-Chapter 1-
-The Princess and the Purple Dress-

The morning sun cuts thru the window engulfing the room in light. The rooms occupant, a small girl no more than 13, is awaken by sounds of her mother in the next room.
‘Oh what is she doing now’ she asks herself sleepily while rubbing her eyes.

She sits up, her eyes still half closed as she attempts to shake off the nights sleep. She turns and sits on the edge of the bed and puts her feet down on the floor, quickly pulling them back up as a sharp pang of cold runs from her feet through her body. She looks around on the floor for her shoes, finding them under her bed where she left them the night before.

She stands up, walks to the door, opening it to hear a loud bang.
‘Mom what are you doing?!’ she yells
‘Lucricia’ her mother says holding her chest. ‘You startled me. I’m just doing the dishes dear.’ She says while pulling a pot out of an empty cleaning bucket.

Lucricia just looks at her mother and sighs. She knows not to argue with her, she has had too many arguments with her mother about her activities since her father died. Seeing her mother do these things, washing dishes with no water, handing her things that are not there, seeing her mother even talk to her father. Lucricia wants to help her mother but doesn’t know how to anymore.

‘Mom, I’m going into town to get some supplies, looks like were almost out of some things.’ she says moving around the small kitchen area looking in cupboards making out a mental list. ‘I’m going to need some money.’
her mother steps away from the bucket and walks over to a small shelf nailed up to the wall, reaches for a small bag and opens it, reaches in and pulls her hand back out. She walks over to Lucricia and holds her hand out. Lucricia responds by holding her hand out for her mother, which when her mother opens her hand, there is only air.
‘There you are dear, that should be enough to get what you need.’ She smiles
‘Thank you’ Lucricia smiles back having expected this to happen.

Lucricia walks back into her room, looks around for something to wear. She finds a faded sundress to wear; the once red dress is now almost white from being worn so much. Only a light pink color around the neck line and bottom of the dress shows it had color at one time. She moves over to the mirror, stands just right so that she can see most of her face and head in the mirror with out the large crack being in her way. She picks up her handless brush off the small stand below the mirror and begins straightening out her long raven colored hair.

She continues looking in the mirror, looking into the eyes she sees in the mirror. ‘How many people have violet colored eyes’ she ponders? Her eyes have been this color since birth, and no one, not even her parents knew what to make of it. She stares into the mirror feeling like she’s looking at a stranger. ‘This is not my face, it cannot be. It may be beautiful as my dad always says, but it’s not mine.’ She sighs to herself. She has had this debate for as long as she could remember anytime she looked into a mirror, or anything that could hold her reflection.

She puts the brush down, and then walks over to her bed, laying down on it. Reaching her arm down between the bed and the wall, she searches for something, feeling around till finally her fingers feel the suede. She grabs hold and pulls the item up. Looking at the bag, she gives it a slight bounce in her hand and hears the jingle of metal inside.
‘I hate having to hide this from mom, but it’s the only way I can guarantee there is money to use.’ She thinks to herself looking at the bag.

She gets up, and walks to the door. Out into the main room she sees her mother still washing dishes in the imaginary water.
‘Bye mom, I will be back soon.’
‘Ok dear, take care.’
‘I cannot believe she doesn’t remember.’ She thinks to herself as she walks out the door.

The village of Teridor has been alive for some time before Lucricia arrived. While her home is considered part of Teridor, it is set far enough away that she only comes into town once a week for supplies. She looks around, seeing children running through the streets, wishing she had the time to be able to do the same. She sets off on her errands with a stop at Mr. Rosert’s shop. Mr. Rosert is the town black smith. She opens the door, hearing the ringing of the bell above the door. She steps in, the smell of metal and fire rushes to her nose. Its not one of the most pleasant smells, but not one of the worse either. She looks around at the walls at all manner of items made of metal, horseshoes, hinges for doors, even pots and pans for cooking.

