Strings of Sin

Chapter 6

But he was only a dragonet, so what did it matter? What did he know anyway? Who cares! Who cares! Forget it!

And so he decided to bow to show respect to authority.

Queen Thorn smiled strangely and spoke with sweetness. "You two are different. A normal nightwing would never bow, not after that war... and I've never met an icewing who acted so... funny-" And the queen started laughing like her subjects did before, and she leaned down on her knees to face the dragonets snout to snout. Then, she spoke kindly. "Would you dragonets like a place to stay? My palace is always open for free food and drink, just like my old days at The Scorpion Den with the pool food, haha, that was a nightmare. So anyway, I would love to give you two a nice stay away from the dark, cold night outside with all the hospitality that my kingdom has to offer because the days of big wars are behind us now, right? And I would love to get to know two fans of mine as well." The queen winked at one of the guards near the entrance as if she knew what had started the whole burst of laughter and reached her wing out to greet December and Stardom formally.

December indulged in the greeting, and Stardom was confused by it. The lack of exposure to other dragons damaged him greatly, and that's exactly why he decided to leave home in the first place. He copied December with uncertainty, and Queen Thorn looked pleased.

The queen turned her body around and announced. "Guards, return to your posts! We are all clear here! I will take these dragonets into my own talons now!" She slapped her tail down on the chiseled sandstone ground with great force, and the sandwings reassembled themselves. "Follow me, December and Stardom."

Queen Thorn took the dragonets further into the palace, and December couldn't contain her excitement. "It's an honor to meet you, Queen Thorn! I love The Dragonets of Destiny, and your daughter is an awesome heroine! I wish I could be a... hero too!" The icewing dragonet slowed down to think for a moment and disregarded her identity when she looked up at the queen with a blue blush and flustered eyes.

"You are quite strange, little icewing," Thorn laughed as she gazed around at the beauty of her palace. "Any fan of The Dragonets of Destiny is a friend of mine."

"You are too kind, just like in the books and scrolls!" December commented with great enthusiasm. She lashed her tail back and forth like a puppy and leaned toward the queen with a grin. "Can I ask you some questions about the dragonets?"

"Okay, sure," Thorn uneasily answered, unsure of what she was about to get herself into.

And the unimportant conversation between the two dragons faded away as Stardom thought of more important things. He scanned the hall and gave his attention to details of the rooms, the dragons within those rooms and the society that made those dragons function to build and maintain those rooms. He watched the strings.

He watched the servants dance around the halls and picked up on the fact that Thorn's kingdom consisted of free dragons. They seemed to be too happy. They had responsibility, but they still were given time to enjoy life. The queen didn't give out free food in her palace where he came from, and the nightwings were miserable. Or maybe they were just ungrateful like his father always said about poor dragons. They were born into a life where their destiny was decided for them, and wouldn't you think that they would learn to be humble? Sometimes you can't control what happens to you in your life, and Stardom knew a thing or two about losing control of things. And maybe if society was more perfect, he would have more control over things and some dragons wouldn't have to be poor.

Thorn's version of government seemed better than his because she was raised to be humble, and her sandwings were taught the discipline of this idea. The idea of being grateful for what you have and having a little more free time, didn't that sound wonderful? If only his queen wasn't so... whatever her problem was because he had no idea why she was the way she was. Why are dragons so confusing? No wonder nobody has made an effort to give us all true equity. And he believed his destiny was to give us all that much-desired equity one day.