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But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Our 

would-be hero's name was Ellery, which is a 

boy's name, as he'd had to inform everyone 

he'd ever met. His adventures and troubles 

began, as all too many do, when he met a girl 

for the very first time. I know what you're 

thinking, wouldn't that be when he was a 

baby? Yes, well the thing about Everglass is 

that it is a very unusual kingdom. From the 

age of two boys and girls are completely 

separated, until the age of eighteen. It was a 

practice first implemented by the fourteenth 

king of Everglass, no one really knows why.

The law was revoked by the sixteenth king, 

but our story is during the time that it was still 

practiced, so Ellery had never met a girl his 

age. in fact the only women he'd seen in real 

life were his mother, the old spinster cook, and 

the maids (who being past their prime and 

usually covered in dirt or dust were not much 

to look at in the first place. You can imagine 

the backlash this law created, and why it was 

practiced so long is beside me. But it was, and 

Ellery never thought much of it. Girls didn't 

seem all that great when he was a little boy, 

and the stuff about love he read in books as a 

young man made him a little sick to his 

stomach.

Whenever a story spoke of a fair maiden or 

beautiful damsel, all he could picture was 

Hilda, the terrifying old cook.

You would think that anyone who was destined 

to be a hero, upon seeing a damsel in distress 

(in this instance about to be eaten or roasted 

alive by a fearsome dragon) would 

immediately rush to her aid. But you're 

forgetting two things. First that Ellery had not 

yet actually become a hero who would rush 

blindly into a dangerous situation to save the 

day. And secondly, Ellery had grown up 

knowing absolutely nothing about girls and 

how they were different than boys, so he 

thought she would have been taught, as all 

Everglassian boys are, how to defend oneself 

in case of a dragon attack.

Now, don't get the wrong idea, Everglass was 

a very forward thinking kingdom, and women 

were given the same privileges and education 

as men. However, because of the law 

instituted by the fourteenth king, boys were 

reared in schools in the North side of the 

kingdom, where dragons, enchanted forest, 

and all sorts of dangers flourished. The girl's 

schools in the south however, were by the 

ocean. Had the girl encountered a pirate or sea 

serpent, she would have been prepared. In 

fact she grumbled this infuriating piece of 

information under her breath as she tried to 

figure out how to get out of the situation with 

all her limbs in-tact, when she saw Ellery.

"HELP ME!" She shrieked, in a half demanding, half 

pleading voice. She was furious that he was just 

standing there watching when a dragon was about 

to devour her, but still terrified enough to beg. 

Realizing his error, Ellery quickly jumped forward, 

drawing his dagger and plunging it into the 

dragon's weak spot a the nape of it's neck. Then he 

grabbed the girl, dragging her behind the nearest 

large boulder, just as the dragon exploded, the 

blow knocking both of them to the ground.   

Once the blast was over, and all had been 

quiet for a few minutes, Ellery finally decided it 

was safe to get up from where he had tackled 

the girl to the ground. The GIRL! He nearly 

yelped, scrambling to his feet and finally 

getting a good look at her. She was dirty, and 

scratched up a bit, her dress was torn. But she 

was also something he had never thought a 

girl before: beautiful. Not old, or wrinkled, or 

plain, or haggard, like every other woman he'd 

ever meet had been. She was probably around 

his age, with long, silky, auburn hair, bright 

brown eyes, and--and she looked downright 

furious; which was something he was used to 

from women.

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