Kaoru follows a strict morning schedule set by herself. Every morning she wakes up, brushes her hair and teeth, practices her father's swordsmanship until she's ready to drop, and eats breakfast. In the evening she reads, sews, eats, practices her meditation and eats again. But today she stares outside the tower's window.
She has been in this tower for one hundred and forty-six thousand days not including those that she forgot to mark the wall. Somewhere around fifty thousand days, she had watched the lands that once flew her father's flag become decimated. The lands grew lush and green after being burned by the invading army, but the people never returned. Kaoru vaguely recalls when she first came here.
She came to live in this tower since she was a young girl, and is guarded by a dragon. A typical princess in the tower type of deal. When she was first placed into the tower, it was because of the witch's curse. A witch, offended by the king for some inane reason that Kaoru cared nothing about, had placed a curse so strong that even the palace sorcerers could not break it.
The country would be destroyed unless he imprisoned his only child in a tower high on a mountain. It was with great sorrow that she was imprisoned. "One day, someone will come for you Kaoru. One day." He said this to her as though the witch has attached conditions such as trapped until a prince comes for you. Or true love's first kiss.
However, the witch made no such promises to give her freedom. Kaoru was too young to understand that her father wasn't going to come back for her. The witch took her hand and led her up the stairs, past the dragon's keep, and into her living quarters. For the next few years, the witch showed her how to take care of herself with the magic of the tower. Not that there was much else for her to do other than be provided for by the tower. At least there was a dojo with many bokkens available for her to train herself. Well, she called it a dojo. In reality it was a room that she had cleared furniture from.
She had only been able to practice the discipline because of a book packed with the things her father was able to give to her. One day, she hoped to be a master, but there are only so many things that you can learn from the books. Kaoru tried her best. Whatever felt off balance, she shifted until it felt right. She also dragged mirrors to see if anything looked off in her posture.
After some years, Kaoru stopped aging. The witch, however, continued to age until she just… stopped showing up. She doesn't know how many days that was. The tower's magic gradually began to weaken and Kaoru found herself at a realization. She would need to leave the tower before the magic became incapable of providing food, and to do that, she would have to defeat the dragon herself.
She slowly exhales, and drops her head against the window. Starve or face a dragon. Both are extremely poor decisions. Although starving would be her giving up. Facing the dragon would at least be better than giving up. The only thing that stands between her and the dragon's keep is the locked door at the top of the stairs, and she knows exactly which hairpins to use.
Kaoru moves purposefully to the wardrobe of clothing and accessories the witch had once provided her so long ago. It was an old and plain thing with extra drawers. Really she preferred that it had such practicality over decor. If only the clothing inside were as practical. Instead they're embroidered silks in bright colors. Even the hairpins are decadent and useless.
Which isn't to say she doesn't appreciate having beautiful and decadent things to wear. She does wear them once in a while, but they make her remember things best forgotten. Once she remembered wearing pretty things in front of her father. Kaoru remembers his chuckles, but not his face. Not even the colors of his hair or eyes. The days have taken it all from her. Each one fading her earliest memories the tiniest bit more.
Kaoru rummages around in the box of hairpins until she finds the two needed for the door. They're so sharp, they could be weapons. Weapons enough to defeat a dragon? No. She eyes them again before snorting. Definitely not. Now, the question is what would she use against a dragon when she has bokken?
Well, maybe something in the kitchen. Now why on earth this place has a kitchen is beyond her. After all, the tower provides food with magic. Why would it need a kitchen? After turning the rooms upside down, she places all the things that could be weapons on the table.
Right away, she knows knives and the poker are probably the best things. So she's going to fight a dragon with kitchen knives and a fireplace poker. Giving up would probably be the smart thing to do, but if she's going to die, then it may as well be in a blaze of glory. Such as being eaten while trying to stab the dragon with a kitchen knife.
This is a terrible idea. Kaoru decides the best way to cope with the knowledge of just how terrible of an idea it is, is to completely and totally ignore the facts. Instead, she's going to be optimistic. A small part of her whispers. Yeah sure. Absolutely, completely, and totally optimistic about the fact I'm probably going to get eaten.
Ignoring that infinitesimally small part of her, that in no way speaks for her own thoughts, she settles in front of the door of the stairs. Carefully, she inserts the hairpins and begins to move them around. It wouldn't do to accidentally break one off in the lock and ruin her plans of dying in a blaze of glory. It's hours later that she feels her attempts might be getting closer to actually working.
A little more to the right… No, more to the left. Kaoru is grinning with satisfaction when the lock emits a soft click. She ignores how her hands tremble as she opens the door because she is very excited to go risk her life to see the dragon. Today is only reconnaissance so that she knows what she's walking into. As of right now, she has no idea how large the dragon is. Kaoru quietly moves down the stairs to the dragon's keep. The magic is still working here and it shows. There's not a trace of cobwebs or dust.
The light grows dimmer as she continues to walk, so she grabs a candlestick from the wall. Cobwebs begin to become frequent. A sign the magic has faded here or simply how the dragon's keep is supposed to look? She almost wishes for a broom so she can at least try to brush the cobwebs away. Kaoru has never held a broom in her life, but how hard could it be? Surely it was just a moving back and forth motion.
This entire place is creepy. Dark cobwebs, shapes of people surrounded by blackened wall, and a curious noise. It's wind, she decides as she looks around. Wind makes all sorts of strange noise when it comes through the cracks of the walls. Eventually she comes to a wide open space where the dragon should be sleeping, and it's empty. Of course, empty does not include the heaps of skeletons. Amongst the bones are ragged and burnt flags. They have a symbol on them that she half remembers.
She traces her fingers along the symbol's lines as she remembers her father's crest. Kaoru is momentarily surprised when she sees the flags of the invaders from so long ago as well. It had been so long, that she had forgotten they had tried to attack the tower as well. She tries to peer into the darkness and can see that there are hundreds of these flags. No wonder people never came back to live in the lands surrounding here. Who would want to live with a dragon that killed a battalion's worth of men who easily burned the country to the ground?
There's a glint of metal on the wall in the corner of the room, and she's momentarily drawn towards it before she hears strange sounds. The soft sounds of clanking chains draw her attention up just in time to see a snarling dragon's maw as a clawed hand shoves her to the floor. Well, she found the dragon. The question is… The dragon roars in her face. It's breath hot and it's sound makes her feel as though her bones will melt and her eardrums rupture. She stares up at it with wide eyes. Now what?