Braeda and the dragon

The knight consented, and word quickly spread throughout the castle, and the kingdom, that a champion had finally received the blessing of the seer princess. A party of epic proportions was quickly arranged and taken part in, all under the smoldering gaze of the dragon alone upon its cracked throne. In the evening the wedding was performed, and the princess wore the gown worn by her own mother when wedded to her father. And the king, filled almost to bursting with joy and pride, gave his daughter away. Quickly was the ceremony ended so that the couple could retire for a time to the comfort of chambers specially prepared for them. And it was from these very chambers that the knight, with the princess following behind him, exited just before nightfall to do his battle with the dragon.

The dragon flew down from his perch, and his landing was as the toppling of mountains. His breathing was wet and stank of the many men he had consumed only days before, and the people shrank back from him as if from the very doors of hell. But the knight was sure from the wise words of his bride and seer, and strode forward to make short work of the beast.

The knight charged in upon his valiant steed, his mighty sword held up ready to deliver the stroke of death upon the beast. However, with one fell swoop of its head, the dragon snatched the knight off of his horse and into his mouth, where it quickly devoured him in a rush of fire and cracking of bones.

The King ran forward to his daughter, "My child, what has happened? I heard your words, and I know that you predicted your husband’s victory over the beast. Yet even now I can hear the hissing of the marrow in his bones as he burns within the belly of the beast. Have you lost your gift? Or are you finally mad with your curse."

The girl held her father close and comforted him as one would a child awakened from a nightmare in the dark of night. "Beloved father, whom I love as dearly as myself, I realized as I looked into his eyes; I could not change his hope in combat with the beast, and I could not change the beast sitting on its tower. I could not change my fate, nor my future. I could only change myself."

And with the words still fading into the darkness, the maiden walked up into the smoking jaws of the beast and was devoured.