Cara
8
Caralee Augustina Eudoxia of the House of Lisea kept her head up as she was lead into the garden. So far, she was actually enjoying the trip into the Capitol. Everyone was very nice to her, and no one had looked twice at any of her dresses. She was even excited to see the dragon. It had eaten her father, sure, but she wasn't going to hold that against it.
"If it pleases Your Majesty," they were announced, "Overlord of the Northern Mountains, Scourge of the Skies Above Seven Kingdoms, Demon of the Winter Winds, Slayer of Tyrants and Merciful King of Aeris—one of your knights brings news from the House of Lisea, whose Count you have recently deposed."
The garden... was a mess. Dirt all clawed up into irregular piles, barely any lawn to speak of. There were stacks of burnt detritus, and woody twigs jutting out of the ground. Amidst it all was a dragon, massive in size, white with black horns and curled wings.
Cara gave her best curtsy as her escort bowed. "Your Majesty," the knight said. Cara continued looking at the dragon. It was too big to give a proper sense of scale, and looked unreal. "I'm afraid the Count of Lisea left a daughter." He gestured to Cara, who curtsied again.
A great blue eye fixed onto her, pupil a black line.
"The Count of Lisea was a widower," the knight continued. "He left no other family."
"I am Caralee Augustina Eudoxia," Cara recited with yet another curtsy. "It is an honor to meet you." She stood, and pushed her glasses higher.
"Hmm." The great head bowed down to sniff at her. She smothered a giggle as it fluttered her skirts. Then the dragon sat back up. "There are many rooms in this castle," the King decided. "You may stay here. Does this satisfy you?"
"Yes, Your Majesty," Cara said with another curtsy.
Cara was dissatisfied.
Now that the novelty was wearing off, she was getting bored of wandering freely around the castle. The servants were nice, and so was the library. The King let her have as many dresses as she wanted.
Still. This didn't feel right.
"If it pleases Your Majesty," she was announced into the garden, "Overlord of the Northern Mountains, Scourge of the Skies Above Seven Kingdoms, Demon of the Winter Winds, Slayer of Tyrants and Merciful King of Aeris—the Lady Caralee Augustina Eudoxia begs an audience."
The King had dug a hole in the garden large enough that he could fit inside of it. The dirt looked slightly more landscaped as rain smoothed out the edges, but there still wasn't much growing. There was a single lonely tree that had clearly been picked up, full-grown, and moved there.
The King was sitting in his hole.
Cara curtsied. "Your Majesty," she said, "I need school."
"School," he repeated.
"I'm little," she said. "I'm supposed to be in school, learning things."
"What would you like to learn?"
"I don't know," she said, annoyed. "I haven't learned it."
"There are books," he offered.
"I don't know which ones I'm supposed to read." She crossed her arms over her chest.
"Whichever ones you would like?"
"That's not how learning works," she insisted.
He tilted his head to the side, but she would not be moved. Even if it made him look like a confused dog.
"I will consider your petition," he said.
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
"If it pleases Your Majesty—"
Cara pushed past the man announcing her entry into the throne room. "I made you a cake," she declared, holding a silver tray.
The King had been curled up and sleeping on a proverbial mountain of gold, piled high where the throne had once been. He blinked at her.
"You have to try it," she said, carefully walking closer with the cake.
"Do I?"
"It's my first one," she said. "You have to tell me if it's good."
The King came slinking down off the hoard of gold, doing her the kindness of meeting her halfway instead of waiting for her small legs to carry her the whole length of the room. She set the tray onto the floor. She knew the cake was a bit lopsided, but she didn't think he'd be able to tell from up there. As long as it tasted good, it didn't matter, anyway. The raw batter had been good. She'd eaten a lot of it.
The King dragged a claw along the edge of the cake, and licked it.
"Bad," he declared.
"You're supposed to lie!" Cara complained. "You have to tell me I did good so I don't get discouraged."
"It is bad," he said again. The tip of his claw pushed the tray closer to her. "You will make a better one, next time."
Cara burst in the door, her hand over her eyes. There was a high-pitched scream.
"Some of us are trying to sleep!" she shouted into the room. She separated her fingers enough to see through them.
"Cara," the man in the bed said, "that was very rude." He was, fortunately, underneath the blanket. She squinted, because she recognized his voice.
"Your Majesty," she scolded.
"Yes?"
"I'm a growing girl! I need my sleep, to grow! You need to use a different room."
"What a disrespectful child," he sniffed.
"I'm going back to bed," she said. "If I have nightmares, it's going to be all your fault." She stomped back out of the room, and into her own, slamming the door behind her and climbing under the comforter. She was fully prepared to put a pillow over her head, but the yelling did not resume. She drowsed.
