Kiploft

Demands

      "I wouldn't hit you May," says Tuck with a gentle tone.
"Sure you wouldn't!" I yelled back. I'm tired of his little "jokes". This time he walked up to me and pretended to punch me in the face.
"I didn't flinch."
      Instead of continuing the conversation he walks away. That certainly did hurt. Now I wish I hadn't yelled that I'd do about anything to take it back right now, this is the one feeling I hate, regret.
      Tuckafire is the one person who truly knows me, he doesn't know all my secrets, but he knows how to stop me and he knows my signs. There's no way to get untangled.
      The day has been long. I spent hours getting ready for the festival we host every year. People from the humanical world somehow find a way over here for the festival. They think it's all jokes, fun and games. None believe it's real. A few times I've heard the word Halloween but I have no idea what it means.
It's the time of year that it just turns bitter cold. Then I think of how the robots will feel, sharp cold. What happens if they attack, if they kill the humans? What will I do? I can't let my country know we are too weak to fight a couple of robots. That it isn't safe here. Though I can't lie to them either, that's Tucks job.
      The festival starts in a few minutes. The castle has been decorated with orange and black capes draping over the doors. Maids put a black screen in over the windows so people couldn't see straight inside, plus it adds a fireary touch to the look. My place is the throne. For hours I must sit here to meet people of names I've never heard of, dressed in things I've never seen before. I must act strong, but seem kind. My every touch, my every wink, my every move must be perfect. There are specific ways I must act to be seen courageous, like I am the best leader my country can possibly have.
      Tuck comes in from behind me to take his seat to the left of me. Sitting by my twin brother for hours, silent or whispering about things suspicious. Plus the tiny argument I got myself into will add the tension.
      "Starting in three, two!" Yells general, not as information, but as warning.
      My feet trample before me. We were not to rise but I had to. My heart was just torn and flittered to ash as if it had been burnt by a Hither.
"My lady, you must sit," demands a maid racing to my side.
"The people," my voice faint. The maid urges me to take my seat again but I refuse. No one is here. The doorway was empty. Normally it crowds with people flying in trying to get something from me and Tuck. But no one is here, it's empty.
"Tuck, are they afraid?"
      He shrugs. I try to stay calm as I march out my own double doors. There's no way we decorated all this for nothing.
People were walking around enjoying the festival, every inch was filled, though no one wants to see their queen.
      I can't escape the feeling growing inside me, I'm sad. I've never felt more un-needed in my life. The next feeling is almost worse, but I know it's not. Fear. I see about twenty robots flooding the festival. What they're doing here, that I don't know.
When I run inside to tell Tuck, he isn't there. My eyes scan the intrance of the castle in panic.
      "Where is he?" I murmur, "Where is Tuckafire?" I practically scream in someone's face. Inches from him. And then I realize who he is.
      "William I'm sorry, I didn't-"
      "It's okay," he says holding out his hands, "I understand. And he's in the next room talking to some guy,"                       William rolls his eyes to the side like it's un-nessassary but I know better.
I bust open the doors to see Tuck, sure enough he's not talking to some guy. He's chained to a chair. Hands grab my wrist trying to tie me up as well but I'm stronger and I throw him to the ground.
      "You underestimate your queen," I breathe. Tuck laughing at me calling myself by my title to become.
      After I lock up this curel man in our cells below, there's nothing to hold me back from questioning him. Tuck leaves to entertain any of the people who decided to come in from the festival.
      "What is your business here man?" I question hard. Hard enough that I could break his nose with my words.
Silence.
      "What do they call you by?"
This one he decides to answer.
      "Johnathan."
      "Are you human? What is your ability?" I ask a few feet from the iron poles that make a wall he is locked behind.
      "Metal Bender, ma'am "
      "Call me to your belief," I say almost looking him in the eye, I can not make that mistake.
      "I've had enough," he mumbles beneath his breath but clear enough that I can hear.
      "Excuse me?" I ask.
      Johnathan heaves a sigh and pulls a black box from his pockets with a red button in the middle. I watch as he lowers his finger to the button. That's when I realize the man has lost two fingers but wears a ring with a picture of a frog on his pinky finger. Before the words I expect to fall out of my mouth come, the ground shakes. The shake is rough and hard. It lasts so long I begin to think, "Earthquake!" I yell. Causing the black box to fall through the bars of the cell. The shaking does well to stir my nerves. I try to walk but it's no use, I fall until my face hits the concrete floor. I feel something unusual, something, mushy beneath my fingers. Once I noticed more fear came but I try to hide it. My fingers had pushed the red mushy button. The shaking comes to a quick stop. And yelling above me grows louder by the second.
      As I race the stairs I try not to fall. I am afraid. I'm afraid water is drowning the castle, I'm afraid Tuck is not safe. My mind rushes with panicked thoughts and what ifs. I reached the top of the stairs to find robots raising axes and swords over heads and fearful people. Outside sounds calm so my duty is here.
      "STOP THIS!" I yell. Suddenly the robots freeze. Not a spark of a robots musscle, not a tear falling down a face. I have frozen the attack. What have I done? What it wrong with me?
The cruel crisp word slips through my teeth and they do as I say, "Metal, die."
      The robots calapse. I just forced, metal to kill itself. I can't fathom what I've just done. There is blood on my hands, no, metal.
      Tuck finds me across the room, "I think you just found your main power," he grins.
Oh, that.
      "My-my what?" Comes out instead.
      "No time to explain," Tuck says rushing me down to the cells.
      "Explain this?" I say to Johnathan as I hold the tiny box in my fingers.
      Next I find myself with my hands around his throat. It takes all of Tuck to pull me off.
      "I don't know what I've done. I don't know who I am," I speak in a low calm manner, as queens should.
      Instead of pushing myself. I place the tiny box in Tuck's hand.