Morphed into Love, Book 2

3- The Beastly Realms

OPHELIA

"I'm bored, Fee."

"Yes, so you keep saying." I mused, being pulled out of my immersive fictious world by Yoko's whining once again. This time, I made the decision to set my book aside because her persistence was far greater than my patience.

"How much longer do we have to go?" She asked me, picking at the hem of her dress. She'd been doing it so much over the past few days it had started to fray.

"A few weeks." I hazarded a guess, "We'll make it to Morpher's Land by the end of today."

"I wonder what state it's been left in since the war." Yoko tried to scare me with wiggly fingers, "I bet it looks super creepy!"

'Ah, yes. I can't wait to observe the ruins of my ancestors', I thought.

We'd been travelling for about a week, and as each day went by the journey got harder and harder. If it wasn't Yoko complaining, the horses were too tired to meet our goal for the day and if it wasn't that then it was the Flame and Aqua mages at each other's throats. I was slowly going mad, and we'd barely made it through a quarter of the trek.

"Would you quit sparking up flames? It's stuffy enough in here without you trying to smoke us all to death." The Aqua sorcerer complained, whose name I'd learnt was Amos.

"I don't remember agreeing to take orders from a sap like you." The Flame mage replied, spreading his legs and taking up far too much room. His name was Logan, and I wanted to wipe the smirk off his face if it meant he'd stop talking. But, being Sovereign Queen and whatnot, I made sure to stuff the idea into my box of fantasies and 'what-ifs.'

"If you could both quiet down, that would be much appreciated." I mumbled, opening my book again.

"Apologies, Your Majesty." Logan nodded his head, "I just thought you might be chilly—"

"It's warm enough, thank you." I was trying terribly hard to remain pliant and docile. But the men were truly testing every ounce of patience I had. Yoko wasn't exactly helping either.

"I am a tad bit cold, Fee." She chipped in, shuffling her bum an inch to the left, then to the right, and then to the left again. She was like a dog that couldn't get comfortable.

"See, water boy?" Logan smirked in Amos' direction, "Lady Yoko appreciates my concern."

"You don't serve Lady Yoko; you serve the Queen. You'd do well to remember that, Logan." Amos folded his arms and pouted. He was a tall, slim blond with the type of blue eyes that rivalled even the brightness of my own. He was also the person annoying me least in that moment, so I sided with him on this occasion.

"Stop the carriage, please." I called through to the driver, "I'd like to stretch my legs."

Amos looked at me with gratitude, his cheeks had gotten progressively more red over the past hour and it was all because of Logan's meddling. A moment later the carriage came to an abrupt halt and the door on my right swung open.

"Your Majesty." Our driver held out a hand for me and helped me step down, "It's not exactly the safest place to stop, so I'd advise we only stay for fifteen minutes or so."

"Pardon?" I brushed down my dress, exhaling, "Why's that?"

When I finally looked up to observe my surroundings, I didn't need an answer. The ground we were walking on was entirely charred, a hardened mixture of greys and black. The entire sky was littered with dark clouds, though there were no signs of oncoming rain. In fact, the air was so dry it was hard to breathe.