Dragon of the Flames

Chapter 8

"Thy Highness!" the squeaking voice of a turquoise servant fairy woke up Sweet with a jolt. The fairy was fluttering all over the place, in a state of panic.

"Thy Highness! Thy Highness! What are thou doing here? Where is thee o' poor Sweet? Thy Highness, are thou awake?" the chatter of the nervous servant fairy was a routinely thing for Sweet. With a slightly grim surprise, Sweet realized the mirror's enchantment had worked.

"Calm down, Wendi." Sweet murmured slowly, sleep still slurring her speech a bit. She'd gone to sleep merely a few hours ago, and as she stretched and uncurled herself on her bed-nest, the excited tittered on.

"Where is Sweet? O' where is thee poor poor Sweet? Why are thou sleeping in her bed?" Wendi fluttered around Sweet's face, leaving a trail of turquoise sparkles behind her as she did.

Sweet was facing a serious decision for so early in the morning- should she let in her private servant fairy in the secret, or did she have to lie? Sweet knew there was a limit to her capacities at lying, but it seemed pretty obvious that she had no other choice.

"We woke up in thee middle o' thee night looking for her and... er... We couldn't find her so We fell asleep." The lie was pathetic, horribly gaping with holes and too short to be believable, but the fairy took in the excuse. She was too busy being honored to be talking to Her Highness to realize what was actually being said to her.

"Oh Thy Highness, thou mustn't have slepeth in such a place, 'tis place must be horribly too rustic fo' thou, o', let me go alert thee cooks, thou must be famished waking up..." Sweet had never be spoken to in such a manner by her servant fairy before. Wendi and her were so close to each other, they were more then friends, they were allies, best friends, and even if she tended to get scared or too excited sometimes, she adored Wendi and wouldn't ever replace her for any other servant fairy. Seeing herself being treated so differently because her appearance had changed made Sweet uneasy.

"'Tis fine, Wendi, I'll... We'll manage." Sweet said slowly, clearing away the last clutches of sleep with a shake of her head. The fairy seemed stung by a needle as her name was pronounced.

"O', thou know o' me name!" The fairy giggled sheepishly. "'Tis such and honor, I must say, to be speaking with thou in person!" Sweet nodded, feeling a pit fall in her stomach as she lied even more to the fairy.

"We haveth... er... royal duties to attend to. We must leave now, and find... Sweet... and Clay, yes. Who isn't my brother. Yes." Sweet's voice was hardly a whisper at the end.

Sweet hastily crawled away from the fairy, who was still fluttering around in excitement. Leaving the room without another word, she creeped along the halls in her usual, timid manner.

"Thy Queen of Dragons!" an adult male with earthly colors greeted her hello as he passed by, equipped in some average guard armor over his scales. He stopped and bowed his head in front of Sweet.

The disguised female stopped, tense. What was she supposed to do in a situation like this? She didn't know the guard, and none of them ever addressed her, perhaps because of her ordinary look. Now she was the Queen. She had to act as the Queen.

Sweet cleared her throat and lifted her head high up in a dramatic fashion. "'Tis a lovely morning." she decided to go for a polite approach. She didn't know if the Queen was supposed to know the names of each and every guard, but addressing the guard in the way she had meant she wasn't obligated to.

She must have done something very wrong because the dragon seemed surprised to be acknowledged. "Yes, Thy Highness! Very much so." the guard bowed again and continued his march, to Sweet's relief. Hopefully she'd find Shadow somewhere and soon enough...

"Thy Queen! Thy Highness!" A stern voice shook Sweet out of her reverie. Elder Mana was approaching her, the female looking much aggravated.

"Thee are up late for a such important day!" The Elder stopped Sweet in her track, and hardly in character for a Queen, the disguised she cowered back, never addressed like this towards the Elder before. She was Elder Mana's favorite. She has read every book in the royal library that the Elder had told her to (and perhaps every book she hadn't, too) and written countless resumés in her pastime about them to Elder Mana's delight.

Then something clicked in Sweet's mind- Shadow hardly liked Elder Mana. The tales of how Shadow, an average learner compared to her predecessor, was hardly to Elder Mana's taste. On Shadow's side, she hated listening to Elder Mana's instructions and stories, she found them long and time wasting- a time which she thought could be more preciously used flying outside with her friends or racing.

On Elder Mana's side, she complained of Shadow's marks and of her incompetency to finish her projects and do as she was told, or just to arrive on time at each of her classes.

"I-important day?" Sweet echoed the Elder's voice nervously, trying her best to hold a fearless look that Shadow had whenever she was addressed to. How credible she was acting as Shadow, Sweet wasn't really sure.

"Yes! Thy education o' oneself starts early in thee day! Thou must awake before thee light o' dawn." Sweet eyes turned round. Did Shadow wake up every day before dawn? Sweet's classes lingered around noontime, a bit before and a bit after, and the rest of the time she'd either be nosing around the royal library or working on her tasks around the castle, including working her educational projects out of class time.

"With thee wedding plans soon ahead, thou wil' be overridden wis' tasks. I haveth been assigned to help thou." The glare that Elder Mana gave her seemed to be sending the complete opposite message- that the Elder was there to make sure she did what she had to do. The pressuring feeling of pushing a rock down her stomach made Sweet realize how nervous she was feeling.

"Yes, yes, 'tis wonderful." Sweet laughed nervously, and then stopped. "We do not haveth classes right away, though?" Sweet was hoping to finally meet up with Shadow to plead for help. She was having a hard time playing her role as Queen.

"No." Elder Mana looked grim at that, the intensity of her glare making Sweet swallow with difficulty.

"We haveth duties to attend, we wil' haveth to part ways-" Sweet, speaking in her royal tone, was cut short by the Elder.

"Thou and I haveth important buisness to attend. A treaty with thee dwarves has t' be treated in thee morning when thee delegates arrive. Then we must go speaketh with Azure's parents about thee wedding details, and after that thou must go t' thy classes, and..."

Sweet's felt herself become pale under her scales. When would she ever find the time to see Shadow? Her whole day was surely booked!

"We think that a mistake haseth been made-" The glare struck her on the spot. Elder Mana's word were incontestable.

How would she possibly get out of this giant mess...?