Princess Ahira (16 page)

             
“Yes.” 

             
His eyes brightened. “Perfect! We shall stay together forever!” 

             
“Pardon?” I asked, now thoroughly confused.

             
“You are a princess!” he exclaimed. I noticed his pretty blue eyes
were rather vacant
. “And since I am a unicorn you have to stay and braid pretty flowers into my mane!” he declared, glancing around the forest. “Although finding suitable
flowers will be difficult. A
fter all you can never find a flower that is more beautiful than a unicorn,” he mourned

             
“Flowers?”
I asked, still not seeing the u
nicorn’s logic.

             
“Flowers. You will weave flowers in my hair, and we shall stay together fo
rever.
” 

             
“We shall?”

             
“Yes, we shall,” he proudly said.

             
“Yeah…
I need to get going,” I said as I walked around the unicorn, Tuggles trailing after me.

             
“Wait!” the unicorn called, hurrying after us. “Aren’t you startled by my amazing beauty and astounding intelligence?” he asked
,
blinking at me.

             
“No,” I replied without hesitation.

             
“This isn’t right!” the unicorn huffed as he continued to follow Tuggles and
I.
“You’re a p
rincess and I’m a u
nicorn. You’re supposed to sing
and play with me in the meadow all day long,” he complained.

             
“I get
sunburn
if I stay in the sun too long,” I said
,
pulling back a branch to pass
through before I released it. It
hit
the unicorn square in the face.

             
Tuggles snickered as he peered around my legs to watch the baffled unicorn.

             
“But I’m beautiful!” the unicorn reasoned. 

To my horror, a previous conversation I had with Azmaveth came back
to haunt me. “
Beauty is us
ually a companion to stupidity,”
Azmaveth claimed. Shortly after I asked him if he thought I was ugly or pretty. Azmaveth knew either way he was in hot water, so he told me that I was a rare case that didn’t apply to the rule. 

             
“So what if you’re beautiful?” I snorted as I g
lanced around the forest. This u
nicorn was getting annoying, and I was anxious to be rid of him. 

             
“Well
, well….
I’m also the Keeper
!” the unicorn announced as Tuggles made a sour face.

             
The prideful unicorn finally gl
anced down at
Tuggles. “This little beast must have bewitched you! Don’t worry, I’ll free you
from the curse!” he trumpeted.

             
I rolled my eyes. “Come on Tuggles, let’s go,” I sai
d, crossing a
large river via a log. Tuggles scampered along behind me, plenty small enough to pass over the makeshift bridge. The big unicorn, however, stayed at the other side of the river, not wan
ting to get his glossy fur wet. E
ven though
he was none too bright, he knew
the log wouldn’t hold him. 

             
He was still standing on the bank, stuttering and stammering the last time I saw him. 

             
Tuggles and I walked home together in smug complacency. Once we reached the edge of the forest that straddled Az
maveth’s
cave
Tuggles stopped.

“Bye Tuggles,” I called over my shoulder as I walked towards the den.

             
I cleaned up the cave the rest of the afternoon b
efore I started to make dinner.
Halfway through I could hear Azmaveth bellowing something at th
e top of his lungs from his lab. I guess he
finished visiting Shammah and never told me. 

             
I put his supper on a serving tray and carefully walked the distance to his lab. Since both of my hands were full with the tray I bumped the door open with my side. When the door creaked open there was a loud explosion before fog and flashing lights filled the lab.

             
I peered into the room with caution, still holding the tray. “Azmaveth?” I called coughing a little when I inhaled some of the smoke.

             
“I’m here!” he said as the fog parted to reveal a smoldering Azmaveth with a vaporous, white potion in front of him.  

             
“What were you doing?” I asked, coughing again before setting the tray down on a table. 

             
“Nothing,” Azmaveth said, innocently said. He was probably trying to create some sort of anti-Aaron potion.

             
I sighed as I turned to go, “Just try not to blow up the den. Eat your supper before it gets cold,” I added before I shut the door behind me, muffling his squawk. 

             
I ate by myself, took a bath, and hopped into my bed. I fell asleep, staring up at the stars that peeked through the beautiful skylight.

Princess Visitation

             
Before I knew it my beautiful dreams (I was riding a horse, dragging Kohath along like a ragdoll) where unpleasantly interrupted.

“Up, up, up!” someone said. I groaned and rolled over, peering at my open door where one huge, violet eye stared at me. “Ris
e and shine! Don’t make me sing.
” Azmaveth added as I glanced up at my skylight. The stars were still out and the sun wasn’t even
thinking
about rising yet. 

             
“What time is it?” I
yawned
as I burrowed back down in my sheets. A giant silver claw reached in and stole my blankets.

             
“Early. Get up!” Azmaveth urged as I threw my pillow at his eye. My pillow flew across the room and harmlessly hit one of his scales.
I groaned and realized my folly. N
ow I didn’t have a blanket
or
a pillow. 

