For three hundred years, no one had seen a dragon above the kingdom.
People believed they were extinct.
The old legends said that the last dragon had disappeared on the night the moon turned completely silver.
But the legends were wrong.
On that night, a young woman walked alone through the forest.
She had been searching for the same place for years.
No one knew her real name.
She never spoke about where she came from, and she never told anyone why she carried an ancient silver pendant around her neck.
But every night, she dreamed of the same thing.
A golden door.
A burning castle.
And a dragon flying above a kingdom that no longer existed.
That night, something was different.
The forest had gone completely silent.
There were no birds.
No wind.
Not even the sound of insects.
Then she heard it.
A low, distant roar.
She slowly looked toward the sky.
A massive shadow crossed the face of the moon.
For one terrifying second, she saw the shape of enormous wings.
A dragon.
But before she could move, the creature disappeared into the clouds.
She looked down at the ground.
The pendant around her neck had begun to glow.
A strange golden light spread beneath her feet.
The earth started trembling.
And then…
a portal appeared.
It looked like a doorway made of fire and light, spinning slowly in the darkness.
She had spent years searching for it.
And now it was finally here.
But there was something she didn’t know.
The portal had not opened because she had found it.
It had opened because something on the other side had finally found her.
She reached toward the glowing circle.
The moment her fingers touched it, thousands of memories rushed into her mind.
A magnificent kingdom.
A royal family standing on the steps of a golden palace.
Hundreds of dragons flying above the towers.
And a little girl being carried away from the burning castle by a woman wearing a silver crown.
The girl looked exactly like her.
She stepped back in horror.
The memories continued.
She saw the kingdom falling.
She saw the dragons disappearing one by one.
And she saw a queen standing in front of the portal, holding a newborn baby in her arms.
The queen was crying.
Then she heard her own voice from the memory.
“When she is old enough, bring her back.”
The woman froze.
She finally understood.
The memories weren’t someone else’s.
They were hers.
She had been the child.
The last princess of the forgotten kingdom.
And the woman who had raised her had erased her memories to keep her alive.
But there was one final memory.
One the magic had hidden from her for all those years.
She saw herself as a child standing beside a huge black dragon.
The dragon lowered its head toward her.
And the little girl placed her hand on its forehead.
The creature wasn’t attacking the kingdom.
It was protecting her.
Suddenly, the portal began to grow wider.
Something enormous moved behind the golden light.
The woman stepped closer.
Two massive eyes opened in the darkness.
The dragon had returned.
But it wasn’t alone.
Behind it stood the ruins of the kingdom she had thought was destroyed forever.
Thousands of lights began appearing inside the ruined castle.
One by one.
As if people were waking up after centuries of sleep.
The woman stared at the impossible sight.
Then the dragon lowered its head and knelt before her.
And that was when she heard a voice behind her.
A voice she had not heard since childhood.
“We have been waiting for you, Your Majesty.”
She turned around.
An old man stood in the forest.
He slowly removed his hood.
And on his chest was the same silver symbol as the one around her neck.
He smiled.
“The kingdom can finally return.”
The woman looked back at the portal.
But before she could step through it, the old man whispered one final warning:
“There is only one problem.”
She turned toward him.
His smile disappeared.
“The dragon wasn’t waiting for you to save the kingdom.”
He looked toward the burning portal.
“It was waiting for you to destroy it.”
