๏nce upon a time, there was a beautiful princess named Mallymkun, but she was stolen away from her home as a child by the great dragon known throughout the lands as Lazaerus. Or at least that was the rumour that spread far across the seas and brought countless knights and princes trying to save Princess Mallymkun to the ruined castle of Mortham Keep.
But she was never a captive. Lazaerus stole her away, yes, but one thing no mortal soul seems to understand is that a dragon is capable of knowing when someone absolutely special is born into the world, and if that dragon believes its connection with that babe is to be one of fate, it is that creature's sworn duty to protect the babe for all eternity. There are some dragons whose babes have long since grown and died that lay over their graves to uphold their eternal duties - their promises.
Mallymkun's birth triggered the protector's intuition within Lazaerus, and as he watched her from afar for the first years of her life, he fell into shambles, Her parents did not seem to realize she existed, leaving her with nursemaids throughout the days and eves. When he could take the neglect no longer, he crept into the castle and to her bed chambers, successfully unnoticed until a nursemaid came to check on the princess to see a ghastly scaled human-like creature holding the child in his arms. The maiden screamed, startling Mallymkun and enraging the great dragon.
He reverted to the massive structure of his true form, destroying the tower the nursery was in and setting flame to the apexes nearby in his blind rage. With the princess delicately in claw, he flew out into the night, towards the castle he claimed in the southern swampish lands that very evening as their own.
From the first moment the girl was in his care, he gave her nothing but his utmost attention. He protected her from fiends storming their home in attempts to take it back, spared her from the terrors of nightly sounds by making it so his heavy, warm breath was all that she could hear, and spent each moment of his time teaching her the ways of the dragons so that she too may protect herself one day.
But one evening, nearing her ascension into adulthood, a group of men stormed the castle and used ropes made of steel and spears of iron to quell the dragon's fiery rage by way of force. The prince of Baelish himself passed through these knights to claim the princess as his, dragging her away hand-in-foot from Lazaerus as he thrashed and bellowed for his babe to be left be.
Several seasons passed before the dragon freed himself from his restraints, his anger more aroused and pure than any he had experienced before. He would get his beloved Mallymkun back, but with the tact that would keep future incidents from recurring. So he practiced, perfecting his transformation skills and gradually coaxing the more prominent features of his dragon blood from his appearance, the most difficult and final being the texture of scales and faint hints of dark forest that could be seen if one got too close to him.
The dragon lord made his way through the countryside, crossing rivers and trekking through woodlands for eight days and nine nights to get to her, all while gathering respectable pieces of armour and fabricating his identity while in the humanesque form. Two days after his arrival in Baelish, he received notice that he had gained audience with the court of the king - his rival prince's father. This news boiled the hot blood in his veins and caused him to lose slight focus, allowing the squire he had been speaking to to see the golden split of his reptilian eyes for the time it took him to blink it away.
The next morn held the time of his audience, and Lazaerus was more than prepared. He stood before them all - the counts and countesses, duchesses and dukes, the king and his queen, the prince himself, and her... His dearest Princess Mallymkun. The silver armour he had acquired gleamed proudly over his body, his sword an attest to the fire in his soul by the way it sparkled in the candle light, the shield bearing a dragon crest at his side as beautiful and polished as if new.
"Your Highness," he spoke through the hall directly to her, "I come to thee in times of peace in the lands of Baelish to offer myself completely to thee. I cannot fathom what soul would wish harm upon thee, but should such a corrupt man exist, I shall vanquish him in thy name. My sword is but a feeble extension of my loyalty to thee, my shield a wayward tool to keep thy body untouched by the foulness of the land and sea. My body belongs to thee, and exists solely to serve thee, Princess Mallymkun. In this I swear true, by the name of Ser Liam Russo."
