The Soft-Hearted Prince and His Dragon, Chapter 1

Synopsis

Galen is a prince alright, but he could not be further away from what his parents expect from an heir to the throne. Hoping to make more of a man out of him, they send him off to fight a dragon who is plaguing the Land Behind Nine Mountains and Nine Rivers. Or is it?

Galen agrees not because he means to get into a fight - he’s not a barbarian after all - but because he’s never seen a dragon before and has always been fascinated by magical creatures. Except that the dragon’s not what it seems. And the prince’s journey takes an unexpected twist that his parents certainly did not see coming.

Story on Wattpad.

1 - Galen

Once upon a time, there lived a prince named Galen, who caused a lot of worry to his parents. He was to become a king one day, but he had no interest in fighting, cut-throat politics, princesses, or drinking. Everyone knows you need to drink like a hound to earn the respect of your subjects and your royal neighbors.

“What will become of him?” his parents lamented.

“If things continue this way, he might end up being sober most of his career. Can you imagine what he could do to our lovely kingdom in such a state?” the king was telling the queen one day.

“What a sobering thought!” the queen wailed, wringing her hands.

Instead, Galen liked to read. He was particularly interested in magic. When he was ten, he cast a locating spell entirely on his own and helped a little cygnet find its rightful family. The poor fluffball got lost, and by the time Galen met it, a duck mother was raising it along with her own ducklings. The cygnet was teased for its different looks, always pushed aside and looked down on. Galen could relate to the cygnet’s loneliness.

When he was thirteen, he helped a tax collector lift a curse cast by a magician who wouldn’t pay her taxes. Due to the curse, the man became a wolf every full moon. He had a persistent urge to eat pigs, grandmothers, and other forest inhabitants. But Galen could recognize a shape-shifter—even an unwilling one—when he saw one. After he helped the clerk, his mother cried for seven days and seven nights. His father attempted to explain to him that big bad wolves are to be killed, not helped.

“Every little child knows that,” the king shook his head. “Why is it so hard for our Galen to understand?”

And the trouble with Galen’s magic only continued in the years to come.

“We need to do something about him, or he’ll never succeed in life,” the king decided one day after Galen turned twenty.

“Oh, the shame!” the queen wailed.

So they came up with a plan.

“Galen, come here, boy.” The king lead Galen to a private chamber.

“Yes, father?”

“I have a story to tell you, so listen well,” the king started. “Behind nine mountains and nine rivers, there lives a ferocious dragon—”

“I know, dad. My cousins, Tom and Chris, have paid a visit to the dragon.”

“You don’t pay a—” the queen started, but the king raised his hand.

“Stop interrupting me, both of you. I’m telling a story.”

Galen and his mother exchanged looks. The king loved to tell stories and took them very seriously. He wasn’t as good at it as he thought, though.

“So, where was I… Yes. There lives a ferocious dragon there, in the far, far away land.”

“It’s actually not that f—” Galen started but restrained himself under his father’s look. The king’s furrowed eyebrows could serve as an escape bridge for the whole town in case of a fire.

“Everyone knows that if you kill a dragon, part of his power shifts to you. That’s the only kind of magic worth a man. Many brave men have tried their luck with the dragon, not knowing any fear,” the king continued. “Many have been mutilated, scarred for life, or even died.”

“Sounds fun,” Galen mumbled.

“Tell me, my only son, will you become the next hero daring to laugh the mortal danger in the face? Will you risk your life to save the country from the dark spell of the dragon and earn your right to bear its power?” The king’s voice boomed and echoed through the room. The queen wiped a tear away, and the king himself looked touched by his speech.

Galen looked at them both and bit his tongue, trying not to say that it all sounded utterly derailed. Two of his cousins indeed went to fight the dragon. Thomas returned, missing one eye and with a big scar on his face. Christopher was brought back with both his legs broken. They both held the status of a hero now and were duly proud of it.

The nonsensical part was that the dragon didn’t seem to cause any trouble to the land where it lived. It didn’t burn their fields or carry away princesses as one would expect. And while Galen thought the whole dragon hunt was inhumane, he couldn’t help but be curious, too. He’d never seen a dragon before. Maybe if he went just close enough to observe it… No need to actually get into a fight, right?

“Okay,” he said in the end.

“Okay?” the queen asked with surprise.

“Just okay? No proclamations of bravery?” the king hunched his shoulders in disappointment.

“I will go into the land behind nine mountains and nine rivers—wait, is it the same place as the far, far away land?”

