“Amé! Amé!” Kalissa came running
into her mother's room, chasing one of the tiny palace dragons. Every
room was infested with them.
Princess Atina finished wrapping her
long hair with a gold cord and tied it off. “Kalissa, do not run,
heartling. You will fall.”
The child scooped up her dragon of
choice and brought it to her mother, holding it up excitedly. “It's
blue and purple and purple and blue, Amé!”
Her tiny striped tail whipped back and
forth. Atina's gaze softened and she wondered for the millionth time
if her newest child would have Kalissa's slightly rounder ears and
protruding nose. They got it from their father, she was sure. All of
her own kind had flat faces and sharply pointed ears.
One of her ears, as if cued by her
thoughts, flicked backwards and caught the sound of footsteps. One of
Kalissa's small ears also twitched, but didn't seem to be capable of
the full range of motion that Atina had. She snatched a plainer
feathered headband and used it to push Kalissa's hair out of her face
just as the door to her chambers opened.
The queen mother stepped in. As always,
she was the epitome of grace and elegance.
“Atina, heartling-” She began, then
stopped to sneer at Kalissa. “What is she doing
in here?”
“She
has as much right to see her mother as I have.” Atina said
smoothly, moving between grandmother and granddaughter.
“A
disgrace.” The queen muttered. “Atina, it would do your father
good to see you for a few minutes today. He lets his duties consume
him. He fears if he does nothing than the clans will consume him.”
Atina's
lavender skin paled to pink. “Surely it cannot be as bad as he
thinks?”
The
queen drew herself up, her deep purple tail arched regally. “It is
worse. And of course, you know you are the cause of it.”
“My
choices were not made to-!” Atina stopped mid-sentence when she
realized Kalissa was staring up at her with wide eyes. “Heartling,
do go play.”
Kalissa
hesitated, then ran off, still clutching her dragon.
“She
even plays with the vermin of the castle.”
“Amé!”
Atina looked shocked. “She is your flesh and blood!”
“Only
half my blood.” The queen retorted. “A true child of my flesh and
blood would have a healthy amethyst glow about her, not that sickly
pale orange.”
Atina
quivered in anger, her earrings jingling. “As I had intended to
say, my choices were not made to throw the clans into a frenzy. Aupé
and I agreed that a diplomatic marriage was the best chance to soothe
relations.”
“Your father was wrong.”
Felling tears sting her eyes, Atina
lifted her chin and said proudly. “Our relations with Humanity are
better than they have ever been in our entire history. They all love
my husband. And me as well. President MacFinley would never attack us
if I merely asked him not to. The problem is the clans. I cannot
understand why they find it so difficult to accept a human as their
prince. He has never done anything to harm them, and he never will!”
“Atina, your mind has turned like old
fruit!” The queen looked horrified, shocked and angry all at once.
“Think, heartling! Ethan MacFinley is not only prince, but crown
prince! When your father passes away, heavens forbid, he will be king
of the clans! They fear that was the plan the entire time. To
infiltrate our country and usurp the throne. Can you not understand
those fears? We have no desire to go to war with them, but neither do
we wish to merge ourselves with them and lose our identity and
culture!”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
There you are! I know it isn't a LOT, but I went over fifteen minutes, and it was extraordinarily difficult to squeeze that much out of my brain. Probably because I haven't been writing very much recently. So. Pick another one, and maybe Hannah will take a turn to write. Or should Hannah and I both write about the same picture, so you get 2 stories per picture?
-Trinity
OK. HI. I LOVE THIS.
ReplyDeleteOK. BYE.
Oh, good! It's not my best, so I was little bit worried. :)
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