Disclaimer: I own nothing here pertaining to the movie of Dragon Heart (Bowen, Kara, Draco, etc.), however, the characters and ideas here that aren't present in the movie are mine. So please don't steal 'em. I'd appreciate it. :-D Thanks a bunch! Please read and review.
Author's Note: This takes place sometime after the movie. I'm not quite sure when just know that it's sometime after. Since ffn is not letting me put asterisks or tildes in the story, I'll use the line breaks to symbolize the changes in perspective and scene changes. A bar will mean a new scene, a space a change in perspective.
The moon sat high in the eternal night. Gwen sat on the roof of the bar she had lived and worked in for the past two years. Below in the streets of the village, the last few remaining drunkards stumbled back to their shacks. Her midnight blue eyes were turned up toward the starlit sky. She twirled a finger in her black as night hair as she pointed out constellations to herself.
"Gwen! Get down here, girl! Stop your daydreamin'! You've gotta work in the mornin'!" Linda, the owner of the bar, called up the stairs to the roof.
Grumpily, Gwen stood up. "It's not day!" she called back as she climbed down the stairs.
"Don't sass me, girl," Linda sneered once Gwen came into view on the stairs.
Gwen, not wanting to be homeless, didn't reply. Instead, she climbed into her bed on the floor and rolled over so she could look out the tiny window in the wall.
Ever since she was five, Gwen had been living alone. Her parents had died in a peasant uprising that had failed. The Petersons still ruled over the people of their village, and their daughter, Zara, had already been set to marry some prince of a foreign land.
Gwen sighed bitterly as their last name floated into her head. It was so close to her own—Peters—that it made her angry. Two letters more, and then she'd be part of that family. That family that represented everything she hated, but something she would give anything to be a part of. A solid place to live, no worries about money, just acting regal.
She lay in the back room of the bar, and when the door to the bar was shut, she couldn't normally make out what the people out there were saying. But just now when Linda left the room, she hadn't closed the door all the way, and Gwen could hear people talking out there.
A few men, a woman or two, and a boy that sounded as if he was around her age. They were talking about some sort of an uprising—a peasant uprising—against King Oswald and Queen Penelope. The King and Queen seemed to have been planning to build some large structure, and use peasant labor to do it. The last time peasants had made a structure for the King and Queen, most of the people either died, were tortured, got sick, or weren't given what they were promised.
"This isn't going to happen again," one man in the bar said.
"My informant also mentioned some sort of a battle between our village and some other one. But in addition to using their army, the King and Queen want to use the men of our village, whether they want to or not," a woman said.
"That's outrageous!" another man replied.
Gwen lay still, trying to be as quiet as possible. This kind of a meeting meant death according to the law of the land. Gwen knew that she probably shouldn't be listening, so she stayed quiet.
Outside the bar, someone shouted. Everyone in the bar tensed and grew quiet. Then Gwen heard the chairs scrape against the floor as whispered voices hurried the plotters out the back door.
Quickly, before Linda came in the back room, Gwen closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep. As Gwen lay there in the late silence, she soon didn't have to pretend to be asleep. She already was.
Zara's eyes flew open. Outside the dawn was breaking, and she was waking up with it. The door to her expansive room was open, and in the hall she could hear the voices of servants going about their business.
She slipped silently out of her bed and peeked out the doorway. The servants weren't looking in on her yet. She grabbed a robe and put it on over her nightgown before she slipped out to her balcony. She sat down on the loveseat and stared up at the transforming sky.
"Andy! Where are you, dreaded boy?" the voice of Sir Eryk called in the courtyard below.
Turning her sky blue eyes from the sky and tucking her sun-colored hair behind her ears, she carefully peeked over the edge of her balcony and looked down into the courtyard below.
It was surrounded on all sides by the castle, and the side directly across from Zara—to the east—held the gates to the castle. To her left were the rooms of the knights and their squires, to her right were the quarters of the servants who worked in the castle. In Zara's wing, there were all the important rooms: the grand ballroom, the dining room, and the rooms of the royal family.
Sir Eryk was standing in the middle of the desolate courtyard, looking around with an angry expression on his face. He looked around once more before he stormed off through the gates of the castle, them closing behind him.
Zara—who wasn't very fond of Sir Eryk—started to smile to herself at his distress when she noticed movement in the shadows to her right. A boy about her age stepped out of the shadows. He peered carefully toward the gates before he stepped out to the edges of the courtyard, where some benches had been set up.
He stared up toward the eastern sky. He had black hair and Zara couldn't make out his face, since he was facing away from her. Without warning, he suddenly turned and looked directly up to Zara's balcony. He saw her and quickly stood up.
Zara gasped and stood up straight. Her eyes locked with his deep green ones and held. Neither Zara nor the boy moved.
"Princess? Princess Zara, what are you doing out there, hm? You'll catch a chill," Emilia, Zara's main maid, scolded, coming out onto the balcony. She followed Zara's eyes to see the boy in the courtyard.
Suddenly the gates flew open, and Sir Eryk charged in, madder than ever. "There you are, wretched boy!" he stormed, going over to the boy.
The boy's eyes were torn from Zara's as he looked over at Sir Eryk. He started to reply to the knight when suddenly Sir Eryk grabbed his arm and shoved him toward the left. Sir Eryk stormed into the shadows on the left.
The boy looked after Sir Eryk before looked up at Zara. He half smiled and nodded his head before he walked quickly after the knight.
Emilia wrapped a shawl around Zara's shoulders. "Come back inside now, Miss." She looked back down into the now empty courtyard. "What were you looking at? That boy?"
