Said servant was wearing a butler’s uniform and had on a strange mask. The mask itself was small, only covering his face. It was white and had black rims around the holes. It was also flat.

The butler led us into the castle. The inside was small. The halls warm, and squat. I was confused as I had not expected to see this. I was expecting a fantasy castle and magic stuff. Like what kind of magic stuff, you may ask? Well, I was expecting a door with an angel on one side and a demon on the other. Purple banners hanging from the ceiling.

As we walked down the hallway, I noticed something. The servants were all frowning. They seemed like they hadn’t smiled in years.

Finally, after walking down the hall. We came to a grand door. Said door was not what I imagined when I thought of a king’s door. It was rough, it looked to be hundreds of years old. Iron marred its surface, covering half of it. Standing at about 8ft tall and 4ft wide, it was impossible to not be impressed.

As this was the only part of the hall the widened enough for this kind of thing, guards stood at the sides of the door. They carried swords at their waists. But that wasn’t the scary thing. It was the weapons they were carrying. They were guns. Well, they looked like muskets. They didn’t have long barrels, but instead had barrels the length of one’s arm.

They also looked to be match-locked. The predecessor to the flintlock. When the guards opened the door, I was shocked. There was a dragon sitting on the front steps of a tall and imposing throne.

The dragon also seemed to be locked up. A metal color hooked around it’s neck. The metal looked very modern, like someone with earth knowledge made it. The dragon itself was small not even as large as car. One expects a dragon to be big. This one wasn’t. the scales of this dragon were black and its eyes purple. It looked like if you made the ender dragon small and more futile. Then I looked up and met the gaze of the King.

He was holding a piece of rope tide to the dragons chain. The rope glowed as if it had a life and soul of it’s own. The king himself had no restraint in his gaze. He seemed like a man that wouldn’t care if a child went hungry if he had made that child cry.

The cruel smile that played his lips said it all. He enjoyed bringing pain to others. But one had to keep up appearances. People said he was kind, but the kindness he showed to other’s must have been a mask. one look told me all I needed to know.

He was an enemy.

“Nice to meet you Laetitia. Do like my pet? It cost many a man to conquer this beast,” he asked me as he leaned back, then he snapped his fingers and it shuffled. Looking at me like I was he to gawk.

I was one to scoff at the tropes of fantasy. I thought to myself, “couldn’t an anti-tank round go through a dragon’s head?” But that wasn’t important.

“it’s cool,” I said, “but seeing as you are from earth, I’m assuming that the main reason it’s even in your care is that you used the knowledge from there.”

He frowned at that and snapped his fingers again. Then a knight behind me kicked the back of my shins and I fell to my knees. The other knights did the same to the others.

“Seeing as you just said it out loud, I’m going to assume that you are one that doesn’t like to beat-around-the-bush. The man Marthon, he either needs to die, or never be seen in the light of the nobility again,” he explained.

I looked back at Marthon, and he had a different gleam in his eyes than before. That look said he understood the hate of this man. And he looked back at me and nodded.

“Could I have him?” I asked.

The king raised an eyebrow at this. Then he looked up at the ceiling as if thinking. Then he nodded and looked at me, then at Marthon.

“OK, you can work for her. But you must swear to me the you may never harm the ruler of this nation,” he finally said.

          Marthon got on one knee looked up into the King’s eyes and swore to never attack the ruler of this nation. Then he walked over to me and got on one knee and too my hand. Then he looked into my eyes and kissed the back of my hand and swore:

          I promise to serve you Laetitia darkcrow to my upmost and for all the time I have,” then he kissed the back of my hand again and stood up.

          “May we go now your majesty?” he asked.

          The absolute poise he had seemed to ooze off of him as he defied the king with these words. It was common knowledge in this Kingdom that the leader of the nation was the one to ask the guest he held to leave.

          The King nodded at this, not knowing this as he had only ever showed himself to prisoners to gloat before chopping their heads off, or feeding them to his dragon. We all left without saying a word more.