             
“Go find someone else to play with. I want to sleep,” I said
,
rolling away from him.
Again a
silver claw reached into my room, only this time it snagged me around the wa
ist and pulled me out
, kicking and screaming. 

             
Azmaveth held on
to me with his right front paw
and fished around in my room for my clothes and toiletries with his free claws. After finding them he shifted me to his left paw and lumbered past the kitchen, through the main chamber, down the south hallway and into the dragon washroom. He unmercifully dropped me into the dragon bath, clothes and all. That may not sound very mean, but you probably aren’t taking into account the volume of the bath. If I had to hazard a guess I would say his bathtub is the size of a small lake. A small lake with warm and bubbly water.

             
I sunk like a rock.

             
I screamed underwater as my skirts dragged me down. A
zmaveth quickly noted his
mistake
and fished me out of the crystal waters.

             
“Get changed into that,” he said, throwing his head in the direction of a large package. “You’re going to Behemoth’s cave today to meet with the oth
er princesses. I want you cleaned and nicer smelling
before you go,” he said before setting me down on the edge of his bath/pool, my shouts blistering his ears.

             
“What?! Are you implying that I
stink
?
You
giant ogre! Couldn’t you have found a better way to tell me rather than just tossing me in your bottomless lake? And why do I have to go meet the other princesses in the first place?” I yelled as I followed him to the door. He didn’t reply and shut the door behind him, I tried to pull on it, but it didn’t budge.

             
“When I get out of here I’m going to clean your room, just to spite you!” I threatened as I slumped against the door in defeat. After pouting for a few moments I made a hasty retreat to the warm bath waters. My initial anger had faded, and instead I was delighted with the large bathtub. Swimming in your bath is a wonderful experience!

             
When I climbed out I smelled like roses and my dirt brown hair had a dull shine to it. I inspected myself in the mirror and made a face. Azmaveth might have been right. Soaking in the tub removed the layer of den dirt that was stuck to
me
.

I turned from the gigantic mirror (dragons are vain after all) and opened the package Azmaveth had mentioned earlier. A swirl of cloth flowed out of the box.

             
The dress, when I put it on it, just touched the floor of the cave. The under dress was white with exquisite embroidery on it. The overcoat
was a
the deepest of royal purples
.
Azmaveth’s colors.

It was completed with a violet opal necklace that was set in silver
,
and opal earrings. Caught up in the feeling, I paid extra attention to my hair and pinned some of it up, out of my face.

             
I smiled broadly at my reflection. The dresses I had worn at court were stuff
y, but Azmaveth’s dress
seemed to be perfect for me.

             
Once I finished cleaning up I pushed against the door, which easily opened.
“
Azmavet
h
,” I growled.

The moment I set foot into the hallway Azmaveth pounced on me.  He
shoved an apple in mouth
as he pushed me through the cave.

             
“Now
,
pleas
e hold your tongue for once
when you meet the other princesses. I don’t want other dragons to think I fostered your terrible insults,” he pleaded as he pushed me toward the entrance of the cave. “Stay clean, don’t ruin your dress, have as much fun as possible, and be polite,” he finished before shoving me outside and slammed the door behind me.

             
I blinked, still confused. I turned around to open the door and found, again, that it wouldn’t budge. “Azmaveth open up!” I yelled after spitting out the apple. “What’s going on?” 

             
“I already told you, you’re going to Behemoth’s house to meet with the other princesses. Walk for a mile and then take a left turn, then walk for a half a mile and turn due north, that’s his cave, you can’t miss it!” Azmaveth yelled through the door.

             
“What?” I hollered.

             
“Shh! Ahira, I’ll show you where it is,” Aaron said, cautiously creeping out of the bushes after watching out for Azmaveth.

             
Azmaveth apparently heard the offer and burst out of the den, snatched me
,
and tossed me up on his forehead before taking to the sky.

             
I was terrified.

             
“AZMAVETH, SLOW DOWN!” I screamed.

We were flying fast, it was freezing cold, and this time I was not safely held in Azmaveth’s paws or tucked on a ridge in his back. Instead I was clinging to his forehead like road kill. Before I knew it Azmaveth landed and gently tipped me off. I rubbed my arms and face, positive I had windburn. By the time I turned around to begin scolding Azmaveth
,
he was already leaping into the sky and far out of hearing range.

I won
dered if he was fleeing my fury
or if he really was in a big rush to be rid of me for the day. He was probably doing some more experimenting today and didn’t want me around, screaming bloody murder when he ruined my perfectly good cleaning job on his piggy den.

             
With sorry eyes and an angry mu
tter I watched the sun peek
over the dusty pink horizon line. I twisted around and found m
yself in front of a giant cave
blocked by two equally giant doors. It had an eerie resemblance to Azmaveth’s cave, with the exception of the more earthy brown rock color rather than Azmaveth’s shale gray.

As I stared at the doors with no small amount of trepidation, one of them slowly swung open on a creaky hinge. Three blonde heads poked out from behind the door.