more softly. "What, dear maiden, is thy name?"
"It is Aurelia," the girl said loudly, although her voice shook a bit.
Still, the dragon found her very brave. "A lovely name," he said, as he landed in a nearby clearing. "I am Firesong, although I expect thy people have other names for me. What brings thee here to the forest?"
Aurelia stood taller. "I have been studying plants," she said. "I wished to locate specimens of things I have read about in books."
"I adore books," Firesong said happily. "I only wish that they were larger."
Aurelia smiled. "And I that they were more plentiful," she said. "Or simply more available to all who might wish to read them."
The dragon grew even more enchanted by her. It was evident that she valued knowledge and had a healthy curiosity. Both traits were highly prized by dragons.
He folded his wings in tightly, and made a slight bow. "Wouldst thou care to accompany me on a stroll?" he asked.
Aurelia found herself intrigued by the offer. "I believe I would enjoy that very much," she said.
They walked along the roadway and talked for hours. Firesong discovered that Aurelia was most interested in history, literature, and the healing arts. He was drawn to literature as well, but he was even more fascinated by music. The dragon was unable to sing or to play an instrument, thus the entire field was a mystery to him.
"I am surprised no one has come looking for thee," he said after a while.
Aurelia laughed. "They all believe I am still in my room, embroidering my trousseau. But my handmaiden is prone to napping, so I slip out whenever I can."
"Where there are handmaidens, there is wealth," the dragon noted.
"Indeed," Aurellia said, "for I am the King's daughter."
"A princess!" Firesong exclaimed. Aurelia was truly as much a treasure as the rarest of gems.
"Yes, and I'm afraid I must return to the castle, for I have been absent too long."
"Certainly," Firesong said. "But I have much enjoyed our discussion, and hope that we might meet again someday."
"Perhaps three days hence, in the middle of the afternoon?"
Firesong beamed. "I shall look forward to it."
The dragon was extremely pleased to have made a new friend, as the most recent one had died almost one hundred years earlier. For her part, Aurelia was thrilled to have had an intelligent conversation with someone other than her tutor. Princesses were not supposed to have opinions, or at most only mild ones, and being bound to excessive politeness made for very dull discussions indeed.
Firesong and the princess met again in the forest later that week, and then again a few days later. They conversed about poetry, for the dragon had memorized an astonishing number of poems and was eager to share them and to acquire new ones. Aurelia brought a lute and played music for him, and they debated the merits of tunes which caught the ear and those which were pleasing but more complex. They met again and again in the weeks and months ahead, their friendship deepening as time passed.
But one day, after a particularly lively discussion, the dragon felt both exuberant and hungry, and he swooped down out of the sky and snapped up a cow.
Dragons have eaten cows since the beginning of time, but this was different. With the rise in frequent dragon sightings, the King feared that the stolen cow was a sign of aggressions to come. He made a proclamation throughout the kingdom that whosoever might kill the dragon would have his daughter's hand in marriage.
This distressed Aurelia greatly, both for her own future and for the safety of her friend. She tried to explain the matter to her father, but he would not listen.
"Father," she began.
"Silence, girl!" he said, and she got no further.
When Aurelia next met with the dragon, she warned him of her father's plan.
"It has been attempted before," he reassured her. "But warriors are very small, and so are their weapons."
Still, she was soothed by his promise to keep his distance from the kingdom apart from their visits, and they agreed that those should be less frequent.
A number of would-be dragon-slayers visited the castle, each more odious than the last. The first was Duke Worley's son, a conceited fellow who was in love with the image of himself as a future king. Next was Sir Belford, one of the King's own knights, a man who was forty if he was a day. The third was the baker's apprentice, a brawny, brainless sort wearing borrowed armor and a confused frown.
None of the men were able to even find the dragon, which led the King to send scouts out into the world to locate him.
Aurelia knew that Firesong's lair was outside the kingdom itself. She hoped it was far enough away that it might remain a secret.
Several of the prospective warriors attempted to court Aurelia, as if she were a prize that had already been won. Aurelia loathed every last one of them, and despised her predicament even more. She longed for a moment to escape the castle and see her friend once more.
A week later, it came. The King was meeting with his advisors and the Queen was busy selecting the menu for the mid-Summer feast. The tutor had finished his lessons, and the princess was not expected anywhere for hours to come. Thus, she waited until her bedroom's tower grew quiet, and then she hurried quietly down the stairs and out into the garden. Soon, she was running to the far end of the forest.
Firesong glimpsed her as he circled near the trees, a shimmer of liquid red skimming toward him across the forest floor. He landed on the roadway, and Aurelia rushed to greet him.
"Dear friend," she said, "it has been so very long since we last met."
Firesong bowed his head. "Indeed. I hope thou art well."
