She was browsing a book in the middle of the Auroran market when the call from Jasper came through.

"Ah, my lady, it appears your son would like a word with you back at the castle, it seems he has a request to make." His voice was a little distorted as it came through the seal and even though she knew he wasn't there, she still looked around half expecting him to be standing beside her, peering curiously at the book over her shoulder. Instead she just got an eyeful of sand.

"Argh," she grunted and steadied the book with one hand while the other scrubbed at her eye. Even queens could get a little annoyed sometimes. "I'll be right there Jasper, give me a second."

"Of course, it's not as though I expected you to drop whatever you were doing and rush to his side. Good heavens, you've got a kingdom to rule, you can't be expected to -" The Queen rolled her eyes, now thankfully sand-free, and shut out his rambling monologue. The book was closed as well and after she was sure no one was going to miss the dusty old tome, she slipped it under her arm and whistled for her dog.

The excitable beast ran over from where he'd been sniffing a chicken and her chicks, skidding to a halt in a shower of sand. Wonderful, now she was going to have to change her outfit before she visited her boy. He'd hardly want to hug a sand monster now would he?

"Argh!" And there was sand in her eye again.

"Come on Spot, time to go home." She muttered, catching a hold of his collar. After that it was just a matter of reaching for the guild seal stashed away in her belt. It took a few moments of juggling the collar, the book and the sand in her eye but she managed to grab the blasted thing and with a sense of fading out of one place and into another, they were standing in the Sanctuary.

With a wuff the dog broke free of her grip and trotted over to Jasper for a pet while the Queen had to fumble not to drop the book or the seal. "Argh!" The book landed on her foot while the seal hit the floor and rolled away past the servant and pampered pooch.

"What is it? What did he want? He's not hurt is he?" The Queen scooped up the book and set it to the side of the map table before retrieving the seal and hiding it in her belt again.

"Hm?" Jasper stopped scratching Spot's side and looked up at her. "Oh, yes. He's fine. Just wanted to ask you something, I believe. About bears or some such."

"Bears?"

"Yes." There was a pause as she waited for clarification but the butler seemed too busy with the dog to add any sarcastic commentary. She sighed and called over the dog before turning to the map and gazing intently down at the small image of Bowerstone Castle. If she stared hard enough, she could see a small image of herself and the dog standing before the castle. After a moment of disorientation, she found herself standing down there for real rather than just looking at it. Shaking off the tingling in her limbs, she started off up the castle steps. No sooner was she in the front door than she was hearing people politely greeting her and seeing them bowing and curtsying. Then her shins took a small hit. She looked down and clinging to her stripy legs was her adopted son.

"Mummy!" he cried happily – then wrinkled his nose. "You're all sandy."

"Knew I forgot to do something." She smiled and bent down to scoop him up into her arms for a sandy hug. "Miss me did you?"

"Uh huh. The nanny wouldn't let me play in the kitchen and the weird treasury man wouldn't let me climb over the gold mountain." The complaints were flowing thick and fast. "How am I supposed to kill gold balvarines if I can't climb the mountain?"

"I'm sure you'll come up with a way." She laughed, making her way past the horde of servants who'd appeared from nowhere. Sometimes she wondered where they were when she wasn't there. Maybe they just hid around corners waiting to ambush her – no, they clearly weren't bandits.

"– so can I?"

She'd been day dreaming again. "Sorry sweetie, I didn't catch that." They'd moved out into the garden and were walking over towards Walter's statue.

"Can I have a teddy bear mummy? Please?" She looked down at her boy and saw the biggest pair of baby blue eyes she'd ever seen. That and the wobbly bottom lip couldn't make her say no for the world. "I promise I'll look after it."

"Oh, alright. I suppose you can be trusted not to kill a teddy bear in the name of heroism?"

"Of course!" he promised, holding up one tiny hand. "It would be my…my camp-onion! Like Spot!" he looked down at the dog following them, who looked back up, tongue hanging out to one side, ears akimbo.

"I think you mean companion." She laughed. "I'll go get you a teddy if you promise not to chase down any more 'gold balvarines' okay?"

"Aww…fine." He huffed, and then kissed her cheek, pulling a face as he got sand on his lips. "Blegh!"

