More Than A Princess

Drago Margie

Drago Margie doesn’t live in a normal cave. 

It looked more like a palace than a cave. 

She had imagined her cave will be a rough hewn hole in the side of a mountain, like most regular caves are supposed to be. 

Drago Margie’s cave is a palatial building with thick columns, high towers, turrets and intricate designs carved out of a mountain. 

In fact, it was so large, it looked like the magical dragon had carved the whole mountain to turn it into her home. 

The women could not help gaping at the humongous palace in amazement and awe the moment they got down from the car. It was at least 10 times the size of Lyvia’s palace at home. It looked like it was made to fit a dozen, or maybe more, giants. 

“You girls wait here while I go introduce ourselves,” Callan told them before walking to the equally gigantic front gates that towered over them. 

He made a strange waving motion before the gate, muttered something and bowed.

“What do you want?” a loud booming voice replied, making all three of them jump. 

“O great Drago Margie, we are here to seek your help and we brought a gift,” Callan replied respectfully.

There was a short silence. 

The gate slid open smoothly. “Come in and don’t touch anything!” the booming voice said.

Callan beckoned to them. They walked in together and after the entered, the gate quietly slid close behind them.

It was a riot of colours inside the gate. There were jewel-covered trees. Rainbows with pots of gold. Multi-coloured jewels strewn across the perfectly manicured lawn. 

Gold and silver coins spilled out of chests and bags placed haphazardly all around. It was like a wonderland full of every precious stone and metal in the world. 

If they were awed by the size of the palace, they were thunderstruck by the amount of jewels and gold and silver covering the entire front garden on both sides of the path leading to the imposing main entrance. 

“Do not touch anything, no matter how tempted you are. These are all bewitched, the moment you touch it, you will turn into a rat or some small creature,” Callan told them, steering them clear from gardens. 

“If she already had so much gold and jewels…why do we need to buy one for her?” Lyvia asked in hushed tones. It looked like the dragon had a mountain full of silver, gold and jewels, literally. 

“That’s because she loves receiving gifts. It doesn’t matter that she has a lot of gold and jewels, as long as it’s a gift, it is something new to her,” Callan replied in equally hushed tones. 

“That’s right. I simply love gifts!” Drago Margie’s booming voice said. She obviously heard their conversation. 

When they reached the imposing front door, it magically dissolved and there stood a tall majestic woman with purple hair and mesmerising silver eyes. Despite their gigantic surroundings, the woman was surprisingly human size, a very tall human. 

Lyvia was surprised. She clearly remembered Callan showing her a picture of a woman with purple eyes and silver hair. She wanted to ask Callan about it but didn’t want to seem rude. 

“So, what have you brought? I see it’s from Dwarfisinger’s, it should be good,” Drago Margie asked, looking intently at the box in Callan’s hands.

Callan promptly handed her the velvet box.

All of them stood there as she opened the box, remove the white tissue and lifted out the beautiful gold necklace.

Lyvia can hear Jinna’s soft gasp of surprise next to her. 

Drago Margie snapped her fingers and the necklace adorned her neck. It fitted her perfectly as it shone and twinkled in the light. 

Everything in this world seemed to be able to shrink and expand to fit the wearer perfectly. That is so convenient, Lyvia thought. 

“Well, this is nice,” Drago Margie said grudgingly, fingering the jewellery on her neck. 

Then she finally looked at all three of them, scrutinising Jinna closely for a few seconds more before turning away. 

“Come in, we can talk in my living room,” she said.

The inside of the palace was just as stunning and opulent as its exterior. 

Instead of huge giant sized furniture to fit with the large frame of the building, all of it were disproportionately human sized. The small furniture emphasised the huge cavernous space around them even more. 

It felt more like a cave inside, a luxurious man-made cave-like palace. 

The living room was just a set of plush sofas arranged around a coffee table. It looked like a child’s play set and positively tiny in the large cavernous room. 

