False Symmetry didn't like the woods at night. It wasn't that she couldn't handle them - her skill with a sword was unmatched throughout the kingdom - but, in contrast to popular opinion, False didn't enjoy having to fight for her life. Still, in this case, it wasn't like she had much of an option. Princess Monster had been kidnapped by a dragon, and False had been tasked with being the knight in shining armour.

Here she was, then, at the entryway to a cave, deep in the forest. Surprisingly, her journey so far hadn't been too difficult. She'd been hindered at one point by one ghost who insisted upon inundating her with pointless riddles, and on occasion she'd heard the distant growl of a zombie or spotted the flash of a silver deer out of the corner of her eye, but she hadn't had to fight. That was good. It meant that she was still at full strength for the almost-inevitable dragon fight to come.

She took a deep breath, steeling her nerves, and made her way into the entrance of the cave. What she expected to see was your bog-standard red dragon, curled up around a hoard of gold, atop which the princess would be tied up. What she saw instead was quite different. Instead, as she poked her head in, she saw a pearl dragon, a species long thought to be extinct, reclining on a rather small hoard, animatedly engaged in a conversation with the princess.

The dragon seemed to notice False coming in. It (she?) looked sadly at Stress, and then carefully lowered her to the ground. She waved goodbye to the dragon, and made her way across the cave to where False was.

"Hey False." Stress greeted. "'Ave I really been gone that long that you were sent out after me?"

"You've been missing for a week, people thought you'd been kidnapped." False explained.

"Naw, I was just 'angin' out wiv Pearl 'ere." Stress shrugged, "Guess we must'a lost track of time." She waved goodbye again, and the two of them exited the cave and went back out into the forest. "You can come along next time if you want." she offered, "Pearl said she wanted ta meet ya anyway."

The two of them made their way out of the forest, ignoring the ghost as he tried to hinder them again, as Stress explained how this was a regular occurrence, if one that had been going on behind the backs of her parents. Apparently False and Pearl (that was the dragon's name) were the only people that Stress felt comfortable letting her guard down around, an admission that left False feeling somewhat glad that she was only a royal guard, not a royal herself.

Somehow, Stress managed to talk False into coming along next time. Somehow, the dragon, the princess and the knight worked out an arrangement. Stress would be 'kidnapped' whenever she needed a break from the royal life, False would 'rescue' her after a few days, and in return, Pearl would be protected from any wannabe dragon hunters. False guessed she would have to get a lot more familiar with the woods at night.

Day 2 and I'm already using one of the jokers? Wow.

But yeah, today's prompt didn't really inspire me. Don't worry, I'm not gonna burn through the jokers and then crash, I've already planned all my other joker usages for the month.

I've been Entropy, peace out from the present!