Royal vs Dragon

Chapter 4

Kaylee:

I looked straight ahead and saw some guy looking at me.  At least, I think that he was looking at me, anyways.  I couldn't exactly tell because I was surrounded by guards on all sides of me at present.  I'm not exactly the tallest person in the world, either.  I might be rather tall for a girl, but there are plenty of other people, especially what seem like to be boys, taller than me.

I was a bit confused by everything.  Like, why was I meeting up with what looked like the king and some other noble.  I could tell by their clothes and how they seemed to present themselves to the world.  When they're not bending over a table or most likely sleeping, their backs are most likely always straight and they have this sort of air of authority.  You can sense that they mean business.

A guard to my right cleared his throat and said in a deep, clear voice with what I thought was about all the authority he could muster, "My king and lord prince.  We have brought you a new servant girl."   Servant girl? Really? I folded my arms across my chest and narrowed my eyes at this remark.  He makes it sound like he thinks that I'm below him and not worth his time!  "She will be working as a maid for you.  What would you like us to do with her?"

"Just take her to her room in the servants quarters.  Any empty room would be good."  The king replied not even looking at me.  It's like I'm invisible here!  My face starts to turn into a bit of a pout.  Both of my parents just died and now I'm not even being seen, as in seen-not just acknowledged that I'm there-but actually seeming to not be noticed as well.

I stood on my tiptoes and tilted my head this way and that with my arms by my sides and hands shaped into fists, trying to get a better picture of the king, and apparently, his son-the prince.  My prayers were answered.  I finally found the perfect spot to be able to go and look at the royals.  I regretted my wish about being seen almost immediately.  The prince looked like he was staring right into my soul with his freakishly intense gaze.  It made me stumble backwards a bit at the impact.  I caught myself though and that's good.  The guards looked at me like I was nothing and a burden on them right at that moment.  I didn't want to be here with the handsome prince with the black hair and pale skin and piercing blue eyes.  I wanted to turn around and just run away from here.  I wanted to run away from me and my life.  I wanted to go back home and have my father and mother still alive.  So, I turned around and started to try and run away from everything but didn't get that far, because once I ended up turning around he was there.  One of the guards I guess, saw me turning around and figured out what I was going to do.  He looked at me with that angry and stern face of his and I turned my head from side to side;first to the left and then to the right.  There was no pity there.  I didn't even bother to turn around to look behind me at the other guards that were on the other side of me, no doubt looking at me with the same expressions on their faces.  I turned back to face the guard in front of me and he looked menacing to me.  I closed my eyes and brought my arms up in front of me with fists clenched in a defensive position out of panic and anticipation.  I was scared to say the least.  How could I deal with everything?  I don't want to know, because I don't want to deal with everything.  I felt a hand close around a forearm in front of me and turned it in about a ninety degree angle in front of him while jerking me forward.  The jerk caused me to open my eyes and call out in pain and surprise.  I looked around me and all was in chaos, even though I wasn't sure why.  Why was everything in chaos?  Guards were closing in around me and ended up tying me up and holding me in front of one of them, forcing me to get on my knees and bow before the royal family.  If this was how things were around here at the palace, then I guess that I should consider myself lucky in the regard that I didn't ever have to come to work for them beforehand.

"What's going on here!"  The prince bellowed in his deep voice.

The guard that was forcing me to kneel and bow to the royals relaxed his grip a little bit on me and answered him, "She tried to turn and run away sire."  As if that explained everything.  Everything hurt about me at the moment.  I was glad that my blonde hair covered my face a bit because I was crying at the minute.  My wrists hurt from the binds that tied me and my feet ached from all of the walking and my head hurt, which I was assuming was from being dehydrated and being in the hot weather that didn't help at all, and I just plain hurt!  I could feel and see some of my teardrops dripping and falling to the ground and landing on the marble floor.  I tried to lift my head up but the guard just ended up reapplying pressure onto my head.  This time, extra hard and jerky.

"Enough!  You will release her immediately!  We never gave you the orders to treat her this way, and so you shouldn't treat her this way to begin with!"  The prince bellowed once more as he took what sounded like a step forward, and I was betting that he had his index finger pointing at them in general as well this time.  Each time the prince bellowed I could feel his voice reverberate in my bosom.  Well, at least I knew that he didn't want to kill me or have me treated this way, yet.  That didn't sound very reassuring though.  Time to man up and hopefully not let things get to me very much.  I didn't exactly want this to be my last day at life here, or to spend the rest of my time in the dungeon.  I really hope that he was a good guy and wasn't a rich, snobby, jerk instead.  One could only hope.

Devon:

I was appalled at what was happening to the servant girl.  I felt my face blush in raw anger at the sight of it and I just couldn't stand it.  How they were treating here was horrible!  Not even a palace dog was treated that way!  She was being treated worse than any animal!  I couldn't just stand there and watch and so I bellowed to them, "What's going on here!"  That seemed to get them to stop, somewhat. 

They still were being rough with her but it looked like their muscles relaxed a bit as the guard who was forcing her into a bowing position replied without remorse, "She tried to turn and run away sire."

What lovely guards we have, I thought to myself, sarcastically.  I was so mad at them right now!  Did you ever hear the saying, "Treat others how you want to be treated?"  I thought to myself some more.  I took a step forward and I pointed with my index finger at the guard and bellowed once more, "Enough!  You will release her immediately!  We never gave you orders to treat her this way, and so you shouldn't treat her this way to begin with!"  It was during that time that I saw tears dripping onto the floor.  I couldn't help but get more angry and break a little inside when seeing that.  I wonder why?  I thought.  They released her and she was able to get up.  She looked up at me with what looked like tear streaks running from her eyes.  Both of her hands were in tight fists by her sides and she lifted her left hand up and wiped the back of her hand on her face, wiping her face dry from the overflow of tears.

She brought her hand back down and looked at me.  Her eyes were guarded and wary though.  Even so, she still nodded her thanks to me.

My father issued their leave by just flicking his hand in the air, and they left, taking the young girl with them.  They closed the two golden doors behind them.  I watched as they left.

My father called me back to the here and now mumbling, "Well, that could've gone better."

I turned my head toward him and raised and eyebrow in a "you think" look.  Then I found my voice and started yelling at him saying, "Why didn't you do anything to help her Father!  She didn't need to go through all that!  You'd think that she was a monster or something, when in reality she was just scared and probably homesick or something!"  I couldn't help it.  I was just a very sensitive guy, I guess.

"I didn't interfere, because I felt like I didn't have to," my father said in about as calm and emotionless a voice as possible.

I was just shocked.  My mouth hung open and I just stood there without moving.  I finally got a grip on myself and shouted at him, "'I didn't interfere, because you felt like you didn't have to'?!  Well, gosh!  That's terrific!"  I sarcastically told my father.

His cheeks were turning a deep cherry red right in front of me.  I had my arms crossed over my chest ready and waiting.

"You realize that you got it to stop, even though I didn't, right?!"  He retorted back, pointing a finger right in my face.

I didn't want to take this anymore and so I turned my back and started to leave, but before I left through the doors I turned my head about forty-five degrees to my right with the chin close to my chest and called to him, "You know what?  When I am king, I'm not going to always stand there watching when there is a helpless person standing before me with who I might think needs help.  Kings are supposed to help keep the peace and not encourage such acts of brutality if it can be avoided.  Especially, in ones own house."  I left and shut the door behind me.  I decided that I needed to work on my swordsmanship to hopefully help take care of my so-called anger issues.  So, I turned on my heel to my left and went on my way to my room to go and grab my sword and then travel back into the courtyard to go and train.