Yuletide Reveal

[geri_chan]

This is a bit very late, but here is the story that I wrote for Yuletide:

Harriet the (Would-Be) Dragonslayer (3360 words) by geri_chan
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hamster Princess Series - Ursula Vernon
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Harriet Hamsterbone, Mumfrey (Hamster Princess)
Summary: Harriet just wants to find an evil dragon to fight, so why do the dragons have complicate things by being...not so evil?

I actually discovered the Hamster Princess childen's book series when I saw it on last year's list of Yuletide nominations, so I decided to check it out and it was awesome! Harriet is a badass princess who would rather go cliff-diving and fight Ogrecats than learn embroidery or attend deportment lessons, much to her mother's dismay. Each of the books takes a familiar fairy tale plot and gives it a fractured fairy tales type twist, turning into something uniquely hilarious. The first book is based on Sleeping Beauty: Harriet is cursed by an evil fairy to prick herself on a hamster wheel and fall into a magical slumber on her twelfth birthday, and there is absolutely no way to avoid this fate. Rather than be depressed about it, young Harriet realizes that this essentially makes her invincible since for the curse to work, she can't be killed before she turns twelve, and proceeds to have a grand time going on adventures until then. (I'm sure it will come as no surprise that she manages to find a way to break the curse, and proceeds to go on having adventures.) I also love Harriet's battle steed, a quail named Mumfrey whose vocabulary consists solely of "Qwerk," but he and Harriet understand each other nonetheless.

This fic was inspired by a short description of Harriet's dragon-fighting adventures in the first book in which she rescues helpless maidens from dragons, and in one case, rescues a helpless dragon from a maiden. In the book, Harriet is actually a little too good at jousting with knights and fighting bad guys/evil creatures, to the point where they start to avoid her or give up being bad, much to her frustration. I combined the two ideas and came up with a story about Harriet being thwarted in her quest to find an evil dragon to fight. I had a lot of fun playing with Harriet's world and creating a not-so-evil dragon for her to meet.