Since he was a child, he had heard and loved the fairy tales of the prince that set out to save a beautiful princess from a gruesome dragon. After defeating the magical beast the prince would marry the princess, who fell head over heels in love with her savior, and both would live happy ever after.
First he had dreamed to become a prince somehow, because only a prince could save the princess from her captor – a dream that should never come true, he had thought. Later he decided that he could do it without such a title! He wanted to be a hero! A hero did not need to be a prince. He could be as noble as all those "nobles"! As soon as the princess had fallen in love with him and then married him, he would not only be a prince, but a king!
However, there was a little thing that made all his dreams into exactly that: dreams! Fairy tales were stories not reality! There were no princess kidnapped by a dragon for him to save. This world had princesses and princes, they had people to save and maybe he would really save someone one day, but there were no dragons. Those creatures only existed in stories. Somehow it was sad, he would have liked to meet one. On the other hand, it might be better that way. No human would be able to handle a beast with such immense physical strength, magical ability and wisdom.
Still, Alibaba grew up with the dream of fighting a dragon and thereby saving a princess. A beautiful and kind princess of a powerful kingdom! Then no one would make fun of him anymore, because he never had a woman. It was hard to grow up with Kassim, who was so popular with women. Maybe he had problems with being popular, because he had those "childish" dreams? But what was wrong with dreams? With "childish" dreams? On the other side, he only had mentioned his dreams to his closest friends, who still mocked him from time to time due to them. It was mean of them, but Alibaba knew they did not meant it bad with him. Friends sometimes teased each other, he did the same with them.
They all had grown up in the slums of Balbadd, an island kingdom once ruled by King Rashid, Alibaba's father, and now in the hands of Ahbmad Saluja, Rashid Saluja's first born son and therefore Alibaba's older half-brother. However he learned about it only after his mother had died and only told Kassim about it – after Rashid's death Alibaba had been thrown out of the palace again – and losing his title and position as prince. He had never seen himself as prince, despite that it gave him hope that he might really fight a dragon and save a cute girl, thereby becoming a hero! His hopes were crushed when he left the palace, but it did not hurt much, because he never really had felt at home and in the right place there.
When he returned into the slums, he was welcomed back with a warm smile. Kassim and the so called Frog Troup were his family, yet he decided to leave them once again, when he heard a rumor about a princess on an isolated island, which was kidnapped by a mysteries creature – a dragon – and held captive there for many years.
At the beginning it was just rumor on the market and Alibaba had not paid much attention to it. He loved listening to the people talking about it and made his own stories around it – of course, he did not said them out loud – but he kept his hope for them to be true down. And of course the rumors got more and more bizarre, but entertaining. Things only got interesting, when he was delivering something to a sailor. Alibaba had found work by a small business man and due to that had to make a lot of deliveries all over Balbadd. This time he had to go to the harbor, there he overheard two soldiers of a different country – if he wasn't mistaken they were from the Kou Empire, which gained more and more political power in Balbadd lately –, who talked about a person of their country still being missing. That piece of information was not that important, since they could also just talk about any relative or noble, what was important was the mentioning of the emperor and the empress and how sad the empress was over her lost child. So there was indeed a princess in trouble! And not any princess! It was the one of the Kou Empire! He had heard that the princesses of the Kou Empire were all beautiful ladies. Excitement rose inside him! The soldiers more or less also confirmed that the princess was hold captive on an isolated island somewhere near the sea territory of Balbadd, maybe it even was still in the sea territory and maybe that was the reason, why the Kou Empire was invading the government. Entering another's country's territory was always a delicate thing. As far as Alibaba knew, the Kou government had already taken over the rights over the sea territory and therefore could send their boats everywhere they want inside it. If the island was near the boarders or even inside it, then they could do what they want. However, if it wasn't they needed to negotiate with whoever was in charge of that territory or take that country over, just like they did or still were doing with Balbadd.
It was an amusing thought to find the princess before them and make her his bride! He could not only fulfill his dreams, but also save his country. Yes, this was perfect! He, a former prince, would save a beautiful princess of a powerful country, who would fall in love with him and marries him, while he also would save his people from the invasion of the Kou Empire and thereby became a hero and then he would live happy ever after with his wife and their children!
