Simple Princess

“Can you speak?” Estella opened her mouth in amazement. “Oh, yes!”

“I can do many things!” He boasted as he wrapped his black tail around her neck like a noose.

“Get down! I can’t breathe!” Estella complained.

“You can’t really live without me! I must always be near you.”

“Who are you? And why were you sitting in the box?”

“The better question is not why, but who locked me in?”

“That’s right! That’s what you should have said. I’m not thinking straight. Thanks for the tip.”

“From now on, you will think like a great sage!” The monster promised.

“I don’t think so! I can’t think at all. That’s what they all say.”

“Well, you’d better take my advice,” he advised her kindly, running his black claws tenderly across her forehead. “I am your lost mind. You have just rescued me. The trunk was stuffy and cramped. I am much more comfortable with you, my lady.”

“Am I your lady?” That’s what servants usually call their masters, but the beast acted as if it owned her. Is that how a mind is supposed to behave?

“I’ll call you Reason.”

It wriggled.

“But my name is Gloom.”

“It doesn’t suit you.”

“It sure does. If you’ve noticed, I’m as black as the darkness of night.”

“You are like a firebrand from a furnace!”

“I can see why they call you a fool.”

“It is a simpleton, not a fool. It’s a little different.”

“And you’re smart, too. And you’re not stupid. Aren’t you ashamed not to trust your intelligence?”

“You mean you?” She glanced at the monster on her shoulder.

“Who else could it be?”

“They say the mind is in the head, not on the clavicle.”

“It’s harder to get into your head, though it’s empty, but it’s not much room.” He scratched her shoulder as if he were putting a stamp on it.

“Oh, I wish you’d gone into my head and got lost there.”

“Do you know how hard it is for those who don’t listen to their wits, but do things their own way?” Reason quipped.

“That’s what all the duenna’s told me! I didn’t think you’d be so tedious.”

“Go ahead!” Reason commanded. “Take some of the gold from the chest and hide it in the hatch beneath the throne.”

“There’s a hatch under the throne.”

“You have to push the dragon-shaped carving on the back of the throne, and the hatch will open.”

Her mind raced her like a servant girl until she had dragged almost all the contents of the chest into a deep recess beneath the throne steps.

“Look, is living with your mind, I mean being smart, always so hard?” Estella sighed, exhausted from her work as a loader.

“Shut up!” The mind on her shoulder weighed itself like a chest of jewelry. Her shoulder stiffened.

“Why should I be silent?”

“The more silent you are, the smarter you look.”

“It sounds smart.”

“Trust me, and they’ll stop calling you a simpleton.

“They’ll call me Wise?”

“They’ll call you a star. Your name means North Star, doesn’t it?”

“I didn’t know that! I thought I was just a star.”

“You are a fool,” said Reason, spitting ash on the floor. Why is there ash in his mouth instead of spit? His black spit sealed the treasure-filled hiding place.

“What did you say?” Estella was offended when she heard the word “fool.” Who was he talking about?

“It’s all right, my dear, go ahead. We must get out of the throne room.”

“But my coronation is coming up!”

“It is no coronation for sure yet,” Reason glanced around. “You need to take me to the north tower. Come on!”

Estella felt like a coachman. It was as if the Reason were pulling her by the reins. And so they went. It guided her, showed her the way to her home castle. He was getting into her head. It’s cheeky of him, but convenient for someone who doesn’t want to think about anything herself. He thinks for her.

Reason’s claws were almost lusting over her curls.

“How beautiful you are, Princess.”

“What good would that do?”

“What do you mean? Don’t you value your beauty? Careful, it can be stolen by evil spirits.”

“Everyone laughs at me because I’m stupid.”

“What does a beautiful woman need a mind for?” He laughed suddenly. “It turns out that she does!”

Estella suspected something wrong when she looked at him in the wall mirror. Her mind pressed against her cheek like a gentle pussycat, but it looked like a demon.

“If you are my mind, why are you so ugly?”

“It is because beauty and intelligence are incompatible! Smart people are never beautiful.”

“But then you’re not my mind, you’re someone else’s. You were wrong about me.”

“You are fool,” he swung at her with his claws, but held himself back. “I am yours, you know!”

“And how do you know?”

“I can feel it.”

“You feel it? What do you mean?”

“Like you can feel your leg or arm, I can feel you.”

