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Weiss slowly moved through the treasure hoard, grateful for once to be unusually small by dragon standards. Her father had always treated her as a useless runt, barely putting up with her because of her great skill with magic, but this time it was invaluable. She navigated the messy piles of gold, silver, gems and more exotic items without knocking anything over, until she finally reached her target.
When she had first been brought into the main treasure hoard years before Weiss had been amazed by its splendor. As with all dragons she had coveted the treasures the moment she saw them, with the finely wrought silver and the collection of sapphires, roughly tossed in a pile in one corner, taking most of her interest. She could spend hours staring at them, carefully shifting coins and counting baubles, but the one time she'd tried to take a tiny piece home her father had noticed instantly and had punished her severely.
She still shuddered at that memory, the scar covering one eye burning just remembering it.
There was one treasure which had truly stolen her interest though, one piece of beauty greater than all the jewels of the earth or works of man and magic. Trapped in a perfect crystalline ball barely large enough to fill her draconic paw was a faerie. Her eyes shone brighter than the purest mithril, and her hair was a riot of black and crimson. Her wings were like those of a dragonfly if adorned with luminous rubies, and her lean, athletic figure outshone even the finest human forms.
Just one glimpse of this faerie had ignited the endless greed and jealousy that burned in the heart of all dragons. Even if it cost her life she had to possess it, but seeing her so soon after her punishment for stealing a tiny trifle, even Weiss had been unwilling to dare her father's wrath, and so she had spent days simply sneaking in and observing it.
Until one day, the faerie, Ruby, had spoken.
That fateful day had been many years before, but finally it had become too much. Weiss could no longer wait, no longer content herself with speaking to the faerie whenever she had an excuse to enter her father's lair. Every moment of every day she burned with both a fierce jealously and greed, along with other, stranger emotions she could not name. They all spoke in one loud voice, however, ordering her to take the faerie for her own.
Finally she came close, pausing to once again bask in Ruby's presence. As always when she first spotted the faerie she looked so sad trapped in her crystal, but as had swiftly become the case she brightened up, a happy grin on her tiny face when she saw the white dragon observing her.
“Weiss!” she squeaked.
“Shh, quiet you dolt,” Weiss hissed, looking around.
Ruby just giggled, but she did lower her voice a little. “You're back! Usually you stay away longer…”
“You know I always had to wait until I had an excuse to visit father's lair,” Weiss said as she reached the orb.
“So why are you here today?” Ruby asked curiously. “Does he need you to do some magic?”
Weiss shook her head. “Not this time. I don't have a reason to be here.”
“But… you told me what your dad did last time you snuck in here,” Ruby asked, her face creased with worry.
Weiss smirked. “He has to catch me before he can hurt me.”
“Yeah, but… I mean, he's a dragon,” Ruby said. “He'll notice you've been here.”
“That only matters if I'm going to come back.”
Ruby looked shattered. “You're leaving?”
Weiss rolled her eyes. “Not without you, you dunce. I'm taking you, and no one will ever be able to keep you from me again.”
With that Weiss leaned forward and gently picked the orb up in her mouth. It was even warmer than she'd imagined, as she'd never been able to work up the nerve to touch so valuable a treasure for fear of her father's wrath. Turning around, she slowly began to make her way out of the cave, not even tempted to steal so much as a single sapphire with the greatest treasure in the world between her jaws.
Once she made it outside she spread her wings, preparing to fly away, when a deep, rumbling voice froze her in place. “Weiss.”
Slowly turning her long neck, she saw her father waiting on the ridge above. While she was small, a lithe, thin white dragon with small horns and bright blue eyes, he was a massive, hulking beast more than three times her length. His red eyes burned into her, and his claws, longer than her head, cut through the solid rock above his cave like it was wet clay.
They stared into each other's eyes, and she knew in that moment that he knew what she had taken. Rather than try to fight or deny it, she simply launched herself into the air, barely avoiding the blast of ice that froze the ground where she had been crouched. With a heavens shaking roar the Great White Dragon launched himself in pursuit, his mighty wings unleashing hurricane force winds to tear the pine trees apart and displace a blizzard of snow.
“Weiss!” Ruby shouted. “Weiss, what's going on!”
Unfortunately she was too busy flying for her life to answer. Blasts of ice and magic spells flew at her, forcing her to dance through the air to avoid the worst of it, magical glyphs forming behind her to deflect the attacks she could not dodge. For endless minutes she stayed away from his wrath, until she began to think she could do it. For all of his power he was old, and he lacked her speed and stamina. He would tire, and she could finally escape him….
And then she made a mistake. It was a tiny one, not pulling in the tips of her wings enough while avoiding an attack, but the spell stiffed her muscles just enough for him to finally reach her, his massive claws slamming into her back, drawing forth an agonized scream.
