When Larkspur awoke in the morning, her first thought was that she would open her eyes and find herself passed out in the museum. At least she hoped. But when she opened her eyes, she instead saw the dungeon around her. Her heart sank. She then became aware of the body under her head, and felt that she was much lower to the ground than she had been the previous night. She took a deep breath and turned her head. She found myself gazing into the dark eyes of a very handsome young man. She realized that she was laying her head on his abdomen and felt her face grow red. She began to sit up, but that proved to be a bad choice, because she soon saw that he was a very attractive, very naked young man. Her face was on fire.

She looked back to meet his gaze and found no embarrassment in his face, only curiosity.

"It worked," he said.

"You don't have clothes,"

"I have never worn clothes," he said, casually stretching out and sitting up. She was too stunned not to watch.

"Humans usually wear them," She said.

He laughed and she saw that he had fangs, not large ones, but still fangs.

"You have fangs," She stated.

"I suppose there are going to be some residual effects of being a lindworm my whole life," he said. Then he stood up and curiously looked over the rest of his body. She noticed that the chains had fallen off at some point. "Everything else looks human, though, right?" He asked me.

She tried to be as objective as possible in her perusal of his body, but she couldn't help but appreciate it. It honestly looked a little too perfect to be human. She knew her face had to be beat red. "Yes," she said, "Everything else, looks perfectly human." It suddenly occurred to her that his wounds were completely gone. "You healed."

"Yes, it seems, so, and I must say, I am glad. While I am grateful that you got me out of my predicament, I would not like to repeat the experience," he said.

"Nor would I," She replied. She on the other hand was still dealing with aching muscles.

All of a sudden, a voice yelled, "How was the wedding night, Lindworm."

Larkspur recognized it as Sir Klaus. The prince stood up and began walking to the cell door, not sure what else to do she followed and tried not to look at him.

"Exceptional, thank you," said the prince with a smirk.

Sir Klaus looked from the Prince to Larkspur and then back again stunned.

"You have no clothes," said Sir Klaus.

"I have been made aware of that already," said the prince.

"I will go fetch some then, your majesty. And I have to tell your father," Sir Klaus hurried away.

"Such a change in tone," the prince said as he sat himself down. His back against the wall.

Her curiosity began to grow, "So, you were a lindworm your whole life?"

"Yes, I apparently crawled out of the womb that way and slithered off," the prince replied.

"How does it feel to be human?" She asked.

"Strange," the prince said, "But I expect that I have always been a human in a lindworm's body. Though, I've never met any other lindworms so I can't be sure."

She had a million questions running through her mind, but most of them were too personal for a man she had just met. Married or not. Then it struck her: Shewas married to this stranger. She began to feel her face grow red again, though she mostly just felt confused.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"You're blushing again," said the Prince. "Is it because I still don't have clothes?" His question was asked in earnest with no teasing behind it.

"No," she said, blushing more, "I just realized that we're married."

The prince leaned his head back to rest against one of the bars. "I suppose I haven't really thought about that either. I didn't expect both of us to still be alive."

She wasn't sure what that meant and whether it was good or bad for her. She also didn't have time to think it over before she heard a voice.

"Your majesty, I brought you clothes, and I am to inform you to get dressed quickly because the kingis on his way," the servant delivering this message looked terrified. He handed the clothes to the Prince through the bars and looked very uncomfortable with the whole thing.

"Thank you," said the prince. The servant left and the Prince began getting dressed. The clothes were clearly meant for nobility, but the outfit was clearly selected to be donned quickly. The prince fumbled with the buttons on his jacket missing a few on his first attempt. He quickly saw his error and corrected it. However, his undershirt was left untied underneath it.

"I will have to confirm with my own eyes that it is indeed our lindworm prince," a voice Larkspur recognized as the King's was approaching.

The king and Sir Klaus appeared before the cell, along with the queen and the young man who had been standing by the throne.

All of them stared hard at the young man beside Larkspur. The King and the young man outside the cell looked almost angry, but the queen just looked shocked.

"How do we know you are the prince?" asked the king. "And not some other young man the witch brought to the dungeon with her sorcery."