A large man appears in the doorway at the back of the shop. He fills the frame of the door, blocking out the light from the next room. He moves into the shop closer to Lucricia. The light filling the room again reveals a head of dirty brown hair, mussed up from what she can only guess is him running his hand thru his hair all the time. His face is dirty almost black. Only his light colored eyes can cut thru the dark of his face.

‘Well hello Lucricia’ he speaks with a voice that is as rough as his face appears.
‘Hello Mr. Rosert, how are you today?’ she asks politely
‘I am well, thank you, and yourself little one? And how is your mother?’ he asks
‘I’m well, have lots of things to do today. Mom is her normal self’ she smiles ‘as normal as she can be now a days’ she thinks to herself
‘Well then what can I get ya?’
‘I need some nails, long ones; I need to make some repairs to the house.’
‘Ok dear’ he disappears into the back a moment and returns with a small bag. He walks to a small counter that is next to the doorway in the back. She walks to the counter as well.
‘You know I have a hard time taking your money’ he says looking down on her
‘I know, but I do not expect to be treated any differently just because.’ she stops. ’Besides I have a hard time with not letting myself pay you. So please take the money’ she smiles
‘Ok I won’t argue with that logic. Do you need anything else?’
‘No thank you Mr. Rosert.’

She gives him the money and he in turn gives her the bag of nails. She puts them away in pack she brought with her. She smiles and turns to walk away. ‘Have a good day’ she says to him.
‘I will, oh and by the way, benjermin wants to see you. He told me that if I seen you to tell you.’ He calls after her.
‘Ok’ she smiles big ‘I was going to go visit him today anyways.’

Lucricia leaves the shop and continues her errands, stopping to pick up some food from Mr. and Mrs. Simms, the butcher and grocer. They had a shop that you could get just about anything from. She had to deal with the same treatment from the couple as she did Mr. Rosert, not wanting to take her money. She guesses she should feel somehow flattered, but she doesn’t want there handouts, she can take care of it herself. She continues up the street when she hears a voice from behind.

‘Lucy!’ a girl’s voice calls out. Lucricia hates that name, but since it’s the only way she can get any of the children to talk to her she holds her tongue on the matter. She turns to see a girl her age, with long blonde curly hair, with silver bows in it. She’s wearing what appears to be a brand new red dress, with silver trim. She looks looks at the dress and instantly becomes embarrassed by her old ratty one she’s wearing.

The girl is Millicent Pheuse; her parents are the richest people in town. They own most of the farm land around the area, and provide most of the food and goods for the town. Millicent has always been spoiled by her parents, the best of everything can be seen on her or around her neck, and this time is no different. Lucricia sees the gleam of the gold necklace around her neck, with a sparkly ‘M’ hanging off of it. ‘Probably got diamonds in it’ she thinks to herself.

‘Oh hello Millicent, how are you doing today?’ she tries to put on her best smile but wonders how fake it looks.
‘Did you see the new dress and necklace I got? Daddy got it for my birthday.’ She beams ‘what did your daddy get you? Oh that’s right, your daddy ran off.’ She rather ruthlessly states.
‘HE DID NOT RUN OFF! HE WAS KILLED!’ Lucricia fights back the tears, not wanting to let her win.
‘Of course he did, only there was no body found.’ Millicent says almost trying to provoke a response. ‘Oh and I do so love that dress’ she says teasingly.

Lucricia feels all of her anger welling up in her about to bubble over. She would love nothing more than to hit this less than a human being that masquerades as a little girl. But she knows that to do so would cause more problems with her parents than its worth. Lucricia has the less than dubious distinction of having her birthday the same day as Millicent. As far back as she can remember Millicent has always rubbed her gifts she got in Lucricia’s nose. This was not the year to be doing it, especially the way she had. She decides its better for her to just turn and walk away.

‘Where do you think you are going?’ she says insulted.
‘I have better things to do than look at your fat face.’ Lucricia spouts off not thinking.
‘Why you,’

Lucricia finds herself on the ground face down with the feeling of a sack of potatoes on her back, feeling the smack in the back of her head. She starts to thrash around trying to get out from underneath. Lucricia manages to turn over but still cannot get up. Millicent raises her fist ready to let it drop when a hand grabs it and pulls the girl off of her. Lucricia looks up to see the kind old face of benjermin looking down at her, starting to help her up.

