It was nightfall over at the dragon's territory—a large cavern off the side of an incredibly tall and wide mountain. The massive green dragon had fallen asleep atop its own pile of jewels.

"Perfect…" Morwenna thought.

Since her kidnapping, Morwenna hadn't been sitting on her hands within the cage (with oddly spacious bars) the dragon placed her into. The young princess was far more resourceful than anyone (not even her own parents the king and queen had seen this before) and had spent most of her days ripping up parts of her own, beautiful dress to craft a long rope of ripped pink silk and taffeta so as to escape.

"And now, the final portion…" thought the young woman, tearing off her matching pink corset that'd been murder on her organs ever since she was laced into it. She was already a very slender woman so this corset was adding a lot of unnecessary pressure to her waist.

The young woman tied the corset to the longest end of the dress rope and dropped said long rope out the bars of the cage. Once it was tied to one of the bars she slowly began the descent down. The dragon continued to slumber and not move, even when she placed her feet on the million pounds of gold, gemstones and stolen treasures from far-off kingdoms it was using as a bed.

The young woman continued to walk, and, not paying attention to where she was walking on, managed to step on a beautiful white diamond--completely barefoot.

"AAAAAGH!!" The princess exclaimed, then her hand quickly went to her mouth.

The dragon awoke from his slumber, and Morwenna quickly went back to her cage, picked up the rope she'd made from her dress. Morwenna lied down on the cold surface of the cage, trying her damndest to make the dragon believe she hadn't escaped.

——————

The journey to rescue the princess Rags and Crusader had undertaken continued to take them to intriguing locals, such as the Unicorn Meadow.

"Wow, this place sure is lush!" Rags spoke, commenting on the soft, pillowy grass he and Crusader walked across. "And look--there's some unicorns!" The tiger giddily pointed.

As the rabbit and tiger continued to walk through the pastoral-looking scene, they were soon surrounded very quickly by a multitude of unicorns, led by a muscular white one with a lavender mane and tail (Crusader noticed it was also lavender-scented).

"Hark, do not come any closer, you CHANGELING!!" The lead unicorn exclaimed, rearing his hooves at the rabbit and tiger.

"What changeling?" Crusader asked, raising his arms in fear that the unicorn might trample his body.

"Oh, wait, wait Bob, don't kill these guys, they aren't changelings." Another unicorn (this one baby-blue with a blue and pink mane) remarked, using his magick to view the souls of Crusader and Rags. "They're merely squires on a noble quest."

"Thank you." Rags replied, placing his hands together. "Wait, what even is a changeling?"

"A changeling is an evil creature capable of shape-shifting...so horrible it simply must DIE …" Bob spoke, a glare upon his face. "Any one of us could be the creature…"

"Man I really hope I'm not the changeling..." Rags responded, gulping.

"You're not--" Crusader spoke, covering the tiger's mouth and awkwardly laughing. "The very notion! Well, we must be on our way, now--"

"Hold it!" Bob exclaimed, raising one hoof and nearly knocking Crusader to the ground. "Since you are a gallant knight, or at least, dressed like one, you and your friend surely must assist us in the defeat of the changeling!"

Crusader paused for a moment to think. A huge grin formed over his face—since it was pretty nice to get recognition for his heroism for once.

"W-well, alright!" Crusader spoke, leaning on his sword. "I will be more than happy to defeat this…changeling for you fellows!"

The unicorns whinnied and cheered for the gallant rabbit and his tiger friend.

"There's bit one more question I have!" Crusader smiled, before turning to Bob. "How d'you know if something's a changeling in disguise?"

"You can usually tell by the eyes." Bob spoke. "A changeling typically has green eyes—it's a little difficult to spot due to the fact that the changeling acts like a completely normal thing."

Crusader proceeded to scan the entire forest in search of the elusive, evil creature. He mainly observed every set of eyes the forest had to offer--unicorns, bears, foxes, birds, even spiders! So far he had absolutely no luck in doing so.

"Did you find it yet?" Rags asked, his eyes glowing emerald in the sunlight.

"Nope!" Crusader replied.

Crusader briefly gazed up at Rags, noticing there was something a bit off about the tiger. However, he simply paid this no mind and continued searching the meadow for the creature.

"Say Rags?" He asked.

"Yeah?" The tiger replied.

"you ever realize how many of these unicorns already have green eyes?" The rabbit inquired. "I mean, sure, they're magical and multi-colored, but--"

"Hey-HEYYY CRUSADER!" Rags showed up—holding a ton of flowers and smelling every single one of them within second. "You've gotta smell these flowers they're AMAZING!"

For a moment, Crusader and Rags gazed at each other, then both gazed at the other Rags with glowing, green eyes.

"Man, am I trippin'?" Rags (the real one) spoke, immediately throwing away the flowers he'd picked in the meadow.

Immediately the other, green-eyed Rags morphed into a bug-eyed, emaciated, naked fairy that had stone-gray skin, sharp claws and teeth.

"—CHANGELING!!" Crusader exclaimed, drawing his sword and the real Rags drew his mace.

"They're REAL?!" Rags exclaimed in complete and utter disbelief.

"EVIDENTLY!!" Crusader exclaimed, attempting to hold back the vile creature as it tried to gnash Crusader's sword to bits with his misshapen, sharp teeth. "LEND A HAND!"

"Oh right!" Rags picked up his mace and gave a loud; "AAAAAAAAAAGH!"

But the changeling immediately dissappeared before Rags could land a blow to his head, and he instead bonked Crusader!

"OW! NOT ME, STUPID! GET HIM!!" Crusader yelped.

Rags chased after the changeling while Crusader lay on the ground, passed out completely. He approached a series of logs with holes in them, and every time he thought the changeling popped out of one hole, it would disappear and pop out of another hole!

"STAND! STILL! SO! I! CAN! KILL! YOU!" Rags exclaimed, punctuating each of his words with a slam of his mace.

Eventually the changeling took a moment to stick his tongue out at Rags and blow a raspberry in the tiger's face.

(*BONK!*)

That did it—the changeling was completely knocked out. Crusader managed to come to and using his sword, SLICED the changeling's gross neck clean off his head and body!

(*SPLITH!*)

"R-Rags?" Crusader groaned, trying not to touch the body as much as he could, because it began to leak disgusting brownish-black blood from multiple orifices. "Do...dispose of the body, please..."

Rags immediately tossed the dead changeling miles away from the unicorn meadow. As they left the area, every unicorn cheered, especially Bob.

"SAY HI TO THE PRINCESS FOR ME!" Bob called out.

And so, having made the unicorn meadow safe and defeated quite possibly one of the strangest creatures he and his friend had ever come across, Crusader and Rags continued their epic quest to save the princess.

To be continued…