Jeremy looked up at the crumbling black castle and tightened his shield around his arm, walking across the moss covered drawbridge and entering the castle.

He looked around at the interior, it was... dissappointing. Not at all what Jeremy had expected out of the dragon's castle.

The carpetry was ripped, the tapestries thrown to the floor, and the chandeliers that should be hanging from the ceiling were crashed on to the floor.

Windows were broken, and plants were growing into the interior from them.

Jeremy sighed, realizing that sight seeing was not getting him closer to his end goal.

He knew the dragon's treasure hoard would be in the upper floors, so he began making his way upwards, ignoring the broken and cracking walls around him.

When he found the treasure hoard, he seen, not a dragon, but a young boy, with dragon wings, horns, and a tail, laying on the ground, curled up into a ball shape, around a single golden crown.

Jeremy assumed he was the prince of the dragons and drew his sword out. He was asleep, killing him would be easy...

As Jeremy got closer he examined the prince more thoroughly than before, taking in his features.

He had caramel colored skin, his hair was almost black it seemed, and dotting his face were tiny red scales, mostly around his cheeks and nose.

He had a large red tail, orange spikes on one side, the other consisting of large, yellow, plate like scales. He also had wings, which were comfortably wrapped around his body like a blanket. They would make great under armor, Jeremy thought as he moved even closer, his sword up, ready to be head the prince.

Then he accidentally kicked something, and the prince's eyes flashed open, their slight yellow glow reflecting on to his hair.

Jeremy looked back down at him and noticed something in his eyes. Fear. He could tell he was going to get hurt, but was so vulnerable that fighting back would be useless.

No. Jeremy couldn't get sentimental. He had to slay this beast. He had to avenge his parents.

He drew the sword back up and slashed, only hitting a wing that the prince had used to shield himself. Jeremy slashed again. Still hitting the wing.

He continued this, until that one wing was so cut up he couldn't do anything more to it.

The prince must have realized that and went to flash his other wing up. Just as he did, Jeremy handed a cut to his cheek.

He hollered in pain and curled into his wings, whimpering. Jeremy lowered his sword and stared down at the prince.

"P-Please...don't hurt me..." He whimpered and Jeremy got on his knees and pushed a wing back to look at his "enemy's" face. "Eep!" He covered it with a hand and Jeremy removed the hand and stared intently into those yellow eyes. "A-Aren't you gonna k-kill me?"

Jeremy didn't answer, but his sympathy began kicking in and he pulled out a healing potion he'd received from his friend Brooke, and applied it on the prince's cheek, getting a small, annoyed growl from him.

"Hey I'm trying to help you." Jeremy mumbled as he stood up and began applying to the wings as well. The prince watched in confusion as the gashes magically closed up. "There."

"W-What did you...how did you do t-that?"

"Healing potion."

"Why did you d-do that?" The prince was looking at Jeremy with slightly puffy eyes, his wings drooping in worry.

"I...you were hurt and scared and...I...I can't just kill you. It wasn't fair, you stood no chance and... God aren't I just a sad sap of a knight." Jeremy's sword clanked to the ground, scaring the prince a bit, but he quickly calmed from it. "I was supposed to k-kill you and I couldn't even do that...how can I go home now?"

Jeremy's butt hit the ground and he began crying. His hair fell in his face and he was choking on sobs.

"Hey...don't cry. You can go home." The prince spoke gently, wrapping a wing around the crying Jeremy softly.

"N-No I can't. They expect me to bring back the dragon ruler's head...and I'm too nice to actually kill you...because you look human..." Jeremy sobbed and the prince felt bad. This poor boy who had almost killed him was now sobbing in front od him.

"Hey don't cry...I mean...if you hadn't of woken me up I would've successfully been killed...umm...okay forget I said that...I'm not even ruler of the dragons."

"Y-You're not?"

"My dad is. He...left."

"Oh..."

"Why did you want to kill him?"

"Cause he killed my parents..."

"Wait...were they knights?"

"Mmhm."

"I remember that...the others left after that...scared the royalty would send knights after us..."

"Why didn't you go?"

"I...I couldn't shape shift into a dragon properly at the time...not without help...they were in such a hurry they left me..."

"Oh I'm...I'm sorry." Jeremy pulled his shield off and kicked it across the floor. "Looks like I'll be staying here then..."

"Well if you're gonna try and kill me then move into my castle, shouldn't you give me your name?"

"Oh it's Jeremy."

"Well I'm Michael... you don't have to address me as prince... I lost that title to my brother."

"Well then Michael...I guess you just got yourself a personal knight...wait...I don't have food..."

"I have gemstones."

"I'm a human, I can't eat those."

"Oh...well...umm..."

"Brooke!!"

"Who?"

"My elf friend. She lives in the woods. I'm sure I could get food from her..." Jeremy smiled before a yawn escaped his tired body. "God I...I must've excerted all my energy getting here..."

"Well you can go to bed. Gimme a second." Michael began glowing, which hurt Jeremy's eyes, which he closed quickly.

When he opened them Michael now looked like a dragon. He was red, and he had orange spikes and yellow scales on his belly.

"You can lay against me. I'm soft, I promise." Jeremy gulped, removing his armor and curling into Michael's side, realizing how comfortable it was.

Michael wrapped his wing around Jeremy softly, curling the other wing up against himself, and smiling.

Jeremy felt Michael's tail gently land next to his feet and smiled a bit, closing his eyes and letting himself pass out on the dragon prince.

Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as he thought it would be.