Arman

For the wedding ceremony, a path was cut through the ice—from the tower to the opposite bank, where the groom awaited. The crowd parted, and they saw the prince's daughter. She walked barefoot through the snow, as the ceremony dictated, wearing a heavy dress of pearls and gold. Her eyes looked at the groom without love, only with resigned hope.

The prince stood on the platform, the princess weeping beside him. The bride was seated in a carved boat lined with sables. The people, overcome with drunken joy, began to sing an ancient song once used to appease the dragon. They sang, rejoicing that the monster had been slain. They had been mistaken.

The sky turned leaden, the wind lashed out with a wall of snow. Another dragon emerged from behind the clouds—the son of the slain man, come for vengeance. He grabbed the bride in his claws and soared upward. Below, people scurried about, the prince stretched his arms to the sky, and the mother fell into the snow.

The island, black and bare, jutted out of the frozen lake. The dragon threw her onto the stone floor of the cave. Instinctively, she jumped up and ran deeper until the ground gave way beneath her feet—a chasm, a pit. The fall was hard. She lost consciousness.

She woke up in darkness. Her dress was in tatters. She was groping along the slippery walls, trying to get out.

“Don’t try,” a hoarse voice said.

She shuddered.

• Who's here?

• The same prisoner.

An eye flashed behind the stone slab - young, clear, but with longing.

"Did he bring you too?" she asked, standing up. "We'll find a way out! We need to tie our belts..."

The eye looked without hope.

"There's no way out. Claws can't get in here. That's why I'm here."

She froze. The words sounded strange.

"I'm here because this is my lair. And this pit is my cage."

She slowly turned her gaze to the crack. There, behind the stone, she saw more than just an eye. Scales. Dark, iridescent, like solidified lava.

It was the Dragon.

She stumbled back, falling into the ashes. Her scream caught in her throat, mixing with the cold air of the cave.