The dragon

A king once went hunting and followed a stag deep into the forest until it vanished without a trace. Lost and alone, he found himself standing before a hidden garden of impossible beauty. Beyond a door lay trees of gold and plants glittering with diamonds. When the king plucked a single rose, a living thread sprang from it and bound him fast. From the depths of the garden came a dragon, vast and terrible, who demanded a price for the king’s life: in one month’s time, the king must bring one of his daughters to be the dragon’s wife. With no escape, the king swore the oath and was released.

At home, the king confessed everything. His two elder daughters refused in fear, but the youngest, calm and resolute, offered herself willingly. When the time came, the dragon received her in great splendor and led her to a magnificent palace. The king returned home rich in gold but heavy in sorrow, while his daughter remained in the dragon’s care.

Each day the dragon left the palace, forbidding his wife to enter one locked room. When he was gone for many months, curiosity overcame her fear. Inside the forbidden chamber she found a deep pit, and within it a wounded prince whom the dragon had cast down. She rescued him, healed his wounds, and devised a plan for escape. The prince was to return home and prepare a golden chest that could open from within. She would hide inside it and be carried away when the dragon, unable to bear reminders of her absence, sold it.

The plan nearly failed when the prince forgot her after his mother kissed him, but fate brought the chest back to her, and from there to the prince once more. Hidden inside, she survived unseen until at last she was discovered. Memory returned, and the prince begged her forgiveness. Though trials still followed—betrayal, jealousy, and fire—the princess escaped once more, transforming herself into a bird to survive.

In the end, she returned to the prince, and they were secretly married. When the truth was revealed before all, justice was done, and those who had sought to destroy her were punished. The dragon was never slain, but abandoned, his palace emptied and his bargain broken. The prince and princess lived on together, free at last, while the dragon faded into silence and legend.