She slammed into the ground, nearly losing consciousness as bones shattered under their combined weight. That wasn't enough for her father, his great claws raking deep inside as she slashed her open, and blood filled her lungs. He then launched himself back into the air, circling above until he landed on a ridge where he could look down on her broken, bleeding form.
She almost lost consciousness, but a voice shouting inside of her mouth pulled her back to herself. “Weiss! Weiss! Please wake up! Please be okay!”
Dragging her eyes slowly open she carefully spit out the crystal. It hurt terribly but she managed to bend her neck so that she was eye to eye with the tiny fairy once again. “Ruby…”
“Oh no, Weiss, oh no, please be okay, please don't die,” Ruby whimpered. “Please don't die, Weiss.”
“Dolt,” she whispered, unable to speak louder.
“My faerie,” her father's voice rumbled. “Return it and never darken these lands again, and I will consider this punishment sufficient.”
Weiss looked up at him, and then down at Ruby again. Dragons were tough, and despite the terrible wounds he had inflicted she would heal if given time to recover. But that would mean not only abandoning her own treasure horde, but far more importantly Ruby.
She would never get to see the beautiful faerie again. Never get to hear her stupid stories, or roll her eyes at her dumb antics, or put up with her strange notions.
And Ruby would be stuck with her father, trapped all alone in crystal, ignored and forsaken for all eternity.
“You'll be okay,” Ruby said, relieved. “You will be okay, right?"
Instead of words Weiss formed one spell, one last bit of magic, and pressed the tip of her snout to the crystal. Nothing happened for a moment, and then the orb shattered, releasing Ruby into the world for the first time in countless decades.
“What have you done!” her father roared.
“Weiss!” Ruby shouted. She reached out with a shaking hand and touched Weiss' snout. “Why?”
If dragons could smile Weiss would've. She didn't even know why herself, but for the first time in her existence something was more important to her than her treasure or even her life. The thought of Ruby, suffering alone in the dark hurt more than all the wounds her father could inflict, and by freeing her she at least did one thing that truly made her happy before she died.
Then her father launched himself at her, and it was a long time before she was able to slip into a peaceful oblivion. Even as she fell into the darkness she expected to never awaken from she felt happy to have saved Ruby.
It was with great surprise that she felt warmth, and something pulling her back from the brink of eternity. She was too weak to open her eyes, but slowly voices began to reach her. They were speaking in the faerie tongue, which Ruby had taught her years before.
“How is she still alive?” a woman asked.
“I'm not certain, but dragons are truly ferocious creatures,” a calm male voice replied. “No other being in such a state would ever recover.”
“She will get better, right?” Ruby asked tearfully. “She has to get better, right?”
There was a quiet chuckle, the man answered her. “Don't worry, Ruby. My magics and Glynda's can combine to work wonders. You, however, will truly determine the outcome.”
“What do you mean?” Ruby asked. “What do you need me to do? I'll do anything!”
“For a dragon?” the woman, apparently named Glynda, scoffed.
“For Weiss!” Ruby said. “I love her!”
“Good, focus on that,” the man said. “If she truly loves you as well, then it will allow a greater healing than all that can be achieved in the glades of the Vale. But only if she loves you as dearly as you believe.”
“She does,” Ruby said. “She could've escaped alive, but she decided to free me even though she knew he'd kill her.”
“Then let us begin. Place your hands upon her snout and open your heart. Focus on the love you feel.”
Weiss felt the tiny, warm hands touch her scales, and then magic filled the air. The warmth spread from her snout to her heart, and then filled every inch of her being. She wasn't sure what love was, the term having no parallel in her own draconic language, but if it felt like the magics that now filled her being she wanted it more than all the jewels in the world.
When the magic ended her pain was gone, and she slowly opened her eyes. Standing in front of her were three faeries. One was old, with gray hair and a silver cane, the next a woman with golden hair and a riding crop in one hand. The last was Ruby, and seeing her free and smiling happily made Weiss' heart pound in her chest.
“Weiss!” Ruby shouted.
“Ruby,” Weiss replied. “You're alright.”
“Of course I am,” Ruby sniffled, before launching herself forward to hug Weiss' snout. “You're going to be okay. I was so worried!”
They reveled in each other's presence for a moment, before the older faerie cleared his throat. “As touching as this reunion is, we need to get moving. Your father will notice this soon, and I'd rather not face off agains the Great White Dragon if we can avoid it.”
Ruby flapped her wings and flew up until she was sitting on top of Weiss' head. “Okay! Let's go to my home, okay?”
“Where's that?” Weiss asked.
“South of here,” Ruby said. “Don't worry, you'll love it there! You can meet my sister and my dad, and all my friends! And I know they'll love you just as much as I do! Well, maybe not quite the same way, but still! You will come with me, right?”
Weiss didn't respond out loud, but she did launch herself into the air and start flying south. There was nowhere in the world she'd rather be than with her tiny faerie.