Eri had woken up a little earlier, but she was no longer sleepy. Living in dad's world was so fun and exciting that she didn't want to spend the day asleep anymore. Things were confusing; sometimes it seemed like grandpa owned that world, but dad had brought her to live there. It made no sense for it to belong to anyone else. Maybe mom's... yes, surely, because dad never did anything without consulting her.

How big the castle was! It could fit many strangers, and Eri loved meeting new people. They had told her not to talk to strangers, but... How else was she going to meet them? The coachman, grandpa, the man with the big belly, Mrs. Queen... was that her name? It must be, because Eri was the queen, the door man always told her she was the dragon queen...

She didn't understand anything; the green dragon had called her "traitor" and "deformed." She didn't know what any of that meant, and dad hadn't wanted to explain. No one would treat a queen so badly, so she decided that she was not the dragon queen, that was someone else, she was "Verrim Draconis," the dragon princess. What a beautiful sound, although her name sounded silly next to dad's, but still, it felt nice to say it out loud. Erifreya, Erifreya, it always made her smile.

She put on her blue dress, her crown, and her green necklace, looked at herself in the mirror, and pouted. Without her horns, the crown fell off when she ran, and the back of her dress looked lonely without her wings. Besides, she wanted to keep trying to fly; she had been trying since the first time she saw the sky, but she wasn't going to achieve it if she didn't practice. So, she left the necklace in her drawer next to the baby sword dad had given her. She wanted to carry it, but mom always got angry, she had done something strange to it, and now she couldn't take it out of its sheath. Better to obey, or dad would frown, and that scared her a lot. At least they let her dance with the wooden sword if dad had the day off. Eri wanted to be as amazing as him. Anyway, she tucked her doll into bed to rest from taking care of her all night and left.

It was candy time. People liked to give her sweets, especially Mrs. Queen, whose honey candies were exquisite—she had even taught Eri that word. Then she could run off to have breakfast with mom; dad was there half the time, but never two days in a row. The portly king and grandpa were never at breakfast, but always at dinner.

"Are you going to train with dad today, Eri?" Mom asked while eating those purple fruits she liked.

"No, he only takes me to dance with swords when he has breakfast," Eri replied. Dad had missed out on a delicious chicken again, which was like exquisite but tastier.

"That's true, he'll be busy again today... Are you going to play in the castle courtyard?"

"I want to go to the city, mommy, can I? The gentlemen with hats always take care of me if I get lost." Eri had gone out alone a few times; everywhere there were gentlemen with metal hats and sticks, they always recognized her and helped her if she needed anything.

"That's fine, love, come back before dinner time, and take your emerald necklace with you."

Eri pouted. "Do I have to? I want to try to fly today."

"Yes, Eri, you have to get used to it, we're soon going to a place where people don't know you. Plus, I don't want you jumping from high places again, I know you don't get hurt but you already ruined your pink dress. Go put it on and I'll tell the guards to watch over you today."

She made faces at mom when she wasn't looking; they wouldn't let her burn things or fly, just because they couldn't. It wasn't fair. She went back to her room to find that the maid had made the bed wrong again, she had left her doll on the pillow but without tucking her in. How was she supposed to sleep? She fixed it and looked for the necklace in her drawer, put it on, and her crown fell off. Better leave it, but if she couldn't wear her crown... she put on her dagger belt around her waist and ran out before mom saw her.

The first thing was to visit Mr. Coachman; he was very kind and had little horses, they smelled bad but were great, and she wanted to see if his head had healed since last time.

She ran out of the castle walls, greeting every soldier she saw, and found the stables where Mr. Coachman worked very far away, almost at the exit of the city. She was greeted by a boy a little older than her, with tousled hair and missing a tooth...

"Princess Erifreya, how good that you came," said the boy. Eri got angry; she didn't like being talked to like an adult, but since her naming day, almost everyone had been doing it.

"Koro! Call me Eri, or I won't like you anymore."

"Okay, Eri," he smiled with his silliest face, such a naughty boy, surely he was just teasing her. He let her into where the little horses and Mr. Coachman were.

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She was very happy to see that Mr. Coachman no longer wore the bandage on his head. He even let her touch the scar; it felt weird. After a while, Eri asked if she could come back in a few days to see him, he told her that he would soon leave to accompany the portly king and take his things to Meyrin Castle, that wasn't fair, besides, half of that castle was hers, and the other half she had given to dad. Her old bed was still there. But he promised she could come back to play with Koro. That was good at least, Koro could be annoying but also fun. He had taught her that putting weird things in people's shoes was very funny if you could watch them put them on.

