Days passed and then weeks, I hadn’t gone to the tower again. The image of the poor helpless dragon was still ingrained in my memory; keeping me away from the songs that had grown steadily stronger and happier as time passed. I stuck to my rounds, flying lower than normal, afraid her father would appear at any moment and banish me for disobeying his rules of my dragon quest but it was becoming increasingly harder to stay away from the girl since she began trying to converse with me.

She called my name at least three times a day and when I swallowed my desire and flew even lower she began uttering words of thanks for always watching over her.  I growled deep in my chest for I wasn't watching over her, not really, and I think somewhere deep down even she knew that she was my prisoner, which was what made it all the more sad.

Cursed to never love or be loved in return. What a horrible curse to instill on a girl the young age of five; in actuality it was a horrible curse to cast on anyone of any age. After all, isn't that what all humans do? Seek their loved ones for years and years, and once they've found them they stay with them until the day they die? Can a human’s love surpass even death?

The Dragon's believed in soul-mates and love after death just as much as the humans believed in everlasting love. If that was so then why do they promise 'until death do us part’? Shouldn't they be saying 'for all time and eternity'? Doesn't eternity surpass death?

I shake my head, hardly believing that I was thinking of such silly fantasies. I have no time to seek a soul-mate if I spend most of my life on Quests. Where would I even begin to look? I suppose if she truly was my soul-mate we would find each other eventually and everything will work itself out, after-all, isn't that was fate is all about?

A small cry echoes across the castle grounds and startles me from my thoughts, immediately I flew towards the girl's tower, my heart hammering in my chest. Had something happened to her? Had someone snuck in to her tower while I was lost in thought? Was she dying? My blood felt cold and I flapped my wings harder, anxious to see what was amiss inside the tower; when I arrived, my breathing ragged, my heart thumping loudly in my ears. I saw the girl sitting atop the bench in front of the window, her hand on her chest, small tears pricking her eyes.

She looked over at me, her eyes full of horror and my heart flipped in my chest, until she pointed to something on the stone floor across the room. My eyes widened in surprise; my thoughts of panic disappeared as I threw my great head back and laughed a deep smoldering laugh. 

She wanted to smack me, her arm flapping pitifully in my direction; her whimpering continuing, asking me to kill it. I looked at her, bewildered as to how I could possibly get a tiny spider out of her tower. I studied the size of the window and if either of my enormous feet could fit inside and after deciding they couldn't I shrugged as best I could and shook my head.

Her face grew even more worried as the spider scampered across the floor even closer to where she sat and she screamed out once again. I sighed and carefully unfolded my wing and reached inside the small window, batting at the floor as best I could to retrieve the tiny creature. After a few smacks and swipes her whimpers disappeared and she beamed a smile at me.

I looked at her, confused at her reaction, and she laughed and teased me saying that she knew I would come if she seemed to be in any sort of harm. Frustrated at the length she went to just to see me, I bat a wing in her direction as I flew away watching the smile that was on her face, my heart still pounding loudly in my chest.

© 2015 Amber Steinbeigle. All Rights Reserved