When she was out in the hallway, she let some of the tears fall. She heard a shuffling down the hall and turned to see Drew coming towards her. “Ines? What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

“The kid…” She gasped out. “He didn’t even know what a bed was. He said that they made him sleep on the floor.”

“You’re kidding, right?” She just shook her head.

After she had taken a minute to calm down, she finally said, “I should go get him some food. I’m sure he’s starving as he has mostly eaten bread, and only bread his entire life.”

“Bring him some soup. I’m sure he’d like that.”

Ines left Drew and headed towards the kitchen where she got a large bowl of soup to give to Ash. When she came back to the room, she found Ash snoring under the covers.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and put her hand on his head. “It’s time to wake up.” She whispered gently, pushing the hair off his forehead.

His eyes shot open and he shriveled back into the bed, trying to get as far away from her as he could. “It’s okay.” She said. “I just brought you some food. I thought you might be hungry.”

Slowly, he pulled the cover down from his face. She helped him sit up and then put the tray of soup on his lap. “What’s this?”

“It’s soup. It has a lot of flavor and stuff that helps you grow and feel well.”

He lifted up a spoonful with a shaky grip but managed to make it to his mouth. His eyes lit up when he put it in his mouth. “This is really good!”

Ines smiled at him. “Of course.”

Ash was only able to eat about half the bowl before he told Ines that he was stuffed and could not eat any more. She cleared away the dish and said, “You can go back to sleep now. Rest well.” She said as she helped him lay down.

Then she left the room. She walked along the corridor where she would find the room that the queen usually stayed in. When she wasn’t in there, she looked for her private quarters.

When she got there, it was odd, because she had a guard posted outside her room. “Sorry, but Queen Ranae isn’t taking any visitors today.”

“What? Why? This is important.”

“It’s that time of the year again. You know she doesn’t speak to anyone for at least a week, sometimes more.”

“*Huff* Okay, but can you let her know that I have something important to tell her and show her.”

“I’ll try.” Said the guard.

Ines left only feeling half accomplished. She understood why the queen locked herself away during this time of the year, her son had been killed! Who wouldn’t be torn up by it?

Of course, it didn’t help that the queen blamed herself for it. Everyone knew it wasn’t her fault. Where they had lived before had not been as safe of place as this place was and was susceptible to attack.

The whole group of dragon mages had left to help in the war, leaving only a few of their numbers behind. That had been the queen’s last expedition. While they had been gone, some of the other animal mages broke into their village and destroyed each and everything including her son. When they had come back, nothing was left, and the queen nearly lost her sanity that day. It was a miracle that she was able to remain as their ruler.

The queen used to be the most feared, the strongest dragon mage around, one of the only few to make a full transformation, but that had all ended the night of her four-year-old son’s death.