Rain brings peace

Rain brings peace By Mari

The princess ran to her window and threw open the shutters. The torrential rain poured through, soaking her nightgown almost instantly.

She placed her foot on the windowsill and stepped up, leaning out the window. Water splashed on her face, blurring her view of the meadows and cliffs. It was beautiful.

Spring always gave rain that brought her such peace.

"Rupert!" she called. Her voice echoed throughout the cliffs, but no one came. She called once more, then sighed.

She let go of the corner of the window and inched towards the edge of the windowsill. Her toes dangled over the edge. She tensed her legs, then lept off the tower.

The wind seemed to pierce her eyes as she fell; it was difficult to keep them open. Right before she belly-flopped on the hard ground, a dark shape swept under her and carried her up, up, up.

The princess stroked the rough, rain slicked scales under her fingers. "I knew you heard me, Rupert."

The dragon huffed.

"What? You don't like your name?"

The dragon shook his head.

The princess tapped her chin. "Hmmmmm.... What about.... Cylus?"

The dragon shook his head.

"Otis?"

The dragon shook his head.

"Walton?"

The dragon shook his head.

"Palmer?"

The dragon shook his head once more.

The princess shrugged. "Well, I like Rupert. Sorry. It's your name now. What else am I supposed to call you?"

Rupert rolled his eyes. He obviously didn't think he needed a name.

They flew up above the clouds, above the rain. The princess swept her arm through the mist.

She felt her hair fly up behind her as Rupert dropped to the ground, evening out mere feet above the shiny, wet grass.

The rain was gone now, a few puddles the only reminder of the storm that had been raging just a few minutes ago.

Rupert took her back up to her tower. He hovered as she stepped off his back and onto the windowsill.

"What do you want to do now?" the princess asked.

The dragon raised his brows, as if asking if the flight had not been enough.

"I'm up for a game of hide and seek."

Rupert glared at her.

"I know you're not the best at it, but I am! Besides, I need practice! If I'm supposed to protect you, I need to be good at finding you!"

Rupert closed his eyes and accepted his fate.

***

"Rupert! The muffins are ready!" the princess shouted from the kitchen.

A large winged reptile was hovering outside the window in seconds, trying to stick his nose inside to get a whiff. The princess filled a basket with them and brought them to the window.

"You're much too close!" she exclaimed. "You know the rules, back up."

Rupert gave her puppy eyes as he flew back several feet.

The princess shook her head. "Drama king!" she said, tossing a muffin out the window.

Rupert lunged forward and snapped his jaws around it, then retreated to his starting position, awaiting the next toss.

She threw one to his left, then his right, giving him all kinds of impossible throws, yet he got to them every time.

Last one. She threw it to the right, then lept out the window to the left. Rupert abandoned his chase and dove to save her, catching her right as her head would have hit the ground.

Rupert dangled her upside-down by her foot, glaring daggers. The princess smiled.

"Just testing your priorities. Making sure my charge has his head on straight."

He set her gently on the windowsill. The princess sat up and pulled one last muffin out of her pocket, holding it out to him on her palm.

The dragon leaned forward and gently took it between his teeth.

The princess patted his head. "Good boy."

***

The dragon watched from afar as the princess sparred with a dummy in the moonlight. She had been at it all night, and she wasn't improving. She needed rest.

He stepped off the roof of the tower and landed smoothly behind the princess.

She felt the breeze on her back from his landing.

"I'm not going inside, Rupert," she said, without turning around or pausing her fight. "I have to get better in case bad people come and try to hurt you."

Her speech was broken up with breaths and grunts. Rupert walked around to the other side of her, where he could clearly see the sweat dripping down her face, mixed with tears.

He lowered his head and made eye contact with her, giving her a knowing look.

The princess dropped her sword. It was cold, yet her shirt was soaked in sweat.

Rupert put his front foot around her and drew her to him.

"I just want to protect you," the princess said, her voice slightly muffled by the soft skin of his belly.

Rupert patted the top of her head. He knew she would have no trouble protecting him from dragon-slayers if the time came.

She pulled away and wiped off her tears. She climbed onto Rupert's back and he flew her up to the window.

Once she had bathed and changed into her nightclothes, she crawled into bed. Every muscle in her body was exhausted, yet she couldn't fall asleep. She tossed and turned, eventually giving up.

She grabbed her pillow and blanket and walked over to the windowsill, her bare feet padding against the wooden floor.

"Rupert?" she called out into the night.

The stars twinkled back at her. Crickets chirped. In the distance, she heard a wolf howl.

No dragon appeared.

She stepped onto the windowsill and threw her pillow and blanket onto the roof of the tower. She managed to find footholds and handholds, eventually heaving herself onto the roof.