“Yes. The official name is The Land Behind Nine Mountains and Nine Rivers. But since it’s so long, people sometimes shorten it to The Far Far Away Land,” the king explained. Galen stared at him in disbelief but then shook his head. It was none of his business if people thought a six-syllable expression was short.

“Anyway, I will go there—”

“To The Land Behind—” the queen tried to be helpful.

“Yes, there. I will find the dragon. I won’t fear it and bravely await anything the future holds for me.”

That’s my son!" the king exclaimed. “I knew you had it in you!” he punched Galen’s shoulder enthusiastically.

At least I didn’t lie entirely, Galen thought to himself, and he rubbed his hurting shoulder.

The next day, the queen had the cook prepare some food for Galen’s journey and ensured he had enough spare underwear and warm socks. His father gave him pouches with money and advice on how to handle the dragon once he gets near enough. The royal healer bandaged Galen’s injury after the prince received a new, shiny, and most of all, heavy sword and dropped it on his foot. But finally, everything was ready, and the prince left the safety of his home castle and set out on the way.

The whole palace stood by the gateway, waving him goodbye.

After disappearing from their gazes, he sat down and applied healing spells to his injured leg. Flesh magic always came easy to him.

He traveled for days and days to the north. A few times, he stopped a carriage passing by and took a ride to move quicker. His father had believed that princes always go on an adventure on foot. It was more traditional that way. But Galen wasn’t a huge fan of traditions anyway, so he took a little help whenever possible. This meant that he arrived in The Far Far Away Land in less than two weeks. It wasn’t hard to find the exact place. After crossing the country’s boundaries, the route was well indicated.

To the dragon said the signs. There were stalls spread out all along the road. They were selling little statues of dragons, necklaces said to be of real dragon teeth, and other dragon-related goods. One could get a drawing of themselves fighting a dragon for a few coins. Galen recognized those—both of his cousins brought one home.

He made his way through the stalls, then through a thick forest, and finally, his eyes landed on a cave entrance.

This is it, Galen thought. This must be where the dragon stays. It wasn’t a wild guess since the land in front of the cave was scorched and covered in soot.

It was quiet in the forest. It was quiet in Galen, too. The tensed, uncertain kind of quiet. What was he to expect now? He still had no intention of fighting the dragon, but what if it attacked him nonetheless? He drew the sword and tried to swing it. He quickly put it down because he almost fell over under the weight. No, that would not help him. He was also not skilled in hand-to-hand combat. And though he never tried hand-to-dragon combat, he thought it fair to assume he wouldn’t excel at that, either. No, the only thing that could help him was his magic. But perhaps if he stayed here, in the cover of the trees, he would not need to fight at all.

He sat down and examined the surroundings. There wasn’t much to see. The little clearing right in front of the cave was barren. The forest encircled it on all sides, except for the part taken by the mountain. It was tall and stretched on into a long range. Galen guessed no one was ever going there. People were afraid of the mountains.

Nothing happened for a while. Galen took some food out of his pack to snack on while still looking around. And then he froze.

Two yellow eyes were watching him from the darkness of the cavern. He could see nothing but those eyes, and he was sure as hell they didn’t belong to a human. Galen and the dragon were watching each other. It was the dragon who broke the stare first.

“Hello,” the dragon said.

“H…h… hello?” Galen stuttered.

“Did you come here to fight me? Do you want to steal my magic and become a hero?” the dragon asked in a deep voice. “Or a charcoal?” it added after a moment of thinking. Despite the strong words, its voice didn’t sound very confident or zealous.

“I… I don’t want to steal your magic, nor your charcoal,” Galen replied, staring.

“To become charcoal. Not steal my charcoal,” the dragon corrected him, pronouncing every word very slowly and carefully as if Galen was a bit daft.

Galen smiled sheepishly. “Bad joke… Sorry. And no, none of it. Not if I can avoid it,” he said. He was captivated. He read that some dragons could talk but always considered it an old men’s tale. Except that… something was knocking on the door of his panicked mind that he couldn’t quite grasp.

The dragon stared at him for a moment and then shook its head. “If you don’t want to fight me, why are you here?” Its voice was full of doubt.

“My parents have sent me here to conquer you because they thought I was a measly prince. I agreed because I’ve never seen a dragon before, and I was curious.”

“Oh.”

There was a silence for a moment.

“Can I see the whole of you?” The prince was finally coming back to himself after the first surprise. The dragon mumbled something. “What is it?” Galen asked.

“I didn’t expect company today,” the dragon said louder. “I feel a bit ruffled.”

