A Joke Almost Made Me Dead

However, I encountered some pranksters. They thought it was funny to pretend to let me go sporadically only to catch me just above the ground. I didn't even have the energy to consider what kind of twisted world this was, apart from the fact that it was somehow fantastic, but to treat people like that?

If I had to come here, couldn't I have come to a better place?! Okay, I'm not saying I should be a king or some crowd favorite, but wasn't I somewhere at the bottom of the social ladder again? I thought about a second chance, but not like this. I get it, ending up in the hospital where they'd barely save me, and only then would I realize how much I was wasting my life. Since then, a complete 180-degree change: I take care of myself, normal work hours, healthy meals, gym or running, self-improvement, hobbies, and so on. Maybe I could experience a little happiness, finally, after prolonging my life enough to have more time to find it?

Assuming I really did die, I decided I was screwed. At least not at that moment, and for now, I had no idea how to improve my situation. And that was the problem. Changes involve risk and commitment, things I'd rather avoid.

I looked down and noticed that more buildings had appeared; at least that's what these strange structures looked like. Finally, the flight was stable enough for me to take a closer look, although in this world, I guess I couldn't be sure of anything. I didn't know if my kidnappers had gotten tired of playing or if the change of scenery meant they couldn't afford such antics anymore. It seemed they were serving some function, as they had become more serious.

We were heading towards the most impressive structure, where someone important seemed to live. They didn't take me inside but threw me on the ground next to a small annex. Although I wasn't a confrontational person, in a normal situation I probably would have been outraged that I didn't want to be treated like a sack of rice, but this kidnapping couldn't be described that way at all.

"I think I'm getting too old for this," the shorter of my captors commented. "My whole body hurts from the lifting."

"You're stuck with this job anyway," the other one muttered, his mind on a completely different topic. "We have to do something with this man before the princess has some time, if she's even interested enough. Do we have some kind of prison?"

"Just a bigger cage, I guess, but I'd need a moment to get it. Put him here for now." He gestured to the structures behind me. "Make sure he doesn't hurt himself anymore. I don't want it to turn out that we've been tormenting ourselves unnecessarily."

I sat quietly, hoping to placate them with good behavior and at least get something to eat and drink, because those needs were starting to demand attention too. I longed for a good bath; I felt dirty and injured, and besides, there was still some dried blood on my face and in my hair. Still, I couldn't contain my curiosity as I listened to my captors' conversation. At least I learned that it was probably a monarchy. Then a light bulb went off in my head, and I remembered that before takeoff, they'd said the princess would be happy to see me, whatever that meant. Could I have assumed this was my chance to establish a good relationship with the local royal family?

Finding this perspective lifted my spirits a bit, at least enough to forget that they were about to put me in a cage. In this world, are people really that low-status? What's really going on here? Don't we all play first fiddle? I don't know how many times my stomach had churned with hunger, and I was gathering the courage to ask for something to eat when we all turned toward the noise coming from the outbuilding.

It was only then that I realized it was actually some kind of pantry, filled with numerous wooden barrels. One had tipped over, and the ground had turned a darker color where its contents had spilled. I thought my captors would react somehow, but they just looked at each other and shrugged expressively.

"Prince?"

"I suspect so." I could now quite seriously assume that this shorter dragon-human must be higher in rank or age. At least more important than the other one. "He probably went off somewhere again and hid when he saw us. The king isn't so lenient with him anymore, and now he doesn't want to get caught. And I wonder who will clean up this mess?!"

He must have been having a bad day, and this situation was the last straw, and now he needed to get everything off his chest. I was surprised they were discussing such matters in front of me, but I listened with curiosity. I was afraid to assume they had forgotten my presence and tried to escape. So, I raised my hand, as if to check how seriously I had been wounded, which immediately caught their eye, so the impression they didn't care about me was deceptive.

"Is the prince our problem? I thought he probably wouldn't leave the castle."

"Unfortunately. From the beginning he was drawn to the wall, but he's been acting strangely lately, so the king asked me to keep that in mind." The taller, but less important, nodded understandingly as the other expressed his dislike for the royal heir. "I'm so glad the crown doesn't pass to the eldest, because I think I'd plan a coup myself if he were to rule us."

That statement made the other one laugh, and it would have knocked me off my feet if I were standing there. A coup d'état plan expressed with such carelessness? I could have told someone, but they clearly didn't care. Finally, they remembered about the cage and that it would be appropriate to take care of me somehow, to make me appear more presentable before the princess; after all, they wanted to show me off to her.

Being in the cage not only deprived me of comfort but also brought a sense of humiliation. Even after I was given a bucket of water, drank, and washed my face, I still couldn't shake the thought that I'd already been stripped of my humanity. I knew humans could inflict the worst fates on others; I never thought such a thing would even occur to me.

I sat for the rest of the day and night, hunched over, cold, still hungry, and convinced someone was watching me closely, even though I was certain it wasn't one of my kidnappers. However, I tried to focus on devising a plan and finding something in myself that could impress the princess, like charm. I couldn't really rely on my appearance unless I looked completely different here. I wanted to check, but it wouldn't do much good in the dark, and I'd make a racket anyway. Maybe she'd find me funny? Surely women or dragon ladies liked guys like that? But what kind of sense of humor do dragon-people have? That was my conundrum for the next few hours.