Knight in Shining Scales

Finishing a story is extremely difficult, mostly because you have to actually keep writing it, even when you start to realize that you hate the book. Which happens a lot. You look down at the notebook or computer screen and you see (I'll write a different post on that another day.)

But in Creative Writing we had to write a fractured fairytale (which is where you take a famous fairytale, like the Three Little Pigs, and change the ending or characters, like the Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig) picture book. On regular, college ruled paper it's 7.2 pages long. Once you separate the paragraphs up to where you plan to draw the pictures it's 33 pages long. I plan on sending it to my niece and nephew when I'm done because they love fairy tales. They even made up a Cinderella dance, which is just adorable.

Anyways, back on track. You know that story that all the hopeless romantics say, "Why can't I find a knight in shining armor to slay the dragon?" or, "Someday, my Prince Charming will find me." I took those two sentences and decided to make them a bit topsy turvy. I titled the short story The Knight in Shining Scales.

It had to be G rated, so if it seems silly or weird in some places, that's why. The title is a bit of a spoiler, but I don't care.


The driver let Princess Ebony out of the pale white carriage. Her high heels made soft click-clacks against the mansion's marble staircase. The doorman in a dark red suit asked her name and checked a list. Once he was satisfied, he swung open the magnificent oak door which easily stood at twenty five feet. The princess looked in at the room the door had just  revealed.

Inside, there were swirling lights and people, tons of people. Some of them were dancing, some of them were socializing next to a seemingly endless buffet, and there were even people writing poetry on the walls. But not a single person looked sad or bored. Then that must mean it's a very good social gathering, Ebony thought.

She stepped all the way into the castle and the heavy oak doors slammed themselves close. She jumped in surprise from the resounding thud! When she turned around to the gathering, she saw a handsome boy in nice clothes watching her. She wondered who he was, so she asked a near-by girl if she knew him. The girl replied, "That's the Prince."

Ebony had heard about the Prince. He owned a castle which was more magnificent than any king's home. He owned only thoroughbred horses and his ponds were the clearest blue known. Or so said the rumors. The only thing she knew was that he was dressed in some of the finest clothes made for villages.

She also knew that he was waving her over.

Ebony walked over to him. He handed her a cup of cider and told her she looked very beautiful, especially compared to the other girls here. He told her many compliments like this, and made her blush to go along with her laughter. After a few hours, the Prince made a proposal: to go to his castle and drink some nice hot tea.

She accepted.

They took the Prince's carriage and indeed, his horses were of the fastest kind, but he instructed his driver to go slow so they could enjoy the scenery. The village was beautiful this time of year. The animals walked around and there were newborn buds on the plants.

But the scenery was nothing compared to the Prince's castle. All the rumors were true. The castle was made of stones imported from Egypt and the lawn was emerald green. Ebony had thought her castle was one of the finest, but compared to his, her manor looked homely.

They walked into the manor. The Prince's home smelled of cinnamon. She inhaled deeply and smiled.

"Your home smells... delightful!" she said.

"My mother loves to cook," the Prince informed her. "She makes a wonderful cup of green tea."

"She'll be making our tea?"

"Yes."

"Will she join us?"

"No. She enjoys knitting more than company."

Ebony understood. Sometimes it was difficult to be with strangers.

The Prince led her to a round table with cookies, cakes, and potato chips laid out. "Stay here," he ordered kindly. "I have to go check on my mother."

So Ebony stayed and munched on a potato chip while the Prince walked down a long, dark, ominous hallway to what she supposed was the kitchen.

For a few moments, which seemed like a very lonely eternity, she sat in a plush chair chair nervously nibbling on sweets and counting the seconds. There was something very creepy about sitting in an unfamiliar room by yourself.

When the Prince didn't come back, she wondered if they needed help.

Even though he had told her to stay, Ebony contemplated getting up and seeing where they had went. After a few minutes hesitation, she got up and went down the spooky hallway. Once she had spent a few seconds seconds in the dark hallway, her nerves caught up to her and she almost ran back to her seat with the yummy chips and sweets.

But she didn't because sitting alone at that big, unfamiliar  table by herself seemed even scarier than walking down the dark passage.

Eventually she heard voices, one of which was most definitely the Prince. Delight spread through her. She really like him. He was kind and smart and witty and he would never hurt her, she was sure. She poked her head in, expecting to see a kind old woman making homemade tea with the Prince helping her but instead--

Instead the Prince stood next to an old, gray, wrinkled witch, Ebony was sure it was a witch from her ugly, tangled wings, who was tipping a vial into a cup of tea--Ebony's cup of tea.

Ebony's eyes widened and she gasped. The Prince looked up and saw her. She saw evil in his eyes and turned to run. She had to stop and yank off her shoes so she could run faster. Ebony could hear the Prince calmly catching up to her like one of the villains in a play she had been to. "Where are you going to go if you escape?" he asked. "The only thing out there is a dragon that will eat you up in a single bite!"