Galen’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, but he swiftly composed himself again. “I don’t mind. I mean… I’ve been on the road for almost two weeks. Trust me, I’m the ruffled one here,” he tried to appease the shy dragon. “How about this—we both step into the clearing at the same time. Will it help?”

The dragon hesitantly agreed, and so they did just that. They counted to three, their voices intertwining. Then they both took a few steps forward.

“Wow,” Galen let out a breath. “You’re beautiful.”

It was true. The dragon’s body was only slightly larger than that of a horse, his neck long and elegant. Big, strong-looking wings were folded by its sides, and its body was covered in deep black scales. In the midday sun, they looked almost purple. The sharp spikes on the back of the dragon’s neck and tail suggested it was a male dragon. And its eyes—his eyes, Galen corrected himself—were dark yellow with orange flames around the pupils. Galen thought they looked like fire. He was mesmerized. “Wow,” he repeated again.

“You’re just being nice,” the dragon objected, but his voice sounded pleased.

Galen could feel himself starting to relax. That was when it finally hit him. “You’re not a dragon,” he gasped in surprise.

There was another pause. “Uhm… I’m not?” The dragon seemed honestly disconcerted.

“You’re a shape-shifter,” Galen whispered. The dragon’s eyes widened.

And at that moment, everything went wrong.

A group of men ran out of the forest, shouting at the top of their lungs. “Good job, puppy,” one of them hit Galen’s back as he ran by him.

Every one of them was enormous—even taller than Galen and at least twice as wide. Their biceps were bulging from underneath their leather sleeves, their hair long, gray, and braided. Galen noticed black dots tattooed underneath their left eyes. A few were swinging heavy-looking chains, while the rest were carrying a vast metallic net.

They encircled the dragon in a blink of an eye while yelling at each other about what to do. The net flew over the dragon’s head and pulled him down. The dragon let out a breath of fire, but since his head was pinned at a wrong angle, the flames only hit a side of the cave. The dragon roared in anger, and it was that roar that made Galen wake up from the shock.

“No!” he screamed. He needed to do something. He wouldn’t allow these men to kill the magnificent creature. His hands flew up, and his mouth started to recite a spell. He didn’t stop to think which would be the best one to use. It all came as an instinct.

“What the—” one of the men yelled and let go of the net. Others stopped too and stood frozen for a moment.

“I can’t see anything!” another one cried into the sudden silence.

“Me neither!”

It was chaos. The men tried to move around but kept colliding and pushing each other as the panic rose. They let go of the net, and the captured dragon fled to the cave, dragging it behind him.

Galen felt dizzy but raised his hands again and mumbled another spell. This one made the men see a little light in the darkness of their vision, and they all followed it. This way, Galen sent them on the way to the nearest village.

When the forest closed behind them, Galen collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath. He never had to use so much magic at once, and it left him wiped out, his vision blurred. He tried to take a deep breath, blinked a few times, and then everything went black.

When Galen opened his eyes again, the first thing he saw were thousands of lights above him. He groaned and blinked, but the picture stayed. He could feel the cold ground underneath him. His whole body hurt, and it felt as if hot water currents were rushing through his body.

“Take it easy,” a deep voice came from not far away. “You’ve used way too much magic, and if you push yourself to get up too fast, you might faint again.”

Galen ignored the advice and pushed himself on the elbows to be able to look around. What he saw took his breath away, and for a moment, he fought another wave of dizziness.

He was in a vast cavern, lit with lights set in the walls and the ceiling, sparkling like stars. On the far end was a small waterfall with a round pool at its base. From there, the water traveled further into the cavern, disappearing in the darkness. Many objects were lying all around. What Galen noticed immediately was the number of books everywhere. They were in piles sometimes as high as to reach Galen’s waist—some of them tilting, almost falling over. Galen felt an immediate urge to go look at the titles. This was not how he imagined a dragon’s hoard, but he was not about to complain.

The dragon sat beside the waterfall, his head still wrapped in the net. He was watching Galen intently.

In a flash, Galen remembered the fight in front of the cave. “Are you alright?” he asked.

The dragon chuckled, and his posture relaxed.

“What’s funny?”

“You know you are the one who just woke up from being unconscious, right? And you’re in the dragon’s cave, out of magic, with no weapons.”

“A fair point,” Galen admitted begrudgingly. He knew he should be more afraid, but the fact was, he wasn’t scared of the dragon. There was something very peaceful about him, and Galen trusted his intuitions.

For a moment there, Galen had a need to look away, to hide his fascination. It wasn’t polite. But he couldn’t make himself.

Click here for chapter 2.