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Queen Una held on to the dragon’s scales for the long flight back to the mountain. As the cold wind blew across her eyes, she became drowsy and nodded off with the exhaustion that came with destroying a civilization. In her dreams she saw her father roasted alive on the throne of the giants, and she felt remorse for what she had done to her father. A mighty laugh passed through the background of her mind, as of a jester who had grown a little too happy with his own jokes, and she suddenly felt vulnerable and afraid. With a start, she woke from the nightmare just as the dragon landed safely on the courtyard of her palace. Before she could dismount, the stranger appeared before them with his hands proudly on his hips. He clapped his hands once and rubbed them together greedily as he cast his eyes upon Queen Una.
“Death, destruction. Ooh, they make me shiver with delight,” the stranger said as he grinned deviously at his servants. “What a night of grand pleasure this has been, Queen Una. I could not have asked for anything more terrible from such as you,” he chuckled, and the dragon listened distastefully at the stranger’s revelry. “I see you feel differently, monster. No matter. You cannot undo what you have wrought.”
“Burn him, dragon,” Queen Una commanded, and the dragon gladly unleashed a bellow of flames that engulfed the stranger entirely. When he had finished, the smoke dissipated, and the flames changed from white to red and smoldered out on the ground, but the stranger stood unharmed and grinning from ear to ear with pleasure.
“You can’t be rid of me that easily, monster. I am more than the mountain and more than the fire in your heart. I am,” the stranger advised, and he raised one hand in the air as if he were summoning an enchantment. Queen Una was lifted magically from the saddle into the air, suspended by nothing but the stranger’s magic, and she began to choke as he held her there in the air. Seeing his mistress’ distress, the dragon lunged at the stranger, but with the other hand lifted, the visitor cast a spell that froze the dragon in his tracks. “Now that I have your attention, your curses have come home to roost, Queen Una and her pet dragon. I think I’ll start with you dragon,” the stranger said as he snapped his fingers and released the dragon from the spell. “You are a part of this mountain, a child of the Old Men of the Mountain whom I despise. Your heart was crafted with honor and strength, and that makes you untrustworthy to me. From this time forward, enmity will grow between you and the mountain beneath our feet. You will remember the Old Men of the Mountain, but you will forget who you are, and you will flee to hovel in despair deep within a distant mountain,” the stranger spoke as he walked up to the dragon to look closely into one of his eyes. “And when you finally return to the Old Men of the Mountain, it will be the end of Queen Una’s reign,” he added as the dragon’s eyes glazed over in blue. The dragon then turned his back on the two of them, and he leaped out over the cliff wall to be seen no more.
Queen Una spit at the stranger and cursed him for his defiance outside her own palace, and the stranger wiped the spit from his face.
“You, my Queen. For you, I have the most delicate of futures chosen for you,” he said with a hearty laugh. “You are a woman after my own heart, evil and twisted from the day that you were born, my little velvet ant,” the stranger said as he twisted his hands in an incantation. Queen Una’s features began to change as the armor that she wore melted and mingled with the soft, white skin of her body. Screaming in pain and agony, Queen Una’s body molded and formed into the shape of a queen ant, red and black all over, and two more legs grew from her midsection to match the antennae that sprouted from her head. To her horror, she had taken the form a huge insect, and she stood helplessly on six legs before the stranger. He reached out his hand and patted her head as he held her in his spell. “Do not fear, though this is your true form, I could not live with myself if you were so powerless. You are indeed a Queenmother, and you will reign over your realm with the iron mandibles of such a terrible beast. At your whim, others will see you in your beauty and majesty, and men will lust for your nuptials, though you will never be human again. And your children will be many,” he said as he mocked her. Queen Una’s antennae raised as if she felt the child even now within her womb. “Oh yes, you are with child. You have been since yesterday, but do not fear. It is not my child. It is the child of the green dwarf which you so easily banished. His seed is trapped within you, and you shall bear his children throughout the ages, filling your court with the unwanted children of a lover cast aside from your bed.”
The Queenmother rose up on two legs before the stranger, and she flailed her other four legs in anger at him. She was a miserable sight, and the stranger was content with the malice he had directed at her. It seemed to suit her well, an evil beginning to an evil monarch.
“In addition to your misery, I will give you servants of my own to serve you so that others might fear you and your power,” the stranger decreed, and he held his arm aloft in the open courtyard. A black bird landed upon his sleeve, and he placed one hand upon its soft, feathery head. The bird grew to giant size and stood menacingly before the Queenmother. The bird then bowed, and the Queenmother reached her many legs out and stroked the feathers on its head gently. Then she whispered a command, and the bird snipped violently at the stranger with malicious intent. He laughed at her weak and bitter attempt on his life, and with a snap of his fingers, dozens more of the giant birds filled the courtyard of the palace. Soon, there was very little room left for him at the Queenmother’s side, and the stranger bade her farewell.
“Enjoy your wretchedness, my lady,” he offered and turned his head to look at Pound’s invisible body as he watched from the perimeter of the dream. With a mysterious wink of his eye, the stranger seemed to acknowledge the field agent as he stood unseen as a watcher to the beginnings of a long nightmare. With another snap of his fingers, the stranger vaporized.
The Queenmother stood alone with her black birds in the square, and she held her head high as she contemplated the beginning of her wicked reign. The black birds parted as she walked toward her palace, and Pound watched her pass between the two columns and merge with the darkness of her home.
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Pound woke from his dream to find himself in the Queenmother’s bedroom. She lay seductively upon her bed, and Pound cringed to know that he was caught in her evil trap.
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Next Issue
Crush and Beni cross the river and must fight for their lives against Mouchard and Queen Dowager to survive what awaits them on the other side!! And if that isn’t enough, here comes the dragon!!!
About the Author
Christopher Carter is an engineer by day, and transforms into a writer and artist by night. He lives with his wife and cat in central North Carolina.
In memory of Colvin Kennedy
Greatest Grandpa in the world
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