‘Millicent, its best you get out of here, else you want me to tell your father you were starting a fight with her.’ He says in a stern voice.

Millicent storms off in a huff. Lucricia looks at benjermin and smiles big, and then hugs him tight. She was happy to see him, not just because of the fight, but because benjermin was like a grandfather to her. He returns the hug. She looks at him, his short grey hair usually combed neatly, is a bit of a mess now. His grey eyes filled with warmth and comfort look back at her. He smiles to help comfort her more.

‘I saw what happened, but I didn’t hear the conversation.’ He said. His voice was always very soothing to her, and was working again now. She began telling benjermin what happened, everything that Millicent had said to her. Her words stuck in Lucricia’s head like a knife. She felt the flood of tears come, but did nothing to stop them. She buried her face in his shirt, as he just held her close and tight, allowing her to cry. She hasn’t cried like this in some time, and she could just feel all her frustrations from dealing with her mom to missing her father, especially on her birthday. She finally stops crying, and looks at him, wiping away her tears, trying to pull herself together.

‘Well come on lets get out of the street, into my shop ok.’ He smiles
‘Ok’ she smiles back. The walk together to Benjamin’s shop, situated at the edge of town. Lucricia looks at he two figures in the window, one male and one female, both wearing very nice clothing. Benjermin is the town tailor and these are two of his creations that he loves to show off. They walk into the main room; the walls are lined with material of all types of material; silk, cotton, and many others, all in different colors and patterns. There are devices in a corner use for all the sewing together his creations. Another area has a small stand and some mirrors, for people that are getting fitted or measured. Or just to see how they look in his beautiful cloths.

‘Let’s go in back where we can have some privacy, if you like I can fix you something to eat’ he smiles. She follows him into the back, where he lives. This store is actually a rather large house. Not like her home with only have the three rooms. Benjermin has been here as long as she can remember, and from his tales he built his house when he came here. She loves to sit and listen to his stories, can for hours. He would tell of princes and damsels in distress, Knights off to slay all manner of vile creatures. She would remain captivated till the end.

Lucricia sits down in a living room area while he fixes her something to eat. She uses the time to regain herself after the fight. He comes in carrying a tray and sits it down on a table near her. He pulls the table and another chair over so that they can eat together. The tray has two bowls and a large pot on it. Lucricia looks at the bowls, noticing the small green dragons almost chasing each other around the rim. Benjermin dips a ladle into the soup, dumping it out in her bowl first, filling it, and then repeats with his own. Lucricia also notices two sandwiches on the tray. She grabs one, tearing it in half and dips it into her soup.
‘Mm, what kind of soup is this’ she asks
‘Cream of potato my specialty.’

They eat, chatting about life in the village. Lucricia tries hard not to eat too fast, but it has been a while since she ate something she didn’t cook herself, and it never tasted this good. Finally the pot and bowls were empty, and only crumbs remained of the sandwiches. Benjermin gets up and cleans up the mess real quick, then walks into the kitchen.
‘I’ll be right back, don’t go away.’ He smiles jokingly

He returns, with his hands behind his back, like he’s hiding something. Lucricia looks at him oddly. He moves over in front of her and sits on the edge of his seat.

‘I know today is your birthday, and I felt you deserved something very special.’

She smiles not sure if she should accept the gifts. He pulls from behind his back a large box; it is covered with gold sparkling paper and a large red ribbon around it, topped with a bow. Lucricia takes the box from him. Holding the box, she runs her fingers over the paper and the ribbon. The ribbon feels like felt, soft to her touch. She looks up at benjermin almost looking for permission to open it.

