As Anju soared through the air with the princess in her arms, she looked around. "...that's funny, I could've sworn I came from this way."

"I-it's not just you," Maki replied, still slightly scared from being so high up, her eyes slightly but barely opened. "It's... it's somewhere around here..."

The two looked around again, but saw no traces of the abandoned tower that once stood tall and proud.

There was some weird grey lump they saw, but not having looked clearly, they dismissed it from the corner of visions as a random patch of... rocks, perhaps.

Until Maki took a glance. Then she paled, noticing some carriages parked near the strange grey area. "...h-hey," she said. "Do you think..."

Anju followed her gaze and frowned. From afar, she couldn't exactly tell what the grey stuff were, but a bad feeling took over her. "...no way," she chirped and flew closer.

As they shortened the distance between them and the strange area, their worries were slowly confirmed the grey area slowly transformed into a broken structure made of grey bricks.

"...no way," Anju repeated, "there's just... no way..."

They landed nearby and rushed to where the carriages were. The duo noticed, with immense sadness, that the crumbling structure was indeed- regrettably- Anju's only home.

"M-my tower!" Anju exclaimed.

"..."

The two stared at what remained of it. At that moment, some figures trotted out the tower.

"There's nothing valuable in there. God, it's filthy!"

"And we can't find the princess at all. Maybe she's gone."

"Don't be ridiculous, you two. She must be... oh."

The three strangers, a group of a male knight, male archer and female wizard, noticed the duo staring at them. Their faces beamed with delight as they recognized the princess immediately. "Princess!" they yelled collectively.

"A-are you Papa's friends?" Maki asked. She wished it wasn't so.

"That's right, we're here to save you!" the knight told her. "Who is that next to you?"

"...you destroyed my home!" Anju exclaimed and spread her wings, which she had hidden a few seconds prior. The three gasped and readied their weapons.

"The dragon! Princess, stay back!" the knight exclaimed and grabbed Maki forcefully.

"H-hey!"

She was put behind the three, as the archer took aim at the dragoness.

"Let go of her!" Anju yelled and charged magic around her hands. She lost focus immediately, however, as an arrow whizzed pass her face. "Hey!"

"You're not getting anywhere near her!" the archer said.

Maki, meanwhile, struggled from within the female mage's grip. "Let me go!"

"P-princess, please stay calm!" the mage pleaded. "We'll keep you safe, no need to be that scared!"

"No! Let go of me!" Maki repeated. "You're going to hurt her!"

"She won't hurt me!" the mage reassured.

"Not you! Her!"

Anju dodged another arrow, meanwhile. "Stop this! I don't want to fight!" She flew back to avoid the knight's slash. "I just want to know why you destroyed my home!"

"Monster!" the knight yelled. "We won't fall for your deceit!"

"S-stop it!" Maki said. "She's not a bad person!"

The mage shook her head. "Princess, you've been brainwashed. She's a dragon! She kidnapped you!"

"She's just lonely!" Maki defended. "She's alone this entire time, forgive her!"

"That's just what she's saying!" the archer yelled. "A monster can't feel lonely!"

The redhead shook violently. "You're the monsters!"

Frowning, the mage glared at the princess, silencing her with fear. But she gently let the girl go, hoping she wouldn't raise a fuss. Maki seemed to understand this and bowed politely. "..." Then she turned to the knight. "You two, stop. We can try to hear her out at least."

"A-are you sure?" the knight asked and lowered his sword.

Anju landed nearby with a sigh of relief, although he was a bit wary. "Why'd you destroy my home!?" she inquired.

"W-we're sorry," the knight spoke, "it was abandoned, so we didn't think anyone would be living here."

"We wanted to find the princess," the mage said. "We've got what we want. We'll assist you in getting whatever you want, so please, don't terrorize our people anymore."

"She didn't do anything bad!" Maki said. "She's innocent! Please..."

"...princess, we can't-"

"I promised her!" the princess said. "I promised her our kingdom would accept and forgive her! We're not bad people, we can live with her! She can help us!"

The mage and the knight exchanged worried glances. On one hand, there was no way they would trust a dragoness. On the other hand, the idea of having her on their side was a bit... slight bit... tempting... but-

"No!" the archer yelled. They all had barely any time to react as they turned to face the archer, who had just shot an arrow towards the dragoness.

