Orphan Dragon Lord

Chapter 8: Understanding of the previous King.

I woke up in a warm room with the smell of the sea filling the room. I was laying on a soft bed with a thick cover over me, not knowing where I was before opening my eyes. I enjoyed the warmth knowing it would probably be gone soon, like all good things do for me.

It knocked on the door a few times. “My Queen, it is Lara” She said, I tried getting up but I failed when the throbbing in my arm registered in my brain and my skull felt like it was about to split open. “Yeah” I said, being the only thing my mouth could muster. Even that felt like my death was near. Lara opened the door and went into the room, behind her was the people I did not want to see one bit. Now that my eyes were open I could see the very distinct mural on the ceiling. “I have some pain killers for you” I did not fight her when she placed the disgusting fluid to my lips. I drank it and silence followed for only about 10 minutes. Something I never thought would happen with these specific people in the same room as me. “My queen, the painkiller should have worked by now.” The old man had joined in on the intervention they had made. “Yes,” I said, I sat up and uncovered myself from the layers of fabric that had been placed over me. “My Queen, if you don't mind me asking where are you going?” The old man asked again. I looked at him indifferently. He was standing with the others surrounding him. I did not answer him, I just stood up and was going to walk out of the room to go home. I was stopped by Jules. He grabbed my good elbow, I looked at the place he held and back to him, too tired to even care. “I think your little play would be over if you hurt me in front of the old dude.” I said looking down on his hand again. The old man was petrified. “What in god's name are you doing to our Ruler?” He asked, his voice booming the entire room. I imagined his dragon doing the same, not even knowing how it looked but it still made me smile. “I am” Jules started, but was soon flying to the back wall, the old man standing with one leg raised after having kicked Jules. He placed down his foot to the ground and stood in front of me as if protecting me from the people. “You are disrespecting your Ruler. And that is punishable by death” He stated. I was a little shocked by his beliefs. “I was questioning every warrior that said you were the perpetrator of hurting the Queen in the first place. But Sergeant Major Jules is pushing it.” Jules got up from the rubble stubeling holding the place where the old man had kicked him. “Elder” He said, while getting stable on his feet. “She was going to go to that damn hut again” He said while huffing and puffing. “SO WHAT?” He yelled. “If the Queen wants to live in a Hut, she lives in a hut. If she wants to live here she lives here. You are not in any position to question anything the Queen may or may not want, say or desire. You swore an oath to uphold the greater good for the Royal family and you are not” He was red in the face when he was done with his lecture, Jules looked down upset. “Yeah, but I'm not actually the royal family” I said, not knowing why I was helping Jules one bit. The elder turned stunned by my comment to look at me, probably seeing dead, exhausted and indifferent eyes. “My Queen?” He asked with sadness in his voice. “I am not.” I looked around “I may be the Queen, but to the people here I am not royalty. That has been made painfully clear” I said looking down at my arm. The old man took in shallow breaths and looked at the people around the room. “Is this true?” He asked, and that is when the aching in my heart turned to full blown pain. “She is human,” Julia said. It hurt. f**k it hurt like a son of a b***h. I Did not want to hear more of this conversation. I was not getting what the old man had promised me. I was left alone, surrounded by people ready to take some Essence from my body when they had ‘accidently’ killed me. I started walking to the exit of the castle, but the old man caught up with me first. “Please my Queen, let me show you something first” He said. I followed him not really caring about when I was going to leave the castle. I just knew that this time I was leaving for good. I was not going to stick around anymore. We walked into a big hall. The stairs around the room all had chairs and every chair was filled with people from the castle. Warriors, Maids, everyone was present. In the middle of the room were 4 men standing, the older man I was walking with had been in the same robe as the one in the center. The old man walked down the stairs to the center, I stood by the door not wanting to join them. Feeling I had read something about this room, and who was entitled to go there. And I was not one of them. The old man was standing with the other 3, one a little younger than the other. “We have gathered you all here today to clear up a misunderstanding that has been flowing around the castle about our Queen.” He looked around and people were looking for where I was standing, but at this point I had slit down the door to sit on the floor. The old man looked displeased by my action but in my medicated state I just gave him a smile and a thumbs up. The youngest man in the circle had to swallow a chuckle. “Many are under the belief that the young Queen is a human. And that is by some extent true. But the truth is that Nadia. Our Queen is the offspring of the royal family” I was stunned by the information my mouth was standing open. “Our late king had a… an assasination attempt turn around when he was in his younger days. He did not get killed but ended up bedding the woman. The woman became pregnant by this action and she was shunned to the human