Still

☽ ◯ ☾

A girl sat alone in a large room, except for the large golden dragon curled around her throne, sleeping peacefully. Light filtered in through stained glass windows, tinting the room pink and gold and blue. Dust floated visibly in front of the panes, giving the silent, still room a false sense of movement. One of the large doors at the front of the room creaked open.

"Your highness?" The voice shook.

The girl looked up, her pink eyes meeting with the servant's.

"Speak."

The servant stepped fully into view, smoothing his robes out so they lay flat against his body. "There is a man here to see you."

The girl tilted her head to the left. "Who?"

"He refused to give his name, only that you must hear what he has to say."

The girl smiled, but not happily. "Bring him in."

The servant very nearly ran from the room, pulling the large door closed after him. The room was silent and almost still for a few minutes.

The girl inspected her nails as the doors opened, quickly this time, slamming against the walls to make the newcomer appear in control and to shock the girl.

She didn't flinch.

"You'll dent the walls," she said, calmly; coolly. "I just had them repainted."

The man was in full armour, perfectly polished. A knight. His face was barely visible from behind his visor, but she wasn't looking at him, anyway. There was a chip in the pink polish on nail of her right ring finger.

How annoying.

"You haven't fulfilled your end of the bargain," the man said, his voice almost a roar.

The girl furrowed her brow, glancing past her curled fingers to look at him. "You are not familiar to me."

It was a lie. Her gaze returned to her nails.

The knight's left hand clutched his sword, fingers tightening and adjusting their grip over and over. "You promised to give me gold if I killed her. She's dead, and has been for a month, and yet I have no gold!"

His voice had lowered, not quite a roar, but still loud enough to be out of place in the quiet room. The girl's brow furrowed further.

"What will you do if you don't receive your gold?"

She'd caught him off guard. He'd met with her once before, and she remembered. He was a nervous man who happened to be good with a sword. He was poor, and desperate.

She was genuinely curious to see if he'd try to kill her.

"I," he started. His gaze hardened. "I'll kill you."

She lifted her left hand and curled her fingers to examine her nails on that side. "How creative."

"I'll kill your dragon, too," the knight spat, a note of uncertainty in his voice.

The girl raised her eyebrows. She straightened her back. Her hand dropped to the dragon's head, resting lightly on his smooth scales. "Oh! How interesting!"

The knight seemed to forget his confidence. "Interesting?"

"Yes," She said, after thinking about the word for a moment. "Interesting."

Her jewelry clinked softly as she leaned forward, resting her elbows on the armrests of her throne and clasping her hands together. "Do you know how I know you didn't do your research?"

His eyes darted to the dragon, who had shifted to a sitting position and stared intently at the knight with his piercing pink eyes.

"You came here to threaten me," the girl finished with a smug smile. "If you had done your research you would know that you're now a dead man."

The knight drew his sword. If he had known confidence before this moment he'd forgotten it now. "I know you're not invincible," he tried.

"Oh," the girl said, her smile widening into a grin. "Most definitely not. But to you I may as well be."

The golden dragon stood, and the knight turned and ran.

The dragon tilted his head at the girl, and she stroked his neck as if musing over her options. He knew she had made up her mind the moment the knight entered. At her nod he disappeared. A scream echoed down the hall, stopping as abruptly as it had started.

The dragon entered and once again curled around the girl's throne, his mouth stained a pale pink. The dust swirled rather than floated in front of the windows now, the only indication that anything had moved at all.

☽ ◯ ☾

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