The Dragons Reward

                                                                                  The Dragon's Reward

Prologue

King Mennin, pounded his fist on the map, making dust fall from under the table.

“We had the beast!” He shouted angrily at his advisers and generals. “We found his lair! Why couldn't we kill him?” One of his most trusted advisers, Gerard, stood up, he had a plan, and not just any normal plan, it was a plan that the king himself would like.

“Speak Gerard.” Mennin said authorizing the adviser to now reveal his plan.

“As you know, our last conquest to slay the dragon terrorizing our land ended in failure. And as you also know, Princess Amelia is of age to be married.”

“What are you suggesting?” King Mennin questioned, impatiently, he needed that foul beast destroyed! It was laying waste to all his lands, towns, crops and forests.

“I say we let word of our plight get out to all the land.” The adviser was stopped once again by the king's interruption.

“We don't want to let the kingdoms know that we are vulnerable to attack!” The adviser now using a bit of force to help persuade the king continued.

“No one wants to rule a kingdom that is cursed by a dragon, what I suggest we do is send out an invitation, to the mightiest of all the land, and whomever slays the beast may receive your daughter's hand in marriage.” The king thought for a moment, it truly was brilliant plan . In a figurative sense it killed two birds with one stone, the dragon would die and his daughter would get married to hero that would be remembered forever. The king nodded his approval.

“I like that idea, let's get to work.”

Chapter I

Preston Darren rode on his sleek black horse through a small brook, in the middle of a pasture, he could hear the clanking of his knight armor bouncing in the sack that was strapped to his horse, Turtle. Turtle, got his name from the fact that the horse loved water, he would splash around in the ponds when they would stop to get a drink of water.

Preston, gazed out around the beautiful country side, green pastures and rolling hills that went as far as you could see, then at the edge of eyesight was an amazing mountain range, making a large valley. In this beautiful valley lay castle Faust, home to the royal Faust family. Preston pulled out a roll of exquisite parchment, and for about the twentieth time read the words on the scroll.

To Sir Preston Darren

As you may have heard, castle Faust is under attack and under the terror of a monstrous beast, Scar the dragon flies above my city and burns down my villages, destroying crops and my people. I know that alone I cannot defeat this beast myself. So I suck up my pride and ask for your help in disposing of the accursed beast. Riches and eternal honor will go to him who slays the beast. Please report to castle Faust at the end of the month and, a banquet will be prepared for the warriors who will help.

Humbly Signed

King Mennin Faust

Preston rolled the message up and stored it safely in his cloak pocket again, and just rode in amazement, in Preston's opinion, King Faust was an Honorable King who truly did care about the future of his people, enough to ask him, Preston a young 22 year old, who had only been a knight for two years, to come and help him.

And so Preston rode on, continuing to soak in the different surroundings. There was a slight chill in the air that never seemed to leave the valley, flakes of falling snow gave the valley a cold cruel place. A cold, cruel, yet absolutely beautiful place. Preston rode on and soon the castle came in sight, and what a glorious sight it was. 50 foot walls, surrounded it's many story castle, archer towers had ivy growing up the sides, guards could be seen patrolling the wall and archers ready and loaded to fend off an attack.

Preston eagerly spurred Turtle on keeping the horse at a steady pace, he was so excited about being there words couldn't describe it, even if the only reason for being there was to go and die for some other king. As he rode toward the castle, the massive drawbridge was lowered across a wide moat. As Turtle trotted across the wooden drawbridge his hooves made a rhythmic clopping that sounded almost like music. Then the clopping on the wood turned into a clinking sound as they rode from wood to cobblestone, they rode through a large marketplace that was right there at the gate and continued on. He pulled out another roll of parchment that had some instructions that told him where to go. Slowly and with no haste Preston rode turtle out of the market place and into a stage like area. As he came closer he noticed about a hundred other knights, princes, and warriors. They were all passing the time by talking, playing dice and other such activities while they waited. As soon as he hopped off his horse an old scribe ran forward to Preston.

“Name?” the old man asked, pushing up some round spectacles higher up on his nose.

“Preston Darren, Sir.” Turtle gave a snort, which Preston guessed with a smile was the horses way of saying his name.

“Good, good.” the scribe muttered “every ones here” The scribe made a few more notes and then hobbled off. Preston walked around for a bit trying to get some feeling back into his sore legs, then a loud horn sounded gathering every ones attention and quieting the group of warriors that sat in the courtyard. Higher up on the stage was a balcony, and standing at the top were two people.

