A large blade clashed against a sword. Sparks flew as the fairy aggressively pushed the prince further and further back. Caela the fairy moved as if her broadblade weighed nothing, her blows were elegant and refined. She looked bored out of her mind while the wind around her whirled like a small tornado with every slash.

She stabbed her broadblade on the ground and used the momentum to swing herself up in the air and land a kick to the prince’s abdomen. He was lucky his armor protected him as he was flung away by her. The prince crashed and rolled on the dark green grass with a resounding thud. His sword landed a couple of steps away from him. With a gasp, he heaved himself back up and reached out for his sword with trembling hands. The fairy stepped on the weapon and split it in half with the back of her heels.

Now defenseless and unable to attack, the prince could do nothing but wait for his death. He might have been able to land a couple of hits on the fairy at first, but she was clearly toying with him, judging his every move before she got serious. 

He pushed himself with his elbows to stand up, but stopped to cough out blood instead.

Caela slowly approached the prince, looking at him with eyes full of disappointment. “Another unworthy one,” she said. She looked over to Danico sitting under a tree with his feet crossed together. The field they were in was cleared of thorns and roses, instead there were a handful of small trees growing all around them. They must be getting closer to the princess’s tower if the wall of thorns was lessening.

“Are you not going to help your friend?” The fairy asked.

Danico shrugged. “I could,” he muttered. “But this is not a trial for me, correct? If I stepped in, his highness would be disqualified.”

“That is correct,” she said, her eyes widening with surprise. “How did you know?”

“Well, I kind of figured that you guys were dwindling down our numbers one by one until there were only three candidates left. Three who had the potential to defeat you and slay the dragon. Once it was just his highness, Sir Faris and Mage Cian, you guys got impatient and started your trial while hoping I’ll die when you flung the three away from each other.”

“You are much smarter than you look,” she said while gently tapping the prince’s hand with the tip of her sword. The prince screamed as she stabbed through his arm. She pulled out her blade as she watched him writhe on the ground with a blank expression on her face. “You have failed this trial,” she said to the prince.

The prince looked at Danico with pitiful eyes and a sad smile, as if to say a final farewell. He knew what would come after this and he wanted Danico to be the last thing he saw. The long unique lilac gray hair and bright green eyes, the cheeky smile and viridian cloak, the feeling of giddiness when those eyes looked at him playfully – he wanted to memorize the first love he could never have.

Danico regarded him with boredom that matched the fairy’s face and sighed. 

“Say,” Danico said while he slowly stood up. “What happens if you’re defeated?”

“Then you will have the right to fight the dragon.”

“So we’ll still have to get back into the forest and find the dragon? That’s so annoying,” Danico muttered while running his hand through his hair.

Caela narrowed her eyes. “No, the forest will clear a path for you to lead you to the dragon.”

“Oh!” Danico perked up at the answer. Finally something useful! “That's a great reward!”

A blast of dark energy made the fairy jump up in the air, her wings fluttered to keep her up. She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Your highness,” Danico said as he stepped forward in front of the prince. “I hope you don’t mind if I steal your thunder, but I really want to see that dragon.”

Faris Manvel was a young man born in a household of knights. Ever since he could hold a stick with his chubby little arms, he was taught how to swing a sword. He had watched his brothers be knighted and excitedly dreamed about the day he would become a knight himself.

He was told about the glorious victories of war, saving princesses and currying their favors. Chivalry and romance, love and war, those were the stories that put him to sleep in his childhood. It was his dream to have ballads about his adventures and to marry a beautiful lady he had saved and fallen in love with at first sight. He would pass on his abilities to his sons and hire a blacksmith to create the sharpest of blades and sturdiest of shields for them.

It was a simple dream, a sweet dream, a dream of a young boy full of hope for a bright future. A dream that was shattered when he lost his arm.

“You’ve failed,” the fairy with fiery red hair said softly. Her petite hand was on the head of a beast gnawing at his severed arm. She petted it gently, as if running her hand through the loveliest dog on the planet. The metal from his armor bent under the pressure of several sharp teeth.

A number of wildlings circled the knight, waiting for their mistress’ order to tear him apart.

He clenched his teeth and concentrated his mana on his missing arm. Sweat dripped down his forehead at the pain of cauterizing his own wound with magic. It was a simple spell that was taught to young knights during their training days and was mostly used in the most dire situations to prevent blood loss.

“You’re a resilient one,” she murmured as the knight stood up once more. He clenched his sword with his other hand and waited for the wildlings to charge. “Why do you want to save the princess? Did you volunteer for the glory and the kingdom that will come along with her awakening?”

“I’m doing it because it is the right thing to do,” he said.

He watched countless people suffer from the Rose Garden as it slowly spread through the land. Homes were abandoned while the wildlings roamed in the shadow of the night. His brothers went missing on their venture to save the princess themselves, and he watched as his father grew ill at the loss of his sons.

His father, the proud knight commander, had begged him to reconsider joining the prince’s campaign, but he was the prince’s sworn sword and right hand man. The vow he made to his childhood friend was something he will never take back. His pride as a knight would never allow him to abandon the prince when he’s rallying for people to fight with him.

The mysterious fairy hummed in thought and approached him slowly. Her long green dress dragged on the ground, her shadows squirmed in unnatural ways. The wildlings all sat down obediently in her presence.

Faris’s grip on his sword tightened as he watched her approach. He had never raised a sword against a lady before and he was fighting his instinct to swing at her as she got closer and closer.

She looked him directly in the eyes, her ruby red against his brilliant sapphires.

Her wings fluttered.

She smiled.

“You pass,” she said as the wildlings vanished into dark smoke.

Faris looked at her in surprise. “But did you not say that I failed?”

“I changed my mind, I can see that you are truly kind and just,” she said. The fairy circled him, her wings fluttering and leaving fairy dust around. “You seem familiar,” she murmured. “You don’t happen to be related to Sir Laurus and Sir Marek Manvel?”

Faris widened his eyes in surprise. “They’re my brothers,” he said. “Do you know if they’re still in the garden?”

His brothers have been missing for months now after they went on their journey to save the sleeping princess. It was an accepted fact that they perished in the Rose Garden, hence why his father begged him to reconsider joining the prince. He couldn’t take losing another son to the black thorns.

It was a belief he shared with everybody. That his brothers were long dead and yet he couldn’t help but hope that perhaps, with the slightest chance, they were still alive and wandering around the forest.

“Sadly, the brothers have perished under the dragon. They were one of the few who managed to challenge it,” the fairy said dolefully. “A pity since I also liked their character.”

She touched his arm and he could feel shadows attach themselves to his missing limb. The fairy had given him another arm. It was black and shaped like a claw instead of fingers. Wisp of smoke and sparks of red like her ruby eyes danced within the shadows.

“A small gift,” she said. “And a blessing to defeat the dragon.”

“Thank you,” Faris said gratefully.

The fairy smiled, but frowned as she looked up at the sky with a forlorn look in her eyes. “Oh,” she said. “One of my sisters has been slayed.”