kingdom, so she could never lay claim to the throne by using the child against his highness” As he was talking more stunned expressions appeared, I was getting the feeling that this was all bull s**t they were fireing away. “The woman gave birth to a son, that son himself disappeared after his coming of age. But to our understanding, he is still alive. Our late King decided to try and find this son, but instead fell ill and was about to die lonely in a hospice.” He took in deep breaths as he looked for any sign of mistrust, I guess he only found me because by the look on his face, he could clearly see my face not believing one single thing he was saying, and by the shallow breath of his, I would say im right. “Nadia is a child of the Late king's Son. Nadia our Queen was kind enough not to know our king, to keep him company throughout his last moments. And yes the king gave up his Essence to Nadia willingly the day he died, choosing her as his successor. His granddaughter who had the right to get it. And this information you may not know” He looked at Jules and the other warriors. “The royal Essence and power can only be overtaken or given to another of the same bloodline. It was a curse placed on the royal family so that if the king fell in battle only their closest kin would be able to receive the titel.” Gasps erupted and more questions than answers. I sat there watching as the whole castle was digesting the information I was pretty sure was false, but who the hell cares. I stood up and left the room, many people were raising their hands to ask questions as I did, the one question I heard was. “What is going to happen to the ones that have openly disrespected the Queen?” I shut the door and walked the halls, looking at the paintings, the gems and furniture, taking in the castle for the last time before leaving, letting them live their damn proud life for themselves. I must say I was still curious about how the stable looked from the inside, but I was not as curious to go there just because they now believed the maybe lie the old men had told. I went to the office where I had spent most of my time working and working while being in another realm. I now found it laughable that I had worked so hard to get things stable after the previous royal family only to be looked down upon once again. I went to the desk, got out a piece of paper, wrote on it and then folded it like a flower. I took the flower with me and left for the hut, I was only in there for a brief second before coming out again, I had nothing of value in there and I was only there to get the letter the old man had left me. I went to the garden and walked for a bit before going to the stone pedestal. I placed the letter he had given me and my paper flower on it. Thinking about him for a little bit when I heard footsteps come from behind. “You miss him?” The old man asked, the 3 other men were there and even if I wanted to, I was not really going to look at them. “No” I said, partly lying but only partly. “Why not? after what you said as a goodbye I was sure you must have loved him.” I took a deep breath and turned to the 4 men, that turned out to be a hell of a lot more people, the whole castle was pretty much gathered there. “Yeah, I did. But apparently I have this nack of loving liars'' I said, the old man looked pained. “I don't understand” He said sadly, me disrespecting a man who he clearly had affection for. “I don't care.” I looked down at my paper flower again and back up. “I wanna go home now.” I said, looking at Julia who was standing looking guilty and embarrassed at the same time. “You are home my Queen '' One of the other older men said, I giggled and that giggle turned into full blown laughter, I had to hold my own stomach and wipe away tears by the end of it. “this” I gestured around me with my hand, still partly laughing. “Is Hell” I said, and they flinched. “I want to go to MY. Home” I said again toward Julia. “See it as the last, and maybe the first command you are going to follow” I said, now Jules intervened. “We cannot My..” He was about to talk again, pissing me off. The fog started to cover the ground, Jules bending over, the others still standing. “I could care less about killing all of you.” I said, some held their breath. “Just because you NOW feel like I fit in as your Queen, does not mean I will be one after you mistreating, disrespecting and harming me. Among other things. So Lawyer Julia.” I said, Jules wringing on the ground in pain. “I will start harming one person every second until you understand that I either stay in this castle by myself. Or you bring me to the damned portals and escort me home” I could feel she was unsure of it all, and as promised I made one employee of the castle drop to the ground every second, wringing and yelling in pain. She was looking from me to them and when we were at the end, including Lara and the old men, she was sweating bullets. “Now, I will give you 5 seconds before I will take each and every life here starting with the man you love dearly.” I said, 3 seconds went by and she submitted. “I will take you” She said out of breath and tears running from her eyes. The people started to stand when I let go of the fog. “Why my Queen?” the old man asked, me not sure what he was referring to, I just answered. “You could have told them I was royalty from the start, hell you withheld the information from me. If you had told them, things would have been different and I would have lived in ignorant belief that they actually cared and respected me as their Queen.” The old men dropped to their knees. “You disrespected me just as much as everyone else here.” I said as I grabbed Julia and walked toward the front to get into a wagon.