“So, I see you are wondering why I have purple hair and silver eyes?” Drago Margie looked at Lyvia. “I can change my looks as and when I like. Today, I feel like purple hair and silver eyes, so this is what I chose for my human form,” she said.

Lyvia was amazed. She had not spoken out loud. It would appear that Drago Margie can read minds.

“Yes, I can certainly read minds, there are no secrets…” 

Drago Margie suddenly stopped talking and turned sharply to look at Jinna.

“Child, you should change the way you think, that is not good at all,” she told Jinna sharply, her expression stern. 

Jinna flushed and stared down at her lap quietly. 

Drago Margie then turned to Callan, her expression now pleasant. 

“Don’t worry about the c*****e, they will not trace you down, I will make sure of it, ” she said assuringly.

Callan sighed in relief. He has been worried about the Elit reporting him to the police as they drove all the way from Dwarfsinger’s. 

“However, you have to do something first. You need to find out who murdered those people at Ristorante Dornie and why,” she said.

“Once you find out who and why, you can send me a message and I will make sure they get punished…tut-tut…it doesn’t matter if they are Elits, do you have no faith in my magic?” she asked.

Callan shook his head. It will not be easy to track down the killers if they are Elits. Their magic is so much more powerful than his, a mere Norm. 

“Don’t worry about that, I will give you a temporary boost to complete this task,” Drago Margie said, referring to his magical power. 

“Sorry, to interrupt, but what about us? Can you send us home?” Lyvia interjected. 

Drago Margie turned to look at her. 

“You will need to learn some magic in order to go home, otherwise, you might explode and die if I sent you back just like this,” she said.

She glanced at Jinna who was still staring down at her lap.

“As for her, she doesn’t need to learn any magic. In fact, it might be dangerous for her to learn magic. You, princess, can take her along once you’ve mastered the magic required to travel through worlds,” she said.

She turned to Callan.

“You will get a strong power boost so that you can track down the killers and teach the princess magic,” she said.

“Princess?” He asked, puzzled.

“She didn’t tell you? This one here is the Princess of Vernia and that other girl is her handmaiden. Lyvia is no commoner although the other one…” Drago Margie said, sniffing disdainfully when she mentioned Jinna. 

Lyvia felt insulted on behalf of Jinna. How could this magical dragon look down on her handmaiden simply because she was a servant? 

“Oh calm down, princess. It is not because she’s a servant. Don’t forget, I can read minds and I don’t like what I see in her thoughts,” Drago Margie said. 

“Princess of Vernia? Wow. Didn’t think you could have shared that minor detail?” Callan asked Lyvia. “That explains your elaborate gowns…though I don’t understand why you were without shoes,” he added.

Lyvia shrugged. She couldn’t even remember what had happened prior to falling into this world. She wouldn’t know what happened to her shoes or to Jinna’s shoes. 

“It’s not important if I’m a princess or not, we still need to go back,” she finally said. 

“So, lets stop wasting time. Callan Delzon, you will need to follow me to the magic room for your power boost and you two ladies, you can rest here,” Drago Margie stood up and swept down a long corridor without waiting for Callan.

He immediately jumped up and followed her. 

“Do not touch anything!!” Drago Margie’s voice boomed from the ceiling at the two women. 

After they dragon and Callan disappeared down the corridor, Lyvia turned to Jinna.

“What did she mean? What were you thinking when she admonished you?” she asked.

Jinna flushed and wrung her tiny hands. 

“Well…I was thinking how nice it would be if I could bring back some of the jewels and gold we saw in the garden,” she replied, hanging her head in shame. 

Lyvia laughed, relieved. 

Of course, Jinna was an orphan with nothing to her name when she was brought to the palace to serve as her handmaiden. It is natural that she would want all the riches she saw earlier. 

“It’s okay Jinna, she probably doesn’t like people thinking of taking her precious hoard,” she told the trembling woman and patted her hands assuringly.

What she didn’t know was that Jinna was lying to her and she was trembling in rage, not in fear.