Demus: The Prince And The Milkman

Herbivore Dragons

Prince Janus Deceit-Garnet, heir to the throne of the kingdom Garner, stretching from the West Sea to Maria Bay, was lying on his bed, bored. 

His arms were splayed out on the plaid covers as he gazed up at the ceiling, a light shade of extremely boring grey, contrasting with the somehow even more boring tan walls. Around him, the brick walls of his tower loomed, a constant reminder of the prison he was trapped in. 

Consisting of a large octagonal base with a circular tower rising from the middle, it was made completely of brick and bronze. While there were no doors, there was certainly no shortage of windows, as they were placed throughout the spiral staircase, the kitchen, and the bedroom. 

The windows(all except for the one in the topmost tower, where Jan's bedroom was) couldn't be opened, as Jan's father supposed that the prince might try to escape through them, and that would completely ruin the point, Janus was to stay in the tower until a knight came, otherwise, tradition would be broken, now wouldn't it?

Jan flopped over, now face-down on his pillows. His guardian, a tiny, purple-and-white dragon who Jan had dubbed 'Disquiet' the very first night(Jan had made his decision after trying to sleep through three hours of dragon snores), clambered onto the bed and curled up next to Jan. 

Yawning, Jan lifted a hand to scratch the tiny iridescent scales so close to his face. Disquiet sneezed. 

Disquiet was not a very good dragon guard, as he was only about as tall as Jan's father's dogs, which were mostly basset hounds, and could not breathe fire, but frost. He was afraid of heights, so he could never look out the window. He was terrible at speaking English(save for the words 'fuck' and 'bastard', often heard when Jan opened letters from his father), but was quite fluent in Spanish. 

But even though he snored, and was too small to intimidate the never-ending flow of 'handsome' princes that tried to kidnap Jan, and accidentally froze things, Jan still loved him for some reason. He clipped his claws, made a makeshift collar for him, and fed him tiny pieces of lettuce from his bowl. You could say that Disquiet was Jan's pet of sorts.

Disquiet rolled over and pawed at the air, making little whining sounds. Jan chuckled. "I know, I know, you're bored too aren't you?"

The dragon looked at him lazily, his golden eyes glowing in the dim aftermorning. Sighing, Jan moved over so Disi(Jan's nickname, apparently Disquiet was too long) could lay on the pillow. 

"What's there to do," Jan groaned, looking back up at the ceiling. "Dad locked me up in here so a suitable prince could find me. I'm not even a princess! Mom told me about what happened in one of her letters."

Disi snorted, a tiny snowflake drifting out of his lavender snout. Jan took that as a sign of interest, even if he had talked to Disi hundreds of times about this and the small dragon could only speak Spanish. It was pretty clear what Jan was trying to say, and they were usually able to communicate through gestures and tone of voice.

"It's like a bad joke or a one of those comedy plays Mom would bring me to," he admitted. "Dad was never there at the palace, and so Mom had to send over letters. Apparently she never included my gender, and Dad assumed I was a female, so when he came over he took one look at me, declared I was beautiful, and promptly locked me up here." He took a breath and continued. 

"I tried to tell him, but since he was too busy kissing Mom and saying hello to all the servants, I doubt he heard me. It's been seven years! Maybe come and check on your child, old man?!"

Disi nudged Jan with a paw. Jan glanced at him and sighed, knowing what Disi meant. "I know, he sends me letters. Still, though. No doors? They had to lift me up with a dragon! Overkill. And then they just left me in here after airdropping you in here. The postman has to get his dragon to fly in! He can't get them in through the downstairs windows because they don't open!"

Jan groaned, upset. A bird flew in the open window and began attacking the piece of toast Jan had left on a plate on the nearby table. "Hey, I was eating that!" Jan yelled, nearly falling off the bed in his hurry to get to the toast. It was clearly a lie, as he had merely been laying in bed, but right now, the toast was what mattered. 

Disi blinked and swiftly flew off the couch in a dive for the plate. Jan slowed his pace, certain that Disi would save his breakfast. "Okay, Disi, eat the bird!" He cried, pointing at the robin in a flare of triumph.

Disi, instead of lunging at the bird and freezing it in a blaze of glory, snapped up the toast instead. The bird, startled, flew out the window in a flurry of brown and blue feathers. 

Jan stopped. Then sighed. Then he sat back down on the floor, rubbing his eyes in utter defeat. "No, Disi... the, the bird, not the toast..."

Disi sent him a look that said quite plainly, I'm not a carnivore. Get it right.

"I know you don't eat meat, but come on," he grumbled. "I wanted my toast. Herbivore dragons are the worst."

Chirruping, Disi poked Jan with his claw and shot him an apologetic look. Jan shoved him away and leaned against his bed, letting his head drop back toward the ceiling. "All the sorries in the world won't bring my toast back," he reprimanded Disi. 

Now that the toast was gone, and the fragile monotoning of a rant had left him, Janus Deceit Garnet was, yet again, bored. 

"Hey Disi?" he murmured, rolling over to look the dragon in the eye. Disi purred a response. "You remember that prince that came last week?"

Disi, apparently mimicking Jan, flopped onto his back as well, wings splaying out on the wine-red carpet floor. Jan giggled. "Yeah, he was strange. I don't want to go with the princes. They say they're going to free me, but I've read Dad's letters. They're probably just gonna take me to their palace until they figure out I'm not a girl. Then what? It'll be a mess!"

Disi made little whirring sounds with his tongue. Jan grabbed Disi by the paw and pulled him onto his stomach, stroking the intricate swirls and loops of Disi's ivory horn. It looked like it was carved, but it was in fact just the way the horn grew. It was small, and not very sharp, so it wasn't a useful weapon at all. But Jan liked it all the same. It was good for when Jan wanted to stare into space and needed something to do with his hands. 

Jan and his staring were rudely interrupted by the call of someone down below. 

"Hello? Hellooo? Anyone?"

He ran to the window and looked down, soon joined at the window by Disi, who just whined and curled around Jan's ankles, as he hated heights. Jan saw a boy with curly, messy, dirty-blonde hair and tanned skin. Freckles were dotted around his cheeks and nose, as well as a small birthmark that stretched from his neck to his mouth. 

The boy looked up and saw Jan. "Oh, hello!" he called. "Are you Princess Janice?"

Jan growled. The window, being quite thin, was easily enough shouted through so communication was not a problem. Jan leaned further out. "No!" he yelled back. "I am Prince Janus, not some Princess Janice! Get it right, you idiot!"

The boy looked taken aback. "But-- but the king said--"

"Forget what my father told you!" Jan shouted. "I am telling you I am a prince! Dad was never around so you're better off asking my old nanny!"

"A-Alright then," the boy replied nervously, then hastened taking something out of his bag. 

Jan tilted his head. "What are you doing?"

The boy looked back up, squinting noticeably. At first, Jan took it as a sign of disrespect but then he realized it was just from the bright sunlight, as it was an unusually bright day. "Getting the milk for you, silly, of course!"

"What? Milk?" Jan asked, confused. 

The boy stopped to take a long drink of his water pouch, mopping his sweat-soaked hair out of his face. He had obviously come a long way, judging by how wrinkled his clothes were and how tired he looked. "I'm your milkman!"