Cimorene

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Cimorene is the heroine of Patricia C. Wrede's novels dealing with the Enchanted Forest (Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, and Talking to Dragons). She is a nontraditional princess, too tall, with jet-black hair. In addition, she likes things that are not at all proper for a princess to like. She follows a toad's advice and runs away from her castle and an arranged marriage. In the first book, Cimorene finds herself "dealing with dragons" as the princess of the dragon Kazul. While living in the "dragon city" (an extensive cave system populated exclusively by dragons), she learns magic, cleans and cooks, organizes the library, and becomes entangled in dragon politics. She also meets three other captive princesses, two of whom are satirical representations of the usual fainting, weepy, sentimental princess of fairy tales, the kind of princess Cimorene is not. These three princesses were truly captured, while Cimorene volunteered to be a dragon's captive princess, thereby increasing her unusualness. She later helps discover that soapy water with a little bit of lemon juice can melt wizards. She uses this to stop the rigging of the colin's stone ceremony. Cimorene also meets a very clean witch named Morwen in this book, who becomes a strong supporting character in the other books.

In "Searching for Dragons", Cimorene meets Mendanbar, King of the Enchanted Forest, while searching for Kazul, the new King of the Dragons ("King" is the job title and has nothing to do with the gender of the dragon holding the office). Throughout the adventure, Cimorene and Mendenbar get to know each other and eventually fall in love and get married. They also meet the magician Telemain, the Giantess Ballimore, and many wizards from the Society of Wizards (some of whom they melt).

In "Calling on Dragons", Mendanbar's magic sword has been stolen, and Cimorene must retrieve it from the Society of Wizards. Mendanbar cannot leave the Enchanted Forest with the sword missing or wizards will be able to steal large chunks of magic from the forest. Mendenbar is upset at being left behind because Cimorene is pregnant, but as a member of the royal family, she is the only other person who can touch the sword. Led by a giant rabbit named Killer who has been enchanted (and later becomes a blue floating donkey with wings), Cimorene, Morwen, Telemain, Kazul, and some of Morwen's cats set out to track down the wizards and retrieve the sword. When they return with the sword, they discover that the wizards have attacked the castle and imprisoned Mendenbar. The dragons erect a magical barrier around the castle to keep the wizards out, but the barrier inside that (made by the wizards) can only be taken down by the sword, which only be used by Cimorene's unborn child. Cimorene decides to live on the edge of the Enchanted Forest and raise her son in obscurity until he can wield the sword.

"Talking to Dragons" centers around Cimorene's son, Daystar, though Cimorene appears occasionally as "Mother" (Daystar narrates this novel) until eventually she is reunited with her husband.