That evening the royal heir greeted subjects at a banquet held in her honor. Some guests were elated to see the princess with not a hair out of place and respectfully lowered their masks and fans, while others clutched their pearls blaming her failure to return the sword for hardships their kingdom had suffered. The young woman was surprised to find that the criticisms struck her equally worthless as the compliments -- as if being different from your enemy is not enough, nor is being anything except yourself. A small smile and silence would be her answer to both.
Ababuo stepped onto a balcony. A peddler in the square below pushed an overloaded cart. Across the top of the rocking pile draped her suit of hodgepodge armor that had been discarded by the emperor's servants. The hollow arm waved as though it were beckoning to get back to their unfinished business.
What are you waiting for? The free-spirited princess thought rushing down to the street to trade her elegant dress for the armor and tattered clothing that cloaked her like an octopus using suction cups to cover itself with seashells for a delusion to the common world. Without delaying another moment the would be queen commenced again on her arduous enterprise travailing until at last she came to the haunted forest.
Upon seeing the inexplicable dragon once more gliding effortlessly with outstretched wings that of a pterodactyl and battle ax tail brushing the treetops, and knowing more magic existed in the world than contained within a crown and sword, Ababuo kept the extraordinary creature of the air in sight both day and at night silhouetted against the wan light of the moon to be guided undeviatingly except one variation; the daughter was shown a secret cave system where the dragon's giant egg cradled on a spiral column incubated by hot springs and geysers. The two continued through shadowy mazes of inextricable wilderness to the tyrant king's city.
