((A/N: And it goes on! May I tell you a fun fact? The prince's name I took it from a character of Pandora Hearts (an anime/manga, I recommend the manga if you are into a story full of plot twists and awesome characters with great stories), who is very dear to me! :') He is the best, I love him))

Chapter 6: The Puppet Show -Second Part-

Thirty five minutes 'til noon

Everyone was silently expecting for the curtains to open once again, and Romeo looked at Wendy. "How do you like it so far?" he asked, the sky dragon slayer shrugged.

"I-I guess it's okay. I mean, I like Saphira's character. But I do not like the plot that much, I guess I should be used to it by now, you know, dragons being the bad guys of the story" Romeo nodded, agreeing.

"Oh, the curtains" said Romeo, looking how they were being drawed (A/N: Is that correct?) back.

The prince was now standing in front of the princess, inside her room. Hall of the stage was from the balcony to the woods, and the other half only inside of the tower. The place's white walls had marks of the same sword the princess was holding.

"What was your name again?" she asked, going towards a book shelf, were there were only magazines. Thousands and thousands of those. The prince stared at them as he replied.

"Uhm.. Elliot, Prince of Roux"

She took a magazine while nodding, not seeming very interested. "So, Elliot-"

"The prince was surprised, the princess anger and passion were as gone as fast as she had appeared in front of him. He found himself comparing the authenticity of her feelings to Saphira's. The girl seemed to get over feelings with ease, getting bored of them, while the maiden of the forest seemed to show them with full genuineness, completely honest and never exagerating them"

The prince nodded, a smile on his face.

"Elliot couldn't help but think of Saphira's funny reactions, and how she never got mad"

"Elliot! Are you even listening to me?!" shouted the teenager princess, angrily.

"Oh, uhm, sorry, I got lost"

"I was asking you how were you planning to kill the dragon" she repeated, looking bored again.

"Kill the dragon? I'm here, so why don't you just leave with me?" he asked, shrugging.

The princess rolled her eyes. "I thought you were smart! There's a barrier that won't allow me to leave the surroundings of the place unless she's dead"

"She? Why do you keep saying she?" he asked.

The princess looked at him like he was the dumbest person she'd ever met. "Maybe because she's female?" she asked, her voice filled with sarcasm.

The floor below the audience trembled along with a roar worth a real life dragon, with Natsu's and Wendy's approval. "Oh, no. We don't have any plans! What are you going to do? Quick! She's coming!"

"I'll attack it. It should be enough"

"The way you are dressed right now?! How much of an idiot are you?!"

It was impressive how the actress managed to shout and yet at the same time sound like she is doing the most boring thing in the world. The narrator spoke once again, "Prince Elliot was again thinking of the recently absent lady. Even if the princess was intelligent, even if she seemed to be able to be nice, Saphira didn't let him not compare. She was smart too. She had been nice most of the time, except that one time when he woke her up one day and she threw him a rock, in the head. She would inmediately apologize, well, maybe not right away, but at the couple hours, she definetely would. Saying it was not okay, and would try to heal him, telling him that that was an important place of any body, like the heart"

"Her heart. Her head. Important places"

"Okay, okay. More acceptable plan. Go" she said, pushing him.

The dragon appeared in front of the balcony, "Judith" she said. Natsu and Wendy were attonished, it looked extremely accurate to the real thing, only a smaller version. Was it...? No way! It's blue and gray scales were practically shining with the sunlight. Could it be it knows something about Igneel? thought Natsu, filling himself with hope.

"The voice seemed extremely familiar"

"Dragon! I've come to take Princess Judith with me!" shouted the prince, standing on the balcony.

"Very well. I imagine you don't think I'll simply let you do that, right?" said the blue dragon, shaking her head, it was smiling. "Fight me, Prince Elliot"

"As it was said dragons were wise creatures, Elliot didn't even think twice about it knowing his name" explained the narrator.

"Will do" he said. He walked towards the edge of the balcony, he stood up in front of the dragon's face.

"Burn him!" shouted Natsu.

"SHHHHHHHHH!" hissed Lucy, along with all the crowd.

The narrator was smiling, probably thanks to Natsu. "The dragon's eyes were a deep yellow, the prince found himself hypnotized by them, but not literally"

Elliot rised his sword, yet the female dragon did not move.

