It was a sunny, summer afternoon when the Princess Caelyn spontaneously and unexpectedly transformed into a dragon. Being that the event was so spontaneous and unexpected, the princess Caelyn was terrified, and rightfully so.

She was not in her room getting ready for the masked ball as she had ought to be. Tucked away in a shadowy corner of the library, she hid under a table. In the company of books, she could escape the dread of the inevitable night where she would yet again be faced with the sting of rejection.

Caelyn found the pickiness of princes quite perplexing. She had a handful of good looks, kindness, and intelligence to boot, and some serious skills with a crossbow. She may have lacked grace and refinement despite the efforts of all the best governesses in the kingdom, but she would never apologize for spending far too much time reading Seelie Tales and sword fighting with her five older brothers.

But princes seemed only interested in princesses with more arbitrary traits like whether she got dressed by birds in the morning and how good she looked in a ballgown. Princely opinion or not, Caelyn surely couldn't dance well enough to catch a prince's particular eye. The night would end as it always did. Several princes would leave with sore toes and she would have not a single prospect for marriage. Who could blame her for the fact that most princes were only looking for a princess with the voice of a songbird and a face that inspired them to write sonnets? Caelyn pondered just this as she huddled in seclusion, a book of Seelie Tales perched on her knees.

She was about to remark to herself on the ridiculousness of it all when she felt a tickle in the back of her throat. That tickle turned into a cough, the cough into a sneeze, and a sneeze into a roar, and before she even understood what had happened, she looked down to find she'd turned into a great scaly dragon.

"Goodness gracious, what has happened?" Caelyn exclaimed, but only a thunderous cry like the sound of twisting metal came out.

The entirety of the castle residents rushed to the library to see what had caused such a sound. The King and Queen might have set the guards on their poor daughter if an observant, and then sufficiently shaken librarian hadn't witnessed the incident. The King noted the man's concern that the fire-breathing princess would destroy his precious books, then sent the librarian home for two weeks of paid vacation to settle his nerves.

Once it was decided that Caelyn, leathery wings, horned tail, taloned feet and all wouldn't fit in her ballgown (and not for lack of trying) the ball was canceled.

This came as quite the relief to Caelyn, but it was short lived.

***

Being turned into a dragon was a rather clumsy experience. Caelyn found her lack of coordination magnified by the added twenty-foot wingspan and a massive tail. For the sake of the castle's structural integrity and after three burnt tapestries and a severely damaged buttress, the princess was confined to her chambers.

"What kind of Seelie book were you reading, Caelyn?" her mother asked, spitting out the word "Seelie" like it was a curse.

Caelyn wanted to reply that she hadn't really been reading, just thinking, but instead she sighed deep in her throat and let her head flop down onto her bed. Anytime she tried to speak all she did was create a horrible roar that sent the servants scurrying away or a stream of fire that left the taste of sulfur on her tongue.

"The court scholars will figure out what sort of curse this is," the king said with confidence.

"And we're just supposed to sit around and wait?" the queen asked.

"What else are we to do?"

"We could call in a wizard. They always seem to have solutions to these sorts of things."

"Expensive solutions."

Caelyn buried her scale covered head under a pillow as she tried to drown out her parent's deliberations. She knew they meant well. They were only trying to help, but all of it made her feel like a huge inconvenience.

***

The wizard arrived in extravagant fashion. He entered Caelyn's chambers toting a case full of clinking vials and jars, his dark robes billowing behind him as he swept his way to her bedside. The princess eyed him warily. His gray beard was tucked into his gemstone studded belt and his mustache was waxed and curled up at the ends. He altogether looked too much someone trying to look like a wizard.

The king and queen seemed to buy the illusion. They watched on in awe as the wizard mixed powders and boiled a variety of horrid smelling roots until he finally produced a potion that would reverse the effects of the curse.

"Drink up, princess," the wizard said as he waved the vial under her nose.

Every fiber of her being objected to being hand fed by a stranger who smelled like ham. She opened up her long jaw and let the sickly sweet potion be poured down her throat. Then she waited, ready to be rid of her clumsy wings, her ugly scarlet scales and the tail that seemed to have a mind of its own.

"When will she turn back into a princess?" the king asked, seeming to sense everyone's impatience as the minutes ticked by and the Wizard busied himself with his case of magic herbs.

"Oh yes!" the wizard said, running his hand the length of his beard and tucking it back into his belt. "She will need a Hero's Kiss to make my spell complete."
"What?" Caelyn exclaimed, but it came out as a sharp bark of a roar.

