AN: for gochi week day 1: Fairytale/Triumph

you set my heart on fire (and i don't think its a bad thing)

-Prolouge-

"Who did that boy think he is?" She huffed as she climbed up the stairs of the tower, Peepo following after her. She kept grumbling as she pulled on the skirts of her hanfu, careful not to dirty it along the steps. That stupid ingrate, and he dared to call himself a gentleman? Gentlemen didn't just go insult a lady like her. So what if she knew martial arts? She could kick his ass anytime, anywhere.

Which she did.

And honestly, what made Pa think that she'd like someone like him? He was the rudest person she'd ever met! No lady would fall for his false charm and roguish looks. Not her, never!

"Can you believe it Peepo?" she asked exasperatedly as she finally reached the top, stopping right in front of the bed. She placed her hands on her hips, releasing another annoyed huff as she started pacing around the room once more. "He called me barbaric! Me? Barbaric? All because I practice martial arts? He can't even land a punch on me even if he tried!"

The yellow chicken clucked at her, as if agreeing with her.

"You know what he is? A sissy, wuss," she declared, turning to look at the chick once more who nodded sagely in agreement.

She started pacing once more, grumbling under her breath. She wasn't barbaric! She had the grace and elegance of any other princesses out there. She was poised, courteous, respectful, everything a princess of the Ox Kingdom should be! And if she wasn't anything, Chichi wasn't a princess who accepted that type of shit.

Releasing one last huff, Princess Chichi stopped her pacing and turned to look around the room. What did she need here again? She knew she went here to this tower to fetch something. Oh right, there should have been calligraphy brushes around here somewhere. She laid a hand on her face and looked around once more, before finally landing her eyes on the dust covered chest across from the bed.

"Aha!" she declared. "That should be where it is. Come on Peepo. Help me look for it so we can get out of this place quicker. All this dust is making my nose itch.

She bounded for the chest and wasted no time opening it. She was right in thinking that it would take awhile to find those nunchucks. Peepo, bless her chicken heart, would be no help going through this mess.

"Nope," she mumbled as she pushed scrolls out of her way. "Not this one too." She began shoving and throwing stuff out. Peepo, careful of her well being, carefully avoided the things being thrown out. As she swiftly dodged a flying sheathed knife, she suddenly heard screams coming from down below them. The chick flew towards the window and was alarmed when all she saw was fire and people running away from the palace. Everywhere she looked, she could only see fire; the tower's side was beginning to be covered by the fire.

Panicking, Peepo flew towards Chichi with hysteric chirps and clucks to get her attention. Sadly, the princess was too engrossed in her search to even notice her. Even then, Peepo still frantically flapped her wings and clucked with vigor.

"There it is!" Chichi exclaimed as she raised her head from the chest, a wide grin on her face as she clutched a small box in her hands. She dusted it off for a couple moments before turning towards her companion. "All right, Peepo. Let's head back down before Pa demands the whole kingdom to search for me- wait, are you okay?"

Peepo, ignoring Chich's question, only flew towards the window and gestured for the princess to look out of it while with haste. Chichi only knitted her eyebrows in confusion but humored her pet bird anyway. What she saw made her see why exactly Peepo was in such a panicked stated, she couldn't stop the gasp that came from her lips.

She could barely hear the screams from the crackle of the fire surrounding her. She could barely catch a glimpse of the people running away. The only thing that was clear to her was the feel of the fire and heat licking her skin, making her perspire, whether from panic or the heat, she didn't know.

What was going on? Why was the palace on fire? What about her father? Where was he?

Suddenly she caught sight of a familiar helmet down below.

"Pa!" Chichi screamed. She didn't know whether he heard her or not, but it seemed he had as he turned to her direction. She waved her hands as her father opened his mouth, as if screaming her name. The Ox King moved to run, but he was only held back by the arms of some of their people, telling him it was too dangerous to run after now, some of them pointing at something in the sky.

And it was, especially since the fire seemed to be mostly covering the lower floors. It was better for her father to stay out of the palace.

That didn't mean that she was just going to stay put in here and wait for someone to save her.

"Peepo, let's go," she said as she pulled the skirts of her hanfu. She headed towards the stairs, determined to get out of this place. The fire shouldn't have reached this part of the palace yet, she hoped. "We need to get out of here."

Peepo nodded and flew close to her. Chichi stepped down the spiral staircase, but she must have underestimated how fast the fire was spreading because it was already climbing up the stairs. With a surprised yelp, Chichi had no choice but to head back up the stairs and back up the tower. She could feel the flames following every step she took as Peepo flapped her wings frantically. She barely managed to reach the top before tripping towards the floor, and she was afraid that the fire will finally cover her, but to her surprise nothing came. She turned around to see what was happening, only to see the fire stop spread at the edge of the stairs, as if something was stopping it from spreading it to this room.

Huh?

Getting to her feet, Chichi gingerly took a step closer towards the stairs. The fire clung to the walls, the stairs, everywhere but the room she was in. That's weird. Cautiously, she took a step towards the first stair, and like throwing more wood to it, the fire blazed harshed and pushed itself towards her, making her take a step back. As soon as she took that step, it calmed down once more, and when Chichi tried to move forward again, it only blazed harshly once more until she took herself away from the stairs.

What was that? It was if the fire had it's own mind, a mind that didn't want her going down the stairs. That shouldn't be possible!

"What's going on?" she muttered to herself in confusion. No matter, she could think about this later, she needed to get out of this place right away.

Chichi looked around the room trying to find another means to escape. The only thing she saw was the window, but she couldn't possibly use that. She was so high up that jumping out of there was a jump to her death. Not to mention, the fire.

But… it was the only way out, and she sure as hell wanted to get out of here.

"Okay Peepo, let's try this," she said, more to herself than to her chick. Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and headed for the window. She grabbed a hold of the side and prepared herself to jump out of it, but before she could even raise her leg, a large eye suddenly blocked the window.

What the h-

With a scream, Chichi stumbled backwards from the window, tripping on her hanfu and landed on her behind, shaking in fright. W-what was that? Why was there a large eye blocking the window.

Before she could do anything, the eye blinked, and Chichi noticed the texture on the skin seemed to shine. Were those- were those scales?

She was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts as she heard the loudest roar she has ever heard, very much unlike the the dinosaur roars she'd heard before. Not too soon after that, the eye disappeared and all of the sudden a long body passed by her window, almost serpentlike. Once it disappeared, Chichi wasted no time scrambling to feet to look out of the window and see what that thing could it be.

She felt her breath get stuck in her throat.

She couldn't believe it. A dragon, a huge ass dragon, a huge ass fire breathing dragon attacked her kingdom. She thought they weren't real! They were supposed to be just in the stories that her mother told her to make her fall asleep. Not in real life.

She watched as the dragon fly once more before it began to coil itself around the tower before blowing one last stream of fire from its mouth towards the ground.

Chichi looked back to where her father and the other villagers take a step back from fire, covering their faces from the heat. The Ox King had an expression of frustration, desperate to save his daughter, but he knew that at this point, he had no power or idea how to go about it, not when a dragon was involved.

Chichi stepped away from the window until she felt her back hit a wall. Her knees, as if feeling the pressure, suddenly gave away as she fell to the ground. Peepo landed to the floor, jumping towards her as she pulled her knees towards her, hugging them close. She hid her face behind her knees, the tears she didn't know she was keeping finally falling down her closed eyes.

She was stuck. She had no way out of this tower, not with a dragon guarding her and this stupid fire that seemed to have a mind of its own. She was going to be stuck here forever.

She felt Peepo put a wing on her arm in comfort.

Oh, what was she going to do?