‘Go ahead open it.’ He says excitedly

Lucricia takes her time opening the gift, wanting to saver the moment, since she’s not sure when she will get another chance. She takes the bow and ribbon off, setting them aside trying not to damage them. She works the edges of the paper under her fingertips loosening the glue holding it wrapped. She takes care not to damage the paper either, never know when it could come in handy. She looks at the brown box, and then pulls the top off of it. She sees white tissue paper and slowly parts it to reveal a deep purple dress. She touches it; not believing her eyes, the feeling of velvet under her fingers sends a warm feeling thru her body. She slowly pulls it out of the box, with a look of total shock and excitement on her face. Lucricia holds the dress up to get a better look at it, its deep purple, almost the exact color of her eyes, she noticed. The sleeves are short and have gold leaf trimming around the edges of the sleeves, neck line and bottom of the dress. She looks closer to see that it even had gold threads. It seemed to have a sparkle to it.

Lucricia jumps out of her seat and runs over to benjermin, throwing her arms around him hugging him tightly.

‘Thank you soooo much.’ She says almost in tears.
‘Well go try it on’ he smiles at her.

She releases him and runs off into a back room and quickly changes into the new dress. The dress is soft to her touch as she puts it on, it fits her perfectly. She wonders how he was able to get her measurements to make the dress. Lucricia runs back into the room where benjermin is. He’s leaning up against a chair waiting for her.

‘That looks good on you dear, but seems to be missing something.’

Benjermin gets up and moves over to a small in table, opens the drawer and pulls out a small box, also wrapped with the same paper and ribbon as the one the dress was in. He hands the box to Lucricia, who quickly opens it. Inside the wrapping is a small black box, hinged so it can open one way, she opens it to find a beautiful purple stone shaped like a dragon, attached to a gold chain. Her eyes get wide as her mouth drops open speechless.

‘I will take that as a good sign’ benjermin laughs ‘here let me put it on you’

Lucricia takes the necklace from the box and hands it to benjermin; he undoes the clasp, and then moves behind Lucricia to put it on her. She pulls her hair up and aside to allow him the ability to get the necklace on her. He pulls it up around her neck, then fixes the clasp, and lets it hang. She turns around to look at him, smiling ear to ear.

‘Perfect, here look in the mirror’ he points to the mirror next to him.

Lucricia turns and looks into the mirror. For the first time in her life she sees herself as beautiful, she stands looking at herself, feeling like a princess from one of Benjamin’s stories. She turns and hugs him again.

‘Oh thank you so very much benjermin, I love it all, thank you.’ She says

‘Well that’s not all; I have something special for you. It’s a story so sit down and settle in.. .’
Lucricia quickly runs over to the chair and sits down and gets comfortable.
‘Ok I’m ready’

‘A long time ago in this very kingdom’ he started ‘there lived a very beautiful princess. Now her name was Lucricia, like yours, and surprisingly she also had long black hair and violet colored eyes like you too.’ Lucricia smiles at this, ‘well anyways she grew up to be a very beautiful woman, and was loved by the entire kingdom. The day came that she needed to choose a prince to marry. But Princess Lucricia didn’t love anyone and didn’t want to marry unless she loved the man who was to be her husband. So for a long time her father, the king, would bring around possible suitor. But to no avail there were none she liked.’

‘One day she was out on her horse, galloping across the country side, when she was suddenly attacked by wolves. She thought her life was going to end then, for she didn’t know how to use a sword, and she hadn’t told her father she snuck out. Out of no where a handsome man with light colored hair and green eyes appeared. He drew out his sword and quickly slew the wolves. She got down from her horse to thank the stranger. ‘What is your name good sir’ she asked. ‘I am Aeolas, milady’ he said with a bow. She smiled at this. ‘May I give my hero a kiss’ she asked ‘you may do whatever you wish milady’ he replied. So she kissed him. And when she did she felt something in her, like a small shock. Well she knew she needed to return home. So she bid him farewell and was off on her way.’

Lucricia sits watching benjermin seeing the whole story in her head. ‘Well she returned to her home at the castle. Days had passed and with each of them she though of her hero, wishing to see him again. One day she got her wish. She sat from her window watching the bustle of the castle streets, and there he was. Dressed in fancy cloths and looking just as she remembered. She quickly got up and ran down to see him. She ran thru the crowds on the streets. She finally found him. There they stood, talking for some time. By the end of there conversation Aeolas asked if he could see her again, she excitedly agreed. So for days on end, they would meet down on the street, near the fountain. They would sit and talk. He started bringing a basket of food for them to have a picnic. These meetings went on for days, and days into weeks, weeks into months.’

