Strings of Sin

Chapter 6

"Hey! What business you have coming here, nightwing?" one of the guards asked and leaned their head uncomfortably close to Stardom.

"Yeah! And an icewing too!" another one squinted their eyes to get a good look at the two dragonets in the dark.

"Are you from the school?" the guard, who held the deadliest spear, questioned and inspected the dragonets.

Stardom and December looked at each other, expecting each other to have a plan, and December spoke up first. "We are here to see Queen Thorn."

"And why would an icewing and a nightwing want to see Queen Thorn?" the sandwing guard furthered his interrogation.

"Because we are big fans!" December cheered as Stardom kept the most disappointing look on his face. "I love Queen Thorn, and I want to meet her so bad! Can I please come inside, at least?

And the guards looked at each other, just as Stardom and December did before, and the leader spoke up. "Bro, that's weird but okay." And all the other guards threw their heads up and laughed, snorted and wheezed.

December grabbed Stardom by the wing and pulled him past the laughing guards, and once they reached the inside of the palace, they were met with more guards. December groaned as all the guards turned and faced them with curious eyes. The distant sounds of easily distracted guards filled the room with confusion, and then the laughing grew contagious as some guards in the palace were pressured into laughing too. Before Stardom and December knew it, an epidemic of laughing started in the palace as more and more sandwings started to laugh for some reason. And the two dragonets easily snuck past all the guards, thanks to December's ridiculous behavior. Then, that moment passed as Queen Thorn herself came to investigate the ruckus.

And when the queen spoke, her subjects immediately shut their maws. "What is going on here?"

"Breakfast!" one of the sandwing cooks called as he came out into the great hall, holding a platter of meat for the queen to eat.

And December silently giggled as Queen Thorn gazed at the dragonets before her. "Are you students from Jade Mountain Academy?"

"No," the icewing dragonet responded honestly as Stardom began to shake his head up and down.

Thorn waved her talons dismissively at the cook who dashed over to her and kept her eyes on the dragons in front of her. "Then, who are you? And what's with the noisy entrance?"

"Your guards are an easy crowd," December blurted as sandwings all around the great hall began to look at each other and nod. "I am December of the icewings, and this is my friend, Stardom of the nightwings." The icewing dragonet brought up confidence through her comfort and bowed to the queen with respect.

Stardom debated on whether he should bow or not bow because would his father bow? He struggled to respect authority, at times, because they were so brittle. His father could snap Queen Thorn's bones in half and easily become the new sandwing ruler, and so could his father do that to all the other physically inferior queens. But then there were queens, like Snowfall, who hid behind magic and were less brittle. So if a dragon could so easily overthrow a government, why weren't they all at war still? Was his father really ever sated by the sweet taste of brutal victory in the war against sandwings? Why is society still standing if we all have the capacity to hurt the entire force of nature?

So would he bow to someone elected to be above others or not bow? A simple act of respect it would be, but it was a pointless act because it was not invented by nature. Bowing did not have value because nature never said there should be bowing, and nature never sprouted society... so is there any value in society? Society's only purpose is to limit the capacity of a dragon's ability to hurt, so should there even be a society?