"Well," began the lindworm Prince, "First of all, I happen to know that this cell is enchanted, so that no magic works inside of it. You see, a lindworm is a creature of great magic. If magic worked in here this cell wouldn't have held me. Which, by the way, means you were very lucky that the witch had a ritual and not a spell to break the curse."

The king looked surprised, but didn't argue the point, so Larkspur supposed what the prince had said was true.

"Secondly…" the prince began but was interrupted by the queen.

"He has the same eyes," said the queen, "And fangs, and he looks like you my dear," she looked at the king. "There is no point denying it."

Larkspur looked closely at the king and saw that it was indeed true that the lindworm prince bore a striking resemblance. The queen had fair hair as did the other young man, but the king had the same dark hair and eyes as the lindworm prince.

The king studied the young man beside me for a minute then sighed. "Alright, then," the king said. Then he looked at the guards, "See that a chamber is prepared for Prince Gunther."

"And my bride," said the young man beside Larkspur.

The king however did not even acknowledge this and to her surprise he turned and walked off. The other young man followed him. The queen hesitated and looked at the lindworm prince for a moment before turning and following her husband.

Larkspur looked to Prince Gunther, "So, I guess we wait."

"It would seem," he replied. "It's too bad you're not really a witch. I would make it easier to leave."

"I thought magic didn't work inside the cell?" She asked.

"Not the cell," replied the Prince, "the palace."

"Why do we need to leave the palace?" She asked.

The prince laughed. "In case you hadn't noticed, my father and brother are not too eager to welcome me to the family. To make matters worse, I was born before my brother, which means I have a right to the throne. Also, I am now married to a witch. I am sure you noticed they have even less need for you," he paused for a moment here and sighed. "If we remain," he explained, "We will surely be killed."

"For someone who has only been human for one morning," she began, "You seem to understand humans very well."

"Lindworms are known for their intelligence," he said. Larkspur wondered how much lindworm was still left in him.

"So, where are you planning on running off to?" She asked.

"My lair, of course," he said. "No one else knows where it is so it should be safe." Then he scowled, "I suppose the climbing will be more work now that I am human." He looked at his hands and arms, "I wonder how much strength I actually have now."

A servant appeared before the bars. "I am to escort you to your room, sire," he said looking nervous and none too happy.

The servant unlocked the cell and without another word began walking away. They had to run a few steps to catch up to follow him. They then proceeded to climb more stairs than Larkspur ever had in her life. She began to wonder, for a while, if they would ever see the end of stairs and halls. Perhaps the royal family intended to keep them walking around the palace until they died.

Finally the servant stopped at a door in one of the hallways and said, "Here is your room."

When he opened the door She saw that the room was actually rooms, which were larger than any house she'd ever lived in. For the first time since entering the palace, she felt very out of place. She must have beven gaping for a good bit because she felt a hand on her back and the prince gently guided her inside and shut the door behind them While she was busy taking in her surroundings, the prince walked through the bedchamber to the window.

"We are so far up," he said. "We will have a very hard time just leaving the palace from here without notice." He walked back over to Larkspur. "We will have to wait for an opportunity," he said, then he looked around. "What do we do in the meantime?"

She stopped gawking and considered his question, there were two wardrobes and another cabinet as well as a trunk at the end of the bed, there was a desk with paper and a quill, and there was a chessboard.

"Well," she said, "For starters…" she walked over and opened the trunk first. It merely held blankets. Then she opened up the cabinet. It was mostly empty but had a few books inside it. She checked the titles. They were works of fiction.

"Someone must have left those here," the prince said, looking over her shoulder. "They don't seem like the kind of books you would knowingly leave out for you guests, but I doubt the servants would know that when they cleaned the room, since they probably can't read."

"They can't read," Larkspur said in amazement

"You can?" asked the prince.

"Of course, " Larkspur said. Noticing his surprise, it dawned on her that he thought her some peasant girl from wherever this was. He had no clue who she really was. She began to grow anxious about what she should actually tell him about herself.

"How?" He asked.

Larkspur stood speechless, momentarily realizing just how much of a mess she was in for.