“But I can’t feel you unless you’re sitting on my shoulder.”

Estella grimaced. The small-sized Mind proved to be heavy. Her shoulder ached from the burden. She hesitated to ask it to step down. She hesitated to ask it to get off, or else it would be gone. Being left without a mind again was terrifying to her. And so she was teased for being a simpleton. Things must change when she had her mind.

“Thank you for showing up,” she thanked him. “It was too bad without you.”

“And you’re already beginning to get smart!” Mind clapped his hands cheerfully, and his claws squeaked. “Usually beauties are empty-headed, but you’re lucky, because you have me. With me you’ll be the greatest queen in the universe, just take my advice.”

Estella nodded obediently. Of course, it was unpleasant to know that your mind was as ugly as a demon. But there was nothing to be done. You have to put up with it. As he himself says, the mind is not meant to be beautiful.

“Aren’t you trying to get back inside my head?” Estella didn’t like the way he drove his sharp claws across the back of her head.

“No, just checking something,” his claws hooked the pendants of the crown. “If you only knew how hard it was for me to let go of my magical chains, to free myself and come back to you, you would have snuggled me now.”

“Was it hard for you, too, without me?” Estella rejoiced. It’s always nice to know you’re not the most deprived.

“Of course it is! As you’ve noticed, I’m very ugly, but a wise man. Together we’d make a great tandem. Just don’t tell anyone about me. Let them think I’m still enchanted. It’s a pity they took the magic out of your pretty little head, or I’d look so pretty. No one would ever have locked the doors of the ballroom or the feast room in front of me.”

“But you will be seen with me if you don’t get off your shoulder.”

“They won’t! As long as I sit on your shoulder I am invisible to others. And you can enjoy my wise counsel.”

“I already have one mentor.”

“Is it a stupid chaperone?”

“She’s smart. Don’t insult her!”

“You will be even smarter now.”

He whispered in her ear. His whisper was as hot as a dragon’s breath. Estella winced.

“Come, princess! With me you will be irresistible to court and invincible in war. Only listen to my advice!”

It’s a good thing Reason doesn’t have to be introduced as a tame monkey. No one really sees him.

There is some commotion among the courtiers. Reason has his black ears pricked up and listens.

“There will be no coronation!” He proclaimed. “This is no longer conjecture but fact.”

“Why should it be so?”

“War has been declared from Ravelin. The local king is convinced the girl must be removed from the throne.”

“Oh, he’s a scoundrel!” Estella clenched her fists.

“Don’t be so boisterous, mistress!” Reason cautioned. “You must behave yourself. Summon the army.”

“But Ravelin is the largest state north of us, famous for its torture chambers and dungeons.”

“And they are but men!” Mind clenched his black clawed fists. “And I…”

“Who are you?” said Estella, wary. “Aren’t you a non-human being? Oh, you mean a non-human mind?”

He chuckled softly, as if he were sprinkling ash around him.

“I am the mind of the wizard king’s daughter! I am above the human mind! You’ll see, with a mind like mine, no war is a serious threat to you!”

Magic in war

With Reason’s advice, raising an army was quick and easy. No one remembered that Ravelin was a mighty state. Everyone listened to the orders of a queen who had yet to be crowned. The coronation had to be postponed. War is out of order.

“I’m sure the scoundrel is plotting to take Aluar for himself by marrying the foolish heiress,” Reason snickered on the way. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? Even without winning the war, he may propose to you and settle the dispute. Don’t agree to marry him.”

“I wasn’t going to! I didn’t think he was single,” she rode the white horse, which twitched its ears uneasily and winced at the presence of the beast on her shoulder.

“Horses don’t like us,” Reason complained.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean smart creatures,” he twisted away, though he was about to say something else. “Don’t pull on the reins so hard and loosen the girth.”

He climbed off her shoulder and finished the job for the groom. The horse had nearly had a heart attack at the touch of his claws. She relented, though, and Reason quickly returned to Estella’s shoulder.

“Keep ahead of the group!” He pointed and urged. “You lead the march!”

Estella panicked from afar at the sight of the countless army of the enemies. A forest of helmeted heads stretched as far north as the distant mountains.

“We need a dragon to win now!”

“Why didn’t you say so before! One is just sitting in your dungeons.”

“I thought you were my advisor, not the other way around.”

