Everything was perfect, Edwin arrived early that morning to relay the message my father had sent. When I asked him why he didn't just tell me along the wind as he always does, he told me - as if I didn't already know from the events of yesterday - that he thinks he might have come to care for me a great deal more than he should. 

This made me happy beyond belief, to know that someone, despite my curse had come to love me and I them, but I knew as soon as those words were spoken that this was the end. To make it all last as long as possible before the inevitable, I spent the day telling Edwin about my life before the curse and how my life might have played out without it. He watched me the whole time, his eyes never leaving my face and it made my heart ache more than it did when he was apart from me.

How had this happened? How had I so easily fallen in love with a Dragon when I knew it wasn't allowed, when I knew that as soon as they were to place their lips on mine that they would die?  At first I hoped that the curse wouldn’t take hold because Edwin wasn't human, but there was something magical about him, some sort of Dragon Trait like the broken Dragon had told me when I was young. 

Not many dragons knew about the Dragon Trait, and those who did desire to know what theirs would be if they had one, I wondered if Edwin knew he possessed such a trait. I could tell he had one, because the broken dragon had bestowed me a part of her trait as a dying wish for me to live a happy life. The Broken Dragon had a bond with me I had never known until a few years previously. 

My great grandmother had tasked Lily with a Dragon's Quest to watch over her family and to keep them safe from harm until the day she died. Lily had been faithful to her Quest, she guarded the castle from attacks from intruders and enemy kingdoms, and she had served our family well. It wasn't until the last day of my grandmother's life when she failed her quest. My grandfather had been injured and passed mere seconds before my grandmother, causing the Great Dragon Lily to fail her one and only quest and was sent immediately back to the confines of the Dragon Hold.

After her long sentence in The Pits she was sent to the cave across the valley to live her life using the most of her Dragon Trait to protect our kingdom from harm. After my mother’s death my father took me to the Great Dragon Lily to try to have my curse removed.

She told me many things about her young years on her Dragon's Quest and how she was so incredibly grateful that my great grandmother and grandmother and mother had come to honor her so much as to name me after her. She had spent most of her years in The pits doubting whether or not she had been a suitable enough dragon for her Quest but she told me, after having met me that she knew she had gone above and beyond her call of duty. Yes, my grandfather may have passed away seconds before my grandmother, but she knew Lily had fulfilled her Quest; it was the fault of the guards who sent her home that sentenced her to her horrid fate.

Edwin nudged my face with his head, knocking me from my thoughts of the Great Dragon Lily and I knew the time was right. I knew it was time to end this curse before he did. I knew what would happen if he kissed me and I hoped that only the opposite would happen if I kissed him. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his and I knew that everything had been perfect.

© 2015 Amber Steinbeigle. All Rights Reserved