My Segregated Dragon Lover

Many years ago, we lived in a peaceful world. A world where creatures of all sorts could live happily among each other. Mixing of species was normal and encouraged. A society of equality, love and acceptance. This is the society our story begins in. A society not many remember anymore. A princess plays in the gardens, just like any other day. She is great friends with the fairies, the vampires, the werewolves and the dragons, they love her and care for her while her parents are busy fulfilling their duties as royalty. The princess is only three years old. She does not see a difference between herself and the other mystical creatures. In her eyes, they are all beautiful and equal. The princess is mostly interested in one creature in particular. A young dragon, exactly her age. They have been best friends since birth. Born only days apart. A strange connection that nobody can explain. The young dragon has the capabilities of shifting between human and dragon form. The princess finds this incredibly amusing. She giggles as the dragon shifts to his human form for the tenth time. Each time is as amusing as the last. She will never get bored of this ‘magic trick’. “Fire Draco!” she shouts at the little boy. He smiles and jumps up to his legs. He shifts to his beautiful dragon form, small bat-winged, fire-breathing, scaly lizard with a barbed tail. His ears are crescent shaped, and his eyes are golden, just like his beautiful scales. Each dragon has their own unique property, yet Draco is far too young to discover his power. He is completely harmless. “Fire Draco!” shouts the princess again. She is referring to the trick that Draco has learned only recently. “Okay,” he mutters and blows a small puff of smoke into the air. No fire comes out, making the princess chuckle. “It’s okay,” she says and hugs the dragon. The princess is the first born of the king and queen. She takes her looks after her mother. Long black hair, fair skin and freckles. She gets her personality from her father. She is brave, caring and smart. The princess jumps onto her feet and runs around the garden giggling. “Chase me Draco!” she shouts. Draco doesn’t have to be told twice. He loves playing chase with the princess. It is his favorite game to play with her because he has the advantage of flying. Draco spreads his small, yet powerful wings that lift him into the sky. He has the perfect view of the entire garden from there. The princess can’t hide, and she has no hope of escaping. He already knows he won the game and it hasn’t even started yet. “Not fair! Get down!” shouts the princess. The dragon laughs. “You’re jealous because you don’t have wings!” he mocks. This makes the princess very sad. She wishes she had some superpowers. The fairies can make things appear and make the flowers grow, the dragons can fly, and the trolls can turn to stone. She can’t do any of that. “You’re mean!” she shouts. The princess picks up a rock that lies on the ground beside the pond. She is not going to let the dragon win this time. She plans on distracting him with the rock and hiding in her special hide out. He will never find her there. She gathers up as much energy as she can in her tiny little arms, she aims for the cloud beside the dragon, but her aim isn’t great. She counts down from three. The second the stone leaves her hand; she has to run away. It’s the perfect plan. What can go wrong? Draco does not expect anything, he is happily dancing around in the air, showing off his powerful wings. The second the small rock leaves the princesses petite hands she runs for it. She runs as fast as her short legs can carry her. She is so busy running away that she doesn’t notice the rock his Draco directly on the head. She doesn’t realize that he struggles to keep himself up in the air, soon losing control of his wings, sending him spiraling down towards the ground at incredible speed. Draco squeals for help as he spins in the air uncontrollably. His little body would not be able to survive the impact of him hitting the floor from such a height. The princess is still fully unaware of the danger her best friend faces. Only meters from the ground, mother dragon hears the desperate cries of her baby. She rises from the ground and speeds towards her only son. The fear in her eyes is evident. She would do anything to save her child. She would give up her own life for him. As any mother would. Her baby is only seconds from hitting the ground when she manages to swoop underneath him and lift him back into the air. She has managed to save her baby this time. He was lucky that his mommy was nearby. Otherwise, things could have ended very badly for the dragon community. The creatures who have been watching from afar all let out a breath of relief. But shortly after that, they all scurry away in fear of the dragon mother. She is one of the most powerful creatures in the land, bringing fear to those who cross her. She is furious with what has happened. After checking to make sure that her precious baby Draco is okay, she goes on a hunt to find the person responsible for putting her child in danger. It does not take her long to find the princess, happily hiding in one of the rose bushes. She is still completely unaware of the danger she put Draco in. When the dragon mother finds the princess, she makes it very clear that she is furious. She blows a cloud of fire in the direction of the princess, burning the rose bush she was hiding in and burning the princess in the process of doing so. The fearful princess is so confused. She does not know what she did wrong and is scared for her life. Why is this trusted dragon attacking her?  She screams for help. She is terrified and in a lot of pain from her burns. Luckily, the royal guards are within hearing distance and they set off towards the princess for help. When they see the mother dragon attacking the princess, they do not think twice before drawing out their swords. “Stand back you animal! You have hurt the princess!” shouts one guard. Another one runs to the castle for back up. Three men is not enough to defend the princess from an angry mother dragon. It is one massive misunderstanding which is causing each party to lose their temper. This cannot end well. It takes a few moments for more royal guards to come running to the garden to defend the princess. It is their duty to protect the crown and the royal family. The princess is too precious to be lost. Not only to her parents, but also for the entire human community. The princess runs out from under a bush and into the warrior’s arms. He scoops her up and runs away with her, leaving the other warriors to attack the dragon mother. The princess sobs into the man’s chest as he tries to comfort her. Little does she know, that is the last time she will be in contact with her best friend Draco. Her father is furious when he discovers what has happened. They are unaware as to why the mother dragon attacked the human child. It is an unforgivable sin to attack the princess. In his eyes, she is completely innocent and cannot do any harm. Within 24 hours, the king bans all mystical creatures from the royal grounds, leaving hundreds of creatures homeless. The king swears to kill any dragon who sets foot on his soil. The dragons are banned from stepping near a human for life. The king does not want to risk the lives of other people. He believes that the dragons are ruthless animals who hurt humans for fun. Little does he know; the mother dragon was only protecting her fragile child from danger. Things aren’t been the same since then. The new laws have been set in favor of humans and against all mystical creatures. This has caused tension among the various species and many wars have followed over the next few years. The most tragic part of this story is that the princess lost her best friend. She never got to say goodbye and she will never understand why she was attacked in the first place. She grows up to be a beautiful young adult who has no contact with mystical creatures at all. The memories of the incredible creatures slowly fade away as they are replaced with horror stories from wars and attacks. She is conditioned into believing that other creatures are bad. She is thought to fear them and to avoid them at all costs. The princess is raised to become the future queen of the human population. Everyone always questions… will she follow in her fathers footsteps or will she bring change to the current situation and fix the mistakes she made as a toddler?