[WP] Everyone knows about the frog prince. A kiss turns him back, accomplished easily enough. But what about the lesser known "dragon prince," because how does one go about kissing a dragon?

Diana was not entirely comfortable being wrapped in a coat of cow meat and being left to her own devices outside of a dragon's cave, but her father said it was necessary. The prince of Agathon, Henri, had been turned into a dragon by some sort of strange witchcraft. The details, her father had said, were not important. Just get in, give the dragon a quick smooch, no big deal. Marry the prince, kingdoms are allied, everyone lives happily ever after. Unless, of course, Diana were to be, perhaps, **eaten**, like the meat she was slathered in. The guardsmen were supposedly surrounding her with pikes and fire in case the dragon prince had truly lost his mind, but the sounds of drinking and camaraderie had faded off into the distance, and she assumed they were off drunk in a field, dancing without a care in the world.

Diana was not enjoying herself.

An earsplitting roar shattered her eardrum, and she cried out in shock. She heard the sound of the beast slowly making its way from the depths of its cave, marching like a soldier to battle, although this would most likely not be much of a battle. She backed away slowly, then turned, then ran as fast as she could, before tripping over her high heels (which she was, might I add, forced to wear). Diana turned onto her back, and watched as a magnificent emerald dragon emerged from the cave. The behemoth was the size of a house, with scales glittering like a riverbed in spring. Her gasps of horror had turned into gasps of shock and wonder at the nature of the dangerous creature. The two, the dragon and Diana, peered into each other's eyes. Diana saw herself reflected in the black irises of the dragon, the yellow surrounding showing a thousand mirror images of herself, demeaned and small in the face of Mother Earth's magnum opus.

She stood, and slowly, maintaining eye contact, removed the suit of meat from her shoulders. The dragon purred and moved closer, sniffing at the bouquet of carnal flesh presented to it. A forked tongue snaked between rows of hideous, stained teeth, sharp enough to cut rock, and hard enough to crush as well.

The dragon gently leaned down, and snapped up the meat. After completing its hard-won meal, it gazed at Diana again. And Diana remembered her purpose for being humiliated in such a fashion, to meet a handsome prince and please her father. She approached slowly, her leather jerkin covered in sweat, her once pale and pristine skin dirtied and muddled, and lay a hand on the dragon's snout. The dragon did not snap, but it did not move either. It simply gazed at her entirety down the bridge of its nose, watching Diana's every movement.

Diana planted a kiss on the snout.

And... nothing happened. She tried again, but this time, the dragon snorted from the gentleness of her touch. Her proximity to its nostrils caused her to be knocked off of her feet, and she fell to the ground with a thud. The dragon approached her as if she were prey, crouching down and slinking towards her like a cat to a frightened mouse. Diana lay completely still. The dragon reached her, and brought its snout to her stomach, and Diana silently wept, preparing to meet God.

But the dragon nuzzled her stomach. And Diana realized this was not Henri at all.

She stood slowly, making no sudden movements. The dragon simply watched her, and Diana realized this was no monster, nor a man trapped in a monster's skin. She was unsure if this was a Henri forever destined to be trapped in a dragon's skin, or an entirely different beast altogether, but she didn't care. She stroked the scales, and she felt the animal vibrate with her touch.

In the distance, she heard the guardsmen finally react to the sounds her dangerous waltz had produced. She could imagine the brutes sluggishly retrieving their weapons, coming to slay the "monster". Not like this graceful creature, of another world. She felt kinship towards this creature, not towards the fools of her own race. And she made her way around the dragon, and climbed on its back.

The dragon huffed, almost in agreement, and ascended into the night sky, to take the two somewhere where they might forget the boorish decisions of humans.