"What?" the Queen asked.

"Did I forget to mention that?" the wizard said with a shrug. "A Hero's Kiss is all. It shouldn't be too hard."

Shouldn't be too hard. Caelyn wanted to scream or cry or yell something, anything to be heard, be understood. If she hadn't caught the eye of a single prince, how would she get a hero to kiss her now? That wasn't even considering that most heroes were more interested in killing dragons than kissing them.

Nonetheless, the spell was cast, and she would kiss a hero if it meant getting her opposable thumbs back. It was really hard to turn the pages of books with talons.

***

After sending ten heroes screaming, the king and queen were at their wit's end. Caelyn, of course, expected as much would happen. If her dancing set princes sprinting for their carriages, then surely her dragon breath and glistening, ebony talons would do the same.

"Perhaps we should offer a reward?" the queen suggested after the tenth prince jumped from Caelyn's balcony and swam the moat to make his escape.

"No. The kiss must come from a true hero. A reward would invite all sorts of charlatans into our home," the king replied.

"Darling, do you know how much it's costing to feed her? She eats three entire sheep a day. At this rate, there won't be a sheep left in the kingdom."

Caelyn's stomach rumbled at the mention of food, but she had just finished picking the last of the wool from her breakfast out of her teeth. "We need heroes of sterner stuff," she remarked, but her rumbles went unheard.

"We need to find heroes of sterner stuff," the king said.

Caelyn rolled her eyes.

"A quest!" the queen exclaimed. "We must create a quest to weed out the weak."

"I don't want to be part of a quest," Caelyn groaned. She let a growl rumble high in her chest so her parents could sense some of her displeasure. They shot her that look parents give to their dragon children. That look that says, "please don't set another pair of drapes on fire with that attitude."

"Regardless, we need to get her out of this castle," the queen said.

Now that, Caelyn could agree to. She was sick of seeing only the walls of her chambers. She needed air, room to move without her tail knocking over end tables. This promise was enough to make her heart beat faster.

"I say we go for it," the king said.

With that, Caelyn found herself free of castle walls, but that wasn't just it. The king and Queen found her a rocky isle on the coast that was home to a set of ruins and a whole lot of sheep.

When the ship landed on the isle, Caelyn almost didn't know what to do with herself. Sure she couldn't leave since she couldn't swim and hadn't yet made heads or tales of how to use her massive wings for flying. And there was a real chance of becoming lonely with no one for company, but that would be welcome after months of her parents fussing over her. Plus, she knew how heroes couldn't resist a quest

First, she ran. Fields of grass dotted with little patches of trees covered the isle, and Caelyn intended to see it all. Her legs pumped against the ground carrying her in circles around the island at astounding speed. When she discovered the ruins full of crumbling stone and creeping vines, she climbed to the very top.

From the ruins, she could see out over the ocean to where the mainland stretch like a dark seam on the horizon. She spent the rest of her first day there, feeling the wind on her scales and savoring the scent of salt on the air. She watched the sun set and the waiting game began.

It wasn't long before white sails appeared on the water, a boat headed from the mainland. Caelyn's heart raced as she imagined what sort of hero came to rescue her. For coming all this way, he would surely be brave enough to kiss a dragon! When the boat made landfall on her little isle, she watched a small figure disembark. Even from a great distance, she could see the glint of sunlight on his armor.

As the hero made his way to the ruins from the beach, Caelyn tried her best to compose herself. She was so close to being free of her curse. One kiss and done. She found what she thought was a picturesque spot where roses had climbed the ruins and made it their home.

There she posed herself, tucking her barbed tail behind her and trying to look as non-dragonlike as possible.

Then she heard the clanking of metal armor. He was here. She couldn't really call out to him, but she made a sound in her throat that sounded like a purr. This must have been the wrong thing to do because the next thing she heard was the sound of metal scraping on metal as the hero drew his sword.

When he rounded the corner he gasped in alarm. "What foul beast is this?" he said, brandishing his sword in Caelyn's direction. "Where is the princess?"

What did he mean? He was looking right at her. "It's me! Caelyn!" she exclaimed.

The hero, of course, didn't understand. He only heard the roar. He only saw the beast.

"The advertisement in Quest Weekly said nothing of this," he said taking a fighting stance. "'Travel to the Isle of Innishmore and break the spell on the princess with a hero's kiss' There was no mention of a dragon."