"Yes, most certainly," Aurelia said. "Quite awash in tedium, but hale and hearty enough."
"And the search for the nefarious cattle thief?"
Aurelia laughed. "Decidedly unimpressive," she said. "I do hope Father tires of it soon. I have missed our conversations a great deal."
"As have I," Firesong said. "I recalled a poem yesterday which thee might find pleasing: An Ode To Winter Sun."
"I know it not," Aurelia said. "Please tell it to me."
The dragon began reciting the poem, but before long he was interrupted by a commotion at the edge of the forest.
"Princess, I shall save thee!" a man shouted, before pulling Aurelia to him and pointing his sword at the dragon.
Aurelia fought free of the man's grasp. "How rude!" she said.
The dragon breathed out a long plume of smoke. "Begone, dear fellow," he said in a bored tone.
"But I am here to rescue the princess," the man said.
"Rescue?" Aurelia said. "Don't be absurd."
A large group of men came crashing out of the forest just then. "Halt!" the leader called out to the dragon.
It was the King.
"To arms!" the King cried to his men. "Slay the beast!"
"No!" Aurelia shouted. She darted into position between the King's army and the dragon. "No, Father! Leave him be!" she said. "He is my friend."
"Friend?" the King said.
"Yes," Aurelia said. "I tried to tell thee weeks ago," she added more quietly.
"But he is encroaching on our lands," the King said. "We must protect ourselves."
"He is merely here to visit with me," Aurelia said. "No trespass is intended."
The King appeared embarrassed by her words. Then he grew angry.
"No daughter of mine shall consort with a lowly lizard!" the King shouted.
Aurelia was taken aback. "Father, please…"
Firesong, a learned creature who was worth a thousand kings, was insulted. "Thy words impugn both her motives and her intelligence," he said. "She deserves better."
The King, who had been on the verge of saying something truly regrettable, reconsidered. "But I cannot have thee threatening my people or stealing their cattle."
"I am terribly sorry about the cow," Firesong said. "I had not realized the farmer was so attached to it."
The King huffed. "The farmer has been repaid for the loss of his cow. But having a dragon nearby is frightening to all."
Aurelia thought. "Perhaps I could meet him nearer the edge of the kingdom."
"There is meadow near the sea cliffs that is not far from the castle," Firesong said. "Would that do?"
Thus, it was decided that Aurelia and the dragon might meet at a new location. Aurelia was astonished that her father had been so reasonable about it all, but was not surprised by his demands that she be accompanied by armed guards on future visits with the dragon. "For fear of highwaymen," the King said, "not because of the dragon himself."
As the years went by, Aurelia and the dragon continued to meet several times each week. The king built a cottage with a large overhanging roof for her in the meadow, that the princess might be comfortable in inclement weather. Aurelia herself commissioned scribes to create large versions of some of the books she thought the dragon might most enjoy. Firesong was so pleased with them that he took them back to his lair and set to memorizing them immediately.
Aurelia eventually married the son of her King's most trusted advisor, a scholarly young man who appreciated her wit as well as her beauty. Her children came to be Firesong's friends as well, and their children after them.
As for the King, he discovered that his kingdom became far less appealing to invaders once the dragon became a regular fixture overhead and on its coast.
--/--
If you enjoyed this story, please vote for it in the poll here.
LJ Idol Wheel of Chaos | Week 15A Writeoff | 1825 words
Open topic
x-x-x-x-x
There once was a dragon who loved a maiden, the brightest jewel in his or any other kingdom.
The dragon's name was Firesong, and he first glimpsed the maiden while traveling over the tips of the Fangold Forest on his way to the Western Wastes. The girl's long, long hair shone like burnished gold—like a river of sunlight—and her blue gown was like a piece of summer sky.
In all of his four-hundred years, the dragon had never seen anything so stunning.
He circled back around again for another look at her, for Firesong's vision was piercingly fine, able to spot a single diamond or ruby from hundreds of yards away. She was indeed beautiful, this girl whose name he did not know.
But now she was wary, there at the base of a large tree that she hoped could somehow hide her.
"What is thy name, fair maiden?" the dragon boomed.
The branches on the nearby trees trembled from the force of his words, and the girl quaked in terror.
The dragon was quite embarrassed. "Forgive me," he said more softly. "What, dear maiden, is thy name?"
"It is Aurelia," the girl said loudly, although her voice shook a bit.
Still, the dragon found her very brave. "A lovely name," he said, as he landed in a nearby clearing. "I am Firesong, although I expect thy people have other names for me. What brings thee here to the forest?"
Aurelia stood taller. "I have been studying plants," she said. "I wished to locate specimens of things I have read about in books."