When he returned that afternoon he told Kassim about his decision to go and find the princess. Yet, his friend brought him back down to earth, when he asked how Alibaba intended to do that. An island could not be reached by foot, so he would need a boat, for which he needed money. Money they did not have! Moreover, he would need provisions and equipment for an unknown amount of time and for an unknown territory. And in the end there was no guarantee that there even was a princess waiting for help. In case there was one, she could have been kidnapped by another country and interfering with politics was no good idea! No, one should stay out of this mess!
However, logic never had been one of Alibaba's strengths. When he put his mind into something, he would follow that idea until the end – as long as he was brave enough to make the first step on the way he had decided to go. This was his main problem: Not being brave enough to actually do something!
Kassim was different. He was so mature and a true friend. It was him that helped Alibaba to get a boat and the stuff he needed for his little adventure. Even when Alibaba would return empty handed, a journey may be what the boy needed to grow into a man!
*
During his time in the palace as third prince of Balbadd, Alibaba studied the sea territory of the kingdom. There were many islands that belong to the kingdom. Those islands were inhabited, so it was not necessary to look for the princess there. However, there were two islands that were a possibility. One was inside of the boarders of Balbadd, while the other one belong to the Kingdom of Sindria, an ally of Balbadd until now at least – due to the change in politics the relationship with Sindria got worse and it continued to get worse the more Kou took over. Still, Alibaba thought that it would not be a big problem to examine the island inside Sindria's waters. He was just taking a look around and would be gone before anyone would even know that he had been there. Also Sinbad, the king of Sindria, was a nice man and his role model! Sinbad would understand him, when he told him that he only wanted to undergo an adventure, since the king himself was an adventurer. Alibaba had read the adventures of Sinbad and his comrades that now were known as the eight generals.
Alibaba reached the first island without much trouble, at least that was what he told himself. His boat was damaged, he had lost a bit of his provisions and equipment. Moreover, he himself had been injured. A storm had gotten him on the third day of his journey. When he reached the island he had to repair his boat, take care of his own wounds and stock up his provisions. Luckily, the island was filled with fruits, animals – which he could hunt down – and wood. A little jungle, dangerous, but full with everything needed to survive. Of course, he investigated the island and came to the conclusion that no princess was held captive here, so she was on the second choice. Not really surprising at all! Wasn't it always like this? It was always the last place someone searched for, where one would find what one had searched for. He had stayed quite a while in the jungle, because he thought it might be better to wait until his wounds were healed. Fighting against a dragon, while still injured was stupid! Of course, he could get hurt on his way to the next island, yet receiving injuries while still being injured was idiotic and should be avoided – and it should be logical, why one would not want that. With even more confident and excitement, Alibaba set sail to his next destination after his wound had healed. No matter how stormy and unruly the sea would be, no matter how long it would take him to reach the island, even when he had to swim there, he would get there and save the princess! Oh, and he would be the first to see and defeat a real dragon! Well, King Sinbad had been the first to see and defeat one in his first dungeons Baal many years ago, but Alibaba would be the first meeting a dragon outside of one of those mysterious buildings!
*
The second island was impressive. Surrounded by mountains and a giant and high mountain in the middle. The color of the rocks were white, something he had never seen before. It took him some time until he found a place to dock. Since the island was surrounded by rocks it was almost impossible and the little spot he found was easy to overlook, yet he had found it. His plan for the first day was pretty simple. His boat again was damaged, therefore he needed to repair it, because he wanted to leave this places as soon as he had saved the princess. Secondly, he would take a look around. It was important to know what kind of animals or plants could be found in this area. This was important for rationing his food. Lastly, he would rest. Tomorrow he would start to climb up the big mountain. The castle in which the dragon held the princess captive must be at top of it, this was how it always had been in the stories. This all was so exciting! He wished, he could tell Kassim about it! Well, he would do as soon as he was back in Balbadd, but for now he only could talk with himself. Yes, Alibaba felt a bit lonely, which was not surprising since he had no contact with other people since he had left the harbor many weeks – maybe even months – ago. An adventure was more fun with comrades at one's side. But Kassim could not simply leave the Fog Troup, because he was their leader and given the situation their homeland was in, the people needed a symbol of hope, of resistance and that was Kassim and his group. It was naïve to think that way, since such thinking ignored the conflict that rose with it, but Alibaba was extremely naïve, especially when it came to Kassim and decision made by the latter.
