The Princess' Suitors

A Warning for a Fool

Damaris passed back to where Sir William was sitting and stood in front of him. She was growing tired and wished to return to the tower to relay the suitors’ messages and then finally get some rest.

She did not require sleep in the same way that humans and other mortals did. She could happily stay awake without a moment of sleep for years, but she did need to rest in order to recuperate her energy and strength. It was similar to the way some elves could simply meditate and remain completely aware of their surroundings instead of sleeping.

He had his brow furrowed and was shivering a little. Damaris waited for him to speak up and he looked upward into the featureless helmet she wore. His eyes looked darker in the night, but were still unmistakably hazel. His scent was dulled slightly, likely due to his discomfort in the cool night air.

“It was really very foolish of you to come here with no supplies.” She stated, her voice not betraying any note of sympathy for him.

“Yes, I do realise that now.” He replied and smiled rather weakly. “I thought that I would have been at the princess’ side by now.”

“You can’t possibly have believed that it would be that easy,” Damaris said incredulously. Clearly she had misjudged the magnitude of his foolishness.

“I believed with everything that I was the only man alive who would be worthy of the princess.” He admitted, sounding crestfallen.

“How naive,” she observed. “Everyone who comes here believes that.”

"I know… and now I am also aware that even in being chosen by her and given her divine attention through this letter, I am not the only one. There is another; the one to whom you delivered the other letter.” He said.

“Divine? Do not put the princess on a pedestal as others have. She is a human girl like any other, despite her status and despite this wretched curse. Of course she is beautiful and kind, but she hates being in that tower and being pursued constantly, lorded by people who do not know her.” She reprimanded him and he winced at her sharpness. “You would do well, while considering her, to remember that you and everyone else are here because of a curse and not because of some divine purpose.”

“I… I apologise. I misspoke of her. It won’t happen again, I promise.” He stammered, looking thoroughly admonished.

Damaris wasted no more of her time on the matter and simply remained silent, gesturing for him to hurry up and give her his message for the princess. He stared at her for a moment before reciting what he wanted to be relayed.

Once he was done, Damaris turned to leave, but before she could get too far from him, he called out to her and she stopped to listen.

“You remind me of that dragon, you know? Stern and strong, but with a hidden kindness,” he said.

She turned her head slightly, but did not respond.

Back at the tower, Princess Winifred was waiting for Damaris’ return. She was eager to hear what her suitors had to say to her. She longed for the answers to all of her questions. Some of them may have even seemed insignificant, but they had been important to her. Hopefully, whoever was to be her fated mate would think of them as important as well.

When Damaris did return, she was still in her full plate armour from when she left. She walked through the door and pulled her helmet off, letting her long black locks fall back over her shoulders like an obsidian waterfall, reflecting fragments of moonlight the same way that her scales did when she was in her dragon form.

“Damaris! What did they say? Did you find out the name of the man in the black robes?” Winifred asked eagerly, eyes shining.

“His name is Francisco Dawn. He wrote you a letter in response. He also said that you reaching out to him was both brave and bold and he appreciated it greatly.” Damaris paused to hand it over and Winifred took it into her awaiting grasp like it was precious.

“Oh,” Winifred said as she looked down at the neatly folded letter, blushing with a pleased smile gracing her lips. It was clear who the princess was more eager to talk with.

“Sir William did not have any parchment or means of writing with him, so he spoke his message and asked for me to relay it to you.” Damaris continued, not even trying to hide her amusement at the situation.

She briefly considered taking some spare parchment and a pencil with her the next time she was sent to give them letters from Winifred.

“Very well, tell me what he said.” Winifred sat down on the edge of her bed and folded her hands over the letter on her lap.

“He said that his heart was filled with fondness when he received your letter and read each word with great care. He said that he came from a village on the outskirts of Evamere called Birchwood.

He grew up with his father, a farmer, his mother who was a fantastic homemaker, and his three sisters. Two of them are seamstresses who make garments for the local lords and ladies, the other is only fourteen years of age and is quite the troublemaker.

He became a knight through trials set by the local lord and was knighted by the king last year. He is currently twenty-five years of age.

He is devoted to Evamere and wishes only to be one of its protectors and to see it continue to prosper as it has been. He wishes to marry in the springtime when the first cherry blossoms bloom, as he thinks that their delicate beauty would compliment your own.

He also said that he would win your hand no matter what and that he would not give up on you.” Damaris recited, frowning in irritation at some of the more… flowery parts.

It seemed that Winifred was interested in some parts and very uninterested in others. She could not school her facial expressions when he waxed about her beauty and prosperity and marriage.

“You do not seem to like what you have heard, dear Winifred,” Damaris said, knowing and teasing.

