The Queen and the Soldier
He trudged up the hill slowly, his feet dragging in the mud. The rain around him pelted the ground, a solid pitter-patter. It unnerved him, he shuddered as a cool breeze swept by. He pulled his over sized grey coat around him. The collar pushed against his neck. The cold golden stars pushed into his flesh. He shivered. His hat hid his eyes. One booted foot in front of the other. He noticed briefly that one had a hole in it. His black sock protruded. His saber slapped against his wet thigh.
He reached the door. He raised his eyes slowly. Grey like his uniform. His black hair fell into his eyes.
He tentatively took a step closer to the door. No one was around. Letting the Queen to her silence.
He knocked on the door.
Soft footsteps echoed through the foyer on the other side. A girls face appeared, really just a child's with innocent wide brown eyes framed by thick black lashes. Her heart shaped face was framed by loose bone white colored curls that seemed to shine like silver. The crown fixed upon her head was of gold. One simple ruby hanging from it.
He sucked in his breath and told her: "I am not fighting for you anymore."
The Queen looked at him. She had seen his face before, somewhere, but she could not recall where. She slowly opened the massive cedar door and motioned him inside. He stood in the foyer, water dripping off of his tattered grey uniform. His right hand gripped his shoulder where a stain of blood was, just a habit from those long months of gripping the wound to keep the pain inside…His knuckles turned white.
He looked the Queen in the eye and he told her, "I have watched you palace appear on the hill. And I have wondered who's the woman for whom we all kill? But I am leaving tomorrow, and you can do what you will. Only first I am asking you: Why?"
She took his hand in her small milky white one and lead him down a narrow corridor with red tiles. She hesitated outside a tall oak door. She twisted the knob and took him into her room. The tapestries where red, from all of the bloodshed. She did not take the crown form her head, showing whom had dominance.
She asked him to sit down. He sat on her bed and looked into her brown eyes and said to her:
"I see you now, and you are so very young. But I've seen more battles lost than I have battles won. And I've got this intuition, says it's all for your fun. And now will you tell me why?"
She fixed him with an arrogant eye and said to him: "You won't understand, and you may as well not try"
Her child's face shook an she looked as if she would cry. But she closed up her emotions and let her heart hide behind a tick layer of ice.
She told him: "I've swallowed a secret burning thread. It cuts me inside, and often I've bled."
He laid his hand on top of her bone color hair and made her bow to the ground.
He told her: "Tell me how hungry are you? How weak you must feel. As you are living here alone, and you are never revealed. But I won't march again on your battlefield."
He took her small hand and led her to the window for her to see.
The sun was gold and warm, but the sky was grey with sadness.
She wanted more than she would ever say. She knew how it frightened her and she turned away and would not look at his face again.
He told her:
"I want to live as an honest man. To get all I deserve and to give all I can. And to love a young woman who I don't understand. Your highness, your ways are very strange."
Her crown had fallen off her bowed head.
Her hands cupped her heart to keep it inside.
She stood there thinking that she'd break. She was ashamed of how her cold heart ached. She took his hand and led him to her doorstep.
She said to him: "Wait, for I shall only be a minuet inside."
The soldier bowed and murmured an assurance that he would, his grey eyes pleading with her silently.
She shut the door softly and ran.
She ran to the tower and shouted her order.
Her order was heard in the distance.
And the soldier was killed, still waiting for her word.
The Queen was left to strangle in the silence she preferred.
And the battle continued on…
XoxOxoX
A/N not my best one, but still, the song The Queen and The Soldier by Suzanne Vega. Inspired it. In fact I used a couple lines from the song. Let me know what you thought.