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Day 10 - A Queen Forsaken

100 Day Writing Challenge
Day # 10
Prompt: “The kingdom was like a quilt…”


Amani crept down to the river, holding her breath as she passed her parents’ quarters. She dared not wake her father. Not only would he be enraged over losing precious sleep when he had to wake up early to tend the farm, but he’d be unhinged knowing where she was sneaking off to.
The frogs croaked out their evening sonatas in the fields around her house. She hopped over the fence and weaved her way through a grove, flailing her arms about her as she crossed through an invisible swarm of gnats. The river below babbled loudly, and she climbed up a tree that stretched out above it.

The river fed water into the farmlands, snaking from the Great Sea. Her village benefited the most as the water swelled to about half a kilometer wide through much of region until it began narrowing to a few meters wide throughout the rest of the kingdom.

Her fingers and toes were nimble as she scaled the mighty oak feeling the night’s breeze brush up against her in a soft greeting. The moon’s faint glow was all that guided her as she moved with muscle memory, reaching the top of the 20-meter oak. The wind swayed her platform as she edged her way to the large branch awning over the river.

No matter how many times she’s sat upon this same branch over the past few weeks, staring into the mesmerizing flow of the river below, she still felt a tinge of fright. Understandably so, for thrice had the wind nearly knocked her off her perch and sent her to a plummet to the earth below. Flickering of lightning bugs dotted the landscape beneath her, eyes against the darkened night.
She stood confidently at the edge of the branch, took a deep breath, and leaped off into the air below.

Swoosh.

Just moments after her feet left the safety of the branch a pair of glowing lights from the river took flight and emerged from the darkness as the eyes of a river dragon. The dragon swooped up Amani upon its scaled back which prompted an outburst of cheerful laughter from her.

“Good evening,” the deep voice of the river dragon shook Amani.

“Hello, friend.”

“Where would you like to soar to this evening?”
“Anywhere you’d like, but soar high for I’d wish to see the kingdom under the light of this beautiful moon.”

The river dragon conceded and shuttled up into the sparse clouds, reflecting the moonbeams off of its gray scales. Amani never dared to visit with her dragon friend during the day, for dragons were a warrior’s beast, unfit for the command of a girl. And yet, this dragon was a child of the river and has known no war. Her heart was pure and Amani could feel a connection to this magnificent creature.

Not only would she face the scorn of the village for encroaching upon the role of a man, but the dragon would be be captured an forcibly domesticated into a war-dragon. Amani hated the world of war her kingdom was engaging in, and she especially was appalled at how her own village was beginning to take steps into the way of the sword, abandoning the plough for a dagger and shield.

The river dragon dipped below the clouds to reveal the kingdom which was like a quilt, divisions of farms and roads, markets and cities, the palace and its courtyard. The diversity enraptured her; the beauty enthralled her. Such a sacred land ought be shared among the inhabitants therein and not bled over for power and greed.

“I’ll become queen of this kingdom one day,” she said to the river dragon. “I’ll put an end to the senseless warring and invite peace to our lands. Dragons will be respected for their beauty and strength and not belittled to war beasts, bent towards death and destruction.”

“Such a day that will be indeed,” the dragon hummed in a reverent hoping. “Yes, upon my back, the river’s dragon, shall you guide this kingdom into an empire of harmony and peace. Your genuine soul shall be the saving grace of a land long-delayed in the shadows of war.”

Amani leaned forward against her dragon friend. One day she will have the courage to appear in the light of day with her dragon and fight for her place on the throne. One day she’ll take what is rightfully hers and become the reigning empress she was born to be.


- (c) Kevin Barrick 

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