“It's King and Queen Faust!” Preston Muttered to Turtle giddily. The King waved his arms about gathering some more attention and then started his speech.

“ I would like to thank you all for coming!” The King said, his voice carrying to the very end of the crowd. “ We are here today, to fight against a common enemy! The dragon Scar! The beast plagues this land and destroys all that my people work for, their homes their crops, their lives are in danger, because this beast flies about the skies! But today, we rest, and tomorrow we rectify that beast's curse! Tomorrow that beast dies! And one of you will slay the monster, one of you will go down in history for all of time, one of you will come back alive and claim a priceless treasure. My daughter Amelia Faust!” with a flourish of his hands the king motioned for his daughter to come out on the balcony and with a loud roar from the crowd she stepped out. Her long blond hair, flowed freely in the wind and her bright blue eyes, were sharp as glass, and her smile was brighter than the sun. Princess Amelia gave a wave to all the men who were going out to fight and die, so that they could have her hand in marriage. Preston, leaned over to prop himself up against Turtle, but his horse wasn't right there and Preston fell over to the ground.

After the roar and applause of the crowd quieted down the King resumed his speech.

“Tonight is the night of the banquet! Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow! You face Scar!” That's when the crowd went nuts. The king had played his part perfectly and now he had a willing army to fight for him.

King Mennin walked off the balcony and towards the court room, he still had some matters to discuss. Namely his daughters future wedding, the best part about the plan was that he knew his daughter would be proud to have a husband that was legendary throughout all the world. He gave his wife a hug and then walked into the courtroom.

Preston practically stumbled towards his room, which he was sharing with another knight, up on the third floor of the castle. He dropped Turtle off at the stables, leaving him in the care of the king's servants. He grabbed his potato sack that was full of his armor and carried it up the stone stairs, when he opened the door he saw his roommate was already getting settled in. When Preston walked in the man stopped and introduced himself.

“Hello I'm Rowan, your roommate for the night.” Preston shook the man's hand and knew instantly he was a knight. Rowan was almost as tall as Preston but he had a smaller build, he had short blonde hair, he had a short clean cut beard and was obviously a very clean person.

“I'm Preston” He replied “Where do you hail from?” The man smiled, home was obviously a fond thing for him to speak about.

“I hail from Algreda, down across the mountains and to the south.” Rowan went back to his bed and continued to clean and fix up his armor.

“What do you think about this whole event?” Preston asked doing his best to break the ice.

“I think” Rowan said with another smile, he was a very lighthearted person. “ That the chance at slaying a dragon is amazing by itself, and the hand of Princess Amelia Is a huge bonus!” Preston layed his plates of armor across the bed and as he tossed his gauntlets on the bed and a carrot fell out.

“My friend why do you have a carrot?” Rowan asked jokingly. Preston picked it up off the bed and tossed it back into the potato sack before answering.

“It's Turtle's, my horse.” at the name Rowan burst into laughter.

“Why? Of all names did you pick Turtle?!” Preston couldn't help but smile himself.

“I'm gonna tell you,” Preston answered “If that horse could, he would turn himself into a fish and swim around in the sea. Whenever we stopped to gather some water from a river or spring Turtle would hop in and swim around.” Rowan wiped a tear out of his eye and stood up.

“Oh, I haven't heard a name as good as that in a long while, now if you don't mind I will go down to the banquet, I don't know about you but I am hungry after all of today's excitement.” Rowan walked out of the room leaving Preston by himself.

Princess Amelia watched her father go into the courtroom and as soon as she saw the large chamber door shut, it was on! While most princesses were your petite little babies, Amelia liked to have fun, and preferred a sword to tea parties. Not to get anything wrong, she didn't mind being a princess and having all of those duties that came with the position, but she also knew she was gonna have to get out eventually and swing a weapon around, she enjoyed playing around with swords and who knew she might need to be able to fight. Of course her parents would not like it if she got caught stabbing a sword into a dummy. As she hurried back to her room she put her long hair into a braid that would keep it out of her way and ran out onto the training field, normally she would wait till night to practice because the knights of the castle were training but right now everyone was at the banquet stuffing their faces. Of all her father's crazy schemes to get her married Amelia strongly felt this was the craziest. A dragon? Really, there wouldn't be any suitors left because they would all be little piles of ash on the peak of the mountain. The princess pulled a sword out of her secret hiding place under the weapons cabinet which was locked most times. She quickly walked and faced her foe, the sack dummy on a stick.

