Out of all the mythical beasts known throughout the world, the most famous one had to be the elusive dragon.
With the strength of hundred of thousands of men and skin as thick as several layers of steel, it aptly earned the title "King of the Beasts".
Over the years, many had bragged about coming across dragons in their journies and a small portion of those people even claimed they had slain the beast. But, no one really took it seriously since they could not find solid evidences to these claims. They're just rumours and as rumours usually go, they were often exaggerated beyond their truth.
So of course never did it occur to those currently in the Calendulian throne room that a girl had turned into a dragon right in front of them.
It dawned to them at this very moment exactly why Epidote was so enigmatic in the first place - their princess was dragon-cursed.
Now, being inflicted with a curse that causes one to become a beast was not an uncommon event in this world. Since magic exists, of course there were those who practice the dark arts. In fact, there were reports all over the world regarding some unsavoury characters striking a deal with an enchantresses or black magician to concoct a curse especially for their enemies.
However, as with all high level magic, even the smallest curse held a costly exchange- sometimes it was all the wealth you own, sometimes it was to sacrifice of your entire lifespan (a.k.a. to die in exchange for cursing someone).
So, to inflict a dragon curse... ? What on earth was exchanged for this terrifying ordeal? And why was inflicted on the Epidotian princess of all people?
Quite simply, the answers laid deep within the royal palace of Epidote. Unknown to the outside world, the Epidotian royal family held a very dark secret hidden from everyone outside the palace walls: The bloodline of the Epidotian royals were tainted with a possibility to inherit the dragon curse.
However, it wasn’t the case that everyone would be affected. In fact, if one person was affected, it will skip many generations until another one would be cursed. No one really knew when and where the curse originated from and despite sending out secret investigators all over the world to find the answers, their hands would always turn up blank. The royal family was helpless in trying to change their own dire fate.
The last person to be cursed was Renee’s paternal grandmother, who had turned mad upon the news of her husband’s sudden assassination by internal enemies. She was quickly ‘dispatched’ by the family’s special forces who had been secretly trained under the circumstances of knowing the curse that had befallen the family.
There was a theory that the dragon curse would only activate in the affected person's body if they were subjected to an overwhelming amount of emotions and lost control of it. Not wanting to test the validity of this theory (and as the saying goes- 'prevention is better than cure'), it was then implemented for every member with Epidotian blood coursing through their veins to be taught how to control their emotions from as young as infancy. Training would be carried out by special teachers and nursemaids and not a single royal member is excused from this education.
Renee was particularly mild mannered amongst the rest of her siblings - she had never thrown tantrums and knew how to keep herself from becoming emotional. Hence, trusting in her naturally well-behaved disposition, the king and queen of Epidote had no qualms about sending her off to Calendula to be married. And since the last dragon-cursed had happened quite recently, it was also believed that it would not appear for a few several generations.
Who would have known that this would have happened...
“K- Kill it! KILL THAT THING!”
It was the prince who had yelled those orders to the knights. His natural instincts to hunt had bubbled to the surface which quickly replaced his perception that the dragon was in fact his ex-fiancee. In his eyes, she was no longer human, but instead a beast who was threatening the kingdom.
Circling around the dragon, the knights attempted to attack her with their iron swords, however all was in vain because her skin repelled it and cracked upon contact. It did not harm her in the slightest but Renee did not feel the attack anyways. It was her body certainly ... but her mind and soul no longer occupied the mindless shell.
Like a wild beast, she simply did whatever her instincts told her to do.
And what she wanted to do right was to vent her anger...
Her mouth opened, releasing a ball of fire which caused the golden draped curtains to catch on fire. While most of the knights still had their eyes kept on the dragon, the other knights began to shift their focus on evacuating everyone outside the hall to safety, as well as to search for a water source to put out the spreading fire.
If the fire was not stopped right now the entire palace will soon be engulfed in flames. The prince, not bothering with the screams of his knights to get to safety, had began to move to get closer to the princess who was already spreading her wings to take flight.
It must have been a surge of adrenaline or perhaps it was the desire to be the first one in history to take out a dragon, but whatever it was, Elias recklessly jumped down from his position and swung his sword above his head towards the dragon.
A piercing howl filled the room, almost bleeding their ears- the dragon had been stabbed through the chest. But how did he manage to do this when all the others had failed?
Under normal circumstances, it would have been difficult to pierce through a dragon’s skin ... however the prince was in possession of an ancient sword which was passed down by his ancestors who had killed many unique beasts in their time. As the blood soaked in between the pores of the sword, it soon gained a unique ability- it was able to slay high level beasts. However, no one had ever tested the sword against a dragon before.
Even the prince did not know whether it would be able to pierce through ... he simply went with the itch on his hands and relied on his past experiences of slaying other beasts.
As pain seared through her entire body and the warmth of her dark red blood gushed openly all over the front of her chest, Renee’s once clouded mind was shaken to reality. She quickly grasped the little bit of humanity and clung to it desperately and thus, slowly regaining her sanity back. Her previous thoughts of rampage was quickly replaced with the need to escape and survive. Seeing as the metal panes on the windows were close to being melted off, she flew towards the windows and crashed through, leaving behind a rain of glass.
“Stop that thing! Get the arrows!”
“Your Highness, you must evacuate immediately! The fire has spread too much already” one of the knights desperately pulled upon the prince’s shirt. The smoke was stinging his eyes and it was getting difficult to breathe. If they did not leave now, they will be burned to death.
“Tch!”
Clicking his tongue to express his displeasure, he hardened his gaze towards the dragon who was already slowly disappearing above the clouds.
