Princess of the Wolves

Chapter Seven:

I woke up among a sea of covers along. I had spread out, but I still didn't take up a majority of it. I had turned on some music, because I couldn't sleep in the stony silence. My earbuds were still in my ears , but the music had stopped since my iPod had died sometime through the night. I pulled them out and jumped back when I noticed a figures siting on the edge of the bed.
"You know you look so peaceful when you sleep."
I threw a pillow at him, and said, "That's creepy!"
He cocked and eyebrow, and smiled, saying, "Ouch?" like it was a question.
"Shush," I told him, "I'm supposed to be mad at you."
He looked lazily at me, "Ditto." He coughed, then went on, "I'll have you know I got a wonderful night's sleep on that couch in there." He laughed. The "couch" had a hard back on it made of wood and was cramped and small. His back was arched like it hurt, and his eyes were red and bloodshot.
"I did too," I responded to him. I laughed at my face that had dried tears on it.
"Better than me," he said with a sad smile on his face. I then realized that he had checked on me during the night. "About last night..." his voice got low and quiet.
"Don't worry about it," I told him; I didn't want to talk about it.
"No," he replied, "Let me finish." He was calm now, so I let him go on. "I worry about you, okay? I want peace, but if anything happened to you, I wouldn't hesitate to have send in a whole army. That fact you didn't care is what bothered me." I nodded at him, trying to understand. "And that's about it." He then came over to me, kissed me on the forehead, and left without a word.
Then, the day went on a usual. Anne and the other maid, who was seemingly a mute, came in, fixed my hair, pulled me into a dress, and slathered creams and makeup on my face. Then, I was off to the Queen in the library with a book on the history of wolves and a notepad. The library was, although open to everyone, the unspoken domain of the Queen. I didn't mind coming there, because the Queen seemed to be more at peace their. I sensed that she loved history and reading, but I had never seen her page through one or even open a book. She looked studious and well learned. Often, she sported a pair of horn-rimmed glasses and had an important stack of papers in her dainty hands. I knocked three times on the open door before entering the room. That was one of the rules, a knock of three times and four if one was the help. The library had wall to wall shelving and ten more rows that touched the ceiling like columns. In the middle of the room was the Queen's desk. She sat at the huge wooden desk that had carvings of things like the Lunar cycles. I sat in front of her in one of two leather chairs that were separated by a coffee table that had a lamp and a pile of dust, ancient looking books that were also bound in leather.

She didn't look up form her work, "Well, I see last night didn't quite go as planned did it?" I stayed quiet; she looked at me over her glasses. "Cat got your tongue?" She waved her hand, dismissing the thought, "Anyway, I thought what you did was incredibly brave?"

"Thank you," I responded quietly, the added, "Dimitri doens't seem to think so."

"Ah," she responded while writing something down, "Well, I would've never done it myself personally. Please know that he didn't mean anything by his actions. He's very protective of things in which he finds important. Many find that a quite redemable quality. His father is the same way. Dimitri has a lot to offer to the world I suppose, but he has a lot against him. It isn't my place either. That is up to you."

"I see," I responded to the Queen who was nonchallantly sipping at a cup of morning tea, Earl Gray if my nose and senses served me right.

"That is your duty," she replied, and I waited for a longer, more drawn out lesson. It never came, though, and the Queen cleared her throat and said, "You may go now. That is all for today."

"Thank you," I curtsied to her and almost ran out of the room before she could change her mind.

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Sorry for the short update! I hope to have another chapter up by the end of the night!