second star to the right (1/2)

"You have been entrusted an important task," Sungjae says gravely, pushing his glasses up. "See that you do not let us down. Your horse has been selected and saddled for you. It is a noble steed which has been trained to shoulder difficult times with its master." He scratches the side of his nose. "Could you pack some pickled pigeon back? I hear it's a local delicacy."

Jackson rolls his eyes and goes to pack for his long and arduous journey. If there's extra space in his backpack to fit two pickled pigeons, it's certainly not because Sungjae had asked for it.

When he finally pulls up at the castle marked on his map, it's about to rain.

Jackson ties his horse to a tree and makes sure his sword is within easy reach. As the youngest ever swordsman champion of the annual tournament, he's confident with his weapon, but he sure hopes he won't need to use it. He just polished it, after all.

He inches across the suspension bridge, a shaky and dangerous contraption held up by a few choice ropes, lined with rotting wooden boards forming a sort of path. There's a lonely shoe caught in one of the boards; Jackson shudders to think of the last poor soul who was sent on this journey. He glances downwards into the rocky ravine, then hurriedly snaps his eyes heavenwards again. It would not do to get queasy right now.

Fortunately, he's pretty nimble on his feet, so once he focuses on looking straight ahead, he's able to make it to the end of the bridge without much incident. It's what happens after that's slightly more cause for concern.

The bridge comes loose with a loud creak and tumbles into the ravine with a mighty crash. Jackson freezes in his tracks, feeling remarkably like he did the time he sliced off all the heads of his mother's prized azaleas when he was training in their garden. He had been five.

And then the dragon appears.

"What's all this commotion?" it demands. Its gaze falls on Jackson.

His mother had always taught him to remember his manners, so Jackson hurriedly sinks into a low bow. "Good afternoon, dragon, sir. I am Jackson of House Wang." He glances at the trail of destruction he's left behind, and winces. "Er. Sorry for destroying your house."

The dragon waves his apology away. "That's fine," it says. "We don't really use it, anyway." It peers a little more closely at Jackson. "House Wang, you say? The princess has been waiting a long time for you to show up. Sure took your time to get here."

"I stopped to pick up some pickled pigeon," Jackson explains, nonplussed.

"I didn't mean on this journey," the dragon says cryptically. "I mean in your life."

Jackson feels somewhat wronged. "I didn't know I was supposed to come here until the Sage told me, after I won the tournament."

The dragon sighs, and Jackson has to jump to narrowly avoid the plume of fire that emits from its mouth as a result of that movement. "Humans. There's no point talking to you. All you see are your pickled pigeons." It scratches its belly. "Well, there's no point in dithering here. Head on up. The princess has been practically overcome with excitement since the news of your impending arrival."

"You knew I was coming?"

"Of course, your sage Sungjae was so very thoughtful to send a missive ahead of your arrival. We wouldn't have had time to get ready, otherwise. You're the first knight who's come here in years. We were beginning to think no one was coming."

Jackson turns back to look at the destroyed remains of the bridge and around at the ramshackle state of the castle. "It's a really... classic piece of art you've got here."

The dragon looks pleased. "Isn't it? I keep telling the princess to appreciate what we've got here, but nooo..."

The dragon continues mumbling incomprehensibly to itself, paying no heed to Jackson, so he takes it as his cue to inch away. He bows politely and makes his way into the castle.

The stairs are on the verge of crumbling as well, old stones that have been up before the beginning of time, if legend is to be believed. But there is only one spiral staircase leading up and up, and there is only one door at the end of the staircase.

He knocks politely at the door.

"Come in," a voice calls.

Jackson takes a deep breath, suddenly overcome with nerves. He straightens his clothes, does a quick check of his breath, and pushes the door open.

When he enters the room, the first thing he notices is a slim shape next to the window. The room is small but painfully clean. A lone bed sits in a corner of the room. There's a small table with an open book on top, a bookmark half-falling out of it.

The figure peels off from the window and inches closer, all smooth movements and seductive slinking across the room. That's when he realises that the princess is not, in fact, a princess in the strictest sense of the word.

There are a lot of things he wasn't expecting about this rescue.

"You're... the princess?" It comes out strangled and the princess looks somewhat taken aback. Jackson remembers his manners and clears his throat hurriedly. "I mean -- I am Jackson of House Wang. Pleased to make your acquaintance." He bows deeply, hoping it will give him time to cover some of his shock.

When he rights himself, it's to see the other smiling bashfully at him. "I was hoping that someone would come for me, but I hadn't expected someone so -- dashing."

"And you are..." he prompts.

The princess claps startled hands. "Oh, of course! I'm sorry, I haven't had an opportunity to practice my greeting in a long time." A deep bow. "I am Princess Hakyeon. Or I suppose you should call me Prince Hakyeon." He blushes somewhat self-consciously. "Sanghyuk -- that's my dragon, of course -- he said we'd get more suitors if I was publicised as a princess. It's all semantics, anyway." He waves a careless hand in the air.

Sanghyuk was right, of course. Jackson is still staring at the princess -- prince -- in dazed shock. So he's been sent to retrieve a prince. Why is a prince in a castle, awaiting rescue?

At that precise moment, there is a terribly loud thunderclap that shakes the castle. Lightning flashes outside the window, and to his horror Jackson spies his horse running for cover. Some noble steed! He's never trusting Sungjae's judgment again.

"Well you can't possibly go back in this weather," Prince Hakyeon says convincingly as the rain pours down. "Why don't you just sleep over?"

And that's how he ends up spending the night, the next night, and the night after that in the castle with Prince Hakyeon.

Jackson initially protests at sharing the (large, incredibly comfortable) bed with the prince, but there's no other sleeping surface in the room ("I'm sorry, we weren't expecting visitors to stay over," the prince explained apologetically) and the prince refuses to let him sleep on the floor.

"But prince -- "

"Call me Hakyeon," the prince persuades, with a warm smile that makes Jackson feel wobbly.

It's not too bad, Jackson has to admit. Hakyeon is great company as torrential rains over the next few days keep them from making the return trip. They spend most of their time holed up in Hakyeon's room, reading his books, embroidering and exercising. Jackson demonstrates some of his sword fighting routines and Hakyeon is always thrilled to watch. In return, Hakyeon shyly shows Jackson some of the ballroom dancing steps he's been learning from one of the etiquette books.

"I don't really know what it's supposed to look like," he confesses, face flushed after dancing. "I kind of imagine it might go something like this."

"I think you're a natural," Jackson says, and has to cough around his suddenly dry throat.

To keep up appearances, Hakyeon insists on wearing a nightgown to bed. "I've been doing this every night anyway, just in case a suitor decides to come when I'm already sleeping. It wouldn't do to scare him away before I have a chance to introduce myself." His nightgown is white and cuts off just above his knees. Its collar is way too big for him and slips off his shoulder when he moves too quickly.

Jackson manfully keeps his eyes from fixing stubbornly on Hakyeon's tanned shoulder. He stretches out a hand to tug the material up. "Of course," he agrees. (He also does not look when the gown rides up when Hakyeon is sleeping. He pulls up the covers instead.)

Finally, the rain begins to abate and they start to make noise about returning.

Hakyeon is always flushed with happiness when they talk about it. "I've been here for so long," he explains. "I can't wait to see the world."