Heart of the Dragon

“The dragon approached the princess, while she stood bound by the chains of rust, put around her by the men of right and wrong, drenched in their sweat of  lust, she stood there crying as the dragon moved to claim her, no other prince and dare no knight would come, thought she trying to blame her. But only so much could she do, so much had she done, for a story ending in front of her eyes, in the eyes of the dragon had just begun.”

“Did the dragon eat the princess? Was she gulped and forgotten” asked the little boy hiding behind the big woollen hat.

“The fire had the princess, and the dragon had his pain. Her skin wasn’t forgotten, neither was the dragon evil” I explained.

Not all monsters are blood thirsty and not all prince are trust worthy, there is just so much there in this world and just so less our eyes can see. So ,

“Hold on to the rock you sit above, tighten your hat and prepare for love.”  I spoke. “Monsters love too, and their pain is no Joke.”

“Why must you discuss love with pain, there lies no meaning in your shattered chains” he exclaimed. “My story son,”  I told him “not every tale ends the same. The heart that breathes you today, I must tell, has held tightest hands with our fellow pain.”

“All ears” said the young lad, fixed his seat and thus fixed his hat.

“The dragon was in love and had been in her dreams enough.”

“Dreams!” said I playing with words.

“Nightmares is what the princess would scream about, night and nights when he would often dream about. Her.”

“The dragon had his heart fit in his tail, a stern quiet creature with a scary face. Every child in the village would whimper of his name, he hadn’t done anyone harm , yet him they blamed. For the wicked men of the black knight had put the village to fire , the princess was their victim and her , they did acquire.”

“Fire is a weapon of the creature of the dark, with his anguish , our village has he flamed with his spark.” They foolishly declared. The villagers ran to find him, and the dragon slept unaware.

For he had been wagging his tail to sweep the earth that stood beneath him, as he dreamt of the princess and then a mysterious thought had creep in.

“Oh my princess. She stands in danger. Sold by her prince , with the black knight’s gold to exchange her.” He knew.

“I must fly now, for she may be crying to be saved

I can rescue her and she’ll see how well behaved,

Is the creature of her nightmares

And maybe she will no longer be scared.”

He flew , he flew and reached the den.  Bound by chains she stood. Surrounded by the evil men.

One by one he flamed them all, and cleared her way

“Come with me princess, I have come to take you away.”

“I shall not go with you,

You are a monster, that is all you are

And my prince awaits me in my kingdom

He will save me , stay afar.”

Said she as the dragon  fell to his knees

He had heard about pain

But this was the first time

When he came to feel.

“ I apologise princess

I will fly back now

Confessing my love

Won’t help you now.” He said and got up

Was about to turn back to leave, but felt a thrash , fell to his knees .

Mob of angry villagers, led by the greedy prince

Had chopped off his tail, which perplexed in a distance.

He fell , breathless

To her feet

She looked at him

And begun to leave.

The dragon died, and the princess had been freed. The prince got the gold and the princess, despite his greed. And that is it, a tale of love and pain, you say it makes not much sense, must I explain. Most beautiful of things come with a price to pay, and the price comes with words to say, to the people we love the most, but their words too, come with a price to pay, we pay the price, and the price is pain.

Room No. 206

His lips slowly reverted hers as she felt hard to let go of them, and they did nothing but travelled against hers. He opened his eyes at her, blinked hard and then looked away. She felt as if she was a mere mistress to his body and a mere pleasure to his skin, when she longed to be the beats to his heart. She looked at her chest, hanging her head low enough to let the sorrow evade her.

“I should go now”, said he, with a broken smile that lasted no more than a second and got off the bed. Staring away from her glance he quickly buttoned his shirt, that stood wrinkled with guilt and wore back the pants that had been lying away in ignorance, as had been his  loyalty to his marriage.

She wanted him to stay, she wanted him to caress her and hold her tight, not to bit her lips and wet her tongue. A fool may say, she was looking for love in a man , who had been driven by the pleasures of the flesh. But none the less she spoke, to give her last attempt at making him stay, even though he may do it for a bitter while of sexual preference. But her bitter truth had found the sour , sour sweetness of sparkle in his touch. She had fallen for his soul and he had fallen low enough just to make her moan, but never down on his knees to take her into his life forever.

“Can’t you stay any longer Vikram?” she asked , trying to seem as less attached as she could, because somewhere she knew that her feelings had been hers solely, and if he was to know about them, he would run back to his wife, whom he hadn’t loved ever. The fact that he hadn’t loved his wife, made her smile a little. She didn’t know If it was the guilty pleasure of being no less than his wife or the void that he may ever, if he ever chooses to, come back to her forever.

“It’s our anniversary.” He said as he pushed up the tie near his neck as if it was nothing but a rope to hang himself. But that’s what she saw . She believed his marriage to be a broken one and found immense joy in believing so. However ,he chose never to bring up his wife during their encounters which majorly took place in room number 206.

“Remember, when we met first?” She asked as she curled her hair , reminiscing about the time when they had first met. 

“It was in college Shabhana.” , he said and turned back to her. “I will see you on Sunday.” He smiled as he headed for the door and soon enough, he had disappeared as  he always had . Leaving her alone, without a shred of cloth on her , and just guilt to eat her conscience alive. But he was in too much of a hurry to care about all that.  And even though she knew that, she couldn’t help but smoke away her loneliness. And so she did. Wishing for him to come back. Wishing to see him again. Wishing, for him to break away from his wife and be hers and hers alone.  But she knew her wishes wouldn’t come true, at least not of him coming to her staying with her forever.

Because she belonged to ‘room number 206’ , she thought pushing away the smoke from her lungs. This room was where she had lost her heart and soul and where every once a week she would jump back to see him come back, with a bottle of wine and the thirst for her flesh. After all these years, it didn’t matter to her, what drove him to see her, may it be the room, or her body, or his broken marriage. But she knew one thing for sure, he wasn’t in love with her. She was. 

Love that had killed off the real Shabhana  years ago and had given birth to a self-less woman. A mistress , if people may call her so. But her identity wasn’t of any value in front of the love she had placed in this room, the room 206. And for years to come she wouldn’t mind being slayed by the pleasures of the man, she loved so greatly.

The door was shut closed as she headed out of the hotel, only to be judged and be smiled upon by society. In her mind she longed to get back home , take a warm shower and lay herself to sleep, but in her heart she longed to come back to him, meet him once again, for a few hours, be none but his. Back in the room where love existed for her. Room number 206.