She is twelve when they lock her away,

Too old to truly be a child

And too young to have her own say.

 

She needs protection, they’ve sworn

For assassins stalk her in the night

And thieves in the morn.

 

She finds the world trapped behind barriers,

Walls of stone,

Doors of iron,

And a beast like a lizard, only so much scarier.

 

She’s told she’ll be free when she’s come of age.

That a prince will come

Her knight in shining armor

And break open her cage.

 

But for a child of twelve, six years is much too far away.

 

She picks up a sword rather soon

Practicing as the days turn by

The dragon’s eye is her only company under the moon.

 

She is thirteen when she yearns for a friend

For her days where books and metal suffice as company

Are coming to an end.

 

She turns to the dragon with the hope of a child,

Sticking to him as she had with the sword

Playing, talking, petting, singing,

Until the dragon looked at her, and in his eyes he smiled.

 

She and the beast become as inseparable as twins,

Rare is the day they’re together

The princess stays outside with him, even among the mightiest winds.

 

She is fifteen when she discovers she has no interest in a prince

Nor men of any kind

For the princess is becoming a women

And on women her interests have stayed since.

 

She plots with the dragon a plan for escape

Where she and he can touch the sky

Where her friend can be free of the chains

That over his ankles do drape.

 

She discovers magic in her search for break

And to the books she returns

For there is much at stake.

 

She is seventeen when she declares herself a witch

Enchanting the chains away,

They fly into a sky as black as pitch.

 

They hide in the mountains, the dragon and she

A cave becomes their home,

And they live with no prisons from which to flee.

And their story became a legend,

That of the princess and the dragon.

 

It traveled the land as a message to all kings.

 

Do not lock a princess away.

For the princess will decide that she does not need protecting,

Or a prince to save the day.