Not only was Alibaba naïve in regards to his best friend, but also in his way of approaching the case at hand. Admittedly he had thought about, how to fight the dragon, what it might be able to do – besides physical attacks, it probably was able to use magic, but what kind of magic was the question – and how he should and could defend himself against such a mighty beast. However, in his head he totally saw himself capable of defeating the dragon after a long fight, at which end he would barely be injured – a heavy injured man would not look so heroic to a princess, so of course he would look like it had been a piece of cake to take down her captor! Just like in all those fairy tales! This was his fairy tale!
Besides the white rocks, there was hardly anything around. Small lizards and insects, a few flowers and bushes with fruits he didn't know, so he was unsure whether he could eat them or not, was all there was on the island. Not so great. Luckily, he knew how to fish and had saved as much provisions as he could. He couldn't allow himself to be wasteful. The princess needed something to eat as well after being rescued by him and she would probably not be satisfied with nothing but berries. Maybe she was injured by the dragon, so he also should have medicine with him, when he was about to save her. This rose another question in his head: How was he supposed to get her down from this mountain? He needed to climb it up, consequently he needed to climb down afterwards. However, how should he do that with an injured person? Or someone who maybe never climbed a mountain. What if she felt down? No! He should not even think about something like that! He would find a way for her to go down safely!
For now he would rest, so he was full of energy the next day and able to rescue the princess and slay the dragon!
*
The next day came sooner than expected, at least it felt like it was there sooner. It was hard to describe, normally it always felt like an eternity, when one was waiting for something – in this case it was waiting for the next day to start his heroic rescue mission –, but this time it felt as if just a few minutes had passed.
Highly motivated he began to climb up the mountain and it went pretty well. The weather was nice, and the way he had chosen was easy. Still, after hours of climbing up, it appeared like he had barely made any progress. He could not even see the top of the mountain yet. Well, no one ever said that it would be easy to be a hero! And he never expected it to be! But a small sign of progress would be nice, especially since the way got harsher the higher he got. Not unusually, yet annoying. Things got worse when he realized there had been a freaking staircase the whole damn time! It was a coincidence that he happened to climb more to the right, because it seemed easier to move there and by doing so he saw that the place got wider and in the end he saw the staircase. He let out a loud and frustrated scream. Was that real? He wasted so much energy to get up to this point and there had been a god damned staircase all damn the time?
He needed to sit down for a moment. This was too much. Well, it was good that he found it – better later than never, right? The rest of the way to the top would be a piece of cake from now on! However, it was a bit odd. A dragon would not need a staircase, because it could fly and the princess would not need it, because she was hold captive and therefore not allowed to leave the palace, probably not even the room the monster had locked her in. Maybe there was a village at the end of the staircase? Maybe they were also hold captive by the dragon in some way? So, he might also save a village from the monster? That got better and better! His motivation got another boost and so he jumped up on his feet again and started to climb up the stairs! That way bringing down the princess would be no problem at all, no matter whether she was injured or not. He would carry her down, if needed!
In the late afternoon the weather got chillier. Alibaba thought about setting up camp somewhere. It seemed like it would still take some time until he would reach the top – if he ever reached it that is.
However, the second he tried to do that he felt something strange. The air felt electrified and had he just heard a roar? Did this mean that the dragon was near? His heartbeat increased! Nervousness and excitement took over his body. So, it was finally time to meet a mythical creature one no else had seen before – besides king Sinbad. His hand was shaking a bit, but he would not back down now! Now was the time to fight and make the first step in becoming a legendary hero – just like his role model Sinbad, the king of the seven seas!
Never had Alibaba expected a dragon to look like the one in front of him. Never had Alibaba expected that he would forget how to breathe, just because he looked at an unknown creature. Never had Alibaba expected to feel fear and respect, when he saw the mighty creature right in front of his own eyes. Never had Alibaba expected to actually face a real dragon! But here he was, in front of one. One that did not look like the ones in the fairy tales or in the story written by the legendary adventurer Sinbad.
