When the prince came to the summer castle, it had dragons.
“Begone!”
“But we-”
“It’s my castle.”
“We are homeless. Please.”
“Well… okay.”
There was a princess in the main hall.
“What are you doing here?” the prince asked.
“Dragons, castle, princess. D’oh.”
“But… my holiday!”
The prince sighed. “Fine. You can stay.”
“Ah…” The princess looked embarrassed.
“If you want to, of course.”
“Oh, yeah. It’s not that.”
One of the dragons coughed. “Can the other princess also stay?”
“The other. How many of you are there?”
“Four. Two dragons, two princesses.”
“Are you guys…” the prince hesitated.
“No,” said the princess.
“Yes,” said the dragons. “No, not us but-”
“Never mind. Do what you like.”
The other princess came in. “Oh. You,” she said.
The prince sighed again. “Of course. How are you, sis?”
She sheathed her sword. “Fine.”
“So…” the prince looked from his sister to the other princess.
“Yes! I defeated the dragons-”
“Chess,” the dragon said.
“And saved her!”
The prince looked at the first princess. “Were you held captive?”
“No, I was waiting to be rescued.” She glared at him. “We put posters up!”
“Ah,” the prince said. “Yes, I saw those. But… um…”
“What my brother isn’t saying, is that he doesn’t want to marry you. Or anyone.”
“Oh, that’s why you tore our castle down?” one dragon said.
“Wait, what? What about chess?”
“That was after she’d fought us to standstill.”
“It was an amazing rescue,” the princess said.
“So… you’ll marry her?” one dragon asked.
“And live happily with her?” the other asked.
“Yes!” both princesses said.
The dragons smiled. “We are happy.”
They turned to the prince. “Now you.”
The prince backed. “What about me?”
“We have a castle, and a prince.” The dragons giggled. “Soon a prince or princess will come to rescue you.”
The prince drew his sword. “No!”
His sister stepped up next to him, sword in hand. “Stop!”
“We’ll give him a happy ending!”
“I was happy! I don’t want a prince or princess!”
“Everybody needs somebody,” the dragons said in unison. “You do!”
The princess looked at her brother. They both sighed, then struck as one.
“I have somebody,” the prince said. He kicked a cut-off dragon head.
His sister punched him on the arm. “Dork.”
“You too.” He punched back.
Live-written as sixteen tweets. I just intended to write a single tweet, but someone asked what happened after, and I started to write. It took a little while to figure out where it was going, but I’m quite happy with it. Although it seems the ending is controversial, as some consider dracocide a horrible crime. I can’t really argue with that.