CHAPTER 4

IT IS, WHAT IT IS... The people swarmed the dragon's cave with the major in front, held by two of the Emperor's strongest men on both arms; leading him to the mouth of the cave with Ryf standing in front of the cave holding a scepter in his right hand. The guards approached him with the major dangling his head helplessly in between them. "Stop! hold him down!! Before anyone goes in, to avoid misfortune befalling us, he has to get a hold of the sacred scepter of truth and justice. If guilty, he would loose his sanity and the spirits of the great beast would bring him to itself. But if he is innocent of the accused crime, the chains in which he is bound with would be set loose on its own accord" Ryf said. The people began to murmur and it began to grow into distinctive noises. "Quiet!! Or have you all forgotten how it is done? That's how it has been done and would continue to be done. Y'all should remember the past, how this rites were conducted with criminals and people who were pronounced guilty by the royal court? We almost lost all our lands to the Western province!!! We do not want such ugly incident again. So we must be careful and precise about our judgement." He said, moving very close to the Major. "here;" Ryf said, handing over the scepter to the major who received it with an open fearless mind. Sounds of chains shattering were heard and the people all stood on their toes to see. "They are breaking! The chains are breaking off his feet and hands!" one child exclaimed. "How could it be! what is happening? was the king lying? This can't be true..." The murmurs were growing steadily, Ryf gently walked back into his cave muttering; "No dragon show today". The guards holding the major screamed it out, "No dragon show today!! Y'all return to your farms, inns and houses. Your market places are all empty! scurry!!!" They screamed as they let two bullets from their locally made riffle fly high up in the air. They all took to their heels and in no time, everywhere was clear of people. The major approached the emperor. "Sire I do not mean any disrespect, but I am sorry for whatever pains and discomfort this rumor birth must have caused you. I am happy its all ended now and the people have gotten a change of orientation. Maybe the queen would give us an heir with time your royal highness". Ever since then, the Blue Dragon Empire regained quietness. Arthur was now concerned on the amount of affection he gives to his only child. In a few cases the queen would murmur about being uncomfortable about the shift of care and attention. Arthur was very much concerned about balancing the amount of love, care, attention and affection to be equal between both women. He turned a new leaf of starting to give his Empress some time from his busy schedule daily. The kingdom began noticing the changes when the Emperor got fond of taking long rides with his Empress and princess outside the gates, going fishing with the women at the Pork lake and for the first time in a long time, he took his women to the circus and the small woman tends to love it more outside especially at the circus. "Dada, no balloon man today?" Princess Emily would always remind her dad every evening. "Come on my baby, daddy's gonna be busy for a while this week okay, mom can take you with my car okay. My chauffeur would drive you and mom okay" he would reply her. Whenever his small woman gets too persuasive, he would go with them, a few of those times, Ruby was the mastermind because she enjoys the shows whenever her superman was with her. she felt safe. One unforgettable moment of her life was on a circus night she attended alone with her Emperor. That night she took time to take deep deliberate look at her man. His figure looks so much more stunning than she have ever seen. His arm was fitting the long sleeve military regalia he put on that night. his shoes shone with royalty at the caress of the blaring white light intercepted with a fluorescent. The white color of the shoe became immaculate. His hair was carefully combed and adorned with a royal blue hair band with which he parked it with, complementing the royal blue and white military suit he wore. His eyes shone with elegance and his body carriage was flaunted in royalty. She turned around to see if anyone caught her staring lustfully at her own husband. Fortunately everyone was fixed at the show of flying young girls going across fire rings and doing stunts. "Not as if they are actually flying" Arthur murmured to himself but Ruby heard it. "Of course they are not! Don't tell me you believed they were too?" She asked with an eyebrow up. "Of course! Can't you see they are levitating?" He asked in defense. Without hesitation, she broke up in a deep uncontrollable laughter. "Why? What's that for?" He asked with a sort of discomfort. "Listen my love, I was a backstage girl in my village while i was younger. We control these performers with a thick rope that would never never be seen because the rope's colour blended with the stage background. They get pulled, tossed and dropped by a set of lever mechanism controlled by backstagers behind the scene my king" She said still trying to hold back laughter. He never wanted to believe it. He thought over it severally and looked carefully and harder into the stage and yo! he found it! There were actually ropes "Ohhhh is that so?" Arthur asked his already sleeping wife whose head was on his shoulder. "You're sleep now? well, you need to rest honey." He gently took up her head, led her by her waist with one hand and on her shoulder was the other hand. Carefully, they were outside, He placed her in the car and drove off! His security were ten foot behind them with a military vehicle. So as not to awaken his sleeping beauty. She slept in a circus and woke up on His bed beside him. She looked around and at him, he was asleep. She chuckled and lay down her head on his chest while her arm curled around him. It wasn't ten minutes into her fresh sleep, she heard a loud knock on the door which jolted both of them awake! "Open up!! Sire you need to see this. It is very urgent and of extreme importance" the majors voice said loudly from behind the door. "Would be there in a jiffy!" Arthur said getting up from bed quickly and hurried over his bath, not minding the woman on his bed trying to hide her laughing face. He took up his clothes from last night; put them on and applied his fragrance, made for his door, went out and shut it in almost a bang which made some items on the cabinet fell as he dashed out to know what matter is of extreme importance at that time of the morning.