She woke again when light came streaming in through her door, pressing against her eyelids before disappearing. When she opened her eyes, there were eyes looking back at her in the dark, glowing in the moonlight.
"Did you have a nightmare?" the King asked matter-of-factly.
"Not yet," she scowled.
Her bed moved as he sat down at the edge of it. "I'll wait here, then," he said.
"That won't help."
"It will," he said. "I'm a dragon." His skin was as pale as his scales, and he was wearing a crown on his head.
"So?"
"We eat dreams."
"Bad dreams?"
"Whatever dreams we want."
She wrapped herself tighter in her blanket. "I don't believe you."
"I don't care."
She stuck her tongue out at him, but he only did it back. Eventually, finally, she managed to sleep.
"Gareth," Cara called, grabbing onto his arm. Gareth didn't stop walking, and instead carried her along, looking up from his book.
"Yes, Lady Eudoxia?"
"Are you coming to my birthday party?"
"Am I invited?"
"Obviously."
"Then of course I'm coming," he said.
"Tell Grilka ey has to come, too."
"Why not tell em yourself?"
"Ey's avoiding me because I kept climbing on em and ey's not allowed to bite me."
"Aaah." Gareth nodded. "I'll let em know."
The King took a suspicious bite of cake. Cara watched him intently as he chewed.
"Acceptable," he said finally.
"Good," she said, taking a slice of the cake Gareth had made her instead. The King watched her with narrowed eyes. "Am I still going to be a countess someday?" she asked. "Or am I already a countess, because you ate the Count? Or am I a princess, because you're my dad now?"
He froze.
"That's how it works, right? If your dad is the King, that makes you a princess? Or is it different because I'm adopted?"
"If you were a princess," he said slowly, "I think that I would have to put you in a tower." She nodded sagely, licking her fork. "You are of my nest, then?"
She didn't know what that meant, but assumed he was just phrasing things weird because he was a dragon again. "Yes," she said.
"Should there not be a ritual, or a ceremony?"
She frowned. She didn't actually know what adoption entailed, aside from her deciding that the King was her new dad. Tentatively, she held out her pinky. After a brief delay, the King did the same. She curled her pinky around his, and pulled a little until he curled his finger also. She tried to think of some good adoption ceremony words.
"You're my dad now," she said.
He nodded seriously.
12
The end of the King's snout poked into the tree where Cara was hiding. "Who will I eat?" he asked.
She sniffled, rubbing at her eyes. "No one," she snapped. "It's stupid."
He turned his head to look through the leaves, but clearly wasn't going to let her be. "I will fix it."
"You can't fix it."
"I am a dragon."
This was not the clever rebuttal he seemed to think it was. She gnawed on her lip. "I'm cursed," she said finally.
"When was this?"
"When I was born. It was an evil sorcerer. He cursed me, so on my thirteenth birthday I'm going to turn into a boy."
"Hmm." He thought this over while she stared at her skirt. "I can break a curse."
She flushed. "It's not that kind of curse," she said. "It's the kind that just... makes it seem like I'm a boy already."
The King sat down beside her tree as he mulled this over.
"Insidious," he said finally.
"Yeah," she said. "It was a really evil sorcerer."
"I can break a curse," he said. "I am a dragon."
The King burst into Gareth's workshop. "Gareth!" he said. "You're a half-wizard!"
"That's... not really how that works," Gareth said, sliding his goggles up onto his forehead. His charge had moved to put the table between himself and the King.
"I need your wizard blood."
"What."
"If I had a human girl," he said, gesturing as he spoke, "and I wanted to make it into a human boy, is there a spell for that?"
"I'm not telling you that."
"I am the King of Aeris, and my word is law," he reminded him impatiently. "Give me your skill as a half-wizard."
"That's really not how that works," he said.
The King burst into Cara's room without knocking. She was fretting over a math textbook. He dropped a box on top of it.
"Your Majesty," Gareth said wearily from the door.
"I have broken your curse," the King announced. "He helped."
Cara looked warily at the box. The King opened it eagerly for her, revealing a massive set of small glowing vials.
"Explain to her how it works," the King said, because he didn't know how it worked.
"Take the first one at the next full moon," he said, stifling a yawn. "Then another every day after that, at the same time. Take the last one at the following full moon, and then you're done."
She stared. "That's it?"
"It's not perfect," Gareth warned. "It's not a transformation spell, it won't—you won't shapeshift, any more than you would normally... you know how puberty works."
"Oh, clouds, yes, don't explain it to me, yuck."
"Okay, good," Gareth sighed. "It will change how your body grows, it won't change anything you already have. Right?"
"Right."
"We can figure out other spells for that, if you want," Gareth said. "For now, this will take care of your... curse."