Apparently, heroes loved to monolog as much as they loved quests. Caelyn wanted to roll her eyes at the ridiculousness of it all, but this hero was serious and he barreled down on her with sword raised. In that moment, Caelyn couldn't have been happier for all the times her brothers had used her for sparring practice. She was not only able to fend off the knight in his shiny suit, but she sent him scrambling for his ship singed and nursing a wounded ego.

After the ship fled at full sail, stories of "The Thorn of Innishmore" started to spread. At first, it was tough going against the heroes who arrived at the isle on a daily basis reeking of hair pomade and corded with muscles. But as more and more heroes flocked to Innishmore to destroy the dragon and free the princess, Caelyn's skill as a dragon princess improved. Though she still hadn't figured out how to fly, she'd learned to fight off armed attackers, sometimes many at a time.

In the beginning, the challenge was thrilling. To send a squad of the best knights from her kingdom and beyond running for her lives set her pulse racing. But it quickly became apparent that no one seemed to know that the "Thorn of Innishmore" was actually the princess they were supposed to save.

Soon after, tedium set in. It was no longer a challenge to fight off a hero day after day. After a year she wondered if anyone would come who knew who she really was. Her parents surely had to be wondering why this was taking so long. Surely they'd heard the stories about her, so why hadn't they put a stop to this? She was fairly sure someone had set up a ferry service to the isle to bring the hoards of valiant heroes who wanted to take a crack at her.

Eventually, it seemed that the heroes had found another quest or she'd simply bested them all. The boats stopped coming, and Caelyn could finally relax. Weeks of peace went by where nothing disturbed the isle but the winds off the sea. It was summer and Caelyn found joy in the freedom to bask in the sun and do absolutely nothing.

On an afternoon when Caelyn was content to nap the day away in the honeysuckle, he arrived.

In complete repose, a voice interrupted her light sleep.

"What a curious thing you are," a man's voice broke the quiet.

Caelyn woke with a start. A figure stood above her, hands on their hips. She scurried away with teeth bared so she could get a better look at her attacker. He didn't seem quite like the other heroes who arrived at Innishmore and this gave her pause. He only wore light armor, leather protection she'd used to wear when fighting her brothers in the practice ring.

He didn't have a weapon drawn, but there was a bow slung across his back and a quiver on his hip. And his ears. Pointed. Seelie ears. She was standing in front of one of the Seelie. According to the tales in her books, the Seelie lived in a kingdom all their own, hidden somewhere in the realm. In stories, it was called The Shining Throne.

Now there was the matter of discovering whether he was one of the Unseelie. He certainly didn't look like the monsters described in her stories. No horns. No animal-like features. In fact, Caelyn would probably consider him one of the most handsome men she'd ever seen. He was tall with a slim build and warm dark eyes watched her beneath wavy black hair.

"Finnian," he said, stretching a hand out in an introduction. "But you can call me Finn if that suits you."

Caelyn froze. Did he know what she was? That she understood him?

She extended her massive clawed foot to him and he grasped one of her talons as if to shake her hand.

And he did.

Caelyn cocked her head to the side in a question. Am I getting this right? Can you really tell I'm not a dragon?

"You're not just a dragon, are you," Finn asked. He circled her slowly, examining her.

Caelyn nodded vigorously as her heart leaped in her chest. First, because she couldn't describe the joy of being seen, of being known. It was also very strange to be examined by someone so handsome and with such open admiration in his gaze. He reached out and stroked the softer scales on her forehead.

She gave him a low growl before he got too pert in his examination of her.

"My apologies madam," he said. "Perhaps this would be easier if we could understand each other."

He reached into his satchel and pulled out a plant that looked akin to a thistle. "Here," he said, crushing it in his hand. "Put this under your tongue and you should be able to use your old voice."

Caelyn had never eaten something out of someone's hand faster. The petals were bitter, and for a moment her tongue went numb.

"Come on," Finn urged. "It should work by now."

Caelyn wasn't sure what to say so she just said, "Um, hello," and despite the fangs and the long tongue, she heard her own voice. "Good gracious! It works," she exclaimed. She also discovered that dragons can cry as tears sprang to her eyes. "I—I can't believe it. Thank you," she said. "It's been years since I've been able to speak to someone." Finn laughed as she babbled on. "What brought you here? Why did you suspect I wasn't just a dragon?"

