The Courtship of a Queen & Her Knight

Out With the Old

Heat. It was everywhere.

On her skin, in her lungs, molesting her eyes and making them water. Everywhere. It was hard to breathe, hard to move, hard to live.

Which, by the looks of it, perhaps wouldn't be for much longer.

The fires licked at her boots, at her skin, and caught the edge of her dress, turning the soft satin to crispy, black matter. Sweat was not allowed to form on her brow, the heat stomped its formation with quick evaporation. Not that she would find any relief here.

Only misery awaited her here... misery and the giant, angry, and red figure looming over her.

She could not scream, she could not move, all she could do was stare up at the beast's giant bulk hovering over her, threatening to crush her if it so desired by merely setting its hand down to squash her like an insignificant insect.

But she was not insignificant, and neither was the beast, so when it did extend a hand down towards her it was not to inflict death and pain. Rather, long fingers, as thick as tree branches, reached for her.

Even now she could not move, could not escape... could not scream.

The light of the fires of Hell were not enough to keep the darkness away: the darkness created by the great hand that grabbed her, enclosing around her... consuming her.

Bean was being consumed by heat, darkness, and the Devil's hand...

That is, until she woke up.

With a start, she sat up in her bed, drenched in sweat, blankets tangled around her legs, and her breaths were nothing more than shaky gasps that barely inflated her lungs.

Bean was shaking, she was... terrified, and barely contained herself from crying.

She looked around, she opened her mouth to call out, for anyone... Luci? Elfo? Wait, no... they weren't there... Elfo had been kidnapped by ogres and Luci had still yet to appear after being resurrected as Pendergast had.

She... she was alone, alone to mull over her traumatic experience, to bring her knees up to her chin and wrap her arms around her legs and rock gently. The images of her nightmare were still fresh in her mind and, quite possibly, she could almost still feel the fires of heat still licking across her exposed skin.

"Oh, boy..." she muttered, frowning as she hid her mouth behind her knees, as her worried eyes looked up to see the sun beginning to peek up over the horizon.

Morning already... so much for getting a fews hours of sleep, huh? She had wanted to have an exhausted night's rest after staying up for nearly the entire night (what with the ogres' invasion, her trip down to Hell, her rescue, her conversation with Pendergast, and then finally Bean oversaw the start of her project that was making sure that Hell's express elevator could never be used again), but nope. She'll have to check on that first thing this morning...

"Oh my God- listen to myself? I sound like... ugh, a responsible adult..." she bemoaned, laying back down on her pillow with a flop.

Bean desperately wanted to fall back asleep, but even closing her eyes for a few moments brought the flash of the Devil's sneer glaring down at her and eyes snapped back open.

She jumped again and groaned when her bedroom door swung open and Bunty's smiling, round face appeared.

"Rise 'nd shine, Y'Majesty! Tis' anothuh beautiful day!"

Bean just groaned and covered her face with a pillow.

Thankfully, Bean managed to get through the morning without too many yawns and only a couple sips from her flask. Much to the surprise of Bunty, and Bean herself, was the queen's declaration to her handmaid that she was going to try to not drink as much during the day. That by itself was enough to make the matronly woman gasp, but then Bunty really had to sit down when Bean asked Bunty to dress her in, well, a dress.