Young Writers Society

"Why do you care?" he replied. People weren't supposed to care about monsters like Nendros - they were supposed to be afraid, supposed to hate, and supposed to do anything but worry about their wellbeing.

So why was Prince Nendros Exel Xenon so different?

It's because, a little, irritating voice told him, he has the convenient excuse of the curse.

James let the reunited couple talk and largely ignored them as he peeked into the castle, but when he saw Bleffles approaching on horseback out of the corner of his eyes, he stopped. He turned to watch her hop off the horse.

He nodded at the offer. "A coat would be wonderful, thank you," he said plainly, not bothering to put on an act when they'd already deviated so far from the storyline. His eyes lingered on her horse.

"I see you found your horse," he commented. "Did your journey to the castle go smoothly?"

Bleffles fetched the coat, and plopped it into James' hands.

"This? Oh nah, man, I stole it. Yeah, it went fine! Thanks 'fer askin."

James only blinked at her confession as he quickly slipped his arms into the jacket. He tried to naively believe that the story they were plopped in was nothing but a story and that stealing other people's property wouldn't have long-lasting implications or consequences. But the idea did crawl under his skin, and in the midst of all of the unknowns, he wasn't sure if he was convincing himself of a truth or a lie.

In any event, there was nothing he could do about it now. He looked towards Bleffles. "Of course," he said with a bow of his head. Then, he turned and started into the castle. "Come inside," he invited. Though the castle was not his own, he doubted Nen and Az would contest to them entering it, and it would be bizarre of them to declare ownership over it when they were hardly owning their assigned characters.

As he stepped into the castle, he was surprised at how grand it appeared, despite the curse. Sure, everything was dark, and the decorative themes of the castle seemed to scream 'brooding isolated creature,' but had only been in a few castle-like structures. This one seemed to be very nice and well-kept.

He wondered if somewhere, in one of the rooms, there was a spare pair of clothes that didn't involve dresses.

Nen nervously looked around when the group entered the castle. He had already been inside of it, but this was the first time he was getting a good look at its entrance. It was large and beautiful, but also old and empty. It gave him an uncomfortable feeling - he instinctively scooted closer to Az.

"It doesn't look anything like the Castle of Blood," he said.

She glanced over at him. "You noticed the similarities, too?"

He nodded.

"Is Aska here?" she asked, eying the nearby staircases.

Another nod. "He got turned into a clock," Nen replied. "He's up in one of the towers with all of the other people that got turned into objects, the person who's supposed to Belle's dad, and someone playing the part of a random villager - we should probably go back there, once I figure out a way to get to it. Then we can come up with a game plan."

Aegeas rolled his eyes. "Because Nen adores you, you moron," he said. "He carries you around, showers you with affection, lets you hide in his shirt, and tries to keep you safe. I've seen stuff like that before. What do you think is going to happen when he finds out you're not who you say you are? Do you think he's going to trust you? I don't trust you - I don't know who you are or what you're capable of. And I'd like to know that."

He clenched his hands into fists, trying to hold himself back from doing something stupid. "It's not me he adores," he said; his voice was almost eerily quiet. "Aska's the one he cares about. Shy, quiet Aska, who needs to be protected. Who can't do anything on his own. Who's entire life is a mystery, but he doesn't care, because gods forbid he makes trouble."

He paused.

"I already know he won't trust me," he said. "Why do you think I'm pretending to be Aska?"

Aegeas opened and closed his mouth. It was a fair point - Aska was completely different from whoever this was, and Nen had plenty of reasons to dote on someone like Aska over someone like this stranger, but he couldn't help but feel like there was something he disagreed with.

"It's not honest," he finally said. "And it's not fair to him. I don't know him very well, but he seems like a good person. I think he'd accept that you're not who you say you are, as long as you're honest about who you really are. Because, right now, 'I'm not Aska but I won't tell you who I am' isn't helping you."

He was silent for a moment, gaze dropping down to the body he was stuck in.

"...Nendros is a human," he said. "I can't pretend that I know what you are when you're not a candelabra, but I know what he is. The scales, the wings, the tail - all of that is just an illusion."

He looked up at the candelabra.

"As long as I'm Aska, he'll trust me," he said. "The moment he finds out who I am - what I am - all that trust will be lost. I'd just be a monster in his eyes, and humans never could care for or love monsters like me."

Aegeas paused. "You do know how humans work, right?" he said slowly. "I know a kid whose girlfriend is a dragon. I know a girl whose boyfriend is a wolf and a lion. I've met people whose parents were a human and an eagle, a human and a hound, a human and a lion, and so on. I don't know what you are, but I don't think a human is going to care. I don't think anyone really cares, as long as they're in love or found a new friend. I'm an otter, and my girlfriend is a lionness. I definitely don't care. She's amazing."

He studied the candelabra with an unreadable expression on his face.

"My world isn't your world," he coldly said. "In my world, humans are the established dominant race. There were others, once, but they waged a war against them out of terror. Even though their kingdoms had held treaties and alliances with the others for centuries, the humans decided that they were meant to be feared.

He turned his back to the candelabra, scanning the shelves he could reach in this body.

"They even killed the king of the dragons," he said. "They sent a mob into the heart of his castle and slaughtered every dragon they could find."

He reached for a book, struggling to grab its spine with his now impossibly small hands.

"Nendros is the descendant of the kingdom that sent the mob," he concluded. "He was kidnapped by the king's sister, and was cursed by her, too. His girlfriend, though she doesn't know it, was sent to the castle they now live at by another dragon. You don't have to be a genius to figure out what would happen if he found his supposedly human best friend was a dragon."

"How long ago was all of that?" Aegeas said. "In my world, the humans did fight off and kill the dragons. But that was two thousand years ago. People die, grudges face away, and before long nobody even remembers what they were even fighting over. Maybe Nen's like that."

His hand lingered on the spine.

"...It's hard to say how many years it's been since the king's death," he said. It was hard to remember - hard to put a numerical value to a span of time that seemed like an eternity. He pulled the book off the shelf, struggling from the weight as it clattered to the floor with a heavy thump. "I do know the time since the curse and the spell, though - the curse was only three years ago, and the spell was one."

He leaned his entire body over - it was too hard to reach - and opened the book to the table of contents. "It's still fresh in his memory. And the fear of dragons still remains. It's why he can never leave the castle, and why he was so horrified when he saw what he had become."

He stared at a blank spot on the page.

"...He would never care about a dragon, especially not when..." His voice caught in his nonexistent throat. "...It doesn't matter."

Aegeas hopped over to the book, peering at the front. Ugh, not in a script he recognized.

"Nen seems fine now, doesn't he?" Aegeas said. "And I've found that when someone says something isn't important, it generally is. What's this book for?"

"Wait- what??" Leo squeaked as he comprehended Levi's explanation, and quickly clomped over to the window. "No way!"

Before he could try to lean up somehow and look, he paused, realized that it was none of his business, and then backed off a little. Something else occurred to him, however.

"Is there a change that Gaston could be the girlfriend that Nendros mentioned?" he suggested. "I don't see how that would make sense if not- he seemed pretty crazy about her."