She blushed, staring at the vials.
"I told you I could fix it," the King preened.
She hugged him suddenly around the waist. "Thank you, Dad."
He patted awkwardly at her hair.
"If it pleases Your Majesty," they were announced, "Overlord of the Northern Mountains, Scourge of the Skies Above Seven Kingdoms, Demon of the Winter Winds, Slayer of Tyrants and Merciful King of Aeris—one of your knights brings news from the House of Lisea, whose Count you have recently deposed."
The garden... was a mess. Dirt all clawed up into irregular piles, barely any lawn to speak of. There were stacks of burnt detritus, and woody twigs jutting out of the ground. Amidst it all was a dragon, massive in size, white with black horns and curled wings.
Cara gave her best curtsy as her escort bowed. "Your Majesty," the knight said. Cara continued looking at the dragon. It was too big to give a proper sense of scale, and looked unreal. "I'm afraid the Count of Lisea left a daughter." He gestured to Cara, who curtsied again.
A great blue eye fixed onto her, pupil a black line.
"The Count of Lisea was a widower," the knight continued. "He left no other family."
"I am Caralee Augustina Eudoxia," Cara recited with yet another curtsy. "It is an honor to meet you." She stood, and pushed her glasses higher.
"Hmm." The great head bowed down to sniff at her. She smothered a giggle as it fluttered her skirts. Then the dragon sat back up. "There are many rooms in this castle," the King decided. "You may stay here. Does this satisfy you?"
"Yes, Your Majesty," Cara said with another curtsy.
Cara was dissatisfied.
Now that the novelty was wearing off, she was getting bored of wandering freely around the castle. The servants were nice, and so was the library. The King let her have as many dresses as she wanted.
Still. This didn't feel right.
"If it pleases Your Majesty," she was announced into the garden, "Overlord of the Northern Mountains, Scourge of the Skies Above Seven Kingdoms, Demon of the Winter Winds, Slayer of Tyrants and Merciful King of Aeris—the Lady Caralee Augustina Eudoxia begs an audience."
The King had dug a hole in the garden large enough that he could fit inside of it. The dirt looked slightly more landscaped as rain smoothed out the edges, but there still wasn't much growing. There was a single lonely tree that had clearly been picked up, full-grown, and moved there.
The King was sitting in his hole.
Cara curtsied. "Your Majesty," she said, "I need school."
"School," he repeated.
"I'm little," she said. "I'm supposed to be in school, learning things."
"What would you like to learn?"
"I don't know," she said, annoyed. "I haven't learned it."
"There are books," he offered.
"I don't know which ones I'm supposed to read." She crossed her arms over her chest.
"Whichever ones you would like?"
"That's not how learning works," she insisted.
He tilted his head to the side, but she would not be moved. Even if it made him look like a confused dog.
"I will consider your petition," he said.
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
"If it pleases Your Majesty—"
Cara pushed past the man announcing her entry into the throne room. "I made you a cake," she declared, holding a silver tray.
The King had been curled up and sleeping on a proverbial mountain of gold, piled high where the throne had once been. He blinked at her.
"You have to try it," she said, carefully walking closer with the cake.
"Do I?"
"It's my first one," she said. "You have to tell me if it's good."
The King came slinking down off the hoard of gold, doing her the kindness of meeting her halfway instead of waiting for her small legs to carry her the whole length of the room. She set the tray onto the floor. She knew the cake was a bit lopsided, but she didn't think he'd be able to tell from up there. As long as it tasted good, it didn't matter, anyway. The raw batter had been good. She'd eaten a lot of it.
The King dragged a claw along the edge of the cake, and licked it.
"Bad," he declared.
"You're supposed to lie!" Cara complained. "You have to tell me I did good so I don't get discouraged."
"It is bad," he said again. The tip of his claw pushed the tray closer to her. "You will make a better one, next time."
9
Cara burst in the door, her hand over her eyes. There was a high-pitched scream.
"Some of us are trying to sleep!" she shouted into the room. She separated her fingers enough to see through them.
"Cara," the man in the bed said, "that was very rude." He was, fortunately, underneath the blanket. She squinted, because she recognized his voice.
"Your Majesty," she scolded.
"Yes?"
"I'm a growing girl! I need my sleep, to grow! You need to use a different room."
"What a disrespectful child," he sniffed.
"I'm going back to bed," she said. "If I have nightmares, it's going to be all your fault." She stomped back out of the room, and into her own, slamming the door behind her and climbing under the comforter. She was fully prepared to put a pillow over her head, but the yelling did not resume. She drowsed.
She woke again when light came streaming in through her door, pressing against her eyelids before disappearing. When she opened her eyes, there were eyes looking back at her in the dark, glowing in the moonlight.
