In the closing stages of the war between humans
and dragons being a man travelling alone at night was
dangerous.If the dragons didn't get you then the army's
press gangs would.

     So I used to dress up in womens clothing,so that the
dragons would be less likely to flame me on the spot and
I could bluff my way out of any other situation.

        It was my misfortune to be riding the same colour of
horse that the dragons knew a Princess of interest would be
riding on the road that day.

       Before I knew it one of the brutes had sprung out of
the forest,grabbed me in those huge meaty paws and was
winging back to its lair.This Princess that dragons were
looking for was worth a dragons ransom since her dad was
the chief architect of the humans victories in the war.

       The dragon was somewhat miffed to discover I was
just a lowly peddlar .That all changed when word reached
him that the humans were claiming the Princess had
vanished and presumably had been kidnapped by a dragon
matching my captors description.

       I was initially relieved that my captor now viewed me
as more then a quick bite to eat.The first shock came when
he scooped me up and brought me to a sorceress versed in
dragon magic.

       She cast her dark spells,forced me to drink a foul brew
and watched while I reformed into a woman.At a distance
I looked like the Princess.

       That was not good enough for what the dragon had in
mind.He wanted his false Princess to get close enough to
the dragon's mortal enemy to slay him with a sword or
knife.

        The dragon and the sorceress left me locked in the
dungeon for the next two weeks .Then they brought me
up and poured even more foul smelling potions into me.

      I spent another two weeks curled up on the dungeon
floor whilst the noxious compounds inside me did their
work.

      In the end every bone,every muscle inside me ached and
my skin itched fiercely.It didn't help matters that I felt
like I had a inflating pig bladder inside me whilst sitting
in a rack.

      My mind was dimming and I dully obeyed every
word of the two conspirators.Day after day,hour after
hour they told me their enemy was my enemy,and soon
I'd be in a position to do something about it.

      Privately however I was nursing a hatred for a Princess
of interest and my dreams and desires grew as dark as the
poisons inside me could make them.

    On the fateful night the humans and my dragon captor
had arranged for a exchange in the Long Forest in the
Swamp.Both sides expected trickery by the other party.

      There had been rumours that another dragon held the
Princess of interest and it had made it that much more
difficult for my captor to convince the go-between he had
the real Lady Margaret in his lair.

       As for me in the last hour of my quasi-human
existence the pig bladder was ready to burst,the rack
was stretched to the limit and my skin was covered
with biting stinging ants.

           We came ,the humans came and the other dragon
with a princess came.

       The humans had counted on only one dragon coming
and the ballista was aimed at my captors heart.He put me
down,bound and gagged.The other princess escaped from
her dragon and ran towards the humans.And disappeared
in a white hot inferno of dragon fire.

       I moaned as my spine began to lengthen .Then the
realization that someone else had got Miss Goody Goody
instead of me triggered the metamorphosis.

       I exploded into my new shape just as the ballista was
released and the bolt ploughed into my enlarging wing
arm as I burst out of my bonds.

       The other two dragons fled and the humans had a
snarling shrieking wounded dragoness on their hands.

         of the other claimant theue was no trace.Nor did anyone
else ever come forward claiming to be the missing Princess
of interest.

     Which meant the humans had to choose between a pile
of ashes or a huge egg laying flamebreather as claimants
to the title of former Princess of interest.

      So the humans let me live and treated me with more
respect then any other dragon they had in captivity.

        So whilst I brooded in chains in a cave,the war entered
its final phase.

          Seeing that the humans would be victorious
many of the dragons collaborated with the enemy.Which
earned them the eternal hatred of the other dragons.Which
was the bad news for the dragons.

        The good news for them was that the Architect was
putting less of his heart into the war against dragons.No
doubt the possibility that his missing daughter was now a
dragn herself had much to do with that.

        The war came to the sorceress's castle and both she
and it were destroyed.With her went any hope I could be
returned to a human mind and body.

        My captor was recognized for his contribution to
defeating the Architect.So was I,and plans were already
being hatched by the dragons to ensure I got a proper
hoard to slither and drool over when the war ended.

       The collaborating dragons were another matter
entirely.