"Hush you." More laughing from the Queen. She remembered why she'd chosen this little lad in the first place, he seemed so…happy. No matter what. Now he was the light of her life, especially since Walter had…

"Mum? Are you okay?" His little hands pressed against her cheeks, trying to make things okay again so she would smile. He didn't like it when his mummy was sad; he knew bad things had happened to her in the past, which was why he always tried to make her smile. She was so wonderful; she didn't deserve bad things any more.

"Hm? Oh yes, sweetheart, I'm fine…" They'd stopped near Walter's statue. "I'm just missing an old friend. Now do you still want that teddy? I'll have to go now to go and get it before the stalls shut."

"Yes please!" he wriggled until she put him down. "I'll be very good until you bring it back, I won't climb anything I shouldn't!"

"There's a good boy." She gave him one last hug ("Eww, sandy mummy!") before he ran off to go drive his nanny insane.

She sighed and looked up at Walter. "I wish you could have met him Walter. He could do with a mentor like you…guess I was lucky." She gave a small, sad smile before reaching for the dog's collar and the seal. She was going to change her outfit first; the last thing she needed was for the citizens to think she was a dirty monarch.

She left Jasper playing with the dog while she went into the wardrobe and selected one of her favourite outfits. It was pretty, elegant and stylish, everything a Queen's outfit should be when facing the people. Jasper had put this one together and quite frankly she preferred her shorts and stockings to the heavy skirts, it was easier to fight in these days. However, people were picky and so she switched clothes without much further ado, grabbed the dog and left the sanctuary.

Time to buy some teddies.

"Oh, yer majesty!"

"My lady!"

"Your highness!"

"Buy yer hair he – 'allo yer majesty!"

It was like this every time she went out, of course. It was getting to be a pain but despite being the famous Queen who'd saved all of Albion, bandits still tried to kill her, as did Sand Furies and balvarines. It didn't do much aside from make shopping trips harder.

As she waded her way through the throng of people wanting her to stop for a chat, she lost sight of the dog in the crowd. By the time she reached the gift stand she was sure he was under a pile of children being a big petted lump, getting fed treats the children saved for when they came through. The stall owner cleared the view of his items for her and grinned proudly as she glanced over the two items he had for sale; wedding rings and jewellery. She frowned.

"Don't you have any teddy bears?"

"No, your majesty. Just these."

"But you have a bear just there." She pointed to one in the corner of the stall.

"Display only, it's nailed there."

"Argh. So you don't have any bears?"

"No ma'am."

There was a tense moment as the Queen realised she would have to go elsewhere and quickly before the stalls closed in order to fetch her son the gift he'd so nicely asked for.

"Spot!" The dog was over pretty quickly. "Come on boy." She sighed and began the long trek to Bowerstone Old Quarter.

"…So no bear then?"

"No miss." The shop keeper in the Old Quarter looked a little frightened but the Queen just sighed.

"Alright. Where else has a gift stall?"

"The market?"

"Tried there."

"Uh…Brightwall?"

Another sigh. "Of course. Brightwall." All that way for a teddy bear. Her son had better appreciate it.

It occurred to the Queen as she was swinging her hammer into the face of a particularly ugly bandit that she perhaps spoiled her son. Maybe he didn't need a teddy bear.

Crack.

Then again, he hadn't asked for very much else since they'd been together, just to play with her.

Thud.

Who was she kidding? She needed to give him this; he had no other family but her - not counting the army of servants, of course.

Crunch.

Maybe she should get another child…no, too - squish - sudden.

When her dog stopped growling, she assumed it was safe enough to continue onwards on the quest for a teddy. The places she'd stopped in on during her trek to Brightwall either didn't have a gift stall or simply hadn't stocked the item in question. She was considering demanding all shops had a secret supply of items for her own personal use if it wasn't so impractical. And none of them would sell her the display teddies they had nailed to their stalls either. False advertising that was. She'd have to do something about that too.

It took a lot of will power not to smack the stall vendor upside the head with her hammer. A great deal of will power. So much in fact she had to be sure she wasn't accidentally sending blades and fire his way instead. Instead she kicked a small stone into a nearby wall - putting quite a little dent in it - and turned her back on the simpering little man.

"Try again tomorrow ma'am!" he waved behind her, still smiling away, swaying a little actually. Sometimes she really regretted not putting a limit on alcohol consumption.

