I Think I Fell In Love With Her The Minute She Called Me "Peasant"

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

Snowflakes fell on Fauve’s face. She pulled me along, her freezing hand stealing any trace of heat from mine. I didn’t mind and followed her through the snow, which was coming down harder each second. Our walk ended with a hard cave floor underneath my feet and stone over my head. Fauve turned back to me and laughed, pulling me farther inside.

Both of us crept forward and stopped when we saw the fire in the middle of the cave. Dragon backs were arched around it, their voices whispering, careful not to let them echo outside if Fauve and I should hear. We weren’t supposed to be here, in the sacred cave, even if one of us could speak dragon. Fauve cocked her head to the side, trying to lean in and listen . I jerked my head up, pretending to have heard something she didn’t. Fauve looked at me, suddenly nervous. I pulled her around the cave wall and back to the entrance silently, still pretending that the dragon we had rescued had sensed us. I knew I couldn’t keep pretending, though, ; Fauve knew things like that.

“Why did you–”

I just smiled down at her and leaned in closer, about to kiss her, when a shadow crossed before us. It was a human shadow. I looked up, pulling Fauve into me, and waited as the shadow took a step inside the cave. I froze, feeling as cold as Fauve’s hands had been. My brother stood in front of us, a half smile on his face and a chained dragon behind him. I could feel Fauve’s heartbeat speed up and heard her scream, summoning a flap of wings from behind us, when the dragon behind my brother reached out a claw and slashed through me.

“Peasant?” Fauve’s voice found my consciousness and ripped me out of the nightmare. “Skander?” I sighed with relief and opened my eyes to find her leaning over me, staring at my face. “Skander, what happened?” She looked into my eyes, concerned. “You were crying in your sleep again, and I hate it when you cry in your sleep. I also hate it when you steal the blanket.” That made two of us. She was wrapped up in the blanket I had been sharing with her; I was freezing.

“Can I have the blanket back?” I reached towards it, and she gently swatted my hand away.

“What happened?” She looked at me inquiringly. I sat up and told her, hearing an unusual silence from her compared to the last few times I had told her my dreams.

“Fauve?” I watched her carefully. I wasn’t sure she had ever been this quiet. She even talked in her sleep. It had been two weeks since I met her, and saved a dragon with her. A dragon that we were now camped out with in the woods. We were on a mission to find the Circle of Four—the four most powerful dragons in Everest. They had been searching for a Dragon Speaker for years, and I happened to be one.

“Fauve?” I asked again. She looked up from the snow and scooted next to me, sharing the blanket.

“Your brother knows you can speak,” she said. “When I was in the castle, Larissa would sometimes ask him if he had found anyone to talk to the dragon yet; he always said no. But you can, and you’re his brother.” Fauve looked down at the snow again. “Skander, Larissa’s going to send him after you. She wants a Dragon Speaker, and now that we’ve set the dragon free, she knows one of us can do it. And it’s certainly not me.” She was staring at me with her barely blue eyes.

“What?” I stared right back at her.

“Peasant, you know you can kiss me if you want to, right?” She smiled, and I opened my mouth when someone else spoke.

“I told you two to be up by sunrise. The sun comes in four hours.” The dragon’s voice circled around us, and I looked to his spot a few feet from us, by a circle of trees.

“What do you care? You’re nocturnal,” Fauve retorted, looking at the dragon. He had spoken slowly and carefully, so his was one of the few times she had understood what he said. It didn’t change the fact that she was scared to speak to him; I could tell by the way she was now gripping my hand with her nails.

“Yes, and you two are not. But since you’re up anyway, I suppose we should move on. The Circle is waiting.”

“How much farther is it?” I asked, standing up with Fauve and walking to his back.

“We should get there by nightfall.” The dragon eyed us as we climbed on his back. I felt Fauve’s arms around me as the dragon started flying. The air was bitterly cold, and her hands weren’t doing much to help. Neither was the fact that she once again had the blanket tightly wrapped around herself.

“Have you told her you love her yet?” the dragon asked me, speaking faster now.

“What do you think?” I told him, glad that the dragon was the one animal Fauve couldn’t speak fluently with.

“What are you waiting for?” The dragon had a trace of laughter in his voice.

