"Yes!" Annamaria suddenly screeched, pumping her fist in the air. She leaped from where she had been sitting at her desk, hunched over a few books and a notebook, and raced into the front room, ecstatic. "James - "

She paused when she saw that her friend was meeting with a stern-looking man at least thirty years his senior.

The three stared at each other in awkward silence for a moment before James sighed, rubbing his forehead in exasperation. Annamaria knew him well enough to see the hint of a smile around the corners of his lips, however - she knew he was not truly peeved.

"My apologies," she said cordially to both her friend and his visitor. "James, I shall speak with you later." She curtseyed and walked backward out of the room to show respect, her princess-like habits returning to her in a completely unwanted wave of deja vu. Often as a child, before she had fully understood the gravity of her father's position, she had burst into council meetings or sessions with her father's advisors with drawings she had created or strange bugs she had found in the garden. James had taken her intrusion much better than her father once had.

Nostalgically, she wondered if her parents knew that the prince had slain Eclipse. She wondered if, if they did know, they even cared enough to search for her. Likely, they assumed she was dead. She knew that there had probably been, "Good riddance!" whispers passed around her castle. After all, she was not exactly a beloved princess, and the fact that she had befriended someone labeled "the strange little servant girl" hadn't exactly helped.

Shaking those unwanted memories from her mind, Annamaria returned to her desk. There were three large books resting atop it, each full of descriptions of the royal lineage from each of the kingdoms she had narrowed down her search to. The notebook she had used for jotting down information about each family: their characteristics, looks, mannerisms, and the things they believed in. Finally, though, she had found what she had been searching for: the very thing that narrowed her search down to one kingdom. One family.

One prince.

She gazed with a vengeful sense of joy at what she had written in her notebook. It all lined up - this family had been dragon hunting for decades. In older times, before the magnificent creatures had grown more careful in hiding themselves and their loot, the family's passageway into manhood was for their princes to bring back the foot of a dragon.

It only stood to reason that one of their current princes would feel obliged to kill a dragon as soon as he heard of it, especially since he had been on the cusp of manhood, from Annamaria's memory. She also remembered with sickening clarity that the boy had attempted to cut off her murdered friend's foot, and would have done so had she not screamed. As it was, he had removed one of her beautiful talons.

This kingdom had to be his.

*

Finally, James came into the back room with an expression of dual exasperation and curiosity. "What was that all about?" he demanded.

As excited as she was, Annamaria shook her head. "You first."

"That man is willing to take over the shop, granted that he gets a sizeable portion of the profits," James explained.

"Did you accept?" Annamaria asked, her own victory pushed momentarily from her mind. After all, this had been causing James a great deal of stress, and soon, he would be forced to either shut down the shop or give it completely to someone as he went through the final few stages to become a fully-fledged dragon.

James nodded slowly. "It wasn't exactly a fair deal, but then, I don't have much time to be choosy."

"Who did you say I was?"

"My sister."

Annamaria nodded. This was the role she usually played in James's fabrications.

"Anyway," James said, perching on the end of her bed, "what did you want to tell me?"

Annamaria felt a grin split her face so wide that her cheeks hurt. She couldn't find the words to explain what she had found but instead pointed at her desk.

James hurried over to it. His eyes grew wide as he read her notebook. "Annamaria," he finally breathed disbelievingly. "You found him?"

"I found his kingdom," Annamaria corrected her friend. "But that's a start."

James clapped his hands. "This is huge!" Then his smile dimmed. "Wait - does this mean you're leaving?"

The grin vanished from Annamaria's face as well. "I suppose it is," she said quietly.

They were both silent for several seconds as they contemplated this fact. You don't have to go, a small part of Annamaria reasoned. You could just stay here with James - help him become a dragon with ease...

She knew, however, that she wouldn't be happy until she had done to this prince what he had done to Eclipse.

"I'm sorry, James," she said. She felt this pain physically in her chest - she was losing yet another friend, although under much better circumstances.

She thought of all she had kept from James because it was just too painful to speak of - her true identity, her relationship with Eclipse, what had truly happened that day in the castle.

"Before I leave, though," she decided, "I need to tell you something."

*

When Annamaria was finished with her tale - the entire, unabridged version of it  - James sat in silence for several moments, staring off into nothingness. Annamaria watched him nervously, praying he would take it all well.

"Will I be in that kind of danger?" he finally asked, and Annamaria realized with a pang of guilt that she must have frightened him with the story of Eclipse's death. After all, her deceased dragon friend hadn't done a thing wrong - Annamaria had chosen to run away with her. And yet she had still been killed.

"You will be in danger because people do not understand you," she said gently. "But you will never have to fear this prince." Her voice took on a hard edge. "Not after I'm through with him."

James smiled. "I do not doubt you in any aspect. Good luck, Annamaria."

Annamaria leaned forward and hugged James close. "I'll leave tomorrow," she whispered. "And I'll be back as soon as possible. Don't come looking for me if I don't come back, understand?" She pulled away, gripping her friend by the shoulders and staring at him sternly.

James grinned. "Yes, ma'am."

Annamaria chuckled and hugged him one last time before standing up with a sigh. "Now," she declared, "I think I shall go scare some people down in the bar. You know how much I love doing that."

"That you do," James confirmed, his grin softening into something that warmed Annamaria's heart. She felt tears rising to her eyes and strode out of her bedroom before they could spill.