It had happened again. I had heard of it before - whispered tales of aunts and cousins who had disappeared. It was always the same.
First, a beautiful princess would disappear. A dragon would be sighted near where the princess had been seen last, bellowing and thrashing in the sky. Then the 'heroic' knights would be sent out to rescue her. Some would come back, never having found the princess, although they had slain many a dragon. Others -- many others-- would never come back.
Now it had happened to me. One minute I was happily picking spring flowers; the next I was in the air, screaming. Wings flapped away behind me while the wind whipped past. Finally I could see a cave below. I ran into the cave and collapsed beside a small spring in the back in terrored exhaustion, not caring about anything except that I was alive.
A few days later, I'm not sure, a shining knight came astride a white horse. I called out and ran to him. A dragon's bellow drowned out all sounds as the knight charged. His sword flashed in the sun. The battle was fierce as I moved about, dodging the knight's horse as it trampled the ground.
Minutes later, the knight fell to the ground, dead. I grabbed at the horse but it shied and ran off back into the woods. I gracefully shrugged and headed back to the cave, flipping my wings onto my back.
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