A Knight, a Princess, and a Dragon

Thanks to his brightly polished shield, Mikhail himself had never been burned, but he had seen many such wounds in his time as a dragon hunter. At the thought of his gentle friend suffering so, his voice caught in his throat.

“Sometimes, it is still...difficult,” Aruzhan admitted, guessing her companion's thoughts. “For a time I stopped trusting my parents, my closest friends, even myself.”

“And how—that is, have you begun to trust again?” In Mikhail's experience, doubt and hopelessness were very difficult poisons to overcome. Not everyone had a little box full of ashrooms, after all.

“Some wounds need time to heal. Some need desire. More than anything else, I wanted to learn to trust again. And one day I realized that whether this ugly mark was only skin deep or reached down to poison my very heart...was up to me.”

“Some wounds should not have to be suffered.” Mikhail's hand tightened on the hilt of his father's old sword in anger. A noble knight is always slow to anger...unless he sees another mistreated.

“Many in our village would be sad to see you go,” Aruzhan changed the topic with a smile, but Mikhail noted with surprise that there were tears in her eyes. “You and your horse have done much good here.”

“Stallion,” Mikhail stammered, unsure of what to say next and partly wishing they were still talking about dragons.

The dragon.


Now Mikhail's thoughts focused with terrible quickness. He had followed a dragon to Altai Village. The princess—and all the other villagers too, of course—could still be in danger. But the noble knight would find the beast and slay it before it could do any more harm!

“Spirit and I have been very happy here.” Mikhail met the gaze of Aruzhan's hazel eyes with a sad smile. “But there are promises I have made to many that I must keep,” he continued gently but firmly. “I must see my duty to the end, Aruzhan Yerlanovna.”