Shiver

Chapter One- Queen's Favorite Pet

* ~Hey Guys this chapter will get you going on the world of the Druj and how Lilya grew up, so why not take a trip down memory lane?VOTE VOTE VOTE or comment too ^^ Pic is of Lilya ~*

She grew frustrated with her search. Her spies were utterly useless at this point, it seemed they couldn’t set their eye on what the Queen wanted exactly, which meant one thing- she would have to go out and search herself. It was bound to happen with her craving for the perfect pet.

    The old had died; the child plummeted of the bridge guarded by the Queens creatures, a tragedy that the child’s ‘nanny’ would pay for dearly once she returned to her tribe’s home. Now was the time of the winter hunt, a time where the Queen and her six wolf Naxturus, highest cast of druj, and her fellow hunters, would travel to sister tribes, reminding them of her power.

    She growled leaning against a tree lightly and stared out of the haunting forest to the village nearby. They had left offerings each year of useless things, bread, preserved fruits and even a basket or two of kittens, which actually came in handy to feed the Queens guarding creatures. With the offerings they expected no harm to come, but as the Queen glared at the village longer she noticed a young woman holding a bundle, rocking it lovingly and singing a beautiful tune.

    The Queens lips turned into a smirk, her new pet was in that woman’s arms. She stood straight and snapped her fingers, ordering her right hand man, who was currently a large, intimidating wolf to her side. She held her head high and whispered him back into his human form.

A bald man, just as beastly and intimidating as his wolf form appeared and bowed, “Mazishta?” he asked, calling her by one of her many titles, this one meaning “greatest.”

She turned to face the woman and the child, “That’s the one I want. Get it.”

He nodded and straightened, whispering a chant that turned him into a crow, and flew off, the Queen knew he would come back successfully; now all she had to do was wait. Soon she would have her prize and feel oddly complete, at least for the first few years of its life. The pet would be spoiled with attention from the Queen, as if it was a princess itself, oh it would know the difference however, of course it would soon figure out it was different. After all, the Queens soul, all of her people’s souls were nonexistent. Humans have an odd way of seeing so, some internal instinct could tell them. It would probably find out from the Queens lack of warmth beforehand though.

She went to sit in her sled while waiting for her Naxturu to return. The others rested by a small creek; they knew she found her prize, the ripple of excitement was clear. She smirked once again; this one would not die so easily. She would get it a better ‘nanny’ and in its first few years of life it would hardly leave the Queens side. Afterwards the maids would look after it, and eventually it will take care of itself. When the time came to where it ‘grew up,’ and reached childbearing age, she would do what she did with every other one, mate it and have it bear the next pet, who knew what the Queen would do with it after it gave birth? Kill it? Or just let it go live with its own kind?

It didn’t matter at the moment, her Naxturu had returned with a small, pink bundle carried in its beak. The Queen stood, every one of her wolfs watched as the crow dropped the infant into its mistress’s arms. The Queen handled it carefully as she moved the cloth out of the babies face. The beautiful child started at the Queen silently, a well-behaved child, she smiled down at it with a mother’s tenderness and gently stroked its warm, blushing cheek.

“Will you name it Izha? Like the others?” her favorite Naxturu, Erezav, asked.

She blinked as something pulled at her in the back of her mind, “No…no she is Lilya, after the lily.”