Soul had always figured that if it was going to happen to anyone, it would have happened to Wes. It was always the crown heir being kidnapped, or cursed, or whatever, so as the second son, he always thought he was pretty safe.
It turned out he was wrong. On the day of his sixteenth birthday, his mother confessed, amidst a flood of tears, that he had been carrying a curse since his birth and that he had never been told for fear it was self-fulfilling. Though her tears made her rather incoherent, he managed to decipher that he was going to be prince-knapped by a dragon some time before his twentieth birthday, and that only his true love would be able to save him and slay the beast.
He would have laughed, had his mother not been so distraught. Any thought of it being a joke was wiped form his mind when a witch made an appearance at later that day to remind his parents that the curse was completely unavoidable, and that they could expect it at any point between then and the day he turned twenty.
It was entirely un-princely-like, but Medusa could definitely go fuck herself.
And although his parents tried to keep him safe by making sure he was guarded all day every day from then on, on the eve of his twentieth birthday, a large, red dragon attacked his family's castle and made off with him. And he spent the next five years locked in a room at the top of a ruined castle, with only an incredibly sarcastic and often mind-fucking dragon for company.
Then, just after he turned twenty-five (or there abouts, it was often hard to keep track of the days when he had the habit of sleeping through the day with insomnia at night), there was a commotion down at the bottom of the castle. Soul tried to get a peek of the action from his single window, but he could not see anything, and once the height started to get to him (why did it have to be the tallest tower?) he sat on his bed to wait.
It was probably a knight who had come to try and save him. His parents had often sent knights to come for him, or at least they had shortly after he had been kidnapped. This was the first time someone had tried to storm the castle in a while, the one hundred percent fatality rate had scared most people off pretty early on. Oni would probably be very pissed for a couple of weeks after this, and try to mess with his mind more than he had already.
He was definitely not looking forward to it.
There was a sudden loud roar from below that shook his ear drums enough to make him cover his ears and wince in pain. Then everything went silent.
Soul sat on his bed for a long time, waiting for something to happen. He began to sweat nervously as time dragged on. He could still hear his mother's words, that only his true love would be able to save him. He was definitely not ready to face his true love, especially if it was a knight. Most knights were men, and men had always been Wes' thing, not his.
After several hours of silence, something banged on his locked door loudly, making him jump and nearly fall off his bed. The something banged on the door several more times, until the lock finally gave way, and the door swung open with a bang.
In stumbled a knight dressed in full armour, though they looked a little battered and bruised. Also kinda short for a knight, but Soul was not about to look a gift rescuer in the mouth. Especially if this was supposed to be his true love. And judging by the sudden increase in his heart rate for no reason whatsoever, this was probably it.
Though he had never been very good with words, Soul tried his best. "Thank you for slaying the dragon and rescuing me, brave Sir Knight." God he sounded so stiff, but he was too anxious to care. He had honestly never anticipated this outcome. "You will be richly rewarded once I return home."
The knight scoffed. "Sir?" The voice sounded way too high to a man's. The knight reached for their helmet and pulled it off, along with their chainmail hood, to reveal blonde hair tied back in a low bun and round, young, feminine face. "It's brave Dame Knight, thank you very much."
The knight looked pretty pissed at him. She also looked very pretty in general, especially her bright green eyes that watched him like they could see through him.
"But my gender doesn't matter right now," the knight continued. She held out a hand for him. "We should go, your highness. It's not safe here."
A shiver travelled up his arm and down his spine as he took her hand, and his heart lurched when she squeezed his reassuringly as she dragged him out of his room. The look she gave him over her shoulder as they jogged down the winding stairs of his tower told him she felt it too.
True love indeed. It certainly was not going to be boring with her.