Dragon's Lair

High above Crathes castle, tucked deep in the Scottish glade,
slept a glorious dragon, his talons sharp as blade.
Standing nearly thirty yards from toe to thorny crown,
and from tip of noble nose, would hauntingly glare down.

Intelligence gleamed in sapphire of blazing eyes,
while fire seared from the harsh breath of his tortured cries.
Emeralds encrusted the armor of blackened head,
such countenance caused all who saw, overwhelming dread.

A banshee’s curse had sadly trapped, the good prince within,
five hundred years now, he’d paid for but one mortal sin.
Knights came in droves to hopefully rid him from the earth,
none of those could see beyond, to recognize his worth.

He’d once been a King’s most beloved and devoted child,
with good looks and a smile, that was just a little wild.
Now his father was many years, settled in his grave,
never knowing Draco, in the dragon, was enslaved.

The Villagers called him demon, said he was a curse,
they wrote and sang of his evil, with quaint rhyming verse.
The real demon truly dwelled, within the castle keep,
casting her wicked spells, while the town lay fast asleep.

Bearing the name Morgana, glorious was her face,
beneath facade lay ugliness, fingers couldn’t trace.
Hiding in the depths of her ivory shadowed lines,
pacing impatiently, neath sorcery’s evil binds.

Waiting and watching, to enslave another poor soul,
inside beauty grew a hag, grown decidedly old.
He’d made the mistake of not succumbing to her charm,
incurring a wrath, that she delivered with great harm.

He'd loved another, the Princess of a nearby land,
together they’d slip away, like lovers often plan.
Their days were spent together, wrapped in a blissful world,
unaware a banshee’s anger, soon would come unfurled.

She’d found them on a river bank, wrapped up in their love,
until her shadow frightened them, standing high above.
Snakes were coiled around her neck and nested in her hair,
her eyes pitch black as pools of tar, vengefully did stare.

Draco moved like lightening, thrusting with his gilded sword,
while snakes surrounded him, a venomous hissing horde.
He longed to protect his Princess, he tried to break free,
but his legs were tightly wrapped, bringing him to one knee.

Then Morgana spoke the words he never would forget,
and he would live far too long with such awful regret.
“You have betrayed me Draco, and now I sentence you,
to live with loneliness, only pain to see you through."

“Inside this dragon, humanity will twist and turn,
inside its eyes, your desires will intensely burn.
There you will remain, until you have a change of heart,
then you and I, will never again be torn apart.”

“As for your human Princess, see her turned to coldest stone,
there she’ll remain forever, the lair where you will roane.
You will touch and feel naught, but the stillness of her form,
yet you’ll see her eyes, filled with her emotional storm.”

With these cursed words, Draco’s world suddenly shifted,
and from his noble nose, flames of red quickly drifted.
Talons fiercely grew and horns sprouted from silky crown,
as scales of rigid armor, encased him all around.

His eyes blazed with hatred, as he turned to find a tail,
and then to his horror, saw his princess trapped in shale.
Her eyes sadly pleading him, rivers of mournful tears,
and nothing inside of him could quell his growing fears.

The beating of his dark wings, disturbed the placid breeze,
falling upon Morgana with fury’s twisted ease.
Talons gripped her throat, death threatening in vicious roar,
pain shook him violently, right down to his human core.

The Banshee choked on laughter, it floated in her eyes,
as Draco raised his head, toward the heavenly skies.
He pleaded with his Lord God, to offer him release,
to rid the world of evil and leave them both in peace.

Five hundred years later he still uttered the same prayer,
trapped inside the endlessness he knew he couldn’t bear.
But he could never give in to Morgana’s demand,
for to do so would leave him, but a shell of a man.

II

Inside the stillness of the cave, the walls were alive,
A Princess’s sadness weeping in beads of silence.
Her pain groaning with the shift of massive earthly weight,
only her eyes visible, pierced grey with hopelessness.

Her hatred burned deeply inside like molten lava,
waiting endlessly to spew forth upon Morgana.
Yet her love for Draco existed in the pebbles,  
in every grain of her solitary existence.

Memory lingered, clarity fading with the years,
remnants of smiles and moments pulsating beneath stone.
All she had once loved, was now dust blowing in the wind,
scattered across the emptiness of eternity.

Each day she felt Draco press against her bleeding heart,
as his beastly talons dipped into her soul of soil.
And she could just barely feel the heat of his body,
warming the sands that flowed coarsely through her drying veins.

Even this slight touch brought her a sense of belonging,
but she yearned to feel his arms, flesh upon flesh once more.
To belong in the same circle, love never ending,
where breath was an echo of contented expression.

She remembered his boyish laughter, richly vibrant,
the way Draco smiled from the depths of sapphire eyes.
All gone now, destroyed by the Banshee’s own selfishness,
leaving nothing but the constant pouring of sorrow.

Sorrow truly was the liquid enveloping them,
for one of two human traits left to them were their tears.
Spilling with abandon, caressing stone and armor,
the other anger, filled with revenge’s brewing rage.

Solemnly her eyes peered through her body’s forged doorway,
the opening where legs should have met in rapture’s home.
Where entry was once yearned, now seen as only escape,
into the blue separating life from death’s darkness.

