The dragon let out a screech that rattled the stone courtyard and it descended into the sky. Its two front arms unfurled, it glided towards Locke faster than a runaway stallion.

He was ready to roll behind the large stone blockade in case the dragon attempted to set him on fire, but just as he was about to move, the dragon stopped in mid air, beat its wings twice before an incredible explosion occurred.

It wasn't so much of an explosion because there were no sounds to be heard, but the light coming from the dragon was impossibly bright.

Locke had to shield his eyes with one free arm but managed to watch as the shadow of the dragon began to shrink. It shrunk so much that Locke couldn't even call it a dragon now and the body plummeted to the earth.

Locke's heart jumped and he took three lumbering steps forward in his ungodly restrictive armour to catch it, but when the thing came down it took him and it into a deep pile of snow.

As the knight struggled with his whole body shoved into the snow and the small thing in his arms weighing his top half down, he opened his eyes to spot what he had caught.

Of course, it wasn't the dragon, a beast of that size would have been quite obvious and undoubtedly would have crushed him when it fell, but what he found was almost too impossible to believe.

He never saw her, not even as a knight, but he knew by the beautiful clothes, the royal insignia she wore and the very fact she was here, that this was the princess now cradled in his arms.

Her glossy black braids cascaded and rippled over his armour and revealed the imperfections in its surface. It was hardly a dusty grey from years of use when compared to princess' hair.

A delightful sigh moaned from her brown lips as the princess stirred. Lailoken Vaugrenard even found his eyes slipping as he took in the girl's full features, the perfect dark eyebrows, the small nose that wrinkled with a yawn, the blushing collarbone...

It had been quite a long time since he had spent any amount of time in a woman's company and the rush of emotions twisted his stomach. Hadn't she just been a dragon trying to eat him! What was happening?

Locke gently sat up, using his incredible strength to pull them both back over the side of the cliff as he knelt in the snow.

The princess' eyes fluttered open, her dark eyelashes sweeping back so that they were now on him. Locke wished to hide, but he was so caught up in the fantastical events that had just occurred that he simply stayed still, watching her closely.

She had the same dark sandy eyes as the dragon, but when she saw him, she smiled.

"Lailoken." She reached up which caused the large man to flinch back as if he had never known a kind touch. 

Her hand caressed the side of his face gently and she smiled so warmly he almost thought his body would turn to mush.

Was she smiling at him or had the ice made her snow blind? 

"You know who I am?" He asked and the princess' eyes went wide as her hand slowly fell from his face.

"Is this... not a dream?" She replied and a blush heated up her face. 

"No-" he said after a moment's hesitation.

"Oh-"

It was only then that Locke realized along with the entire kingdom he too thought the princess had made some sort of mistake or accident. Only now did he realize she knew him.

Somehow.

But they had never met!

Locke quickly placed her on the ground and retreated from the snow pile, as the princess looked around her in confusion. Clearly, Princess Fenice had no idea how she had managed to arrive all the way at Drahomíra anymore than Locke did. Except he had begun to suspect that the princess had never been kidnapped but something worse had happened.

A cold wind swept over them and despite his armour and thickness, he was chilled nearly to the core. The princess shivered similarly as she wrapped her arms around her small frame. Her red dress was made of thick looking cloth and although it was also beautiful Locke doubted that it would keep her warm for long in this place.

There had been a small inn and tavern near the base of the mountain, they could reach it before nightfall, he thought.

When he returned his attention back to the princess, she was now looking at him, her eyes wide.

Her gaze drifted down his metal plated body before bouncing back to his face, taking in all of her champion's features, although taking extra time since there was so much of him to survey.

A blush rose to her cheeks and Locke sucked in a sharp breath of the cold mountain air and his sallow cheeks turned a pinkish colour.

"Do you know how you came to be here?" Locke asked stiffly, trying to keep himself looking stoic and unflustered.

Fenice shook her head once, her eyes fixed on Locke for a few seconds before she touched her head.

"I remember being in my chambers, it was night when I suddenly felt sick- I made my way to the balcony for a breath of fresh air-"

She stopped unable to continue further with the narration.

"And that was it, I woke up here the very next second."

The princess surveyed Locke for any explanation as if he had something to do with it, but with the exception of just witnessing a dragon turn into the princess, he was completely in the dark.

He didn't really know how to express it, but Locke realized that was exactly what he had seen.

"I was here to fight the dragon who kidnapped you.... As it turns out—" Locke's brow clenched and he looked away guiltily. "—you were the dragon."