Finn smiled and it was enough to stop her slew of questions. "First, I heard the legends of a dragon no knight could defeat, but dragons usually don't let heroes get away with their lives."

"Oh," Caelyn replied. "So why are you here?"

"Based on the stories we heard in the taverns, I suspected you were a young changeling in trouble. It seems my assumptions were correct."

"A changeling? But I'm human. I just happened to turn into a dragon one day."

Caelyn wasn't certain how accurate the Seelie Tales had been, but plenty had featured tales of changelings, Seelie children who were taken from The Shining Throne by members of the Unseelie court and swapped with human children.

"That's impossible and if you're a hero, I can prove it."

Finn straightened a little. "Of course I'm a hero."

"If you kiss me, this spell will break and I can show you. I don't have pointy ears or anything that would suggest I'm part of the Seelie Court."

"Kiss you?" Finn asked. He covered a laugh with his hand. "We just met."

Caelyn's stomach did a flip. If she hadn't been covered in scales, Finn would have seen her blush from head to toe. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be presumptuous. Oh goodness, this is so... ahh!" she said with a nervous laugh.

"I'm only pulling your tail," Finn said. "By all means, prove me wrong."

He strode right up to her, took her great horned head in his hands and placed a kiss on her nose.

The Wizard's spell took effect almost instantly. Before Caelyn realized what was happening, she was suddenly just a princess, standing before a hero wondering why he was still cradling her face in his hands.

He took all of her in without bothering to hide it as his gaze kept traveling to the region of her mouth. "Wow," he said.

"See! I told you so," Caelyn started to say, but by the time she reached the word "so," she had transformed back into a dragon. "No!" she cried.

Finn tilted his head back in laughter. Caelyn gave him a warning growl and he stifled it behind his hand.

"I'm so sorry," Finn said after he composed himself. "But you're a changeling."

"But I didn't—I don't have pointed ears."

"That's the Unseelie's doing. It's part of the spell they put on the Seelie children they take. It suppresses all their Fair traits but eventually, the magic can no longer be suppressed. Usually, under stress, the Seelie's magic is able to break free."

Caelyn shook her head. "That... that can't be. That means I have a set of parents out there who don't know I'm still alive. And... and when I broke the curse I became a dragon?"

"No, no," Finn said. "Your magic is just still on the defensive. Keep in mind it's been cooped up for most of your life. You'll be able to shift from your animal form into your Fair form once you feel secure."

"But I don't feel threatened," Caelyn said.

Finn shrugged. "It's a bit deeper than that."

"So what am I supposed to do until then?"

"You could hang with me. I work for the High Queen of The Shining Throne. She sends me on quests all throughout the realm, and though I'm the greatest warrior of all the Aos Si," he said puffing out his chest, "I wouldn't say no to teaming up with an undefeatable dragon."

Caelyn's heart sputtered. Leave Innishmore? "I'm not sure I want to test that moniker, but I would love to see the realm."

"We could try and figure out who your real parents are."

"All right. I'm in."

Finn's face lit up with a smile that made her pulse race even faster. "Excellent," he said, stretching his arms wide. "Now would you mind flying us off this isle?"

"Well..." Caelyn let out a nervous laugh. "About that."

Finn ducked his head as he realized what she was about to say. "Of course. You wouldn't still be here if you could fly. But those wings aren't just for decoration."

"I know," she replied. "And believe me when I say I've tried."

"Really?" Finn ask. Her approached her right wing and pulled the bone so her wing stretched out to his full width. "Oh yeah. You should have no trouble with these bad boys. Do you mind showing me?"

Caelyn tried not to feel too embarrassed as her new friend ran his hand across the soft skin of her wings. "Sure," she said.

She took off across the field, running as fast as her legs would carry her. The wind snapped at her wings, catching them and lifting them higher, but as much as she beat them, she couldn't glide more than ten feet when she leaped from the ground.

When she returned to Finn, she found him shaking his head. "That's not how you learn to fly."

"How do you know?" Caelyn said defensively.

"Haven't you ever watched the birds? You have to learn to fall."

***

They stood at the edge of a cliff on the north side of Innishmore. Here the breeze really moved and the sea tossed violently against the rocks far below them.

Caelyn toed the edge warily. She wasn't scared of heights, but the fact that a turbulent ocean churned beneath her made her knees go weak.

"You'll just have to jump," Finn said from where she'd reluctantly let him climb on her back. "Your wings will catch you."

"I know."

