Pressure (2)

After nearly an hour of greeting the people who came to the palace, Hazel returned inside with Tobias.

"I have never lifted so many children," Hazel said, reaching behind to touch her now aching back. 

"It will make a good story to one day tell their children. That they were lifted by a queen in their youth. It hadn't crossed my mind to go to those wanting to see us at the gates. It was fun to speak to them. You did well," Tobias complimented Hazel. 

It wasn't so often he got to converse with a crowd like that unless he was speaking to the men in the palace army. It was fun to hear what the people had to say and they were given many gifts which were being brought in by the guards to be inspected before Hazel or Tobias opened them.