The princess tried not to slip on the slates as she walked over to the sleeping dragon, who was curled around the spire of the tower.

She poked his cheek. One eye opened.

"Can I sleep with you?"

The dragon nodded and lifted up the upper half of his body to allow her to crawl underneath.

She settled against his side. With her blanket wrapped around her, and the dragon's strong heartbeat thumping rhythmically in her ear, she had no problem falling asleep.

***

The princess awoke to trumpets blasting right outside her window. She ripped the blankets off her and rushed to the window.

"Fear not, my beloved princess!" a man shouted from below. "My name is Prince Donald! We have come to rescue you!" He sat upon a white horse, with several dozen soldiers on horses behind him.

They all carried swords.

"I don't want to be rescued!" she shouted back, holding up a hand to protect her eyes from the sun's glare.

"Do you hear that, men?" the prince said to his soldiers. "The princess wishes to be rescued!"

"RUPERT!" she yelled.

Rupert promptly appeared at the window.

"Fly me down there so I can show them where they can stick their swords."

"THERE IT IS! THE BEAST THAT IS GUARDING THE PRINCESS!" Prince Donald shouted. "KILL HIM!"

Arrows came out of nowhere, heading straight for Rupert. Most of them were deflected by his hard scales, but some stuck in the pads of his feet, or the soft skin of his belly.

He roared in pain, then dove at the men.

"No! Rupert! Come back!"

Rupert didn't listen. With a swing of his tail, he sent half of the soldiers flying.

"Rupert! That's my job! Get back up here and fly me down so I can take care of them!"

When he bit off the heads of several more soldiers, the princess ran from the window, grabbed her sword, and rushed down the excessively long flight of stairs.

She tried not to trip, as that would result in a very long fall and a very likely death.

By the time she reached the ground, the remaining soldiers had thrown ropes around Rupert so he couldn't fly away. They sent arrows flying into his face, some going right through his eyes.

He let out a howl that cracked the princess's heart in half.

Still wearing her nightgown, she brandished her sword and charged.

Prince Donald stepped out from the middle of the crowd. He pulled his sword from its sheath ever so slowly.

Rupert couldn't see, but he recognized the sound from years of the princess's sparring. He struggled against his bonds, terror flooding him.

Prince Donald stepped closer, his sword raised.

The princess felt like she was running in slow motion, seconds seemingly lasting hours. She pounded her feet harder against the grass. Faster, faster, faster.

Prince Donald thrust his sword directly into the dragon's heart.

She stopped. Her grip on her sword loosened.

Rupert's blind eyes bugged. He stumbled, then fell to the ground with a thump that seemed to shake the whole earth.

Prince Donald turned around to face her. "My princess! We've saved you! And now we can get married and live happily ever after!" He held out his arms, expecting her to run into them.

Instead, she ran her sword into his neck. It came clean off with one swipe.

Her body surged with anger. In what felt like seconds, she had wiped out all of his soldiers. Corpses littered the ground around her. The air reeked of death.

She then dropped her sword and rushed to Rupert's side.

She placed her hand on his stomach. A soft heartbeat thumped against it.

"Rupert," she said weakly. "Why didn't you let me handle them?"

Rupert turned his head towards her. The look he gave her seemed to say "Because I just wanted to protect you."

"It was my job to protect you," she said.

Rupert lifted up his foot and pulled her to his bloodstained side. The princess pressed her head against him and stroked his scales.

There was no past, no future, nothing except this simultaneous feeling of emptiness and being too full, a feeling that disintegrated the cracked remains of her heart and blew them away.

She sang songs to him until the weak heartbeat faded to nothing.

The princess stood up. She felt one raindrop, then two, then many. The sunny day had been replaced with gray clouds and cold rain.

She slowly walked back to the tower. The bloodstained grass washed clean under her feet. She didn't bother picking up her sword. It wasn't like she would be needing it anymore.

Her wet feet carried her up the stone steps and across the wooden floor of the tower.

She threw open the shutters. The torrential rain poured through, soaking her nightgown almost instantly.

She placed her foot on the windowsill and stepped up, leaning out the window. Water splashed on her face, blurring her view of the meadows and cliffs. It was beautiful. Spring always gave rain that brought her such peace.

“Rupert!” she called. Her voice echoed throughout the cliffs. She half expected him to come flying out of nowhere.

Cold silence greeted her.

She let go of the corner of the window and inched towards the edge of the windowsill. Her toes dangled over the edge. She tensed her legs, then lept off the tower.

This time, no one caught her.

Thanks for reading! This is for @annalou 's "Death" contest and @malirbly 's contest for prompt two. Honestly, I'm not too proud of this one. It's not my favorite piece, but I gave it my best shot. Hope you enjoyed it!