Zara nodded. "Do you know who he is?"
Emilia shrugged. "Yes, of course, Highness. He's Anthony Samuels, though everyone just calls him Andy. He's Sir Eryk's new squire." Emilia looked into Zara's eyes, caught her look, and frowned. "Princess, you know that you must marry Prince Pelswick. Best not to worry yourself with Andy. Come inside now, Miss." Emilia went inside.
Zara cast one last look into the empty courtyard before she followed Emilia inside.
Gwen carefully removed a mug from the hand of a sleeping drunk man at the bar. The sun had set a few minutes ago, and soon the bar would be closing. It always closed at sunset on Mondays, and Gwen hoped that she would get to meet the people who were in the meeting last night.
Linda ushered the last few remaining conscious people from the bar before she had her husband carry the sleeping ones out. Harry, her husband, wasn't as cruel as Linda could be, and he smiled at Gwen as he picked up that man.
"You certainly did a good job tonight, Gwen. Seven are asleep!" he said jovially as he hefted the rather large man from his seat at the bar.
Suddenly, into the bar came a man and a boy. He had brown hair and brown eyes. The man looked like a bigger version of the boy.
Harry hurried and dragged the man outside before he shut and locked the bar doors. He turned back around and faced the man. "Is it happening?"
"Is what happening?" Gwen asked, coming out from around the bar.
They all stopped and stared at Gwen. "Is she okay?" the man asked.
Harry nodded. "Gwen won't tell anyone. Right, Gwen?" Harry asked, turning the last part toward Gwen.
Gwen nodded. "Sure. No problem. It's not like I see anyone who isn't drunk anyway."
Harry and the man nodded. The man stepped forward and stretched out his hand toward Gwen. "I'm Bowen, and this is my son, Josh," he said. Gwen shook the man's hand, then Josh's.
They all sat down at a table and Bowen told Gwen basically everything she had heard the other night.
"When will the uprising be?" Gwen asked.
"Well, once we get word from our informant inside the castle, then we'll know when to make our move," Bowen replied.
Gwen nodded. "Can I help?"
Josh narrowed his eyes. "What can you do?"
Gwen took offense. She sat up straight. "I know how to fight! I've been on my own since I was five, and I've had to learn how to take care of myself!"
Harry put a hand on Gwen's shoulder to calm her down. "Gwen is a good fighter. And every night, after we close down the bar, I can teach her to sword fight. She's good with her fists; trust me on that one. I've seen her defend herself from drunk men at the bar many times."
Bowen and Josh nodded. Barmaids, especially of Gwen's beauty and age, were usually taken advantage of by drunk men. Gwen sat up straighter and straightened out her shirt.
Bowen nodded. "Of course you can help!"
The meeting continued and details were planned. In the wee hours of the morning, as the sun was starting to come up, Bowen and his son finally left the bar. Gwen, yawning, pulled on her apron and started the day of work.
Harry came up to Gwen. "You're too tired to be able to handle a place full of men. Why don't you go out and go shopping today, instead of Linda. Here, here's the list of the things we need." Harry handed Gwen a piece of paper.
Gwen thankfully removed her apron and headed out the door.
Zara walked through the streets of the village. Ahead of her, her parents rode on their horses. Behind Zara, her manservant led her horse, Sunny. Her horse had thrown a shoe, and instead of taking the horse of one of others, she instead decided to walk. It wasn't every day that she got to leave the confines of her palace grounds, and she didn't often get a chance to see her people. They passed by the market place, a bustling river of activity.
"Filthy things, peasants," Sir Eryk said, riding up beside Zara on his horse.
Zara looked up at him and tried to be nice. "But they are our people."
Sir Eryk laughed. "Silly girl. Soon you must learn that people like them," he gestured with his hand to a girl with hair as black as night and eyes like midnight that was strolling through the marketplace, "don't matter."
Zara looked up at Sir Eryk with anger boiling beneath the surface. He smirked and rode up past her. The girl he had pointed out was just then starting to cross the road that they were traveling on. Her foot hit a stone that was stuck in the road and she tripped, dropping her purchases all over the street. She fell forward and hit Zara, forcing her into a puddle of mud on the side of the street.
She splashed into the mud and felt it ooze through her hair. She stood up, angrier than ever. The words that Sir Eryk had said rung through her head and now they didn't have any affect on her. In fact, they seemed to make sense.
Her manservant helped her up. She twisted his arm from hers and stormed to the girl, who was just then picking herself up and dusting herself off. Her head had hit the rock when she fell, and she was bleeding from her temple. But Zara didn't care.
"How dare you!" she raged at the girl.
She looked up in alarm. Her eyes held a dizziness that must've been from the fall, but still Zara paid no attention. "I-I'm sorry, Princess. I didn't mean to. I tripped—"
"I know what you did!" Zara raged.
"Princess," Sir Eryk said, riding up to her. "How would you like to punish this servant?"
Zara looked up at him in alarm. "Punish?"
"Yes, Miss. Would you like to burn her eyes out?" Sir Eryk offered.
"A proper punishment would be for her to be beaten," Lord Richard said, riding up beside Sir Eryk.
Zara nodded. "I agree, Lord Richard." She turned to her manservant. "Do it," she commanded.
Gwen watched with wide eyes as the huge man tentatively stepped forward. He glanced back over his shoulder. "Miss, please don't make me."
Sir Eryk sighed. "Fine, you coward. I'll do it."
Gwen braced herself for the pain as the armored man stalked up to her.