A Light in the Shadows.

The Gang

I was deep in thought as I reached the palace.

I pulled back not wanting to go back to those claustrophobic corridors, yet knowing I must. I surveyed the palace, the towers, the walls around it, and a couple of the dragons flew overhead, laughing.

I finally found the courage to enter the castle.

I immediately felt smothered as I entered the castle.

I realized how much I missed company from my age that didn't treat me as 'the queen' but as a regular person. The whole world knew of me but I was isolated.

And most likely I would never see Jelequi again.

Toughen up I told myself you knew her for a couple hours. Yeah, I argued with myself and you finally remembered you're just a teenager like everyone else your age. All I wanted was to go and read a book, but there was so much else to do.

I spent the rest of the day ordering guards around and pushing my brain to the max trying to figure out anything about the uprising.

So pretty much an average day for me.

I can't keep doing this. As soon as I think about it I know it's true.

Jelequi has shown me that there's more to my life than just ruling a kingdom. Astra bursts into my room just as I get out the book I've been dying to read all day. I try not to groan as they came in. "what is it darling?" I asked patiently, "I just wanted to say goodnight" they chirped. "Ok, goodnight,  Astra"

"Goodnight."

They bounded out of the room, a constant whirlwind of energy.

I suddenly realized how sore I was, being that Jelequi landed on top of me after rolling down a hill.

Still, even as a human it was harder to hurt me, some sort of dragon morphing magic-y thing.

I thought of Jelequi again, her green and gold eyes, her shining silver hair, the way the world brightened when she smiled. And why was I thinking about this? I knew her for a day.

My eyes closed as I tried to battle against the inevitable; sleep.

Spoiler: it didn't work.

I fell asleep before even reading a page of my book. My last thoughts were of gold and green eyes.

I woke up with a start, after the usual nightmares and five hour sleep. I needed caffeine.

Badly.

I went down to the kitchen, preferring that than ordering a maid to get it for me.

I've only been on the throne for thirty years, a short time in a dragon's multi thousand year life span, and I still hate ordering people around. Unless they annoy me.

Speaking of, I better go check Caspian's gone. I stumbled a couple steps toward the earth guards space, before deciding to get my priorities straight and headed to the kitchen.

The cooks already have my daily coffee ready, having figured out my five hour sleep schedule, all they had to do was figure out when I went to bed.

"Thank you." I told the maid who brought it to me. "Of course your majesty" she said. I sat there and stared moodily into my drink for a little while. Green and gold.

No.

I put my hands over my eyes, trying to block the sudden migraine, to no avail. Silky silver hair. No. Focus. I did this for about an hour. Green. Gold. Silver. I realized I still had her flower tucked into the pocket.