"Anju!" Maki cried and jumped towards her in an attempt to protect.

The mage tightly grabbed her by the collar, however. "Princess!"

Anju couldn't do anything as the moment she took even a step back, the arrowhead was directly in front of her right eye.

She attempted to-

-ksshshthh-

A bloodcurdling scream filled the air. Blood stained the ground where she had just stood, the knight backing away in shock.

"My! My eye! My eye! It hurts!"

"Anju!" Maki called, then glared at the archer, tears overflowing. "Don't hurt her!"

It hurts! Maki! I-it hurts!"

"W-why'd you do that!?" the mage screamed.

The archer growled and prepared another arrow. "We're not letting a monster into our kingdom!" he yelled. "We are not going to accept that thing! It's a dragon! It's a filthy demihuman!"

"It could've been a powerful ally!" the knight said.

"It could backstab us!" the archer replied.

"She isn't bad!" Maki growled. "You're a meanie!" The girl tried to hit the archer, but it barely did anything and the archer felt more annoyed than anything.

"Princess! Don't be difficult right now, this is grown ups' talk!"

"Shut up! You hurt my friend!"

"Put down that bow and arrow!"

"What will we do!?"

Four voices screaming at each other. The atmosphere was becoming chaotic, fear and anger and panic and disappointment and pure darkness was brewing around the abandoned tower, and-

"Liar!"

The four froze. Maki slowly turned to her new friend. "A-Anju...?"

"Maki... you liar!" Anju hissed. "Y-you said... you said they'd accept me!"

"I- I didn't lie!" the crimson haired princess said. "I, I just..."

"You're a liar!" the dragoness hissed again, venom on the tip of her tongue. "You said they were kind! That they'd be friendly!"

"B-but we are!" Maki said. "R-right? Right?" she asked the bodyguards sent to rescue her.

They wanted to nod in agreement, but they couldn't. After all, one of them had already done something unforgivable.

"O-oh, dragoness, please forgive us!" the knight cried. "W-we did not mean to harm you, we simply want to unite with you! P-please grant our kingdom mercy..."

"Liars! All liars!" Anju said. Her hands struggled to grab the arrow in her eye, but she managed to after shaking in pain, and pulled it off. More strings of blood scattered in front of them, and to their horror, a barely but slightly recognizable lump of blood-soaked white was embedded on the arrowhead's tip. "I should've... never listened to you! Maki!"

"But Anju!"

"It's your fault!" the young dragoness roared. She charged her hands up again, terrifying the knight and the mage and the princess. The archer scowled and prepared his bow again as well. "It's your fault..."

To their confusion, Anju dropped her hands and turned around. She started limping away, a hand covering her now-empty right eye socket.

Maki took a few steps forward. "W-where are you going!?"

"Away!" the dragoness hissed. "Away... away from you... away from your stupid kingdom..."

"Anju, wait!" the princess cried.

Without offering another word, the dragoness spread her wings and flew back towards the forest. THey saw her attempt to fly away somewhere else, but after few seconds they saw her body fall and collapse somewhere in the dark woods.

"A-Anju!" Maki shrieked. She began chasing after her direction, but the mage grabbed her hand. "L-let me go!"

"P-princess, no! You can't!" the woman said. "It's dangerous!"

"That's why we have to save her!"

The knight picked her up, shaking. "I-it's too late, princess! The monster will never forgive us now!"

Maki growled. "She's not a monster!"

"Princess!" the archer yelled. "You are being a brat right now! That monster will kill everyone if she gets the chance! Shut up and stop this nonsens!"

The redhead's eyes swelled up again. "B-but, but! But-"

"Put her to sleep!" the archer instructed the mage.

"N-no!" Maki wailed. She struggled some more to escape, but the mage reluctantly poured magic into her forehead, causing her eyes to slowly close no matter how hard she tried to resist it.

"Good fucking night, princess," the archer scowled.

That was what she saw and heard last.

I'm not good with writing drama, so this is kinda crappy, but I followed what I wanted to do, so eh. (Yes, intended. Yikes. Poor Anju.)