Yearly, Morgana would cross her stone body’s threshold,
torturing them further with their hopeless circumstance.
On that day the stone of her body grinded with hate,
straining against the binds bricking desired freedom.

She watched her lover prowl her cave searching for release,
felt the clawing on the walls filled with his great remorse.
As tears blurred his dragon face filled with desperation,
leaving her swimming in grief that she would soon swallow.

Muddying perceptions with the needs of indulgence,
wondering if their love was physically dependent.
Or would dry like mounds of earth, encrusting her body,
and in the armor imprisoning his beating heart.

Would there ever be salvation for them she pondered,
or were they to remain separated by degrees.
Where consciousness and matter existed on two planes,
floating side by side, yet drifting by fractions apart.

Draco approached her eyes to wipe away the shadows,
nail resting on the purplish crease of her worries.
As he spoke gently, “Princess, I will soon find a way,
trust me; believe in me, for you are my source of strength.”

Without a voice she tried to communicate her thoughts,
in the range of emotions sweeping across her eyes.
She prayed that he knew her love was solid as the rock,
and would not be crumbled by the forces of magic.

His hot breath fanned across the shale making her quiver,
anticipation and hope rising from deep within.
But as much as she wanted them together in flesh,
she feared losing the little closeness that they now shared.

Draco stalked from the silent cave with thunderous force,
leaving his Princess to wait with the harshness of time.
And she shivered with the gnawing of expectancy,
tiny grains of sand pouring like sweat from worried brow.

She would gladly give away her eyes, never to see,
than to see him bleeding into her black grasping soil.
Raising eyes and silently whispering to the sky,
praying her pleas would not fall again upon deaf ears.

And so she waited, this Princess of Stone, breathlessly,
her heart traveling with him on huge fluttering wings.
Waiting for the moment when glowing smile would find her,
when arms would hold her so close, hearts echoing as one.

III

Draco flew across the castle, shadow blocking sky,

in his heart was pleasure, for today the witch would die.

He cared not for himself, just his Princess to protect,

and with great relish, revenge he would surely collect.

Morgana felt him coming and stood still in the square,

brazenly she just stood right there without any fear.

Draco couldn’t kill her or the spell would never break,

and from their endless nightmare they never would awake.

Draco landed with a thud, fire streaming from nose

and in a rough voice he said,” I am here to propose.”

Morgana was taken aback, she could hardly speak,

the day had finally come, she truly felt quite weak.

Draco stared and said “release us from this horrid curse,

to live with you Morgana, couldn’t hurt any worse.”

Morgana turned, victory shining deep in her eyes,

“Marry me first” she spat out, between excited cries.

Draco quickly nodded and soon the marriage was done,

Morgana was thrilled, for now she had finally won.

True to her word, the evil curse she quickly reversed,

and from inside the dragon, Draco suddenly burst.

He felt his arms and legs, the breeze blowing through his hair,

but all that was on his mind was his beloved lair.

He asked the witch to show him that the Princess was safe,

she opened rifts in time to show him his little waif.

He gazed upon her face, the first time in many years,

and from his eyes dripped a lifetime of forgotten tears.

Suddenly from the vision he swirled with blade in hand,

and Morgana’s head fell to the ground, just as he’d planned.

A look of shock was written all over her pale face,

as if she simply couldn’t connect the time and place.

Then Draco smiled, “no more curses will you ever cast,

the place for your evil is now rolling in the past.”

“I tricked you Morgana, ‘tis human magic you see,

we mortals are not as weak as you thought us to be."

He departed then, without a single backward glance,

his eyes clouding over, as if he were in a trance.

IV

She waited inside stone, shivering with disturbed thoughts,

fear shimmering in the silvered veins running through her.

As her mind wandered to the castle and Morgana,

wishing her eyes could see further than the lairs expanse.

She’d barely been nineteen when she’d fallen so in love,

she had only a year of memories to hold dear.

Days of soft grasses and fields filled with scented flowers,

the silk of lips against her own, melting her reserve.

She was lost in moments when the soil suddenly turned,

with a great heaving weight, came a sharp thunderous groan.

Reverberating quakes sending spasms across rock,

her eyes spiraling in a whirl of dusty circles.

Her lungs grasped at breath, choking rapidly on debris,

heart pounding as if it would explode into pieces.

As fingers explored for the first time in centuries,

touch sending charges of electricity through hands.

Moans and the grating of hardened stone, poured in her ears,

as legs protruded slowly, first a foot, then a calf.

Thighs partially hidden neath the density of rock,

she could barely take in the rapid transformation.

Another heave and shale fell away to reveal thighs,

trying to move her legs to remove the weight of stone.

As shapely derriere and waist attracted her hands,

shaking she tried to come to terms with the flesh she held.

Finally she felt air on her face and in nostrils,

bringing her fingers up to touch the hollow of cheeks,

the dryness of lips and the silky wetness of lash.

As her hair flowed in the wind, her lips were trembling.

Freedom, she thought that she would never again feel it,

But as quickly as her joy arose, it disappeared.

For what was life without Draco, her heart would be stone,

and so her body might as well remain rock as well.

She stood and walked outside into the brilliance of blue,

her eyes unfocused from a lifetime of bleak darkness.

She turned her eyes towards the sky searching for his wings,

when across the glade came his voice whispering her name.