The Queen

9.

Being a queen is hard work. They make it seem so easy in the movies and on TV shows. All ballgowns and parties and court gossip. It's not like that at all.

 

Jin has been teaching me about court etiquette and the layout of the region. The Kings have been letting me sit in on their meetings and learn the types of issues their people go through and what they do to fix them. I was surprised to hear that they govern the humans as well and the humans loved it. The Dark Region wasn't at all what others made it out to be.

From what Kirian and Zeus had told me, the Dark Region was a terrible place. A place full of cruel monsters governed by warlords. But it wasn't that at all. The people here weren't terrified of their rulers, they loved them. People bowed to them with smiles on their faces and when the news got out that a Royal Wedding was going to take place, everyone in the Region cheered as if it was a member of their own family. In fact, all of the people were invited.

 

Planning a Royal Wedding and a coronation wasn't an easy feat either. It seemed like every few minutes, someone needed Mt attention on every little detail. To say I was under some stress was an understatement.  In fact, I think the stress was starting to get to me.

I was in the ball room, where my wedding reception was to be held. The throne room was where I was to be coronated and wed but the Kings were using it now. I was standing in the middle of the room with my personal handmaiden. She was a sweet young woman named Coralie. She reminded me a lot of Dani in a way. She was smaller than Dani and had freckles and bright red hair, but she had the same sweet and positive attitude that Dani had. And she just so happened to be a vampire. That was probably the biggest difference.

Roc was standing a few feet away. He was always with me as my new guard. He loved that I chose him and was excited to stay in the castle and not go back to the woods. He said it was an easier time watching me than the barrier.

Coralie was showing me different types of fabric and decorations for the wedding reception. I was standing and Jin had forced me to put shoes one and I could hear myself click as I walked. Sapphire was flying around, spreading her wings as much as she could above us. She was getting bigger, about the size of a car or truck and wouldn't be able to fit in the castle soon. I assumed she would be as big as Roksha soon. She came to land beside of me and I rubbed her head gently as she landed. She made a purring sound from her throat as I loved on her.

"What do you think about this one, your majesty?" Coralie asked as she held up another piece of fabric.

"That looks just like the last one you showed me," I said as I grabbed my head and tried to rub the headache away that was starting to grow there.

 

"But the stitching is different on this one," she said with a pout of her lips.

"Do you really think people are going to pay attention to the stitching?" I ask her with a laugh.

"They might!" she says.

"I think they will pay more attention to the catering and alcohol than they will that," I say.

"The Queen has a point, Coralie. Most of the folks around here will want to get drunk and full of Royal food than anything," Roc says from the corner of the room with his arms crossed over his chest.