The princess’s guards looked at each other worriedly, seeing her muttering to herself. Estella belatedly remembered that they couldn’t see Reason, so she shrugged it off:

“I’m praying before the fight! Don’t mind me!”

The excuse about prayers bailed her out of the most ridiculous situations. The guards even respected the faithful princess.

Reason put his clawed little fingers in his mouth and whistled. The warriors murmured. The sound was like an omen of impending disaster.

“If the dragon doesn’t wake up and get here within the hour, he doesn’t hold me in high esteem,” Reason grumbled. “Then I’ll have to give him a sterner draft. He’s been so sleepy. Not long ago he was working for your father as a living furnace, burning prisoners and spies in his jaws. As soon as your father grew old and sick, the dragon became lazy.”

“I knew nothing of the dragon.”

“But you felt it. You have dragon’s blood, too,” Reason gently touched her chest with his claws, jabbing at the brooch, but his paw did not bleed. It appeared to be invulnerable. Estella gasped. This monster was about to become her hero.

He had not promised to win the war soon, either, as it turned out, for nothing. He didn’t need a dragon for his revenge, either.

Reason hissed a whisper, and the marching tents of the enemy’s troops went up in flames like matchsticks.

She opened her mouth in amazement.

“Don’t pursue your lips, or a moth will pop into them,” said Reason, chuckling, claws clawing at her shoulder.

“Aren’t you babbling witchcraft words?” Estella panicked when she heard the ominous words in his whisper.

“Why should you care how we win the war?” He grumbled angrily.

“No, I don’t. It’s all about winning it!”

“Bite your tongue while I work! I am working hard to help you. And you call me a sorcerer!”

“I’m sorry!” Estella watched in horror as a black storm rose from the ground on the battlefield, as if triggered by Reason’s hiss. Where it passed, enemy warriors pounced to fight each other, as if they had become blind and could not distinguish friend from foe. And Reason claims he’s no warlock! She finds that hard to believe.

“Don’t worry, I won’t send my Reason away just because it’s witchcraft,” Estella tried to reassure him, but Reason wouldn’t hear her. He hissed strange, incomprehensible words that caused the ground between the two armies to open up, and the bony arms of the dead began to stick out.

Estella cried out in horror, and her horse sprang to a halt.

“Enough is enough!” Reason clicked its black claws. It made the ground between the Ravelin’s and the Aluar’s armies smooth again. And a moment ago there was a pit in it.

“Who were they?”

“What do you mean?” Reason didn’t understand.

“They came out of the ground.”

“They were the skeletons of warriors who had fallen in a former battle.”

“What old battle? We haven’t even started the first one yet.”

“Do you think this is the first time kings have fought on this field?”

“I don’t know,” Estella frowned.

The damage inflicted on someone else’s army forced King of Ravelin to negotiate.

“We haven’t raised the white flag yet, but we’d like to negotiate peacefully,” the counselor, who had approached Estella with the royal delegation, ingratiated. He seemed to think she was a witch, for he trembled shakily as he addressed her. She ought to tell him she hadn’t been conjuring, but she would have to denounce Reason in front of everyone. It would be indelicate.

“You are, of course, the daughter of the Wizard King, and his spirit is clearly protecting you,” the Counselor said curtly. “But, think, what is it like for a woman to rule alone? You need a lively protector in the form of a royal consort.”

“What did I tell you?” Reason clawed at Estella’s hair and pulled the strands tight. “Don’t dare to agree! Do you understand?”

She couldn’t even nod, so hard he tugged at her curls.

The King of Ravelin looked at her with admiration. He was an attractive young man, but the silver half-mask on his face frightened her away. It was the kind worn by victims of alchemical experiments who mutilated themselves. Knights are usually proud of their battle scars.

“A dragon burned me,” the King said, catching her gaze perplexed as he removed the mask. He hadn’t done so in a long time, it seemed, because his counselor gasped in astonishment. Estella didn’t like the sight of the poisonous burn, either. It crossed the king’s eye and cheek, disfiguring the attractive face.

“The dragon was small, the size of an elephant. Not the size for a dragon. But he broke into the palace to rob my treasury, and I got in his way.”

“And now you wish to replenish your treasury at the expense of mine?” Estella merely repeated the words Reason whispered, but the King of Ravelin blushed to his ears.

“I was only sure your father had cast a dragon upon me. Everyone knows he was, um, kin of dragons.”

