12 The Dragon And The Queen

"Bring Emreilda to me just in case," the worried queen demanded as she shooed away one of her guards. The guard took a slight bow and walked to the other side of the throne room. He opened the door and exited through the hallway as the head of a black dragon poked through the hole opening in the middle of the room.

"If anything goes wrong, we need Emreilda here. She is the only one besides Meridith and I that can take on this dragon," Hilda said as she straightened her posture to welcome the guest.

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Just as we were about to hit the ceiling of the elevator, it opened up and made a hole for the glass plane carrying us to replace. The glass plane slowly rose into place and came to a stop when the elves and I reached the throne room.

My former ceiling had become the floor of a huge throne room at the top of the gigantic tree.

"Hello dragon," a decidedly female voice welcomed. The lady was sitting on a throne raised off the main floor four or five feet by a tiered pedestal at the front of the cavernous space.

"What's up queen-lady?" I replied before realizing my twenty-first-century speech was not the proper way to address royalty. If I wanted to refrain from offending the queen, I had to apologize with haste.

"Forgive my primitive way of speaking my queen. I am but a newborn dragon and have much to learn about this world," I said as I bowed my large head, which bumped into Grant's causing him to fall to the ground. I slightly panicked and immediately set him upright with my tail. Unfazed, the queen continued.

"For what reason are we blessed with the visit of a dragon?" Hilda asked me quizzically and started to fidget with her thumbs.

"I was just passing through your lands when an elf attacked me. I want to go to the volcano. I need a place to call home," I replied.

"May I ask who hurt you this badly and what became of them?" Hilda added.

'This could take a turn for the worse very easily, but I gotta be truthful. What if she already knows and is just testing me?' I thought and resolved myself to my fate. From now on I will have to act strong and not clueless.

"I believe she called herself Meridith your highness," I stated casually. Gasps escaped the mouths of the guards on either side of her. She looked at me dumbfounded.

"And you are not dead? Meridith is not the type to keep her prey alive for long," the queen exclaimed.

"No, I am not dead. As for what became of her," I answered as I lifted my head to the ceiling. I focused, squeezing out the contents of my second stomach while lowering my head back to the ground. After a few dry attempts, I regurgitated the still unconscious Meridith who was bathed in a dark blue liquid of semi-digested mixed berries.

The room fell silent for a few seconds before the queen spoke again.

"What is your name, dragon? What are you really searching for?" She asked again.

"My name is Scourge and I am looking for a place to call home," I answered honestly.

"Well Scourge, if that is true, this is your lucky day. You can remain in my kingdom if you'd like." Hilda offered.

The offer seemed outrageous; even the guards looked at her in disbelief.

"Of course, by joining us you agree that we will work together and fight together," she added, which seemed to appease the guards down.

I knew exactly where this was going. When I first encountered Meridith, she had just killed some humans. I knew the queen would simply use me as a weapon.

"I have no intention of being a war pet," I interjected with a slight snarl, my tail whipping up and down in anger.

"That is just too bad. We can't allow something as dangerous as you roam free," Hilda said as a guard walked through the door at the opposite end of the throne room. The guard walked up to the throne and whispered something into Hilda's ear. Upon which she smiled and looked back at me.

"This is your last chance dragon, work with us, or die!" Hilda yelled and stood up from her throne.

I grabbed Meridith up in my claws and ate her once again. I then swiped my tail both ways to take out the two guards behind me and used my two frontal claws to bat away the two in front.

"Try me!" I roared out and jumped at the throne. When I was about to hit the queen a thin layer of glass blocked me. It definitely hadn't been there before so it must be magic.

I raised my claw up and slashed down at her barrier with all my might. My claws sunk into the barrier and came to a stop, all the momentum was used up by just breaking through the first part. I would need time to fully destroy the barrier, and time is what I lacked.

The eight guards on her side jumped at me with swords and spears in hand. I retreated from the glass shield and spun around in a circle. Six of the guards got whacked out of the air by my tail and crashed into the wall. The remaining two tried to run to either side of me to no avail. I reached my claws out, grabbed both of them, and leaped towards the queen.

I landed down with my two claws slamming into the barrier. The guards in between my claws and the wall started to moan in agony and I stared directly into the queens' eyes.

"If you don't release this barrier these guards will be squashed to death, do you want that for your elven brethren?" I asked as I pushed my claws in more, which caused the guards to yell out in pain.

"Emreilda, kill this disgusting dragon!" Hilda shouted as she ran out of ideas, her barriers were good at fighting mass amounts of enemies, but one strong and smart enemy was too much for her.

When Hilda finished her cry for help, something giant crashed through the top ceiling of the tree and landed behind me on the glass elevator.

"I shall rid of him at once your highness," a cold female voice replied from within the dust cloud.