I think this chapter is going to come out a little flat, I'm having a hard time getting into it.
Trillinka- Shhhhh, no giving away my plot, lol! Actually, that was only half of what's going to happen.
animesk8ergirl- yay, more dragon fans!
Wind91Rider- And more dragon fans! I'm so happy! Anyway, I promise, you'll see how the dragon/human thing is going to work. I can't tell you how though, because that would spoil the story.
Julia Poprocks- A good guess, but no, Sissy is not the crimson dragon. She will appear in this chapter though. Don't feel stupid, that was a good guess!
Mewberries- Don't sweat the crimson dragon too much, the incident itself was more important that the dragon that was involved. (slaps self) Now I'm teetering on the edge of giving away my plot!
Not Your Average Fairy Tale by Ransomed Heart
Chapter Three: In which Yumi learns her duties and has a visitor
Yumi awoke the next morning, not feeling particularly rested. Her sleep had been fitful, and she splashed herself with water from the washbasin to wake herself and wash away the memory of the dreams.
Upon emerging from her new room, Yumi saw that Ulrich was already up and moving about the various caverns. He seemed distracted, and he stalked by Yumi several times before he noticed her.
"Good, you're up. The kitchen cavern is over there, make yourself something to eat. When you're done, please try to tidy this place up. I'm not much of a housekeeper, so that will be your task around here. The treasure room is down that shaft, it could stand to be organized." Yumi made mental notes of the doorways he had indicated.
"Where are you going?"
"I have some...things to do," Ulrich answered cryptically. "I'm be back before sundown, please have dinner ready to eat by then." He paused. "You can cook, right?"
Yumi's first reaction was to be insulted, but then she remembered that Ulrich thought she was a princess, and therefore knew nothing of the culinary arts. Instead, she waved him off. "I'll manage."
The dragon nodded and exited the cave, leaving Yumi alone. "Well, he's obviously not concerned with me running away or anything," she mused. "He seems rather high-strung though. I wonder why he's so stressed out."
She looked around, suddenly aware of how massive the caves were. "Kitchen," she reminded herself. "Eating is a good idea."
Yumi located a pot an some rice, no doubtstolen from some village, and began to boil her food.
This whole situation seemed so surreal. In the blink of an eye, Yumi realized that her whole life was now inevitably and irrevocably altered. She stared down into the rice, blinking back the tears that threatened to blur her vision. "I didn't want this," she said quietly, the sound echoing dully off of the cave walls and ringing in her ears as if to accentuate the words.
The maidservant's tears began to splash into the boiling water. "I just wanted to get away for a while, I never wanted this to happen. Now I can never go home..."
"Yoo-hoo! Is anyone here?"
Yumi started at the high-pitch voice that echoed around the caverns and danced around her ears. Wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her dress, one she had found in the wardrobe of her room, Yumi rushed towards the entrance of the cave.
Standing at the entrance was another girl, this one wearing a thin silver circlet for a crown. She beamed widely when she saw Yumi.
"Ah, so what Emily said was true, Ulrich did get a princess."
"Excuse me, but who are you? And who is Emily?" Yumi put her hands on her hips and stared the princess down. How dare she storm into someone else's cave without even so much as an introduction. Yumi knew, on some level, that it was stupid and hypocritical to get angry at the girl for not bothering with a ritual that Yumi had always hated to begin with, but she was still annoyed.
The princess tittered. That was the only way Yumi could describe her laugh, was a titter. "I'm Princess Sissy, captive of the dread dragon Emeraldas. Princess Emily is the captive of the dread dragon Tobias. And what is your title?"
Yumi had to stop herself from giving a simple introduction. As far as anyone here knew, she was a princess and had to act the part. "Princess Yumi, captive of the dread dragon Ulrich," she forced out. "Can I help you with something?" Because if I can't, I really like to get back to my pity party, she added silently.
"I just wanted to see if the misfit dragon actually did something right for once," Sissy sneered. "Who knows, maybe he is semi-normal after all."
Yumi's temper flared. Ulrich may have kidnapped her, but there was no way this stuck-up little brat was going to come in here and insult him. Yumi had run away to get away from one princess and was not at all pleased to find herself faced with another one. "If all you're here to do is insult my dragon, then get out. I have things to do and no time to put up with you!"
Sissy seemed to puff herself up. "Fine! Good luck on not getting eaten!" She stormed off, presumably back to her own set of caverns, and Yumi breathed a sigh of relief.
"What was that about? They way she talks the other dragons must be treating Ulrich like a freak or something"
Yumi brushed the incident off and went to go eat her rice.
Yumi wiped dust off her face and bent back over the pile of books. Alphabetizing book written in Latin and Greek was not fun when she only knew miniscule amounts of either language. She had been in this dusty cavern for hours on end and the piles of book seemed to only grow larger.
Ulrich had arrived back some time before, with yet another scratch. This one must have been minor because he had vanished into the maze of caves before Yumi could even suggest patching it. That was fine with her, she was in a bad mood too and didn't need to deal with his drama at the moment. If the reclusive dragon wanted company he would just have to come to her.
What was with him anyway. He seemed nice, but it was like he was hiding something from her. Yumi was getting annoyed with the whole ordeal, and she hadn't even been there for an entire twenty-four hours yet. First he had dodged her question about the red dragon, then he wouldn't tell her where he was going that morning. And that was excluding the weird attacks and injuries he seemed to keep sustaining. Why was Ulrich always being attacked by the other dragons? It just didn't make sense, and what Sissy had said only confirmed Yumi's suspicions that something was not entirely right here. Not that being mistaken for a princess and kidnapped by a dragon was in normal by any stretch of the imagination, but something was freaky nonetheless.
Yumi shook her head. This was giving her a headache. She forced herself back to the book, and made a mental note to tell Ulrich about the incident involving Sissy later.