She came to the heavy door and used all her strength to shove it open. The cold air ushered her away from the grand manor. when she looked back, she saw the beauty of the manor slip away to be a small cottage with ugly brown grass and donkeys instead of horses.

Terrified, she sprinted as quickly as she could in the constricting dress into the forest.

The woods were dark, foggy, and frightening. She could hear the loud croaks of fat bullfrogs, the squeeee of ancient trees, and she kept hearing a loud noise which sounded of a very big, very hungry beast.

She tried to avoid where the sounds were coming from, but that was very difficult to do when she was so shaken up that she didn't know right from left. After she ran as far as she could, she sat down and began to cry." Somebody help me," she whimpered.

"Excuse me," said a loud, deep, hoarse mystery voice, "but do you need some help?"

Ebony looked up and saw--a green dragon. Her eyes grew wide and her knees began to shake against her will. "The Dragon? The Prince wasn't lying?"

"Oh, what did the 'Prince' tell you?" The monster somehow formed words with it's maw.

"That you would eat me!"

He laughed. "I'm not going to eat you. I don't imagine princess would taste very good. Why are you running?"

"The Prince tried to poison me and now he's chasing me."

The Dragon seemed to frown, which was odd-looking on a beast that resembled a large lizard. "I have a place you can stay," he told her. "It's my tower I protect."

"You want to lock me up in a tower?"

"Well, yes. But it's for your safety, just until somebody catches this 'Prince.'" Ebony looked at him and couldn't get over the fact that he was a dragon, a monster. "Well, are you coming or are you just going to sit there?"

She got up and followed him.

They came to a large, albeit plain, tower.

"Here's where you will be staying. It's not the Ritz, but it works." She walked into the tower and found that it was rather chilly. The Dragon, sensing her discomfort inhaled deeply and... fire out of his nostrils into the fireplace. At first it scared Ebony, but then she began to laugh, which made the Dragon chuckle.

"Dragon, why are you helping me? You're a..." she cut herself off.

"A monster? I wasn't always this way. Once I was a loyal knight who worked for a kind king. But then the king went crazy and had several knights protect this tower from some unknown force. All the knights but me left once they became fed up with his behavior. I felt bad for the king and stayed.

"One night, he sort of... snapped. He found out that he had an incurable illness, and he knew that once he died, I would leave and his tower would be left unprotected. So he had a witch place a spell on me to make me into what you see now."

"That's horrible!" she cried. "Why would the witch do something like that?"

"She didn't want to, but earlier in their lives, the king had done her a favor and she had promised him that she could do him a favor--anything he wanted. He called in that favor on me and she had to do it."

"It's still awful. Did the witch had ugly, tangled up wings?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"She was the one who tried to poison me!"

The Dragon looked down at the princess. "I doubt she would have done it willingly. The Prince probably had her do it for him.

"Now, it's getting late, so go to sleep," he said and left her.

She slept very soundly until she heard a yelling. "Princess, oh, princess! It's me, here to slay the dragon and save you!"

Ebony ran to a window and looked down where the Prince stood. She gasped and ran downstairs to wake the Dragon.

When she got there, the Dragon was already awake. "Stay here!" he told her. She nodded and looked outside where the Prince was brandishing a set of cards. What is he going to do with that? she wondered.

"Dragon!" the Prince yelled. "Who ever wins a game of War gets the girl!" The Dragon slid down to the Prince. "All right," he agreed.

Ebony was frightened. Her life depended on a card game.

The cards were dealt. The Dragon used his claws to play, which seemed seemed quite difficult, but he did it with little difficulty. Ebony was too scared to watch, so she closed her eyes shut and backed herself against the wall of the tower and waited to see who won.

She heard the Prince yell triumphantly. Her breath caught in her lungs and her throat closed up. she had put all her hopes in the Dragon and he had let her down.

"Look again," said the Dragon.

She couldn't take it anymore. She ran outside to look at what had happened. The Prince stared down at the cards in disbelief.

"Did you win?" she asked the Dragon. He seemed to smile.

"Yes, I did."

Ebony laughed and ran to him. She threw her arms around his thick neck and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek.

Something happened. He seemed to shrink and change shape. When she pulled her lips away, there was no longer a green beast--there was a tall knight in rusted armor.

She turned to the Prince and saw that he was now a dragon, a pink one to add insult to injury.

"The tower is yours, beast," the Knight said. Ebony smiled and wrapped her arms around her knight.

They Lived Happily Ever After.

The End.



So. That's the story of The Knight in Shining Scales. I didn't really like Ebony, which relates to the very first paragraph of this post, but I really liked the Dragon/Knight, so that made up for her ditziness.