El Turnia: Becoming Fire *DISCONTINUED*

Chapter 28: The Statue Garden

The Royal Statue Garden had been built by Queen Sunbeam a few years after my mother was born. It was a large area full of winding paths and surrounded by a wall of tall hedges. Statues were laid in the miniature gardens planted all along the paths and by the walls. The statues were of famous war generals standing proud and tall, queens in different regal poses, and heroes of El Turnia wielding spears or striking down enemies. The were even a few of my mother and father standing together and smiling and strangely enough there was one of Time Warper that seemed to be in the middle of striding around in his aloof way, it also perfectly depicted his stupid face with 100% accuracy. But in the middle of the garden was the strangest statue I had ever seen.

"So... are you telling me that is Lunacy?" I said pointing my hoof towards the statue.

It was of Lunacy, of course. She had her arms outstretched, her claws unsheathed, and her forked tongue visible between her long fangs. Her long figure was completely encased in stone giving her the resemblance of well.... a statue. Christilia nodded.

"Yes." she replied. "The Tokens encased her in stone, I don't know how, though."

Four unicorn guards had been stationed in around the middle of the garden and had created a shimmering blue force field that contained the stone dragonequus. They were standing still but I could see they would fidget nervously every now and then as if the expected Lunacy to burst out and kill them at any second.

I shivered as a cold breeze swept over the garden, rustling the hedges. It had stopped snowing as we left the hospital and now it was just plain cold. I winced slightly as the freezing breeze touched my neck. A few days ago the nurses had let me take my bandages off and I had finally seen what Lunacy had done. Most of the skin had grown back but my white coat would never grow there again, so I was left with five long scars on the back of my neck.

It's not too bad, at least I'm not half blind...

I glanced over at Christilia and felt a pang of sympathy. I wanted to wrap my hoof around her comfortingly, but I wasn't really sure how she would react to that. As I stared nervously at the statue a new thought hit me like a bolt of lightning. A very, very absolutely terrifying bolt of lightning.

What if she escapes?

I trusted the Tokens of Peace and all but I couldn't shake the feeling that she was bound to be able to break out of that stone prison in no time.

"Are you sure this is the safest way to keep her in 'locked up' ?" I asked Christilia.

"Well the Tokens trapped her in stone and I'm not exactly open to the idea of breaking that stone even for a second just to put her somewhere else that may or may not be safer." she replied with alarming calmness in her voice as if she wasn't at the least worried about it.

Well maybe I'm just paranoid then....

I rustled my wings anxiously and stared down at my hooves.

This place creeps me out. I really don't know why we have statues, their just still and silent and.... weird.

I shuffled my hooves stirring up the gravel path and watched the dust swirl away into the grey winter sky. I shot a glance at Christilia but she was staring vaguely off into nothingness.

"Sooo... should we head back inside?" I said braking the silence. "I need to get... uh ready to be queen again right...?"

She didn't respond. But I could see different emotions flit across her face annoyed, angry, sad, understanding, and then back to annoyed again.