“Time. I can’t just tell her I love her now.” And she might think I was just trying to get the blanket. Why were her hands so cold? I shivered and felt Fauve lean against me, resting her head on my shoulder.

“Your ever-so-painful love story is killing me to watch, Dragon Speaker.” The dragon flew higher and then slowly dipped low. Fauve made a small sound in protest and hugged me tighter. “Aren’t you going to say something about my flying for her?”

“Yes, you are an awful flier who shouldn’t get into other people’s love lives.” I looked back at Fauve, who wasn’t paying any attention to our conversation. She reached up and moved my hair from where it was falling into my eye. I shook my hair back into place and shivered when she purposely rested her frozen hand on my neck. She smiled and leaned back on my shoulder.

“And you,” the dragon responded, “are a Dragon Speaker who might not have all the time in the world to actually get a love life.” 

I Think I Fell In Love With Her The Moment She Called Me "Peasant"

PART 2

Fauve stopped singing and let go of my hand. We stood in front of the castle gate. “So how do we get in?” I asked. She tilted her head and whistled. I looked around in the air, waiting for another bird to come down and land on her finger. She whistled again, kneeling down and sticking her hand through the gate's bars.

A moment later, a white husky appeared and quietly waited as Fauve spoke. The husky lifted his head and stared at me before nodding and digging in the snow under the wall. Fauve stayed as she was, while her other hand found mine again.

            The jingle of keys came with the dog’s footsteps as he reappeared and dropped the keys in Fauve’s outstretched hand. She nodded in thanks and stood up, unlocking the gate and pulling both of us through. Surprisingly the gate made no sound and we locked it back up again then reburied the keys. Wordlessly, we followed the husky across the courtyard of the castle to another gate on the side. He stopped and bowed to Fauve before retreating. “What do we do now?” I said. As far as I could tell, this was the exact same as the first gate.

            “We walk in.” She pushed the gate open effortlessly and led the way to the castle's crawl space, which we found our way into. It was dark and damp, but not entirely cold. We slithered in on our stomachs, reaching a point to stand up in. Slimy square stones made up the walls to the dungeon, and cages and bars lined the aisle on either side. We came to a cell near the end with the bars ripped out and bent inward. A pair of shoes lay inside. I stopped and stared at it, thinking of Fauve’s bare feet, while she let go of me and ran ahead.

            “Why are you back?” A hissing voice came from further on. I looked up from the shoes and slowly made my way after Fauve. “I set you free.” The voice hissed some more and I heard the scrape of claws on the stone.

            “I came to return the favor.” Fauve’s voice sounded almost unfamiliar. I crept my way up to them and hid behind the wall. Fauve stood in front of a dragon, trying not to shake. The dragon was sitting down in a big stone room that was the size of the rest of the dungeon.

            He was big and had scales that were a dark purplish color. His wings were folded on his back and looked to be black. The green in his eyes circled his pupils; they were the size of my whole head.

            “How?” The dragon tilted his head, baring the amount of teeth in his mouth. “You can barely speak to me.” More hissing followed, and Fauve’s breath was the only sound she made. “Why would you, chambermaid? There’s no good for rescuing a dragon you can’t even talk to.” The dragon waited for Fauve to respond. “Speak, chamber maid. Speak!” the dragon roared, and blew out fire towards the ceiling, adding to the charred black spots on the net-like cover.

            “Why do you want to know so badly why it is she wants to free you? Why haven’t you freed yourself? A net is what’s stopping you?” I spoke up, the dragon’s eyes locking in on me.

            “Ah, a Dragon Speaker. What a gift it is that the chambermaid has brought me.” The dragon smiled and crawled forward until his foot was right in front of Fauve. “I haven’t spoken to a Dragon Speaker since…ever. What a special occasion this is.” The dragon smiled again. “What is your name, Dragon Speaker?”

            “Skander,” I said, stepping out from behind the wall and walking up to Fauve. Her gaze jumped from the dragon to me, no longer any trace of fear in her.

            “And the chambermaid?” The dragon tilted his head toward her.

            “Fauve,” she answered, looking back up at him.