“This is an insult to my entire dynasty!” Estella echoed Reason again, copying not only the words but the stern tone this time. Even her own knights were afraid of her.

“Forgive me, but there are rumors,” the king of Ravelin hesitated. He obviously felt insecure in the presence of the proud beauty. She contrary to the vicious gossip was also clever.

“Rumor and truth are different things!” Estella struggled to hold the reins of her horse, which was never accustomed to the presence of Reason.

“I assumed you, like many, wanted to make me a sort of marriage proposal, first defeating me in battle so that I would not refuse. You value your manhood so little that you think you can’t get a bride except by force?”

“Actually…” The king of Ravelin shrank back to hide his embarrassment. “You had such a reputation… Well… I wouldn’t dream of asking you to marry me.”

“Am I not beautiful?”

He was embarrassed.

“Or did hearing about how stupid I was make you reject me?”

“Are you stupid?!”

“More like cunning!“One of the advisors whispered. The king shushed them hastily.

“You are very wise, my lady. Let us solve the war by marriage.”

How quickly he changed his mind! But Reason did not let Estella decide for herself whether she wanted to marry or not. The answer it whispered, she repeated:

“No, then you will get my treasury, and what will I get? Is it the absence of sincere love?”

Reason reeled as the king began to swear to her the sincerity of his feelings.

“Tell him about the secret of the king’s treasury. He will understand. Whisper one word.”

“But it’s witchcraft,” Estella recoiled from Reason’s whisper, which burned her ear.

“And so what is it?”

“What if I whisper it myself and turn into a frog?”

“Would I give you a bad advice?” He took offense.

“Who knows?”

“Don’t be too smart! Remember I am your reason. Take my advice!”

The king was worried when he caught the princess muttering something to her. Perhaps he thought he had been too quick to deem her clever.

She leaned so that her lips were close to the king’s ear.

“Demonikum!” Obediently she whispered, repeating after Reason almost letter for letter. Probably not exactly accurate, but the word worked.

The king seemed frightened.

“Demonology of the Aluar’s treasures,” she obediently repeated after Reason. “The spirits are locked away! Hungry demons! Angry angels! The bestiary beside them! A devourer of gold in the treasury! All this waits at home!”

The king recoiled from her as if her breath burned his ear like a dragon’s.

Estella herself was frightened. She could not have had a dragon inside her.

“I was in a hurry to fight you. But if you wish to flee from Aluar, my marriage proposal still stands. Will you leave with me now?”

“How men are captivated by beauty!” Reason snorted. Estella almost repeated after him, but Reason’s claws hastily clamped her mouth shut.

“That’s not for other people’s ears!”

Then don’t say it! Estella was furious with him.

“Tell him they’ll break free and fly after you if you leave! And they will tear his kingdom to shreds, and they will ride on the wreckage with a coven.”

The words, prompted by Reason, were frightened as they would not be frightened of a dragon. By the way, the dragon he had summoned never showed up. But he was no longer needed. King Ravelin’s armies retreated like beaten dogs. They suffered casualties and surrendered. Thanks to Reason for everything. With such a counselor, there’s no need for a fighting dragon in war. It’s not without reason that they say the mind is the most important thing for a man. With intelligence will never be lost!

A dragon from the dungeons

The warriors had already fled, but the king was still reluctant to leave her side. He waited for her to decide in his favor. The thought of taking just one princess from an entire enchanted kingdom did not frighten him.

By the way, Reason on her shoulder was very nervous and unraveled his claws.

“Chase him away!” He insisted, squinting unkindly at the king.

“How is it?”

“I don’t care if you shoot him out of cannon!”

Easy to say, hard to do! The king of Ravelin was somehow convinced that Estella had to be rescued. He even said he’d be willing to take her without a kingdom, and leave the kingdom to the evil spirits who inhabited it.

“A bargain can be struck with the demons,” he explained, pointing to his own burnt face. “You just have to give them something, like a piece of your own skin, or a pint of blood, or in your case, your whole country. You are sweet to me even without a power. Come with me!”

He held out his hand in an expensive gauntlet. How thoughtful! Not long ago he wanted to take her kingdom from her, but he would never dream of marrying her. How the mind changes everything! Or is it beauty? The King said he liked her for both.”