She said goodbye and went on with her visits, the lady who had made her party dress, some old ladies who always gave her sweets in the square, the lady in the strange dress who lived in the big empty house where her parents got married... all the people who had ever treated her well received her visit from time to time, she couldn't visit them all always, and of course, those who gave her sweets saw her more often. Even the grumpy man who always complained but ended up giving her cookies, Eri thought maybe he was a baker because he always had warm cookies when she arrived. Although his house didn't look like a bakery. He was one of her favorites because he told her stories about dad, like once when he saved a princess from a white dragon right outside his house.

Eri was very special, she was a princess and a dragon, it was as if the stories were always about her, that made them more fun.

In the afternoon, she wanted to go to the square, at that time Koro and other children played all together, this time she was going to make sure to play slowly so as not to hurt anyone, well, so far she had only broken a ball, but anyway Mikorin had cried and it had been very hard for Eri to be forgiven. Specifically, four of Mrs. Queen's honey sweets. When she arrived, her friends were not playing; it seemed they had been scolded, and she didn't see Mikorin.

"Koro, why is everyone sad?" The boy clenched his fists tightly and lowered his head as if he didn't want to see her.

"Some big kids," he finally replied, "Mikorin brought the new ball her parents gave her, it was multicolored and one of those that bounce less but don't puncture... and then they came and took it away, I couldn't stop them, they were too big..."

Eri noticed the bruise on Koro's cheek; the big kids had hit him hard. Other children had bruises on their arms, and a girl was crying quietly.

"That's not fair, and Mikorin?"

"She went home, she cried a lot as always. One of those kids hit her in her tummy when he took the ball away."

Eri got very angry, how could someone make Mikorin cry and hit her friends? She had done it unintentionally, and she always felt bad, those kids had to feel very bad, they had to apologize.

"Koro, come with me, I'm going to tell on them." The gentlemen with metal hats had to help, mom always said that if something bad happened she should tell them. But none of them wanted to listen, they said a children's fight was not important.

Eri's pout didn't go away, she felt like crying, adults sometimes were useless, maybe their hats made them stupid because they were so heavy. Mom would surely help, but she didn't want to go to her because she had taken the dagger. Then she did something that grandpa always told her, she prayed to the goddess of peace. Maybe it was closing her eyes for a little while, or thinking about something else, but somehow, Eri was calmer.

When she opened her little eyes, it occurred to her. If the big kids had a new ball they were going to play with it, so she took Koro by the arm and took him to the small square near the market. Slowly, of course, without hurting him.

"Those are them!" Koro pointed to four kids about ten or eleven years old playing with the stolen ball. Eri approached them with the air of a princess, as Mrs. Queen had taught her. Straight back, head high, holding the gaze.

"That ball belongs to my friend Mikorin, I broke her old ball and now she doesn't have any, so I need you to give it back to me."

"Go away, girl, this is our ball now, it looks like your parents are rich, but you can't have everything you want."

"I don't know, I've never tried them, but I think mom likes the taste of dad... Don't distract me, boy, today it's our turn to play in the square with the ball and I really want to play."

The four kids surrounded them, Eri knew she was strong, stronger than them, too strong, if they hit her or Koro she would have to fight, but... she had promised dad...

Koro took off her emerald pendant, he had gone to her ceremony and knew what was going to happen. Eri's horns and wings reappeared.

"Oh no! It's the dragon princess! Dad says she burned several men alive on the road to Meyrin!"

"My mom told me she bewitched Princess Runa."

"She's a monster!"

They ran away leaving the ball, and some other things behind. Koro laughed and celebrated, took the ball in his hands with a happy face. Eri, very very slowly, with a finger, tapped him on the forehead. Koro fell to the ground anyway, Eri took off her necklace, and put it back on.

"Koro... Did you know they were going to be afraid of me? Are you afraid of me?"

"I'm not afraid of you, Eri, not even if you hit me. They are afraid of you because their parents think you are a dragon."

"I am a dragon," she said with moist eyes, taking off the necklace again, "and I am a princess, it's in my name."

"You are Eri, that's all that matters to me, or to Mikorin, or to my dad or to all those people you visit."

Eri wiped her tears with her dress.

"You know Koro? Sometimes you're not a fool."

They took the ball to Mikorin's house, she was the smallest girl in their group, fragile and tearful, Eri gave her many of the sweets she had been given that day to see her smile more. Although the ball had been enough.

That night, at dinner time, Eri had her whole family together, even grandpa, the portly king, and Mrs. Queen, they all asked about her day, congratulated her, scolded her, comforted her, and dad hugged her proudly, for having kept her promise to never hurt others...

Days like today, it was nice to be who she was.