"Did you have a nightmare?" the King asked matter-of-factly.
"Not yet," she scowled.
Her bed moved as he sat down at the edge of it. "I'll wait here, then," he said.
"That won't help."
"It will," he said. "I'm a dragon." His skin was as pale as his scales, and he was wearing a crown on his head.
"So?"
"We eat dreams."
"Bad dreams?"
"Whatever dreams we want."
She wrapped herself tighter in her blanket. "I don't believe you."
"I don't care."
She stuck her tongue out at him, but he only did it back. Eventually, finally, she managed to sleep.
"Gareth," Cara called, grabbing onto his arm. Gareth didn't stop walking, and instead carried her along, looking up from his book.
"Yes, Lady Eudoxia?"
"Are you coming to my birthday party?"
"Am I invited?"
"Obviously."
"Then of course I'm coming," he said.
"Tell Grilka ey has to come, too."
"Why not tell em yourself?"
"Ey's avoiding me because I kept climbing on em and ey's not allowed to bite me."
"Aaah." Gareth nodded. "I'll let em know."
The King took a suspicious bite of cake. Cara watched him intently as he chewed.
"Acceptable," he said finally.
"Good," she said, taking a slice of the cake Gareth had made her instead. The King watched her with narrowed eyes. "Am I still going to be a countess someday?" she asked. "Or am I already a countess, because you ate the Count? Or am I a princess, because you're my dad now?"
He froze.
"That's how it works, right? If your dad is the King, that makes you a princess? Or is it different because I'm adopted?"
"If you were a princess," he said slowly, "I think that I would have to put you in a tower." She nodded sagely, licking her fork. "You are of my nest, then?"
She didn't know what that meant, but assumed he was just phrasing things weird because he was a dragon again. "Yes," she said.
"Should there not be a ritual, or a ceremony?"
She frowned. She didn't actually know what adoption entailed, aside from her deciding that the King was her new dad. Tentatively, she held out her pinky. After a brief delay, the King did the same. She curled her pinky around his, and pulled a little until he curled his finger also. She tried to think of some good adoption ceremony words.
"You're my dad now," she said.
He nodded seriously.
12
The end of the King's snout poked into the tree where Cara was hiding. "Who will I eat?" he asked.
She sniffled, rubbing at her eyes. "No one," she snapped. "It's stupid."
He turned his head to look through the leaves, but clearly wasn't going to let her be. "I will fix it."
"You can't fix it."
"I am a dragon."
This was not the clever rebuttal he seemed to think it was. She gnawed on her lip. "I'm cursed," she said finally.
"When was this?"
"When I was born. It was an evil sorcerer. He cursed me, so on my thirteenth birthday I'm going to turn into a boy."
"Hmm." He thought this over while she stared at her skirt. "I can break a curse."
She flushed. "It's not that kind of curse," she said. "It's the kind that just... makes it seem like I'm a boy already."
The King sat down beside her tree as he mulled this over.
"Insidious," he said finally.
"Yeah," she said. "It was a really evil sorcerer."
"I can break a curse," he said. "I am a dragon."
The King burst into Gareth's workshop. "Gareth!" he said. "You're a half-wizard!"
"That's... not really how that works," Gareth said, sliding his goggles up onto his forehead. His charge had moved to put the table between himself and the King.
"I need your wizard blood."
"What."
"If I had a human girl," he said, gesturing as he spoke, "and I wanted to make it into a human boy, is there a spell for that?"
"I'm not telling you that."
"I am the King of Aeris, and my word is law," he reminded him impatiently. "Give me your skill as a half-wizard."
"That's really not how that works," he said.
The King burst into Cara's room without knocking. She was fretting over a math textbook. He dropped a box on top of it.
"Your Majesty," Gareth said wearily from the door.
"I have broken your curse," the King announced. "He helped."
Cara looked warily at the box. The King opened it eagerly for her, revealing a massive set of small glowing vials.
"Explain to her how it works," the King said, because he didn't know how it worked.
"Take the first one at the next full moon," he said, stifling a yawn. "Then another every day after that, at the same time. Take the last one at the following full moon, and then you're done."
She stared. "That's it?"
"It's not perfect," Gareth warned. "It's not a transformation spell, it won't—you won't shapeshift, any more than you would normally... you know how puberty works."
"Oh, clouds, yes, don't explain it to me, yuck."
"Okay, good," Gareth sighed. "It will change how your body grows, it won't change anything you already have. Right?"
"Right."
"We can figure out other spells for that, if you want," Gareth said. "For now, this will take care of your... curse."
She blushed, staring at the vials.
"I told you I could fix it," the King preened.
She hugged him suddenly around the waist. "Thank you, Dad."
He patted awkwardly at her hair.
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