Estella would have said yes, but Reason would not allow it. Reason was worth listening to. She’d learned by now that he never promised anything for nothing. He had indeed helped her in the war. It was dangerous to marry a foreign king without his approval. What if she is being lured into a trap? She must find the delicate words to refuse Again Reason bailed her out, whispering:

“Say your mother is the star fairy Arabellina. For the daughter of a fairy spouse with a physical defect is unacceptable, or else there will be misfortune for both kingdoms: yours and his.”

Estella stupidly repeated after Reason, whom the king did not see, and felt like a puppet, clawed by the strings. Reason clung to her like a tame monkey.

Hearing of the fairy mother’s obstacle, even the King of Ravelin chickened out and turned his horse away.

“So get out of here!” Reason spat fire on the ground. “Don’t go molesting someone else’s property!”

The fiery spit scorched the retreating marshals and the counselor. But they didn’t even dare complain.

“What’s the matter with you?” Estella yanked Reason by the tail. “We have won!”

“We will win when there are no one left in the world but only you and I,” he hissed, his tail around Estella’s neck.

Estella didn’t understand him. It was probably just another sorcerer’s formulation to keep her enemies from returning, but she would not repeat it.

As the enemy army retreated, Reason chuckled angrily for some reason.

The waking dragon appeared after the battle. It suddenly appeared in the sky above the battlefield, where only Estella’s knights remained. Its emerald scales gleamed with the lightest of shades, reflecting the sun’s rays. Its powerful wings raised a hurricane wind. Estella would have marveled at the sight of a real dragon had it not blasted indiscriminately at her own troops. This is what real war is like! Estella felt as if she were in a rain of fire. Not a cannon can compare to an attack by a dragon. Flames rained down from the sky, scorching the earth, the grass, and the people.

“He will burn all the knights! Call it off!”

“It is too late!” Grimly Reason reacted, but muttered another magic word, and the fire immediately ceased.

The dragon, which for some reason reeked not only of fire but also of beer, swooped down, clawed at a dozen warriors, and was gone. He glowed like the dawn and stole people like a fox stealing chickens from the henhouse.

“He didn’t care about goats, sheep, or knights. He might as well choke on his armor!” Reason hissed resentfully.

“But that would leave us without a protector.”

“Who needs a protector who will attack us!”

“Then why did you summon him?”

“I was a fool!”

“So the mind can be a little foolish?”

“It is very much in our case!” Reason was staring dejectedly at the dragon feeding on the knights on the high mountain near the scorched field. No one dared to shoot it. The damage he had done was ignored.

“Is he a drunkard, by any chance?”

“You figured that out all by yourself?”

“He stinks. Or is he just sleeping on beer kegs?”

“Is he just sleeping? He’ll even start to drink moonshine if you put a keg next to him. He started out with fine Aluar’s wine. He’s gone downhill.”

“But he flies high,” she traced the dragon’s flight with a rapt look.

“I mean his moral character. They’ve gone from bad to worse. I went down to his cellar once, and he tried to burn me. He didn’t recognize an old friend. But if I’d brought him some ale and pie, he’d have changed his mind. A glutton and a drinker! That’s what he is. And he’s lazy, too! Get him out of here!”

“He’s a real dragon.”

“So what is it?”

“I’ve always wanted to see a real dragon!”

“There are plenty of dragons! Only we got the worst one!”

“Well, not the worst…” Estella couldn’t take her eyes off the glittering scales, but the dragon ate his food and flew away too quickly.

“He’ll be asleep for another year,” Reason complained. “Oh, I used to think it was only the Princess who was defective, but now the dragon-keeper is defective, too. But you seem to be making amends. Well done for blowing off the king!”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have! When he keeps his mask on, he’s handsome.”

“He’s a womanizer and a flatterer! With him you could cry!”

“But you could cry your whole life without him. He’s the first and only fiancé I’ve ever had to chase away. The others ran away.”

“That was before! Now you’ll have lots of suitors.”

“I don’t believe it! Surely this was my only chance for happiness. Fiancés aren’t for me.”

“You’ll have hundreds of them! Thousands! And I’ll deal with them all!” Reason snatched a stiletto from one of the knights beside him and sharpened his claws.

The dragon left deep parched pits in the field from which strange creatures, either dwarves or dwarf-like monsters, were crawling. They shook their skinny black fists in displeasure and protested against the dragon.