Wendy didn't want to see. Not another story with a bad ending to the dragons. Why couldn't Saphira appear and stop the prince from doing such thing?

He looked at the dragon's eyes. His grip on the sword tightened. "You look so funny the way you are right now" she said, her smile bigger.

He dropped the sword. "Saphira?"

There was a bright light, blinding all those in the front line, Natsu, Wendy, Lucy and Romeo counted.

In the grass, there was her, lying there. The sword on her left leg. "Saphira!" he shouted, and run downstairs, Judith came out of the room, curious.

The blue haired, yellow eyed maiden then said, "Hi, Elliot" she grinned painfully.

"I'll go get something, we'll cure you!" said the prince.

"It'll be fine, Elliot. Just take it out" Saphira said simply. "I can't cure with that there"

The prince sighed, "Take my hand, crush it if you need to" he said. The female dragon/maiden grabbed his hand, smiling.

"Do it"

The stage was really dark, and then it lite up once again. The sword was in the prince's hand, and he was patching her up. "I'm such a coward" sighed the puppet actress.

"Wha-?"

"You should have slayed me, but I had to talk" she said, shaking her head.

Elliot blinked, "You can't be serious" he stood up, "Would you really let me kill you? What would I've done if you happened to turn back to this self when you died? Guilt would have been too much to deal wit-"

"But you didn't mind to kill the dragon, did you?! Of course you wouldn't mind to kill a beast like me. But if it was this self, of course you would be extremely guilty! You were supposed to free the princess, but you didn't mind slaying the dragon on the path, you didn't even blink when I asked you to. You were about to kill one of the little amount of dragons left in this world. Of course you wouldn't car-"

"Saphira"

"-about it, because all to save the princess you know nothing about. All to save yourself from a princess your parents choose. All to prove yourself able of everything. No matter what to get there!"

"Saphira"

"But you would care to kill a human being. Because after all they are oh, so important, and it's not like there are millions of them occupaying the whole world, cutting down forests. You would blink, you would care if I were to ask you to kill a human bei-"

"I did care. I was planning to just take her, not slaying any dragon. I didn't blink because I was surprised. And I would be feeling guilty, no matter what, if I killed someone or something without it being absolutely necessary. But I would be extremely guilty if it was you. Just because it's you. And I wouldn't be able to stand the idea I killed you."

"Wha-"

"Because it's you, and I love you, the idea would have been unbearable"

"Oh, my gosh" the princess voice was heard from the balcony. "Saph, did you hear that?"

The dragon maiden had her eyes wide open. She was nodding.

The prince had turned to look at the princess rushing down the stairs. "How com-"

"You-... L-Love me?" interrumpted Saphira, her yellow eyes glowing and grin growing.

With a blush on his cheeks, the prince nodded. "Oh my GOD!" screamed the princess, and started running jumping "puppetly" outside the stage, and in voice in off, everyone was able to hear how she said, "I'm out of the limits! Oh my god, oh my god, I'm free! I'm free!"

The scene froze, and the narrator walked to the center of the stage and talked as the curtains closed once again, "The curse was simple. For the princess to be able to leave her home/prison, her guardian, Saphira, had to either die, or be loved. Their first option had been her being slayed, for the princess' freedom, who she really cared about.

Saphira confessed her feelings, and told the prince she loved him too. Elliot took Saphira as his princess instead of Judith, who wouldn't accept even if asked, deciding to travel around the world she so wanted to visit, therefore the magazines about travel. The prince and the dragon maiden married months later, after knowing each other very well, and falling even more in love with the other. And the three of them, lived happily ever after, or at least that's what I heard"

The curtains opened once again, and the puppet/actress who played as Saphira was having a piggy back ride from her prince, they were running on the woods where they had met, laughing really loudly, and after they left the stage several guards were running behind them. A roar was heard and in the sky of the setting a dragon like shadow was seen flying.

The curtains closed again.

The audience started clapping, and Wendy, Natsu, Lucy and Romeo found themselves being delighted with this ending. Mostly Wendy and Natsu.

The actors, no longer acting as string puppets, came out, and gave a reverence.

Wait...

The actor who played as Saphira had a familiar yellow and orange hat on. Asuka's!

"Romeo...!"

"I saw it, too, let's go!"

((A/N: And that's it for now! Hope you enjoyed!))

((P.S.: I freezing right now))