            “Fauve and Skander have come to rescue me.” The dragon widened his eyes before stepping backwards into his room, pacing back and forth. “It’s a plan, set in motion by the one by the name of Fauve, to free me in hopes of another plan; for the one by the name of Skander.”

            The dragon stopped in front of us. “Dragon Speaker, do you know who you are? Do you know why you’re one blessed to speak to us? Have you come to save me, or is there a patron in the castle above that spins a tangled web inside your thoughts?” His voice became lower, and the next words were barely comprehensible. “Or is it simply because of fair Fauve, who has crawled inside your heart?”

            The dragon stared at me, the reflection of the two of us in his eyes. He blinked and spun around in a circle, stopping to breathe fire on the net ceiling above him and to claw at it, tearing a hole just big enough to get someone my size through. He stopped once again and spread his wings out, reaching from wall to wall in the room. He looked back at us.

            Fauve took my hand again and began to screech. In a minute, the flaps of wings and the mirrored screech of dozens of birds was in the air. They circled in groups according to species and began to tear at the net. “It won’t be enough.” The dragon looked up and swung his tail at me, picking me up and throwing me through the hole.

            I looked down, seeing Fauve narrow her eyes at the dragon and him shrug, looking back at me. I stood up, walking across the net and coming to a tree growing on the side of the walls. Presumably, it was where the chambermaids would feed the dragon from when there weren't any prisoners. The branches were strong and close enough for me to grab. I clung onto one and looked back at the dragon; he stuck his hand through, holding onto me as he pulled.

            The tree came in through the ceiling, and I hung from the dragon’s claw with a hole in my shirt. Fauve’s birds flew off, some cawing at her as she cawed back. “They would've heard that in the castle. The queen probably saw us sneak inside. We have to go,” she said from the ground.

            “Who said anything about bringing you?” The dragon looked down at her; Fauve and I froze. “I’m kidding.” The dragon rolled his eyes and placed both of us on his back. We clung onto his scales as he flew out of the dungeon and above the castle grounds, where they were waiting for us.

            Arrows and spears were thrown into the sky; the dragon sneered and breathed fire out at them, laughing as he flew higher in a circle. The circle spiraled down, making me dizzy, and the dragon breathed down on the queen's people, terrifying them.

            “What happens now?” I asked, feeling Fauve wrap her arms around me.

            “Well, peasant, I suppose we follow the dragon.”

I Think I Fell In Love With Her The Moment She Called Me "Peasant"

PART 1

I walked the forest as the wind picked up, curling its icy fingers around me. My footsteps left imprints in the near frozen mud. The coo of an owl sent chills down my spine as I hurried to make it back to the cave before the snowfall. The sky held the promise of snow in the heavy white clouds. Late December used to be enjoyable, and I used to feel alive in it.

            Stone that made a cave met my sight and I ran towards the soft glow that emitted from it, hoping to find something or someone. Before I could stop myself, I rushed inside, only to find it empty. As empty as September and as lonely as the rest of the caves in my life had been. The light was my lantern left behind from the morning.

            I sat on the floor, emptying the sack I had carried on my shoulder. Inside was enough dried meat to last the winter. Maybe more since the more life seemed to sink in, the less I had any interest in eating.

            Fifteen wasn't meant to be that sad. Well maybe it was in some other world, but not here. Not in Everest where fifteen was the prime age for everything. I guess for some of us that included losing everyone and everything that you ever loved. Just because I was always alone, it didn't make it okay to weep over missing someone so bad it physically hurts; but I did it anyway. And it didn't make it okay to feel sorry for yourself and silently scream the question “Why?” while your tears watered the ground like a heavy rain. But I did that too.

            I woke up cold. Cold and outside of the cave: where it was snowing. I sighed and picked myself up along with anything I had brought with me into the cave, and set out again. It wasn't long before I came across aset of bare-footprints in the snow and a curled-up figure underneath a silver cloak.It was the kind of cloak too expensive to belong to me or anyone I had known. I walked over to it anyway and gently rested my hand on the shoulder of the body inside.

            It wasn't dead. I let out a sigh of relief, wanting to know how someone with a cloak like that would end up frozen and outside on the outskirts of the castle grounds. Maybe they were a fugitive, which would make them the closest thing I had to a friend.

