Prince charming's Arc

Chapter 3 of 30

Prince Charming came home from the mountain and set his satchel on the table. Inside was half a wheel of cheese and a handful of dried apples. He looked at the food and knew it would not be enough. A dragon the size of the one on the ridge would swallow that offering in a single bite and take the small size as an insult. He needed a gift the creature would notice from the sky. He needed a courier the sky already knew. He walked to the forest's edge and scattered seed on the flat stones where the small birds had come the day before. Then he sat down and waited. They came at midmorning. A flock of birds broke from the trees and settled on the stones, and their feathers threw hard light across his hands. Each bird was cut like a gem, wings in blue and pink facets, beaks bright as glass. He had seen them once from a distance and thought the sun was playing tricks. Now they stood a pace from his boot and cracked seed with sharp beaks. He spoke low. He told them about the dragon on the ridge and the food that had gone untouched on the boulder. He asked if one of them would carry a message up the mountain for him. The largest bird tilted its head. It hopped onto his wrist. Its weight was almost nothing. He tied a strip of cloth around its leg with a single dried apple knotted inside, the smallest possible token, only a marker that a gift was coming. The bird lifted off and climbed in a hard spiral toward the peak. The rest of the flock followed, a moving pane of light against the rock. Prince Charming watched them shrink to points. Then he watched the ridge. The dragon rose from behind the peak and met them in the air. It did not strike. It circled once around the flock, slow, and turned its head to follow them as they wheeled back down the slope. The lead bird landed on the stone at his feet. The cloth was gone from its leg. In its beak it held a single black scale, the size of his thumbnail, still warm. He closed his hand around it. The dragon had answered. Now he had to bring a gift worthy of that answer, and he had nothing in his house that came close.