"So," Mila says, "there was a princess."
Sara nods encouragingly. Her face on the screen is jerky and pixelated. "A princess?" she prompts.
"With two older brothers, and one younger," Mila continues. She keeps her voice low; she doesn't want her flatmate intruding on her story. She can see Sara lean closer to her computer, despite the earbuds visible under her loose hair, and turn the volume up. "The eldest brother, the crown prince, was always the star. None of the others could compete with him, though they all tried.
"At least, no one could until the youngest prince came of age and challenged him. Suddenly, everything changed. All anyone cared about, including the king, was the two princes. Nothing the other two did seemed to matter."
"The princess was upset?" Sara asks softly.
"She was pissed," Mila agrees. "She was tired of her eldest brother always being the- the best, but she was angry at the youngest prince. The princess felt guilty about it, but she couldn't stop herself. She wanted him to succeed, she did, but she was jealous."
Mila takes a deep breath. She wants Sara to join in, to take over the tale, but Sara stays stubbornly silent.
"It felt like the prince was taking everything. One day at dinner, it was too much. The princess wanted him to know what it felt like. She started to joke about courting his- his betrothed, a knight from a neighboring land."
"His betrothed?" Sara cuts in, her soft lips curving into a surprised oh. "Are they-"
"No." Mila shakes her head, then shrugs. "I don't think so. Not yet. Sometime, probably."
"Five euros says within two years," Sara says. "Anyway. Go on."
"Four years, they're both idiots. Anyway, the princess started joking about eloping with the knight, and she got what she wanted. The younger prince was enraged. But the princess-" Mila bites her lip. "She kept going until it didn't sound like a joke anymore. She knew that the prince was scared, but she told herself that he was overreacting, that she was only joking. Their argument got louder and finally the crown prince stepped in. He told her to apologize. That only made her more upset, and all she could think was that of course he was coming to their younger brother's defense."
Mila falls silent. Eventually, Sara asks, "What happens next?"
"The princess was banished. She was ordered not to come back until she could behave properly, and she stormed out without another word." Mila frowns and picks at her fingers. There's a hangnail on her left thumb. It stings, and she winces as a drop of blood beads along the edge.
"Stop that," Sara scolds gently.
"As the princess left the castle, she didn't grow calmer." Mila reaches over to grab a pillow from her bed and sets it in her lap, wrapping her arms around it. "She knew that she could go back right then and apologize, and everything would be okay… but nothing would change. The youngest prince's achievements would be celebrated before her own, and it would go on like that forever. Instead of turning around, she got angrier and angrier."
"And then?"
"And then, when it seemed like the entire world was against her, the princess started to change. She grew taller, and her teeth got sharper, and her hot anger turned into fire in her belly. Her skin turned into scales. She'd become a dragon. She flew away and swore never to speak to her family again." Mila grits her teeth. "They tried to talk to her, they sent letters, but she ignored them. She was still angry, but more than that, she didn't know how to fix it. She couldn't talk anymore without burning everything around her, because she breathed fire whenever she tried. The dragon decided to stay in her cave. She didn't know what else to do."
"What happened after that?"
"Nothing," Mila replies. Her voice sounds too hard, too sharp. "That's the end."
"I don't think so," corrects Sara. "You forgot the next part."
"The next part?"
"A knight came to the cave. She knew that the princess-"
"She's a dragon now, not a princess."
"She's both." Sara gives her a stern look and Mila quiets down. "The knight knew that the dragon princess didn't really want to start fires, no matter how upset she was, so she avoided the flames and let the princess talk about what was bothering her. The knight understood why the princess was angry, and why the princes were mad at her."
"So she saw why the dragon couldn't go back to being a princess?"
"She knew that it wouldn't be as easy as walking back and pretending that nothing had happened. A simple apology wouldn't solve the problem," Sara tells her. "And she realized that the princess, upset as she was, had forgotten something."
"What had she forgotten?"
"She forgot that the youngest prince would also understand," says Sara. "He was mad at her, yes – but he was mad because he felt the same way she did. See, the knight and the princess had known each other for a long time, and the princess had a lot of other friends, too. She had lovers and acquaintances and friends and her knight, and so when she joked about eloping with the prince's fiancé, the prince was scared. He didn't think his knight would abandon him, but they hadn't known each other for very long, and he hadn't been close to anyone besides his family before. And even with his family, he'd had a… a rocky relationship, sometimes. So when the princess talked about stealing his knight, he looked at all her knight, and her friends and her lovers, and thought that she had all of these people and she still wanted the only one who was truly his. And he didn't understand why. The prince was young, and naïve, and a little selfish sometimes, and he didn't think about how the princess felt watching him rise to glory while she was pushed to the side."
"What did the knight tell the dragon?"
"The knight told the princess that she thought she knew what to do – she knew how to turn her back into a princess. A human princess. She said that she thought the princess had to talk to the youngest prince and tell him why she'd been upset, and why she'd said what she'd said. And then she had to apologize."
"The prince wouldn't forgive her."
"Not right away, no, but the princess has to give him a chance. She can't just keep being a dragon and living in a cave and breathing fire forever."
"What about the next time the princess gets angry? She might just turn into a dragon again."
Sara shrugs. "Then the knight will come back and find the princess in her cave, and listen to her, and help her figure out what to do."
That makes Mila smile, just a little, just enough to make Sara's eyes brighten. She wishes they weren't thousands of kilometers apart, wishes that she could reach out and take Sara's hand. "Where would the princess be without her knight?" she asks.
"She'd manage on her own," Sara says. "Eventually. She might burn down a few more towns first, but she'd get there."
It's late, and both dragons and knights have to sleep eventually. They say goodnight when Mila's eyes are gritty and Sara can't stop yawning long enough to speak.