‘Finally one day, as they were sitting there together. He professes his love for her. And she does for him. Her happiness swells at all that is happening. ‘But there is something I must tell you; for it’s not fair to go any further than this if I do not.’ He tells her. She isn’t sure what it is that he wants to tell her. ‘Whatever it is we can deal with it.’ She says reassuring him. He looks into her eyes and exhales to speak. ‘Milady, I am a dragon. I am in human form now, but I am not a human at all.’ He looks at her, waiting a reaction.

‘He’s a dragon?’ Lucricia asks interrupting benjermin
‘Yes a dragon’ he says then continues the story. ‘She looks at him, not sure what to say. ‘A real dragon?’ she asks ‘Yes milady’ she sits there shocked. ‘I know you will need time to think about this so I will go. When you are ready to see me again, go to the forest where we first met, I will be there.’ He gets up and leaves. She returns to the castle and goes to her room locking herself away. Her father begins to worry about her, and finally demands to see her. She breaks down and tells him the whole story, about how she snuck out and was about to be attacked by the wolves and how Aeolas saved her, and how they have been seeing each other the past few months. And finally tells him the secret she was told. Her father being the wise man he was sat for a moment and though, then hugged his daughter and told her this. ‘If he is the man you love, which it sounds like it is, then nothing should stand in the way of your happiness.’ He wasn’t too keen on the idea of having a dragon as a son-in-law, but it was better than seeing her so unhappy.

‘A month had passed since she was told the secret, finally she decided to go out and see Aeolas. She had decided that she did truly love him, and would find a way to make it all work. She rode her fastest horse out to the woods where they met, and spent the day looking for him. Finally as she was about to give up, he appeared. ‘Hello milady’ he bowed before her. Princess Lucricia ran up to him without hesitation, throwing her arms around him. ‘I love you, I cannot see myself without you, and no matter what it takes I want us to be together.’ She professes. He smiles and kisses her.’

‘Awe’ Lucricia said hearing this.

‘So their love was there out in the open, but a new problem arose. ‘How will we do this?’ Princess Lucricia asked ‘with this’ Aeolas said holding up a necklace. It was a purple stone shaped like a dragon on a gold chain.’ Lucricia looked down at her new necklace then looked at benjermin

‘This one?’ she asked
‘Well one that looked strikingly similar.’ He said

‘Aeolas explained that the necklace is called the “Draconigena Spiritus” which translates to dragon-born spirit. With this necklace the wearer will be able to transform into a dragon, if there spirit is that of a dragon. And only another dragon would know if it were. So Princess Lucricia put the necklace and instantly she began to turn into a dragon. She grew and changed, her body nothing like it was before, covered in slick scales and growing wings, she turned into a giant purple dragon. She looked down at Aeolas and watched as he transformed into a giant golden dragon. Together they flew off, and spent there lives together. They would change back and forth between forms, to be able to live in both worlds. Cause both knew the other couldn’t live in just one world forever.’

‘Whatever happened to them?’ Lucricia asked

‘No one really knows; it’s believed that they lived for a thousand years together and were always happy.’ He said. ‘But I told you this story cause I wanted you to know how special you are, not just cause of your name, but cause of everything about you. I know you have that free spirit, always wanting to be away from here. I figured the story would give you hope that you will one day be able to do whatever you like.’

Lucricia gets up and goes over to Benjermin and gives him a big hug. ‘Thank you very much; this has been a most wonderful birthday.’ She starts to tear up. ‘I need to get going, its getting late.’ She says looking out the window.
‘Ok dear, I will walk you to the edge of town.’ Benjermin says getting up from his chair

They leave Benjermin’s store and walk the street back through town. Once they reach the edge, Benjermin gives Lucricia one last hug, then stands watching her as she walks off into the distance till he is unable to see her anymore.