"Noooo!" A woman screamed in the distance and ran towards the foul creature.

She must be a witch, Prince Nicholas thought. It made sense that the dragon would have a witch working with him. But at last, the creature was finally dead. None of the four kingdom's daughters would ever have to be sacrificed to the beast's appetite ever again.

The witch ran over to the dragon and threw her arms around the dead beast's neck. "No." She sobbed.

"Witch, I am Prince Nicholas of the Eastern nation and I demand that you stop your tears and direct me to the Northern Princess. This foul creature will no longer work in your service." Nicholas wasn't worried that the witch would cast a spell on him. He'd already pissed off a witch, two really, that week. What could this witch do to him that hadn't already been done?

The witch stood to her full height of 5'6. "I am no witch." She said in a slow even tone. "If I were, I would smite that smug look off your ridiculous face." She said.

"You're not a witch? That's what all the witches say. Now if you excuse me, I'm sure I'll find what I'm looking for in that enormous tower over there." 

"Did you slay the dragon to marry the princess." The not-a-witch choked out between her sobs.

"If you must know, I slayed the dragon, to kill the dragon. Marrying the princess is an unfortunate consequence."

The girl screamed pulling the sword from the dragon's soft underbelly. She charged Prince Nicholas. "He was my friend!" She shouted.

Fortunately, the not-a-witch was not a sword master either and Nicholas easily dodged her angry parries. The woman came after him with a ferocious gleam in her amber eyes. Nicholas just barely dodged her attack.

"I don't attack women." He said through gritted teeth. "But if you helped this beast kidnap the princess, I would be well within my rights to dispatch you on the spot." He moved around on the soft grass keeping watch on the girl with his sword.

"You moron! I am the Princess!" She said holding the heavy sword in both her hands and clumsily swinging it.

"You're the princess?" Nicholas said in disbelief.

"I already said that, you putrid piece of puss." She swung the sword again but Nicholas could tell that the princess's energy was spent. He swiveled his leg out and tripped her being sure to catch the sword so that she didn't hurt herself.

Once on the ground the princess stayed there unable to catch her breath through the body wracking sobs. "He kidnapped you." Nicholas said. "In one month, he would have taken a girl from my homeland but not before he ate you princess. You're lucky I came along."

"I met the last girl. I saw her just last week. She asked me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding next week." Princess Olympia sobbed. "I met them all. They're all happy. We loved him and you took him from us."

The dragon was good? Out of all the scenarios that ran through Nicholas's mind as he set out on his quest, it never occurred to him that the dragon could be good or that the princess would have befriended it.

But he should have known, for it was the witch who wanted the dragon dead. And Nicholas was the tool to do her bidding.