"You know it'll get harder the longer you wait–" Finn said, but he didn't get to finish his lecture. Caelyn jumped.

In their nosedive towards the water, his words turned to a yell.

"Spread your wings," he shouted over the rush of air.

Caelyn did and suddenly they were no longer falling but sailing upward. When she brought her head around to see what lay behind them, the Isle of Innishmore was just a speck on the water.

"Well done," Finn said with a pat on her neck.

With the wind so strong beneath her wings and her heart in her throat, Caelyn could only agree.

***

Caelyn found navigating the new world of the Seelie with a complete stranger awkward at first. But Finn seemed immune to being made uncomfortable. He was easy to get to know and even easier to befriend. As they started off on a new quest, they soon found themselves swapping stories every night until their campfire died and they couldn't keep their eyes open.

The Seelie were nothing like the humans Caelyn had known. When Finn waltzed into a village with a dragon at his side, few bat an eye. According to him, some of the Aos Si spent most of their lives in the animal form if they were inclined. Dragon shifters were rare, so the Fair who took that form often flaunted it.

One afternoon during a long flight, Caelyn thought to ask Finn a question that had been burning in the back of her mind. As she glided high above the Forest of Glynn she asked, "Finn? Do you have an animal form?" Some of the Seelie didn't, but it was more common than not.

"Yes," Finn replied, curt.

Caelyn sensed his discomfort and as his friend, she was obligated to press him for more. "Finn, what's your animal form?" She felt him shift uncomfortably on her back.

"You can't just ask a Seelie what their animal form is," he replied.

"Oh come on," she teased. "Don't get indignant with me now."

"Fine," he said after a long pause. "It's a hedgehog."

Caelyn couldn't stifle her laugh before it came out in an embarrassing snort. "No! A hedgehog?"

"Don't tease. We can't all be as magnificent as you in our animal forms."

Caelyn laughed. "Apparently not."
Finn laughed too and suddenly, with nothing but her dearest friend at her back and the quiet wind above all the world, Caelyn felt it.

It was a feeling high in her chest that loosened something, a knot she'd been carrying around for as long as she could remember.

This was her as she was always meant to be.

And Caelyn felt safe.

The shift happened almost instantly. Finn had just enough time to grab her before they began to plummet toward the ground. "Finn!" she exclaimed.

"I know!" he yelled over the rushing wind. "But you need to shift back now!"

"Right," Caelyn said. The shift felt like snapping her fingers. Easy. Natural. In a moment she was a dragon again, gliding towards a break in the trees and a wide lake. "You still back there," she called to Finn.

"Yeah," he said breathlessly. "I don't think my heart is beating."

She laughed as she sailed out over the lake. Suddenly another knot loosened in her chest and more magic was released. She tried to stop the shift, but there was too much magic running through her bones. Again, the girl and the boy fell, but this time the lake caught them.

When Caelyn hit the water, the first thing she felt was panic as she tried to make her limbs move in a way that would bring her up to the surface but it was always out of reach. Then a hand grabbed hers and pulled her upwards. Her head broke the surface and there was Finn's head bobbing above the water.

"Finn!" she exclaimed as she continued the flail. "I can't swim!"

He grabbed her by the waist and that seemed to steady her some. "Caelyn, stand up," he said gently. "You should be able to reach the bottom with your toes."

She stretched out her legs, and her feet soon found the pebble covered lake bottom.

"Got it?" Finn asked.

"Yeah."

He helped her to shore, never releasing her hand. They collapsed on the shore, and Caelyn could finally think straight. "Finn," she said between ragged breaths. "Look." She reached up and fingered her elongated ears. "I'm in Fair form."

"I'm looking," Finn said from where he propped himself on his elbow.

Caelyn caught his gaze with hers. He wasn't really looking at her ears. He was looking at her.

"I knew you could do it," he said, then after a pause, "Seelie looks good on you."

Caelyn had never felt so right in her own skin before. It might have been just that or the way Finn looked at her, but something made her sure enough to lean across the space between them and kiss him square on his pink lips.

He kissed her back, his hand reaching up to wind his fingers into her red hair.

Caelyn broke the kiss and stood, leaving Finn breathless and jaw open in shock. She offered a hand to him and helped him up.

"Come on," she said. "We have a long way to go and I think I'd like to walk a bit. I've had enough of flying for a while."

Finn shook his head and let out a long breath. "Me too," he said and followed after Caelyn into the trees.

The End