#dragon!roman

That and there wasn’t even a chance that the kingdom’s army could do anything without risking the prince a serious injury. They could aim at the great beast all they wanted, but if the dragon made a sudden dip or if they didn’t have a perfect or clear shot, the arrow could end up hitting the royal instead.

A part of him still didn’t truly believe that it had actually happened, but if it weren’t for the large red dragon snoozing quietly in the corner of the cave he was currently sat in, he would be lying to himself.

Virgil had been waiting for the past day for something to happen.

Nothing had happened.

Well, nothing was a relative term he supposed.

He had tried to escape a good handful of times. Each and every time his plans had been foiled and he had been caught in the act. The back of his tunic was scruffed between very long and very sharp teeth (that could very easily tear him to shreds) and heaved him right back over to the same spot on the dragon’s hoard he had been deposited on earlier.

He had just kept doing it, right up until the moment he thought the dragon was truly getting upset with him. That was a boundary he was not willing to push, especially not since his life was on the line. He had stopped trying to escape and eventually just started looking around the cave and the hoard in turn. The dragon had seemed content with that and had finally decided to take a little rest as night began to fall.

So, now Virgil just nervously twiddled with the overly ornate sleeves of his tunic, playing with the golden thread before it began to unravel under his fingertips.

His eyes anxiously flicking back and forth between the giant sleeping fire-breathing lizard and the opening of the cave not thirty feet away. The same opening of the cave that showed a beautiful inky black night sky, smattered with stars. A part of him longed to be back out there, but the other part of him knew that if he tried, the dragon would only manage to nab him again.

The dragon was big, Virgil was not.

But, another part of him suggested, if you make it out and make it back to the kingdom, you’d be far safer there.

Virgil nibbled his lower lip.

Well, the dragon did look like it was out for the night. So, before he knew it, Virgil was pushing himself to his feet on the unstable ground of the dragon’s pile of gold.

Freezing up completely as a few stray coins shifted and slid forward creating slight clattering noises, he waited with bated breath to see if anything else would happen. When the dragon did nothing but shift in its sleep, Virgil took that as his go ahead. The prince’s eyes were locked forward, but would flicker between the dragon and freedom every once in a while.

His pace was agonizingly slow, but if that was what got him out of here, then that was what worked.

He could see the outside right there, teasing him. It was a taunt, sharp as a barb.

Come and get me, your highness, it seemed to whisper, you’ll never make it.

Virgil could feel the cool air brushing against his skin. It felt freer out there, certainly more spacious and away from the fire-breathing menace currently keeping him trapped here.

Slow step after slow step brought him closer and closer to getting back to his kingdom and his people alive.

He knew his brother would not be faring well. He would be sick with worry. The king would have immediately sent out a search and rescue party to retrieve the stolen prince, but they had no leads on his whereabouts.

Virgil wouldn’t be surprised if the royal knights never found him.

If he were being truly honest, Virgil didn’t even know where in the kingdom he was, if he was even in the same country.

The sound of a snort from behind him made his shoulders tense.

It didn’t take a genius to know that he had been spotted. He heard coins clattering to the ground and papers and silks fluttering to the floor. The sound of claws clicking against stone caught his attention just as the rumbling from behind him only grew louder and more prominent. It wasn’t long before he felt the hot breath over his shoulders. Another displeased huff blew his hair forward and he turned to look up over his shoulder and the pale red eyes looking back down at him.

Virgil smiled sheepishly up at the dragon and the dragon’s eyes narrowed, before they rolled.

It was such a human expression, it was almost uncanny.

“Let’s not be too hasty now,” the prince said, taking a step forward to test the waters.

The dragon only leaned down and opened its jaw just enough to snag the back of Virgil’s tunic and heft him off the ground and off his feet once more, as if he weighed nothing. Though, compared to the strength of a dragon, Virgil probably did weigh nothing.

“Oh come on!” He growled, trying to wriggle free. He only managed to get himself twisted around as he swayed back and forth in pace with the dragon’s steps.

The dragon huffed at him, blowing more hot air around his shoulders.

Virgil attempted to kick his legs backward and hit the dragon in the throat. He knew it wouldn’t do anything since its scales seemed to be thicker than a knight’s armour, but it didn’t stop him from trying to cause even the slightest bit of discomfort. “You can’t really blame me for trying can you?”

A low rumbling sound vibrated through him and Virgil took at that at face value, even though he didn’t understand what was being said to him.

“Fine!” The prince snipped, “fine. Whatever, have it your way.”

Virgil wasn’t sure if the dragon could understand him, but either way talking to it made him feel better. As if he wasn’t so alone in this prison.

However, instead of being set back down on the same pile of gold and relics and collectibles, he was settled down into the crevice of where the dragon had been resting beforehand. Before he could make another run for it, though Virgil was a bit too confused by this change to really do anything, the dragon was laying back down and curling completely around him. Virgil was entirely encircled by the dragon itself and there was no hope of getting away from here unnoticed.

He groaned at this, pushing at the dragon’s softer underbelly, trying to squirm free.

The dragon responded to this by stretching out its wing and covering him even more. It curled the slightest bit closer to him, before staying there. It seemed that the dragon knew enough about how small and fragile humans were that it didn’t curl too tight around him.

Virgil gasped in response to that, before relenting. It was putting up a futile fight, he knew that. But still.

“You don’t have to be such a big jerk about it,” the prince grumbled, trying to struggle at least a little bit more. He felt the dragon rumble something around him and Virgil ceased his useless struggles. It wasn’t getting him anywhere anyway. “You didn’t win anything by the way. You’re just being the childish one here.”

The dragon snorted, and this time it almost sounded like Virgil was being laughed at. Was he being mocked?

“Oh, you think that’s funny?” He was given another grumbling response. “Please. You think you’re all that just because you can pick me up and carry me around wherever you want, huh? That’s just being power hungry and I do not appreciate it.”

The dragon didn’t response this time and Virgil took that as a win.

He might be completely trapped like this, but at least it was warm. And it was..kind of comfortable. To be real, it was more comfortable than trying to nap on the piles of cold gold. He was going to have to find some silks or something if he was really going to be here so long.

Virgil could worry about that some other time though. The warmth that was encircling him was rather nice and, the longer he listened to the sounds around him, he oddly enough found himself fairly at ease. The steady breathing from around him, the steady thundering heartbeat from behind him. He felt…safe.

Which was weird. He was probably in one of the most dangerous positions a prince could be in and he felt relatively fine.