The dragon in front of him was not a bulky creature, with four strong legs and claws, a long neck, two strong, big wings and a long tail. It looked more like a snake with four skinny legs – yes there were claws, but they appeared so wispy compared to what he had imaged. The skin of the dragon was a pure white and his mismatched blue eyes stuck out, especially the left one, which had a lighter blue and the skin around it seemed terrible injured – maybe the work of fire. Alibaba was not so sure, since he only had seen the effect of fire on the human skin once and things may be different for a dragon, or whatever the beast in front of him was. The teeth were sharp and probably killed many people before. Next to his mouth the dragon had a long whisker on each side. Alibaba wondered what they were for. Not that it mattered in the big scheme of things, but that did not diminished his curiosity.
"Leave, human!", the dragon said without opening his mouth.
Maybe this was some kind of magic.
"No, I am here to defeat you and save the princess!", Alibaba declared his intentions.
"There is no princess here! So leave, human! I am not interested in fighting you. I am only interested in living a peaceful life here on my own", the dragon stated.
For a moment Alibaba hesitated. There was no princess? The dragon only wanted to be left alone? Could this really be true? No! Those were just lies! Of course the dragon would deny having kidnapped a princess and acting like he was a nice creature. It was nothing but a lie and Alibaba would not buy it!
"Lies! If you do not want to fight, then let the princess free!", Alibaba claimed.
"There is no princess here and now get lost human!", the dragon growled.
Without any further waste of words Alibaba charged at the dragon, who easily escaped the attack.
The fight was long and exhausting. Alibaba was sure, if this were about to go on for any longer, he would lose due to fatigue. He needed to get out of here or defeat the beast. Until now he had only been able to hurt the right leg and cause some damage on the right side of the body of the dragon, but compared to his own injuries this was nothing.
Just when Alibaba thought about running away, he got the perfect opportunity! The dragon had lowed himself down to the ground near Alibaba and told him to finally give up. A mistake, a giant mistake. Thanks to his upbringing, Alibaba was an extremely agile person. How often had he run away from guards? Or adults that thought somehow it was alright to chase and hurt children? Too often! Some stupid dragon would not have a chance against him in this regards! He had the chance to change things now and he would take it!
With the last bit of his power, Alibaba rammed his sword into the left eye of the dragon, who immediately backed away. Before Alibaba couldn't go after it, because it was already up in the sky – and in great pain! The dragon would not die from that wound, but it would be gravely affected by it and hopefully easier to defeat in case they had to fight against each other again.
As the dragon was out of sight, Alibaba sat down to catch his breath again. He needed a lot of rest!
*
Ever since he was a kid, Hakuryuu loved stories with mystical creatures, especially dragons were to his liking. Maybe this was due to his name, which meant "white dragon". In all the stories the dragon was described as a strong and mighty creature, something he wanted to be! Strong! Strong just like his two older brothers! But he knew better than this, he was a weakling and would never be as great as his brothers, his father or a dragon.
Every night his mother had to read one of the many fairy tales to him, always one with a dragon in it. However, most of them were about a princess being captured by a dragon, which was killed by a prince, who wanted to save the princess. At first he had not cared much about what kind of content the stories had, yet soon he got sick and tired of those fairy tales! Why was the dragon always the bad guy? Who said that the princess didn't order the dragon to kidnap her? Who said that the princess wanted to be rescued? Who said she was treated badly by the dragon? Maybe the dragon was just lonely? Or trying to protect her? Or any other nice reason? The prince never asked, why the dragon did what he did. He just killed the poor thing without mercy or remorse. What a disgusting person! Sadly none of his family members seemed to understand, why he disliked the princes so much. For Hakuryuu the dragon was not a mean creature, just a misunderstood one. The dragon was kidnapping the princess to save her and both became friends! To hell with the whole "the princess falls in love with the prince" crap! This was just the distorted fantasies of the prince that used it to excuse his hideous crime of murder!
Finding a story with a nice dragon in it was nearly impossible. It had been one of the servants that once brought him a self-made book about the friendship between a dragon and the princess, who was kidnapped by it, after she begged while tears streaming down her face. At the end of the story, the prince was defeated by the two. Hakuryuu loved the book and he still had it! Never would he let go of it. It was the first book Hakuryuu had read on his own and the one he used to learn how to read with. His family had made fun of him for his love for this book – he decided that they were just jealous because no one had made a book just for them! The only one, who showed interest in it besides him had been Judar, a boy around his age. Who had thought that such a rude child, who was so full of himself, would love books and could be so nice? Actually Judar had always been nice to him.
