A woman with curly red hair that flowed up to her hips. She wore hoop earrings, an off-shoulder blouse that exposed her cleavage and a long skirt with a slit that hugged her legs rather explicitly.
'No, everything about this woman was explicit. Even the way her mouth curled. How her gold eyes glimmered.' Elora thought silently.
"Long week?" asked the woman while munching off an apple.
The woman noticed Elora's gaze on the fruit. She took out a basket of them from her side and handed it to Elora.
Elora was about to reach for an apple when her hand froze midair.
"Wait, how did you know that I've been travelling for a week?" Elora eyed the woman suspiciously.
The woman laughed sweetly. "Darling, I know about everything and everyone who comes to these woods. They're mine, after all."
Elora gasped. "The Witch of the Woods." Just as she was about to stand and unsheathe her sword, the witch said,
"Rest easy, I mean no harm. I come to you with apples. Actually, I sensed your hunger from my hut. Which is a mile away."
Elora sat back down, 'I shouldn't let my stomach make the decisions.' she thought.
But then she was already eating the apples from the witch's basket, silently hoping none of them had a spell.
All of a sudden, the witch talked. "Though I sense a different hunger from you."
"Hmm?"
"The hunger for vengeance." said the witch. "Dragon ate your prince?"
Elora choked on the apple. She wiped her mouth. "He wasn't 'mine'. Kallis was a friend."
"A very dear friend, I presume?"
There was silence for a few seconds. "No need to make guesses. I thought the Witch of the Woods knows everything?"
The witch only laughed, amusement alight in her eyes. "Would you like me to help you find the dragon?"
"No thanks, I'm already getting close to it."
"Yes, but are you certain you'll reach it?" said the witch. "In time before the rage and madness in your heart swallows you whole? Before you'll go crazy?"
Elora flinched. She gritted her teeth, frustrated at how the witch's words affected her.
At last, she gave in. Her shoulders slumped and she released a breath. "All right. What's the catch?"
"There is none. I only wish to help."
Elora squinted her eyes at the witch, dubious of any hidden agenda.
"If you solve my riddle."
Elora groaned. "I knew it."
"Good has it, Evil doesn't. Yet it offers both their drive and motivation."
Elora crossed her arms, looking at the witch with dead eyes. Almost bored. "Let me guess. Love?"
"Correct."
Elora bristled with surprise. "Oh, wow... I was right? I mean yeah, of course I was."
'Kallis was the smart one, not me.' Elora thought. 'Wait 'til he hears about this—'
'Goddamned it, Elora. He's dead. Kallis is not coming back.'
"The dragon is in a cave located in that mountain." The witch said, pointing somewhere. "Use the answer to my riddle to defeat it."
"What? Why would I use lo—"
Elora had turned to where her finger was pointing. When she looked back, the Witch of the Woods was gone.
***
The mouth of the cave loomed over Elora. The sky began to rumble, lightning slashing it, followed my rolls of thunder.
"Wait here," she told her horse.
'The cave is dark but I don't want to risk lighting up a torch. I have to get it by surprise. I'll have a better chance that way.' she decided.
Elora light-footed into the cave, soundless as she made her way inside.
Then she heard a low growl.
Once Elora's vision adjusted, she found the dragon's tail a few inches from her feet. The creature had his rump faced at her direction.
Slowly, she backed away.
The dragon let out another roar. Louder this time. And each time he roared, it was even more ear-piercing.
Elora winced and hid behind a large rock. 'I should wait for it to calm down first.' she thought.
But the dragon seemed to grow angrier by the second. It started clawing the cave's walls, stomping its feet and spewing his breaths of fire to the ground.
'Is it throwing tantrums?' Elora guessed. 'No, forget about that. Remember why you're here. You're here to kill that son of a bitch, Elora.'
Elora grinded her teeth, rage building up in her heart. She reached for her sword and brought it out with a 'shing'.
Just as the dragon went to look where the sound came from, Elora had already pounced for it.
It jumped out of the way, but was unable to avoid being cut on one arm. The dragon hissed, wings fanning out against the walls.
The beast shot out his fire toward Elora. The knight rolled to the side, already back on her toes within a moment.
She ran toward the tail and grabbed for its scales that were sharper than any other blade, making Elora's palms bleed.
'This pain is nothing compared to the pain in my heart.' she reminded herself.
Even as the dragon shook its body to get her off, Elora held on for dear life. She crawled onto its back. Then, finally, she reached the neck. She raised her sword, aiming it at the dragon's head.
'One clean swipe.' she thought. 'And this will all be over. Kallis can be at peace—"
"Get off me!" the dragon bellowed.
Elora sucked in a breath. 'That voice—'
Distracted, she didn't notice the dragon heading toward a wall. It slammed her on it. Elora yelped, pain crashing on her back. She fell, her armor dented all over.
The dragon picked her up before she could get to her feet.
It threw her into a rock. Elora writhed as she landed on the ground. Her helmet was removed in the process.
Elora saw the dragon raise its claws. At the same time, lightning flashed. It provided illumination to the cave, allowing her to see the dragon much clearly.
More particularly, its eyes. The color of the bluest of oceans. They were wide with surprise.