Where else had a gift stall? She looked down at her dog rolling in a patch of sand while she contemplated where next to look. Maybe there was -

Sand. Aurora had a gift stall. It was as good a shot as any and with the Sanctuary's map she could easily get there in time for the shops opening since it was only now beginning to get darker here. She had her own little house there, a little nap couldn't hurt while she waited now could it?

Spot stood up and shook off the sand, tongue hanging out lazily. He could do with a bath too.

The Queen crawled out of her Auroran bed and yawned. Outside the sun was shining, the sand was blowing and blinding people and her dog was chasing some chickens to the amusement of the local children. She quickly swallowed some cool water and some sort of fruit from the larder before going off to catch the erstwhile mutt. He swiftly stopped chasing the chickens when he spotted her, instead coming over for a lick and a good morning scratch. Finally, it was time to resume the hunt for the Teddy.

They headed to the market followed by a small gaggle of children wanting attention or to pet the pooch and made straight for the gift stall.

No prizes for guessing what they didn't find.

The Queen was ready to give up, to call it a day, to return home and offer her son the toy sword she'd found instead. But he'd be so heartbroken…he must have had his little heart set on having a teddy bear for a while; why else would he ask for one? He wasn't the type to just demand even though he lived in a castle surrounded by servants. There had to be somewhere she hadn't looked. She sighed and wracked her mind, rather desperate.

She recalled seeing a general store both in Silverpines and the Mercenary camp but she would rather avoid the Mercenaries if she could help it. Anything bought from that little place had to be covered with who-knows-what and blood on top of it. She'd rather her son didn't get a second hand teddy from there. And so, with a great heaving sigh and a snatch of her dog's collar, they were off to the Sanctuary then whizzing down to Silverpines. She was glad to be out of the sand at least.

Now if only she had a silver sword for those balvarines.

A dozen or so dead balvarines later the weary Queen arrived in the little hamlet to polite greetings from the few locals that dared to eke out a living in this hellhole of a place. She made a beeline for the little general shop. Before she was within three feet of the place, she spotted it; the Holy Grail of her Quest; the Teddy Bear. It was practically glowing with holy light, especially after the trek she'd been on to fetch it. She ran the last few steps to the shop, determined to buy it before they went out of stock mysteriously or suddenly shut for the night. She hated when they did that.

"I'll take three!" she proclaimed to the rather astonished shopkeeper, who mutely passed over thee bears and accepted the payment (discounted, of course, she was the owner).

It was so very hard not to gleefully skip out the town. She did however jump up and down a little when out of sight from the people out of sheer delight. Finally, she had the gift at long last! She gripped the teddy bears, the dog and the guild seal all at once and found herself in the Sanctuary again. She tossed two of the bears in Jasper's direction and hurried to the map table. She had to hurry and get back before her son went to bed, she wanted to hand it to him so he could fall asleep with it under the covers. She could already imagine it, the perfect picture of peace and sweetness. She smiled when she found herself before the castle, the midday sun beaming down as if delighted she'd gotten the gift in such a timely manner.

She loped up the stairs and inside, only to almost trip over the son as he flung himself at her. How did he always know, she wondered, when she was back? Did the seal make some sort of trigger noise?

"- Mum are you even listening to me?" Her little boy broke into her thoughts, babbling away already. Apparently he'd annoyed the cook this time who would now only feed him porridge for breakfast.

"Yes dear - don't you want to see what I got you?" She smiled, eyes twinkling mischievously with hands held behind her back.

"What? What did you get me?" he hurried around her legs to try and see, but she spun away. "Muuuuuum!" he whined and pouted, hoping she couldn't resist that face.

"Ah ah ah, what's the magic word?"

"…Will?"

"No, not quite." She laughed. Clearly he hadn't been paying attention to manners.

"Please?"

Much better, she thought before bringing her arms around to show off the teddy bear. She laughed again when he positively squealed in delight before jumping for it. The Queen let him have it, scooping up boy and bear in her arms for a cuddle. No matter how hellish the journey had been, the reaction alone had been worth it.

"Thanks mum, you're the best." Not even the feeling she got from successfully saving the world could compare to the love of her little boy.

"Anything for you, love."

"…Mum?"

"Yes?"

"…Can I have a toy sword?"