            Light brown hair and the palest blue eyes moved out from under the cloak. She hurriedly sat up, and I stared at what I thought was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. She pulled the cloak around her and tucked a jeweled necklace inside her shirt. “Are you a fugitive?” I asked.

            “No, do I look like one?” She had snow stuck to her hair.

            “Yeah.” I shrugged, not knowing what else to think orsay.

            “Well, for your information, peasant, I’m not one. I am the princess of Everest and I have been very rudely thrown out of my palace by a peasant who looked like one such as yourself.” She brushed some snow off her arm and stood up straight.

            “Yeah, and I’m a prince from some far-off kingdom who’s come to save you.” I smirked as I looked down at her.

            “Well, you’re a little bit late. And no prince would ever be carrying around a sack of dried meat on his shoulder or wearing clothes such as those.”

            “Unless I happen to be a pretentious prince disguised as a humble, common peasant,” I said.

            “You’re not either one of those things though; you’re a pretentious peasant disguised as a humble prince.” She had a glint in her eye that made her look a little scarier than a princess about fifteen years old should look. From the sound of her voice I could tell she knew what was going on just as well as I did and that she wasn't the stereotypical kind of stupid damsel in distress that I could just manipulate into believing I really was a prince.

That’s the difference between my fairy tale and theirs; I wouldn't waste even two seconds on a damsel in distress, even if she happened to look like this girl. But there was something different about this girl, like the fact that she had probably sworn to kill herself before she would ever become a damsel in distress.

            “And you aren't a princess.” I looked into her eyes; they were so pale they were almost white with just a tint of blue.

            “How would you know?” She pulled the cloak around her tighter, losing a little of the elitist in her voice.

            “Because my brother left to go marry the princess last September. Also, last I checked the princess of Everest is about a foot taller than you and . . . a bitch.”

            “Oh, really? If you think Larissa is a bitch, you've yet to meet her chambermaid. Or ex-chambermaid who is now considered a prisoner in the castle dungeon.” She flashed a smile and raised her hands with metal cuffs attached to each wrist. One end still held the broken chain.

“How did you–”

“What’s your name?”

“Skander. How did–”

“I’m Fauve. Your brother was the one who got me in the dungeon and the dragon was the one who got me out. It took me three days of begging and using what knowledge I have of Dragon Language. But if you wanted to get your brother out, I’m almost certain it’d only take you an hour.”

“What?”Before my brother had left, he had always said that the beautiful girls were the craziest. I was beginning to think that might be true. 

“You’re a Dragon Speaker, Skander. It’s in your name and it’s on your skin–I see it in your eyes too.” She looked up at me like I was meant to have an epiphany and suddenly realize what it was that she was talking about. “You’re meant to defend the people, and for you, that means join with the dragons because for a Dragon Speaker, the dragons are your people.”

“What about you? You’re the one who got a dragon to free you instead of eat you.”

“That’s because I could figure out how to talk to them. It’s hard to talk to dragons though, harder than it is to talk to anything else.”

“Anything else?”

She nodded and looked up to the sky, making a clicking noise with her tongue. A minute later a small bird flew down and perched on her finger. It looked up at her and I’m sure it was talking about me. She laughed and shook her head; but it was the kind of head shake you give someone when you both know it’s a little white lie that you’re telling. What kind of chambermaid told white lies to birds?

In another minute the bird was gone and Fauve was looking at me again.

“What did you–”

“It’s not important, peasant,” she said, smiling. She made a swift motion with her left foot, crossing her legs.

“ Aren't you cold, since your feet are–”

“I haven’t gotten cold in a long time,” she said. It must go along with her animal communication powers, I decided. She eyed me and looked me over, then turned her head in the direction of the castle.

“I have a proposal to make to you, and no, it’s not marriage. Will you, Skander the Dragon Speaker, go with me to the castle of Everest to free the dragon which the bitch of a princess, Larissa keeps in her disgusting old dungeon?” She waited for an answer, and I could tell she was scared of my answer.

“I’ll go with you,” I said. “If you swear not to leave me at any point during this trip.”

Slowly she nodded. “Of course.” was all that she said before she took my hand and placed her first bare foot in front of the other.