The Princess And The Dragon 4f305t

Copyright © 2013 by Amanda Grew. 134470-GREW

ISBN:

Softcover Ebook

978-1-4836-4246-8 978-1-4836-4247-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 06/13/2013

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For my parents, who encouraged me to read when I was young, and for Natalie, the only Princess I know.

There was once a beautiful young princess named Natalie who lived in a castle with her parents. She was given everything a girl could ever dream of, but it was never enough.

Chest after chest of treasures and sweets were laid before her, but she turned them all away.

“That is not what I wanted,” she announced as her hopeful father brought in a proud and noble unicorn. “But you can put him with the others.”

That is not what I wanted was what she always said, “though she did not know what it was that she did want. She had been given every toy, sweet and luxury the realm had to offer, but she felt empty.

Still the people of the kingdom tried to please her, as her smile was said to rival the sunset in its beauty.

Word came one day that a dragon had been spotted in the land; this filled her head so full of stories about brave knights battling terrifying dragons, and rescuing the people from harm.

And all her people gathered before her, waiting to hear what it was she wanted.

Finally, Princess Natalie declared: “The dragon’s head is what I want most!”

Silence ruled for a moment, then off her subjects ran, determined to find and slay the mighty dragon. The whole kingdom went, in hopes of winning a glimpse of the princess’s beautiful smile. They all wanted to be the one to give Princess Natalie the one thing that would make her happy.

But catching the dragon proved to be impossible, and days turned into weeks. Months went by, with no dragon presented to the princess.

She began to grow more and more melancholy, as her subjects, so eager to please her, had left her all alone in the castle. Even the king and queen had gone to chase the dragon.

She was forced to make her own food, and clean her own room, with no one around to play with. She had never been so lonely.

At long last, a scrawny, dirty little peasant boy burst into her empty throne room.

“Princess! Princess Natalie!” he exclaimed. “I’ve brought you, not only the dragon’s head, but the whole darn dragon!”

With that, the scrawny, dirty little peasant boy pulled from his pocket an equally scrawny and dirty little ginger kitten. He held it up for her inspection.

Princess Natalie looked skeptical. “He’s a little smaller than I’d have thought…”

“Ah, but princess,” the boy said with a sly grin. “His name is Dragon, and he is a good and fearsome friend.”

There was a momentary silence in the throne room before a bubble of giggles broke out, and the boy was not only rewarded with the princess’s smile, but her laughter as well.

And only then did the princess realize, at long last, that it was never the gifts she had craved. It was her people, and their love attention and friendship that she needed. Toys and trinkets were useless without her people and parents there to play with her, but everyone had always been too busy trying to give her things to make her smile.

When the people of the kingdom returned, finally having given up their futile quest, they found the princess, the peasant boy and the mighty Dragon, playing in the courtyard. Happy as can be.

From then on, the princess was almost always smiling. For whenever she looked at her fearsome cat Dragon, she was reminded that she had friends. For they were all her friends now, no longer did they grovel and give, now they laughed, and they played.

So ends the story of the Princess and her Dragon.