the tale of the real dragon heart.

                                                 

So the Princess screwed up. She knew it.

There was nothing more she could do - she already did and revealed too much. So she ran through the forest, leaves swooshing behind her feet. She ran through the fields, wet grass stroking her knees. She ran furiously and accelerating, escaping her thoughts.

Finally, she arrived at the end of the kingdom, where the cold stream marked the border to the foreign land. She stood at the river bed and looked into the dark water. It was cold November and little snow flakes were falling from the sky, soft and shy, melting like silent tears on the cheeks when they met the earth. The misty air was full of these tears and they filtered through the skin and reached the Princess' silent heart. But she was not able to cry.

The Princess was probably no longer even a Princess anymore. Her sorrows and irritations drained her mood over the past few months, they drew on her temper and forced her to build up a hard shell around herself, so that nobody could touch and break the soul that was inside. Day by day she was facing anger, hatred and ignorance, feeling it with every fibre and every muscle when she moved. Feeling it with the bones of her spine when she turned away. And worse of it all - she did not understand what she has done wrong... 

It all started almost out of blue. She lost a friend and with that, she lost many others. Those who, for a long time, have been her place to go to, turned away. Others did not arrive. And apart from being alone, she was falling into complete emptiness - fast and unavoidable.Her always shiny smile turned into a bitter grin. Her sparkling eyes lost their glow. Her hands were cold. She tried to keep her mood together. But when the stones that hit her did not seize but became heavier and heavier - she lost it. She snapped and she cried. She found no halt anywhere she ran. She was a person she no longer recognised - grim and bitter, desperate for any kind of affirmation. She was afraid of going home because even her beloved Prince and the little son were not safe from her temper. 

How could she ever serve an example for her little child? What would he see in her that he would want to become and follow? That is why the fields and the leaves were greeting her.


She was not allowed on the other side of the stream - for there were foreign grounds and no longer she knew what lay outside of the kingdom. But the stones in her soul weighed her down so much that she knelt towards the water, fell down and let the stream carry her. 

She reached the other side and her feet touched the foreign soil. She started walking.The trees thinned, the ground plateaued and the Princess found herself in the middle of nowhere. The snow fell heavier and soon everything went white - the field, the grass and herself. It was day but the light was weary and ghostly. Only two little sparks were shining far away and she set on towards them. Once they grew bigger, she recognised a shape around. 

It was a big creature lying in the middle of snowy landscape, massive in itself, wings spread wide, legs crossed underneath, head on the paws, sparkling gold eyes wide open, looking inside her soul. 

It was a Dragon.

She stood in front of him, not afraid, only empty. 

After a long silence, she said:

- You must know, dragons do not exist.

- I am aware of that fact, yes, - said the Dragon.

- I came here because I knew nowhere else to go.

- I know that, too.

Then he rose one paw and she saw the sharp claws spreading. But she was still not afraid. She stood still and looked him in the eye. 

She saw there, in the deep golden sea the baby Princess being born, her parents happy around the small girl, she saw her lying on her back in the summer flowers, looking to the sky. She saw her growing up and chasing the unknown, leaving her home, finding friends and enemies, learning other languages and perfecting her skills. She saw her meeting the Prince, living their live together. She saw her son being born and his sky-blue eyes looking at her the first time. She saw her happiness and her fears, she heard the funny jokes and the sad songs of her life. 

And that is when she felt her face wet under all the tears that drained silently from her eyes full of memories. So the Dragon's claws turned away from her and reached into his chest. The Princess gasped as she saw the sharp claws drilling through the Dragon's bony scales, inside the centuries-thick skin, golden blood streaming out between his joints. And then he drew something in his paw and opened it in front of her face. It was his golden heart, heavy and dead as a stone, but glowing with fierce heat like a stove.

And the Princess' tears fell onto the Dragon's naked heart like water meeting fire, and steam rose into the snowy air as the stone began to soften. It lit from within and started beating, the smoke got thicker and swirled around the golden heart. It surrounded both the Princess and the Dragon and nothing else could be seen in the snowy fields.

But this is not the end of the fairytale. 

Because as the smoke cleared, two shapes could be seen in the twilight. It was the Princess riding on the Dragon. She was flying free as she left behind the warmly lit window of her cosy home. 

She will miss it. 

And she will come back. 

But for now, she was flying towards the unknown empty space that was scaring her before and that now felt so inviting, however unknown it might be. This world carried new happiness, new songs to sing and a new friend to arrive - and the Princess was safe on her Dragon. His golden heart was now beating alive in his chest, carrying both the wisdom of the old and the tears of the young, just how it should be for a Dragon heart to come alive. 

And as the Princess was moving forward, she knew that her little son was watching out of their warmly lit house window, looking into the sky, where two shapes were flying towards the horizon. 

And she knew that on his own time, with his own dragon - he will follow.