This is the beginning of Scribble and Blott’s first Chronicles story, which will be released in intervals. See the next chapter- to be published soon!

It was the first time Sara had ever been kidnapped by a dragon, so she wasn’t quite sure what to expect. So far, it had been surprisingly boring. Sure, it was thrilling at first, when the dragon rampaged through the village, and Sara’s screaming flight to the dragon’s lair. Not to mention the first fifteen minutes of solitary imprisonment in a small cavern. But from that point onwards, it was confining and dull. So far, Sara had spent her three days in captivity dusting the dragon’s collections of resin figurines, ceramic flower pots, collectible cookie jars, and antique fire pokers. Not to mention cataloging the dragon’s gold chalices, gold coins, and designer handbags. Who knew dragons were such hoarders?  

Three of Sara’s fourteen sisters, the Princesses of Bruegeldorf, had been kidnapped by dragons before, so she knew how it was supposed to happen. The unfortunate princess wails desperately until the knight shows up, the maid swoons, and they ride home on horseback in time for their wedding. But so far, none of that was happening.

In fact, Sara’s father, the king of Bruegeldorf, had not even tried to rescue his daughter yet. The least he could do, Sara thought, would be to send one measly knight, for appearances if nothing else. Really, the whole experience had been underwhelming and not at all up to expectations, thought Sara ruefully as she fell asleep on the rock floor of the dragon’s cave one night. As she began to drift off, Princess Sara heard some strange noises from the cavern next to hers. 

“What in the world?” thought Sara. The next morning, Sara investigated the opposite cavern where she heard the noises. She found a boy about her age, sound asleep, sprawled out on the rock. He wore a slightly rusty suit of chainmail armor.

“Some knight.” said Sara out loud. The boy rubbed his eyes and sat up sleepily. 

“Are you the princess?” he asked hopefully.

“No. I’m the milkman,” replied Sara crossly.

“ Of course I’m the princess. What took you so long?” she demanded, while glaring agitatedly at the boy, who looked overwhelmed and stood up to face Sara.

 “The king sent me to rescue you,” said the boy. “I’m Sir Charles.” 

 Sara couldn’t believe her ears. 

“He sent you?” asked Sara incredulously. She looked over the boy. He was tall and gangly, with brown hair. He was about fifteen, maybe sixteen at most. Surely he couldn’t actually be a knight, Sara thought. A squire at best, maybe a stable boy. Couldn’t her father have sent anyone else? 

“Yes. I am Sir Charles the second, son of Lancelot, the fabled defender of the Kingdom,” said the boy proudly. 

“Your father, the King of Bruelgledorf, granted me a quest to seek his daughter, the Princess Sara, who was carried away by-” 

“Okay, you can drop the knight thing. I believe you,” said Sara, deciding to ignore, for the time being, that her father’s rescue force consisted of one teenage boy. 

“So, what did you do with the dragon?” asked Sara, who seriously doubted that this kid could have single-handedly defeated the formidable beast.

“What do you mean?” said Sir Charles. 

“Are you…. Joking?” Sir Charles was beginning to look uncomfortable. He glanced left and right around the cavern.

“I’ll drop the knight thing if you want, just please don’t talk about…. Dragons…” he said.

“No, I think we definitely need to talk about it,” said Sara. 

“Weren’t you just about to say that I was carried off by a dragon?” 

“No!” cried the boy. 

“I never heard anything about a dragon!” Sir Charles said with distress.

“All the king told me was that you were carried off,” said Sir Charles. 

“What did you think happened?” asked Sara, who was beginning to get irritated. Obviously “Sir” Charles wasn’t particularly observant, if he had gone all this way without noticing the piles of bones, huge roars, and reverberating snores of the dragon. 

“What!?!” cried the boy, who began to shudder. 

“I don’t do dragons….,” he said. 

Sara could see his anxiety in his face.

Sara ignored him and listened carefully to the beast’s loud snoring from the main cavern. She had an idea. 

“Look,” said Sara as Sir Charles started to blubber… 

“Dragon…. I didn’t know….. Dragon,”  

“Be quiet for a second,” said Sara. 

“I’ve got an idea, and if it works, we won’t have to fight him,” 

Sir Charles looked up at Sara with a pitiful expression.

“Past the dragon’s main sleeping chamber there’s a little corner with lava and a bunch of big rocks,” said Sara. 

“That’s the closest part of the cave to the exit, and there’s an entrance into the lava cave just down this little tunnel,” said Sara, motioning down a narrow passageway in the wall ahead. 

                 “Now, the dragon is very lazy, and I think once we get out into the open that he won’t look around for us much,” said Sara.

“I’ve been here for three days, and he hardly stops sleeping even to eat,” said Sara, recalling with a shudder the horrible, out-of-date canned food that had been her sole rations for the last three days, courtesy of the dragon’s oversized pantry.  

               “ So, If we can get out of the mouth of the cave and run to cover before the dragon wakes up, we’re home free,” said Sara. Sir Charles didn’t seem appreciative of Sara’s brilliance, as he was now curled up on the ground and looking worrisomely pale.
“I don’t think that’s going to work,” said Sir Charles, hyperventilating. 

“Get ahold of yourself!” said Sara, grabbing him roughly by the shoulders. Although she was a princess, she was not above using force if necessary.

“It’s bad enough that I’ve been in this cave for three days and the only person my father could send to rescue me was a poorly informed teenager, but if I don’t do something, you and I will be stuck here for who knows how long!” said Sara. 

“Now, please, come on,” said Sara. Sir Charles covered his face with his hands.

“What’s the worst case scenario?” said Sara, trying to soften her approach. 

“The dragon breathes fire at both of us and we die in horrible agony,” said Prince Charles. Obviously this isn’t helping, Sara thought. 

“It’ll be okay,” was her next attempt to calm Sir Charles down. 

“I’ve been here for three days, and I’ve never seen him breathe fire. Maybe he can’t,” 

But Prince Charles was unconvinced. And so, Sara unceremoniously shoved him in the narrow tunnel in the cave wall. She felt a tiny bit bad about forcing him into her scheme, but if things were left his way they would stay in the cave forever, which did not coexist well with Sara’s other life plans. 

“The most important thing is that we are quiet.” whispered Sara as she breathlessly climbed through the narrow cave tunnel behind Sir Charles.

“He might not even wake up,” said Sir Charles, who was beginning to calm down, now that he was in the heat of the moment. Sara thought that perhaps he was in denial.

“Once we get out, we can go north through the forest to my kingdom. That’s how the dragon took me here.” Sara said.

The rock walls of the tunnel were pockmarked and eerily cold, as if they had ice hidden somewhere within them. The rocks were rough, and Sara felt her hand sting as she brushed against a sharp place in the rock. The further Prince Charles and Sara got in the tunnel, the darker the tunnel became. After what seemed like a long time of silently crawling, hunched under the tunnel’s low ceiling, it was almost pitch black, and Sara couldn’t see Prince Charles ahead of her. 

“Hey,” whispered Sara. 

No reply. 

“Hey, Charles,” said Sara, as she felt the cave walls shake with another one of the dragon’s resounding snores. 

“Answer me!” said Sara impatiently, panic beginning to take over.

“Princess,” whispered Sir Charles urgently.

“I think we should turn back now,” 

“What now?”

But by then it was too late. Sara’s hesitation had just caused them both to fall into a perilous trap.