"I adore books," Firesong said happily. "I only wish that they were larger."
Aurelia smiled. "And I that they were more plentiful," she said. "Or simply more available to all who might wish to read them."
The dragon grew even more enchanted by her. It was evident that she valued knowledge and had a healthy curiosity. Both traits were highly prized by dragons.
He folded his wings in tightly, and made a slight bow. "Wouldst thou care to accompany me on a stroll?" he asked.
Aurelia found herself intrigued by the offer. "I believe I would enjoy that very much," she said.
They walked along the roadway and talked for hours. Firesong discovered that Aurelia was most interested in history, literature, and the healing arts. He was drawn to literature as well, but he was even more fascinated by music. The dragon was unable to sing or to play an instrument, thus the entire field was a mystery to him.
"I am surprised no one has come looking for thee," he said after a while.
Aurelia laughed. "They all believe I am still in my room, embroidering my trousseau. But my handmaiden is prone to napping, so I slip out whenever I can."
"Where there are handmaidens, there is wealth," the dragon noted.
"Indeed," Aurellia said, "for I am the King's daughter."
"A princess!" Firesong exclaimed. Aurelia was truly as much a treasure as the rarest of gems.
"Yes, and I'm afraid I must return to the castle, for I have been absent too long."
"Certainly," Firesong said. "But I have much enjoyed our discussion, and hope that we might meet again someday."
"Perhaps three days hence, in the middle of the afternoon?"
Firesong beamed. "I shall look forward to it."
The dragon was extremely pleased to have made a new friend, as the most recent one had died almost one hundred years earlier. For her part, Aurelia was thrilled to have had an intelligent conversation with someone other than her tutor. Princesses were not supposed to have opinions, or at most only mild ones, and being bound to excessive politeness made for very dull discussions indeed.
Firesong and the princess met again in the forest later that week, and then again a few days later. They conversed about poetry, for the dragon had memorized an astonishing number of poems and was eager to share them and to acquire new ones. Aurelia brought a lute and played music for him, and they debated the merits of tunes which caught the ear and those which were pleasing but more complex. They met again and again in the weeks and months ahead, their friendship deepening as time passed.
But one day, after a particularly lively discussion, the dragon felt both exuberant and hungry, and he swooped down out of the sky and snapped up a cow.
Dragons have eaten cows since the beginning of time, but this was different. With the rise in frequent dragon sightings, the King feared that the stolen cow was a sign of aggressions to come. He made a proclamation throughout the kingdom that whosoever might kill the dragon would have his daughter's hand in marriage.
This distressed Aurelia greatly, both for her own future and for the safety of her friend. She tried to explain the matter to her father, but he would not listen.
"Father," she began.
"Silence, girl!" he said, and she got no further.
When Aurelia next met with the dragon, she warned him of her father's plan.
"It has been attempted before," he reassured her. "But warriors are very small, and so are their weapons."
Still, she was soothed by his promise to keep his distance from the kingdom apart from their visits, and they agreed that those should be less frequent.
A number of would-be dragon-slayers visited the castle, each more odious than the last. The first was Duke Worley's son, a conceited fellow who was in love with the image of himself as a future king. Next was Sir Belford, one of the King's own knights, a man who was forty if he was a day. The third was the baker's apprentice, a brawny, brainless sort wearing borrowed armor and a confused frown.
None of the men were able to even find the dragon, which led the King to send scouts out into the world to locate him.
Aurelia knew that Firesong's lair was outside the kingdom itself. She hoped it was far enough away that it might remain a secret.
Several of the prospective warriors attempted to court Aurelia, as if she were a prize that had already been won. Aurelia loathed every last one of them, and despised her predicament even more. She longed for a moment to escape the castle and see her friend once more.
A week later, it came. The King was meeting with his advisors and the Queen was busy selecting the menu for the mid-Summer feast. The tutor had finished his lessons, and the princess was not expected anywhere for hours to come. Thus, she waited until her bedroom's tower grew quiet, and then she hurried quietly down the stairs and out into the garden. Soon, she was running to the far end of the forest.
Firesong glimpsed her as he circled near the trees, a shimmer of liquid red skimming toward him across the forest floor. He landed on the roadway, and Aurelia rushed to greet him.
"Dear friend," she said, "it has been so very long since we last met."
Firesong bowed his head. "Indeed. I hope thou art well."
"Yes, most certainly," Aurelia said. "Quite awash in tedium, but hale and hearty enough."
"And the search for the nefarious cattle thief?"
Aurelia laughed. "Decidedly unimpressive," she said. "I do hope Father tires of it soon. I have missed our conversations a great deal."
"As have I," Firesong said. "I recalled a poem yesterday which thee might find pleasing: An Ode To Winter Sun."