"I know those eyes..." she managed.
The madness on the dragon's gaze vanished, replaced by the familiar shade of softness and serenity.
"Elora?"
She blacked out.
Elora was gaping at the broad heavens cloaked by the darkness. A line of silver flecks shimmering on it.
She and Kallis had left the ballroom, agreeing that it was better to go stargazing over the hills behind the castle instead.
So now both of them lay side by side on the dewy grass.
"Are you sure this is all right? It's your sixteenth birthday after all. Everyone's in the castle to celebrate, but you're here." Elora said without looking at the prince next to her.
"It's fine." Kallis said. "As long as I'm here with you."
Elora wanted to laugh. "What's wrong with you recently?"
Instead of answering, Kallis blurted out, "But that's not the case for you, is it?"
Elora whipped her head to Kallis. Though he was still gazing at the stars.
"What do you mean?"
"You're leaving."
Elora chewed on her lip. "How... how did you know?"
"Doesn't matter how I knew. What matters is why you didn't tell me. Really Elora, were you going to wait until tomorrow?"
Guilt pricked Elora. "No, I—"
"Oh god," Kallis sat up frustratingly. "You weren't planning to tell me."
Elora followed suit and clenched her fists on the grass. "There's war on the borders, Kallis. My father's going to need all the help he can get. But at the same time, I don't want to leave you. So I figured it would be better not to say goodbye. It'd feel less real that way."
Kallis scratched the back of his head and sighed. He leaned in and flicked Elora's forehead.
"Stupid. I'd hate you forever if you had left without saying. Didn't you think about that? Selfish girl." Kallis smiled. "Besides, you don't have to say goodbye. All you need to share with me is a promise."
Elora's brows furrowed. "Why am I getting a strong sense of déjà vu?"
Kallis laughed. "Promise me you'll write to me every single day."
Elora shrugged. "Sure, I was planning to do that. But whatever. What's in it for me?"
The prince tilted his head and smirked. "When you return, would you like to be my queen?"
Elora's cheeks went beet red. 'This sounds more like a proposal than an offer—wait, what if it is?'
"Yeah, I'd like that."
Elora woke up to being splashed with water.
The dragon had a bucket hanging from the tip of one claw.
He reached for the back of his neck, looking apologetic. "Please don't be mad. You weren't waking up and it's already morning so I panicked."
'Good lord, he even has Kallis' mannerisms.'
"Kallis? Is that really you?"
The dragon released a breath, slumping down. "Yes, it's me."
"H-how in the world..."
'Use the answer of the riddle to defeat it.' a voice rang in her head.
Kallis was muttering words quickly again but Elora's mind was off to somewhere else.
'Love is the answer. Love. Love is—'
"Kallis, don't move." Elora launched to her feet.
The dragon flinched. "W-what... are you going to kill me? Listen, it's me. It's really me. I'm not lying, Elora. What—what's that look in your eyes? Oh god, I know that face. That's how you look when you're about to kill someone—"
Without a second thought, Elora cupped the dragon's face and pulled him in for a kiss.
A bright wave of light appeared. And by the time it receded, the human Kallis was standing in front of her. Naked.
Unfazed, Elora went back to her horse—which thankfully didn't leave—outside the cave and dug for clothes and a cloak in the saddle.
"How did you know how to break the curse?" Kallis asked once he was fully-dressed.
"Witch of the Woods told me the answer was love." Elora averted her gaze, heat creeping up her cheeks.
"Right, because she's the one who cursed me in the first place." Kallis said, wrapping cloth around his injured arm where Elora had sliced him with her sword.
"You're doing that wrong. Let me do it." She insisted. "Wait—what did you say?"
"Weren't you listening? The King and Queen wanted a child to inherit the throne instead of me. But they had to offer a payment. Since they've been wanting to get rid of me for a long time, they told the witch that she can curse me. Witches get more powerful with every curse, you see."
'So that's why the queen had a bump when it was said that she was infertile.' she thought.
Elora sighed a breath of relief. "The villages, you didn't destroy them. The burnt marks were acts of self-defense but the dragon didn't actually mean to harm the people."
"Of course, those villages had been like that even before I turned into a dragon. It's poverty that caused it, Elora. War is ongoing, there are no funds left in the treasury to help them."
"If the King and Queen knew that the dragon was you, why did they send me to kill you?"
"Is it not obvious?" Kallis flicked her forehead. A habit of his. "They wanted to have you dead. They were afraid you'd rise into power. Being the daughter of a noble General, having been recently proclaimed as a war heroine and also close to the prince, the real heir to the throne. They don't like it when someone threatens their rule. The King and Queen must have thought our bond was weak enough that we wouldn't recognize ourselves."
"We did almost kill each other though," Elora said. Kallis frowned at this, as if recoiling with the memory. "What now?"
"What now?" Kallis repeated, one side of his mouth lifting up. "Now, we marry. We claim the throne and stop the war."
"I'd like that." Elora grinned and kissed her prince.
Somewhere, deep within the forest, the Witch of the Woods stared down at her crystal ball. She scratched the chin of her black cat. "A fitting ending for a fairytale, isn't it, [insert name of cat]?"
She looks at the reader. "Or is it?"