“He seems pleasant and genuine… but… I just simply do not like the compliments he sprinkled in although he had never seen me up close. I thought the marriage comment was far too forward as well. I do not know him and yet he makes such presumptuous statements. I know that he means well and his family sounds nice enough.” She replied, face pulled into an incredibly awkward expression.

“Yes, I can certainly see why his forwardness is unappealing to you. I did warn him not to get too ahead of himself when it comes to you. I think he has at least heard what I said. Hopefully, his next message will be a little less “presumptuous” as you said.” Damaris agreed.

“I hope so. I would like to get to know him without any of those meaningless platitudes and flattery. I do appreciate his attitude of perseverance, but I must be honest: it also scares me. Too many men have come to me with the statement that they will never give up and all of them are buried in the forest where I cannot see them. I only worry that he will end up like them.” Winifred confided, turmoil painted across her features.

“If it comes to that, you know that I will deal with it myself. I will allow no harm to befall you at any of their hands,” Damaris replied.

“I know… that is a part of what scares me.” said Winifred.

“You do not wish to see any more death,” Damaris concludes.

“No, I do not. But I also know that, in those instances, you do not have a choice in order to protect me. I only hope that it never needs to happen again.”

“That makes both of us, dear princess.”

“You should get some rest, Damaris… I wish to read my letter and I would feel a little self-conscious if you were watching me.”

“Of course.”

Damaris smiled knowingly at the princess and turned on her heel, walking out of the room to the balcony. By the time she was back on the roof, she was a dragon once more and as she took the place of the mirage that she had left, it dissipated.

She looked over the camps once again from up high and was easily able to spot the gleam of silver gauntlets poking through branches now that she knew exactly what it was that she was looking for.

It was also easy to spot Sir William, still looking rather put-out by the night’s lecture. It was good though. He needed to be told that his overzealousness would not be appreciated. He had a good heart, but after the night’s interaction and after seeing PrincessWinifred’s reaction, Damaris was starting to believe that Sir William was being affected by the curse.

In the meantime, Winifred was thinking only of her letter. She tucked herself away on her queen-sized, four-poster bed underneath the heavy silk-covered duvet and pulled loose the sheer curtains of the canopy to afford herself that little additional privacy. She propped up some pillows to lean against and sat back against the ornately carved oak headboard.

Carefully, she unfolded the letter and smiled to herself as she began to read, immediately taking mental note that the pages looked as though they had been torn from a journal or sketchbook.

“Dear Winifred,

I shall start this letter by thanking you for yours. I did not expect such communication from you, but I am grateful that you chose to send me one, and that you took the time out of your day to write it for me. I will keep it with me, as I find now that it fills me with courage and strengthens my spirit when I look at it.

It tells me that when I see you in person, one day, hopefully soon, the sight of you shall also fill me with courage and strengthen my spirit. I hope that you will also be able to find courage and strength when you see me. That is the kind of connection that I long for.

I am from a faraway place: the Queendom of Heartonstone. I hail from a small clan, but a large family, of which I am the second youngest son. I do not wish to reveal everything about myself in this first letter to you, so there are some of your questions I cannot yet answer for you. I wish to know you more before I divulge the finer details of my life. I’d like to do it more naturally, overtime, as trust between us builds.

I have some questions for you, too.

You mentioned in your letter that you like to garden. What are your favourite plants that you care for?

Do you have a favourite colour? I find this can say much about a person. My own is green, and my preferred shade of it is the same rich hue that fresh grass takes when it grows from fertile soil.

Tell me something you love, it doesn’t matter what, just something that matters to you, be it a hobby, a place, anything. I, myself, have a profound love for a sense of freedom. There is nothing quite like it and I am sure you agree, given your tenure in that tower.

I eagerly await your response,

Sincerely and hopefully,

Francisco Dawn.”

Winifred wanted to get out of bed and start writing her response immediately. She wanted to take her next message to him in person, and wanted to meet him officially. However, she knew that that was not possible, at least not yet.

She decided that first, she would get some sleep and then, in the morning, she would work on her reply. She would need to be well-rested and energised for the day that would follow. She still had her duties to attend to after all. She wanted to have her head as clear as possible when she responded and had a feeling that she would be able to write much more efficiently this time around.

It planted seeds of fondness in her heart to know that he was both as eager, but also as tentative as she was herself. He was polite and curious without being overbearing at all and it was a breath of fresh air for her. All she wanted was for her curse to end and to find someone who could understand her heart. It seemed for the first time in a long time that that might really be possible.

As she lay down to sleep, she tucked the letter underneath her pillow and smiled. Things were finally looking up. Though, as the last pieces of consciousness left her, she felt something pulling her again, from deep within her chest, but although it was the same sensation as before, when Francisco had arrived, it was also not the same at all.

It was different.