"I know it not," Aurelia said. "Please tell it to me."
The dragon began reciting the poem, but before long he was interrupted by a commotion at the edge of the forest.
"Princess, I shall save thee!" a man shouted, before pulling Aurelia to him and pointing his sword at the dragon.
Aurelia fought free of the man's grasp. "How rude!" she said.
The dragon breathed out a long plume of smoke. "Begone, dear fellow," he said in a bored tone.
"But I am here to rescue the princess," the man said.
"Rescue?" Aurelia said. "Don't be absurd."
A large group of men came crashing out of the forest just then. "Halt!" the leader called out to the dragon.
It was the King.
"To arms!" the King cried to his men. "Slay the beast!"
"No!" Aurelia shouted. She darted into position between the King's army and the dragon. "No, Father! Leave him be!" she said. "He is my friend."
"Friend?" the King said.
"Yes," Aurelia said. "I tried to tell thee weeks ago," she added more quietly.
"But he is encroaching on our lands," the King said. "We must protect ourselves."
"He is merely here to visit with me," Aurelia said. "No trespass is intended."
The King appeared embarrassed by her words. Then he grew angry.
"No daughter of mine shall consort with a lowly lizard!" the King shouted.
Aurelia was taken aback. "Father, please…"
Firesong, a learned creature who was worth a thousand kings, was insulted. "Thy words impugn both her motives and her intelligence," he said. "She deserves better."
The King, who had been on the verge of saying something truly regrettable, reconsidered. "But I cannot have thee threatening my people or stealing their cattle."
"I am terribly sorry about the cow," Firesong said. "I had not realized the farmer was so attached to it."
The King huffed. "The farmer has been repaid for the loss of his cow. But having a dragon nearby is frightening to all."
Aurelia thought. "Perhaps I could meet him nearer the edge of the kingdom."
"There is meadow near the sea cliffs that is not far from the castle," Firesong said. "Would that do?"
Thus, it was decided that Aurelia and the dragon might meet at a new location. Aurelia was astonished that her father had been so reasonable about it all, but was not surprised by his demands that she be accompanied by armed guards on future visits with the dragon. "For fear of highwaymen," the King said, "not because of the dragon himself."
As the years went by, Aurelia and the dragon continued to meet several times each week. The king built a cottage with a large overhanging roof for her in the meadow, that the princess might be comfortable in inclement weather. Aurelia herself commissioned scribes to create large versions of some of the books she thought the dragon might most enjoy. Firesong was so pleased with them that he took them back to his lair and set to memorizing them immediately.
Aurelia eventually married the son of her King's most trusted advisor, a scholarly young man who appreciated her wit as well as her beauty. Her children came to be Firesong's friends as well, and their children after them.
As for the King, he discovered that his kingdom became far less appealing to invaders once the dragon became a regular fixture overhead and on its coast.
--/--
If you enjoyed this story, please vote for it in the poll here.
no subject
Date: 2025-11-21 01:03 am (UTC)I absolutely adore fairytales and Shrek is one of my favorite movies ever, hehe. This just has everything I love about magical tales. The friendship between the princess and the dragon is beautiful.(I would totally befriend Firesong too!) and I that final line is perfect!
no subject
Date: 2025-11-22 12:41 am (UTC)I'm so glad you enjoyed this! I'm a sucker for an intelligent dragon, and this idea is one I've been wanting to write for a while. :)
no subject
Date: 2025-11-21 11:22 pm (UTC)You do such a nice job with the fairy tale feel. And I honestly feared something would go awry and this tale would take a tragic turn. But I love that you kept it light and that Aurelia and Firesong got to keep their unique friendship. As you well know, i'm not normally one for happy endings, but I absolutely adored this one.
This is such a sweet piece. I absolutely loved it.
no subject
Date: 2025-11-22 12:56 am (UTC)I know I'm much more of a fan of happy endings than you are, so I'm thrilled that this one did not put you off!
Thanks so much for reading and commenting. <3
no subject
Date: 2025-11-22 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-22 06:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-22 07:26 pm (UTC)I enjoyed this! It reminded me of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede, which also features a princess befriending a dragon.
no subject
Date: 2025-11-22 08:27 pm (UTC)I AM familiar with Patricia Wrede's series. I read it to my son, and he really enjoyed it. Funny, I don't think it ever really caught on with our daughter! But our son was a much bigger fan of fantasy than she was.
I'm glad you enjoyed this, and thanks for reading and commenting!
no subject
Date: 2025-11-22 11:14 pm (UTC)The Patricia Wrede series was recommended by a fellow Philcon panelist when he was quite young. It was sooo much fun! That's why this piece reminded me of it.
no subject
Date: 2025-11-24 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-24 11:17 pm (UTC)