Judar was the only one, who never left his side and believed in him!
*
When Hakuryuu returned from his foray around the island, horribly injured, Judar lost it! Who the freaking hell had dared to hurt Hakuryuu like this? Hakuryuu was such a kind person! How could one even think about hurting him? And who the hell even entered this island? Was Al-Thamen, was Kou already on their track? Never mind, someone had dared to horrible injure his best friend and hence that guy had to die!
First things first, Judar treated Hakuryuu's wounds. One of the few things, which was useful, he learned from this creepy organization that abused Ryuu and him until now. Healing magic was not his best, but it was good enough to take care of even server wounds like the one on Hakuryuu's left eye. However, he would prefer it, if a more capable magician or better a physician would take care of the injury.
After he took care of Hakuryuu, Judar left the palace at the top of the mountain. With his magic and rage he called forth a storm, because whoever was that filthy trash that injured Hakuryuu, was probably injured as well and hiding somewhere. But there was no way that the person could hide from the cold and rain. If they did not die by Judar's hand, they would at least die due to the weather! And death was all that piece of shit deserved! Judar was a man, who did not know mercy!
Judar followed the staircases down until he reached the place were something red was spread on the ground. Hakuryuu's blood! His rage increased! The culprit must still be around here, so all he had to do was some searching. And so he did. It did not took long until he actually found someone. A blond guy with a strange hairstyle, but that was irrelevant. That asshole had hurt Ryuu and therefore he had to pay with his worthless life! But before that guy would bite the dust, he would suffer greatly! A sadistic smile appeared on Judar's face. Yeah, that guy was doomed!
"Found you, trash!"
Startled by the sudden voice behind him, Alibaba turned around and felt over, when he saw Judar. He hadn't expected to meet another person here. Furthermore, Judar appearance was not something usual. Long black hair, blood red eyes, pale skin and a terrifying smile.
"Who are you?"
"None of your business. You're the ass, who injured Ryuu and you will now pay for it!"
With this Judar casted an ice spell, which caused several ice spears to appeared and threw them in Alibaba's direction. It was mere luck that none of them hit the blond boy. Shortly before Judar had shown up, Alibaba had taken care of his wounds, but this didn't mean that he was magically well again. He was still tired and his movements were slow. Every move hurt severely. All he could do was running away from the attacks, but not for long. Even hiding behind rocks was no solution and it seemed like the guy was neither running out of energy nor had any intention to say what the hell was wrong with him. Was that Judar person a friend of the dragon? Probably, he had said something about hurting Ryuu. Was Ryuu the name of the dragon? It would make sense, because the beast was the only one Alibaba had hurt, while being here and that Judar guy showed up after the injured dragon left to the top. Was the dragon maybe an underling of that guy? In some of the fairy tales there was a bad guy, most of the time a magician or ruler of the opposing country, who ordered a dragon to steal the princess away to marry her himself and gain power by doing so or fulfilling his pervert, disgusting desires. This could be the case here as well. Well, Judar did not seem to be a ruler, but he was definitely a magician, a strong one by that. No matter how many times he was able to dodge one of the ice spears from Judar, the next attack was already on its way. In the end, Alibaba was thrown against one of the many rocks and did not get up again. He could hear Judar's laugh.
"Serves you right, scum! You should have thought about, what you were doing, before touching and even injuring my Ryuu! Now die!"
All he had wanted to do was to save the princess. Well, he was not a hero like Sinbad. He was just a slum kid. It was sad that he could not even say "goodbye" or "thank you" to his friends, but this was how the adventurer business was.
*
The last time Judar had seen Hakuryuu all in bandages had been after the fire incident in which the former emperor and his two oldest sons died. Well, the emperor had been murdered before, but still people associated this event with the murder of the emperor too.
Back then Hakuryuu had survived after fighting death for about two month. Those two months had been the worst and longest two months in Judar's life. All those uncomfortable and horrible feelings and memories came back by looking at the sleeping figure of Hakuryuu.
