Dragon Queen: Book One-Scarlet Reign

Chapter Twelve- Hidden Village

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"Mommy! Mommy!" a young Aelwen pit-pattered her way down the castle hallway, coming to a stop at the open doorway of her mother's office. She gave a wide grin, holding up a piece of paper covered in all types of scribblings.

Queen Liriel looked up from her great oaken desk. Her hair's golden curls shimmered in the dim light emanating from the ball of magic before her. She waved a delicate hand in the air, motioning for Aelwen to step inside.

"Hello, Aelwen. What do you have for me today?" She gave a smile to her daughter in return.

The little princess strode into the room (almost tripping on her long green dress), and proudly handed the paper over to Liriel.

"It's another picture I made!" She pointed at a crudely drawn kitsune. "That's Kia!" Then she moved her finger to a stick figure covered in green and brown. "And that's me!"

Liriel chuckled and took a closer look at the paper. "That looks very nice. I like the colors. I see you and the fox have gotten along well?"

"Yea, she might be new here but I already told her she's my best friend! We decided to draw each other. Oh! And mom, she can draw with a floating pencil!"

"Hmm?"

"She lifted it with her magic and drew with it! She says it's because she doesn't have hands. Tee hee! I told her that's really amazing, but she just said she wanted hands. So then I told her that having magic floatey powers are better then hands, but she said she doesn't think so, so then we got in a fight." Aelwen tapped her chin. "It turned out ok though. We agreed that it would be the most amazing if a person had hands and magic floatey powers."

"I see, good thing I have both then," Liriel waved a wand she held in her other hand, causing the paper to float upwards. A frame of magic appeared around it, and it was secured to the wall.

"Wooow!" Aelwen said in awe.

"There! Now I can look at it every day." Liriel looked back at her daughter. "Anything else you want to tell me?"

"Oh! Wait! Wait! I need the picture back!" Aelwen hopped up and down. "Please! There's something on the back I have to show you!"

Liriel shook her head and smiled, taking the picture back down and floating it into her daughter's hands. Aelwen turned the it over. On the back a black piece of paper was glued, upon which was drawn a deer in white colored pencil. Liriel froze.

"I had to put black paper on the back, since my white pencil wouldn't work on the white paper. Anyway, I heard daddy sing a beautiful song today while he was walking in the garden. It was about a pretty white deer with floaty horns who was very nice and loved everyone. I decided to draw her!"

A strange expression crossed Liriel's face. Her voice lowered. "You say your father sang it?"

Aelwen nodded, confused. "Yea. It was nice. By the way, why don't you sing for me anymore, mommy?"

Liriel gripped the paper tightly, causing the edge to wrinkle. "What do you mean?"

"You used to sing me songs at bedtime, I think," Aelwen said, cocking her head to the side. "It's a little hard to remember, but I know you used to. Why don't you do that anymore?"

The strange expression crossed Liriel's face once again, this time making Aelwen even more confused.

"I see." Liriel got up, taking the wrinkled picture with her. She strode out of the room, her purple dress swishing elegantly around her long legs as she took precise steps.