The Well

A/N: Image drawn by the lovely 52w. Be sure to check out her other work if you liked this piece ^__^ Much love to her for allowing me to make up my own story about it.

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For seven months he had fought his way to the Wishing Well, traveling the harsh landscape, leaving behind all civilization, vanishing into the places where people feared to go. He had conquered the Mourning Mountain, found the dragon and obtained its golden tear.

Now at last he stood before the Wishing Well where it stood in the darkest corner of the Forgotten Forest, on the only day when the sun slipped through to drive the darkness back–the only day where a dragon tear might be thrown into the well and even the most impossible wish might be granted.

He had done all that he must to obey his king’s command: to wish for life, to bring back to true health the crown prince, to banish his illness, to make him whole.

He had always wondered how much worse everything would be if the crown prince grew strong once more, if he no longer had to fear that his health would crumble. He would grow meaner, crueler. The women would fear again, and the men would die, and the king would remain willfully ignorant to all because he would rather have a cruel son than no son at all.

He remembered almost dying on the Mourning Mountain, the hot breath that had woken him, the rough tongue that had cleaned away the blood, the gentle magic that had healed him. He remembered the warmth of the dragon, and his beauty both as a beast and man, golden scales that had turned to golden hair, and eyes that outshone even the sun itself.

It had hurt, leaving the dragon, all the more because the dragon had understood that he must go and had not asked him to stay. He’d wanted the dragon to ask, was relieved and disappointed he hadn’t.

So he had taken the golden tear, and the wolf mask and the cloak that were gifts of protection, that had kept him warm and safe the rest of his long journey.

He stared at the well as morning sunlight slipped through the trees, poised to toss the tear into its depths, and wished.