Judar had messed up a new spell and Hakuryuu, who had happened to be around at that point, was the one, who got caught in it. Thanks to the spell Hakuryuu was able to turn into a dragon. At first both had not seen much of an opportunity in it and Hakuryuu had even been more scared by it, while Judar thought it was amazing. But since Hakuryuu could not change forms by will and after he had returned into a human again, both did not pay much attention to this accident and were happy that apparently no one else knew about it. Years later Hakuryuu brought it up again.
He had always loved those stories with dragons in them and his favorite was one with a friendship between a dragon and a princess. Hakuryuu was a prince, so no one would came and save or protect him from his abusive family. But maybe a dragon would hear his desperate cry for help. Hakuryuu wanted to be his own dragon! There was no one else, who would take that role. Of course, Judar had laughed at this idea at first, but soon did go with it. His magic had improved since the little transformation accident and so Hakuryuu was then able to switch between his dragon and human self as much as he wanted. With this new ability they left the Kou Empire and hid on this isolated island in the sea territory of Sindria – an opposing country of the Kou Empire. Until now the current emperor did not have the guts to make a move against Sindria and its alliance.
Seeing Hakuryuu like this, hurt so much that Judar just wanted to destroy something. Just beating up that asshole was not enough. Why had that guy even attacked Hakuryuu in the first place? Thinking about it, would not bring him an answer and it was too much for him anyway.
While he had been out, the medicine Hakuryuu had taken seemed to have already taken affect. During their time here Hakuryuu had taught himself about medicine and healing plants. He had done so in the palace of Kou as well, yet he had been freer here, where no one was having an eye on him. Well, he would probably not wake up until the next day. To make sure that he would not miss anything – what if Hakuryuu woke up and needed something – Judar decided to stay at his friend's side for the night. There was enough space for him right next to Hakuryuu, who would probably not have problem with Judar sleeping next to him. They had done so multiple times before and lately they had even done things like randomly holding hands and just yesterday Judar had gotten a "thank you" kiss from Ryuu, so sharing a bed should not be a problem. They were best friends after all, right? Judar hoped for more, but considering how Ryuu was, he should not hope for more too much. He should be happy with what he had and with what he got.
Tenderly Judar stroke a few strands of hair out of Hakuryuu's pale face – Hakuryuu had lost a lot of blood –, while holding the hand of the latter. There was nothing else he could do at the moment anyway. Tomorrow he would use more of his healing magic to speed up the healing process, but they had to be patient, because too much healing magic could also be harmful. Moreover, Judar was tired after using so much magic for causing the storm, fighting this blond guy and healing Hakuryuu. He deserved some rest, right?
When he woke up a few days later – he had spent the nights in his own room – and entered Hakuryuu's room to check on him, he felt like he had stumbled to a nightmare. How long had he been asleep? Or had the days passed without him noticing? Had he been too busy with worrying about Hakuryuu's wellbeing that he did not realize how many day had gone by? All he knew was that this disgusting thing, falsely called a human, was standing in Hakuryuu's bedroom, while Judar had been out to get more medicine and some food, and was touching Ryuu's pale face with that filthy hands. What was that guy doing here – why was he still alive – and more importantly, what was this guy doing with Hakuryuu? What was this guy thinking? Hurting Hakuryuu and now acting all tenderly and like he knew him and cared for him!
"Take your filthy hands away from him, scum!", Judar shouted.
If it wasn't for Hakuryuu, Judar had already used his magic to take care of that insolent brat.
Alibaba turned around.
"You! What have you done to the princess?"
Princess? What princess? What the hell was wrong with that guy?
"What the hell are you talking about? First you hurt Ryuu and now you shout nonsense about a princess? What is wrong with you! Get lost!"
From all the shouting, Hakuryuu woke up. His head felt heavy and he was a bit dizzy, but it was not hard to understand what was going on around him with Judar and the blond guy being here. Somehow the guy from a while ago had made his way up to the top and into the palace.
"Stop shouting you two. My head hurts!"
Maybe he could tell this guy to leave, while being in his human form. Maybe the guy would listen now. Hakuryuu did not want to kill anyone. He just wanted to live in peace after all those years oppressed by his own family – people he thought loved him, but actually never cared about him from the very beginning.
All eyes were on Hakuryuu now.
"Who are you?", he asked the stranger.
"I am Alibaba Saluja", Alibaba introduced himself. "And you are?"
