Work Text:
Pearl felt like a helpless mouse under the claws of a cat.
Just a second of distraction during the battle and the dragon had caught her under its iron claw. She struggled to free herself but it was no use, not without a weapon. Like the knight she was, she always had her sword, of course, but it too had been knocked out of her hands during the attack. It had fallen merely a meter away from her. In a desperate last attempt, she stretched her arm with all her strength to reach it… but it was useless, she was completely trapped. With fear, she looked up in time to see the beast opening its jaws. Its throat was dark like a cavern, and in its depths, an amber light started to grow…
Pearl closed her eyes, waiting for her burning death.
Instead, she heard laughter explode above her.
She opened her eyes and saw the beast laughing…no, guffawing. Its voice sounded like that of a human.
“Wha–?”
Before she could say anything else, an unnatural flash of white light illuminated the walls of the abandoned tower, blinding Pearl for an instant. When she was able to see again, she was free. The dragon was gone and in front of her was a smiling young woman offering her a hand to help her stand up. Pearl was confused, to say the least, it took her a second to react but accepted the gesture. Once she was on her feet, she was able to take a good look at the stranger: short stature, dark skin, hair so long it reached her ankles. She was wearing a purple dress with the royal diamond insignia.
“P-Princess Amethyst?”
“In the flesh, baby” said the woman with a grin. She had the same impertinent voice that had come out of the dragon’s throat just moments ago.
“But the dragon, and that light and–” Pearl stuttered, blurting out the words as her mind tried to make sense of the bizarre situation “You….You were the dragon the whole time?”
Pearl had never met the princess before, but it was well known she was gifted with shapeshifting magic. And there was the rumor she sometimes used her powers to play silly tricks on the town’s people: the baker claiming a strange cat kept stealing his pies from the windowsill or those who wandered near the castle late at night telling stories about a mischievous owl scaring them away… But no one had ever been able to prove any of that.
…Maybe the rumors weren’t so wrong after all.
“You should’ve seen your face” said the princess between laughs “you totally thought I was gonna roast you, didn’t you?”
Pearl blushed. She was about to protest, but she remembered that, rudeness or not, this girl was still royalty and she was still a knight on a mission.
She coughed to regain her dignity, stepped back, distancing herself from the princess, and bowed with solemness.
“Princess, I’m Lady Pearl of the knights of the Crystal Order. I came to rescue you and bring you back to the castle”
“Ugh, that again?” said the princess, sounding completely unimpressed, she actually appeared annoyed all of sudden “When are they going to understand I don’t want to go back to the castle?”
“You don’t want to be rescued?”
“Rescued from what?”
“This place” Pearl made a gesture indicating everything around them. The tower they were standing had been abandoned for years and it showed, parts of the wall had crumbled down, and weeds and moss had taken over every corner “and the monsters…”
The princess laughed “Oh, the monsters are all me” her body illuminated with white light and then there was no longer a princess, Pearl was now in front of an angry looking 7 feet tall orc which talked with the voice of a young woman “See? I keep trying to scare all those annoying knights away, but they keep coming”
Pearl pondered this for a moment “But then… why? Why haven’t you come back to the castle if there’s nothing keeping you here?”
The orc’s body got covered with light and then the princess was back, she shrugged.
“I ran away. Being royalty is SO boring, having to be all clean and proper all the time, all those stupid rules… It’s really not my place” she was clearly trying to sound nonchalant, but something like sadness betrayed her expression. Before Pearl could say anything about it, the princess’expression was back to a childish grin “All those other knights were boring, but you seriously put up a good fight. I like you!” Pearl blushed a little “All the others ran away like chickens with just a…!” a flash of white light and then there was a dragon again “…ROAR!”
The booming roar blew Pearl away, causing her to fall onto her butt. The princess was still laughing when she went back to her human form.
She offered her hand to Pearl to help her stand up again, but this time she didn’t accept it.
“Well, I’m glad at least I was entertaining to you, princess…” said Pearl with annoyance. She got up on her own with as much dignity as she could muster.
“Sorry, sorry. I couldn’t resist” the princess apologized with a smile “but I’m serious, you were pretty badass”
Pearl sighed. She dusted off her armor and picked up her sword, putting it back into its scabbard with a metal *shink*
“Wait? You’re leaving so soon?” said the princess, she sounded legitimately disappointed.
“If you don’t need rescuing, then I’m not needed” said Pearl, about to head for the entrance of the tower “And I don’t want to bother you further, princess. I’ll leave you alone like you desire”
“Wait!” before Pearl could take two steps, the princess rushed to stand in front of her.
“Princess?”
The short woman seemed to debate with herself about what to say for a moment, then she said.
“You travel around fighting monsters and rescuing people and stuff, right? that sounds so much more fun than being a princess or staying here and having to scare away all those wanna-be knights every day. Let me come with you, please? We could team up!”
“Team up?!”
“Yeah. I’m like the best shape-shifter in the kingdom. You’re definitely the best knight around. I bet together we’ll make a killer team! What ya say?”
Pearl was taken aback by her request.
The princess was too important a person to allow her to put herself in the line of danger… then again, if Pearl’s wounds from the battle with the dragon were any indication, she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.
On the other hand, Pearl wasn’t sure she had enough patience to keep up with her impertinence, but also she had to admit there was something fascinating about this strange impetuous princess.
And Pearl, of all people, could perfectly understand not wanting to be shackled by your assigned birth role.
Pearl sighed.
“All right. You can come with me”
The princess laughed delighted. Her body flashed with white light again and her figure shrunk into a tiny kingfisher. The little bird fluttered around Pearl with such joy, it actually made Pearl laugh. Finally, the kingfisher settled on the knight’s right shoulder.
“Let’s go!” the kingfisher said, the voice of the princess coming out of the bird’s tiny beak.
“Yes, princess–”
“No, no!” The bird fluttered her wings with discontent “You have to stop doing that!”
“Doing what?”
“We’re a team! No princess, or your highness. You just call me Amethyst”