Preston finished giving his armor a quick clean up making it all nice and shiny and decided to head to the banquet when he realized that he didn't know where the banquet was. He still had plenty of time to get there so he decided to just wander around, exploring the castle and maybe find someone who could direct him to the grand hall. He walked out of his room and walked outside maybe he could find a stream of people that knew where they were going. He got out of the castle, but didn't see anyone, they must all be at the banquet, Preston thought, that's when his acute ears heard the distinct sound of a sword. Turning around, he walked towards the sound and found himself walking past the barracks into the training field. He turned a corner and stopped. It was the Princess! Like right there! Right there! Preston stopped breathing for a second and decided he needed to make a good impression. Don't treat her like a prize just say hi and leave Preston said but it's the Princess his annoying brain told him. Then he figured out this would be the perfect time to ask for directions. He stepped quietly around the corner and stood in the open and watched for a second how the princess used the sword.

“Use your wrist more.” He called out trying to give some advice. With a shriek the princess turned and pointed the sword at him.

“What are you doing here?!” She asked questioningly “Why aren't you at the banquet?” Preston had to sadly admit the truth.

“Honestly, I have no clue at all as to where the banquet hall is.” Amelia lowered her sword and looked at him questioningly.

“You don't know where the banquet hall is at?!” She asked still a little, lot mad that he had just walked up on her like that. “If I was looking for it, I wouldn't look in the training field!”

“I thought whoever was here could give me some directions.” Preston again admitted “Turns out it was you, I'm sorry, I shall continue my quest in search of the banquet hall.” He bowed and turned to walk off, when she stopped him.

“Go down the hall, and take a left keep going till you find it, it's really hard to miss.” Preston bowed his thanks but she stopped him again.

“You didn't see me with a sword just now.” Preston smiled and realized what was going on.

“My Princess, I don't even know what you are talking about.” With a smile Preston turned and walked off down the hall, as soon as he was out of sight, he started to beat his head on the wall. Why? That was stupid why would he say something like that, he looked like a total idiot.

“Um are you OK?” The Princess asked peeking around the corner, maybe he wasn't out of sight.

“Um, yeah...” Preston stammered trying to get out of the situation as smoothly as possible. “I am, um OK, yes OK I am.” He was getting worse and worse by the second.

“Just checking.” she said with a smirk and walked off, back to slicing up the dummy. Preston practically ran to the banquet, he had never been so embarrassed in his entire life. He felt extremely stupid, even more stupid than usual. He tried to just shake the princess out of his head and by the time he got to the banquet, it was already in full swing. Preston looked around for a place to sit when he saw Rowan waving at him, Preston weaved between the crowd and serving girls and sat down.

“This is who I’m stuck with!” Rowan laughed to the two guys across from him. They laughed politely and introduced themselves to Preston.

“Hello, mate! I'm Madain! Nice to meet you!” Madain was a muscular masterpiece, he had thick muscular arms, and his armor was larger than anyone else at the table had. He had black shoulder length hair with a braid on either side, he had a long black beard. Madain was the fighter that you definitely wanted on your team. The other man was Kaden, an average looking guy short black hair, no beard, except for that he had a line of scars that went down one side of his face.

“A Mountain Cat got me” he said Catching Preston's questioning glance. “I was up in the mountains looking a fight, and I got one.”

The banquet went really good for Preston who was normally alone most of the time when traveling doing his knightly duties, and it wasn't often he got the chance to be social and talk with other knights and warriors. Preston also got to wondering why he had been invited in the first place, everyone he met, was a legend in his city. Madain had single-handedly fought and killed the Bandit King in the north saving the townspeople from the tyrant. Rowan had slain a goblin that was gathering armies in the north to attack his kingdom. Even Kaden had done something like protect the king of Arimaya Castle by taking an arrow to the chest and surviving. Preston, however had done absolutely nothing while being a knight for two years, that made him feel like he wasn't doing his job right. After a nice banquet Preston retired to his quarters along with Rowan and Madain, they talked on the way about politics and just nothing in particular, they all knew that it was possibly their last night to say anything.

Preston went to bed thinking, he was excited in a weird scared to death, the only thing that happened while he had been at Castle Faust was develop a crush on the princess, which obviously was not going to work out. He knew deep down that tomorrow would be the day when he either died or someone killed the dragon before he got there or after he died, those were the only two logical things that made sense in this whole castle. So he put Princess Amelia out of his mind and went to sleep.

Princess Amelia was far from going to sleep, she had a plan to get out of the castle and see the world, now whether that plan worked out or not was a totally different story, but either way she was determined to get out, she was 22, and had rarely ever been out of the castle. Tomorrow was the day she got out.