"I am Ren Hakuryuu and the guy over there is Judar. We live here for quite some time now and we would like it, if it stays that way without anyone disturbing our peaceful life here. Therefore, I would like to ask you, Alibaba Saluja, to leave this island and keep our presence here to yourself."
Hakuryuu sat himself up, but he could not suppress a painful inhaling. He needed some painkillers.
"Well, I am here to save you from the dragon and his owner, princess. You do not need to stay here, I am capable of saving you, so do not fear for my safety. "
Alibaba was sure that the princess was trying to save him by acting as if her captor and she were friends. Maybe this Judar guy was threating her with hurting her or people she loved, if she left.
"Princess? Um, I am a guy. I am not a princess. And there is no princess here. If you do not believe me, you can take a look around, but besides Judar and me ... well and you, you won't find anyone here", Hakuryuu suggested.
Alibaba looked shocked. Which was not surprising, considering that he probably had a long way behind him to get here with the hope of saving a princess, but all he got was two guys and an almost death.
"No, no, no ... The rumors ... Even the Kou soldiers were talking about a kidnapped princess of their country ...", Alibaba stopped himself. The soldiers were talking about a child of the empress, but never specified the gender of said child. How stupid of him! He had jumped to conclusions without enough information. This was so typical for him.
"But why are you here? Why should a dragon kidnap a prince? And what role does this Judar guy play here? And the dragon? And ... and ...", Alibaba was confused and somewhat overwhelmed.
"Listen: There is no princess! I was not kidnapped! I am the dragon! The dragon that lost an eye, because you rammed your sword into his eye, despite being asked to leave and let me live in peace. The Kou Empire is after us, because we do not agree with all the bullshit they're pulling. Judar and I am been through enough, so please accept that the rumors were just that: rumors. I am sorry that you wasted so much time here and that Judar had hurt you like this. If you want, you can stay here until you are fine again. However, it would be nice, if you keep everything to yourself."
Hakuryuu did his best to stay polite, which was extremely hard considering the fact that Alibaba just had tried to kill him, even when he only wanted to do so, because he thought Hakuryuu was a bad dragon – oh, how he hated such idiots! The dragon was not the villain, it was the prince! Alibaba was just proof of this theory!
Despite the awkward atmosphere between the three of them, Alibaba indeed stayed at the palace and took a look around. He simply could not believe that he had been so wrong – also he really needed some rest and prepare for his departure.
*
Many fairy tales were about a princess being locked away by a dragon, but no one had told Alibaba that the princess was the most handsome and most beautiful boy he would ever meet in his life. No one had told him that the "princess" was her own dragon and guarding "herself" from her own family.
Judar never had cared much about books and listening to others telling stories was annoying and boring, yet he loved the story Hakuryuu loved so much. The fairy tale of a dragon kidnapping a princess to protect her from her family. Hakuryuu always had this light in his eyes, when he read the book. And later it was the reason, why they escaped from their lives in the palace. The Kou palace was not a home for them anymore, it was a prison – a golden cage. Judar wasn't sure which role he had, he wasn't the dragon neither was he the princess. Hakuryuu was both, the dragon and the princess. Maybe he was just here to ensure that the dragon and the princess stayed save – that Hakuryuu was fine, happy and alive. Maybe he was the magic inside all those fairy tales. Without magic all those fairy tales would not exist, would not work!
After all his wounds were healed and finally understood what was going on – Hakuryuu being a human and a dragon, running away together with his best friend Judar from his family and hiding here – Alibaba left again. He hadn't slayed a dragon nor rescued a princess, but he would at least bring back a huge bag full with gold. Better than nothing. During the days he had spent with Hakuryuu and Judar, he had started to like Hakuryuu very much – it was hard to get the boy out of his mind –, but he did not get along with Judar, who also seemed to dislike him a lot. Alibaba was a naïve man. A long life had been ahead of him, if he had not been led by his desire to become a hero.
A secret was kept the best, when those, who knew about it, were dead. And so Alibaba never shall reach the harbor of Balbadd, while Hakuryuu and Judar would live a peaceful life on their island for many years. A dragon was not the villain in a fairy tale, it was the prince – unfortunately, fairy tales were made up by those alive and so only the distorted fantasies of the prince and his idiotic followers would find their way onto paper.
At least Hakuryuu and Judar knew the truth.