"Ignis, stay," Archer commanded, silver eyes locked on the dragon's.

The deep orange of its eyes seemed to smolder in defience as it crawled forward. Ignis paused, waiting to see what Archer would do.

"Ignis, stay."

The dragon stopped midstep, eyes wide, muscles taut and rib cage rapidly expanding and contracting. After all, if the dragon wouldn't obey, then Archer was going to make him.

"I'm stronger than you. We don't have to do this the hard way."

The dragon growled, but its attempt at intimidation was laughable. It blinked, growl dying away. His eyes were no longer orange--but silver.

“Boss!”

The blacksmith looked up from the his work with annoyance. “Have you brought that bag of coke, Brin?”

“Sorry, sir. I… I was… There’s a man… in the village.”

“A man? So what?”

“The rain’s not touching him!”

“Enough fairy tales! Get that coke, boy! NOW!”

“But”

“The last warlock died centuries ago. Go!”

Brin rushed out, bracing himself against the downpour.

* * *

The man turned to look back at the village. He raised his hands, uttered some words and a dome erupted from its centre repelling all the water. Then the first houses began to burn.

Fairies are real, this I know, the fairy, Fae, was very beautiful and well adored. She was the queen of all fairies and very smart, she was also fun and wins everyones heart. The queen needs a king, she needs a quick engagment. There is Hertho, Sterling, Chancy, Yosef, none of them honorable enough. She needs a man suited to sit by her on the throne. Why must she conjoin, why do they force? Does her monarch have to be fairy? Hmmm, she will research deeper, into another realm. Maybe the parallel fairy realm? The concept of eternity, additional time...

For years, ever since Lord Evant became the dungeon’s sole leader, Drakons had taken the place of soldiers in taking care of the prisoners. The soldiers were understandably disgruntled with their jobs being replaced be mere animals, but no one was more disgruntled than the leader of the Drakons, Fali. He hated humans more than anything, and viewed them as inferior, so working for them, in his eyes, was practically slavery.

But he did it anyway, for the survival of his species.

“Erid! Erid, there’s a problem!” The elderly Drakon looked up.

Helka crouched upon the frozen mountain peak, watching her Zilant soar beneath her on red gold wings, proud scaled head tilted toward the double suns. Helka gave the low, long whistle that would summon Nikeet to her side. Helka mounted and together they surveyed the glittering kingdom below.

It was time for change. Rescuing distressed damsels and winning endless wars had long been the purview of men, but for Helka and Nikeet it was rote. The last enemy had fallen, peace reigned once again.

They swooped into the encroaching twilight, it was time to remind them who was in charge.

I’d been sweeping the top floor of the mill and I saw what happened the day they ran Handsy Hands out of town. The day Floridias’ daughter ran screaming with blood on her legs to her father, There was no councill meeting, no wise women, they turned as one and simply drove him out, down, down onto green swathe by the river.

We’d all been told never to go there, that hidden by the grass, the swamp would swallow us whole.

But I saw the gray grabbing fingers, the blank eyes and the fangs as the mouths opened to bite

As the hourly bell rang, Elianna slipped

into the stables. She traversed carefully across the golden strands of hay littering the dirt floor, locks of blonde hair whipping around as Elianna observed the stalls surrounding her. Eventually, she made it to the right stable. As soon as Elianna stepped into the spacious stall, her dragon, Almiria, bounded over. The large creature’s snout nuzzled Elianna’s neck, the cerulean scales scraping her tan skin. She patted Almiria’s bowed head, murmuring, “Don’t worry, Girl. We’ll leave tonight. Neither of us will have to suffer any longer.” The dragon crooned softly, and Elianna smiled.

"You know that I can't give up," Atlas began to laugh. "I'll fight until by last breath to defend this land."

"You've exhausted yourself, your magic is weak. Your feeble attempt to push back my army will fade, it's only a matter of a time."

"You know, we used to be brothers. We used to fight side by side conquering kingdoms! Even Zeus himself feared our wrath!"

"That was a lifetime ago."

"I've always wanted to take you on one on one." A smile began to creep on both of their faces.

"Likewise."

"No holding back. Are you ready?"

"Ready."

It was going to be an eventful day, she could already tell. It had been two weeks since any prince had come to her rescue, and for it to go on? Too good to be true.

And as she looked out the window from her tall tower, she could see a figure in the distance, quickly approaching. She sighed, and out her window, a mountain sized onyx dragon appeared. It rumbled," yet another hero to your rescue... I was getting bored without these pesky beings!"

The princess smiled and said,"I want to be included in the drama this time, Seraphina!"

Sweat beaded on the prince's brow as he reached the top of the tower, his pace occasionally interrupted by the dragon guarding the princess.

The beaming princess ran to her hero upon his arrival, praising his bravey. In his arrogrance, he hardly noticed her shove a piece of parchment into his hand.

"Sweet prince, I swear I will rescue you."

She flung herself over the windowsill, effortlessly landing on the dragon's back. The prince watched in horror as the spell sealed him inside.

Stunned, he glanced down. Scrawled on the parchment were the words, "The tower must have a prisoner."