Chapter Two- I Hate Being King.

Notch, I am so sick of this, I think. My neck hurts from holding up the bloody crown, and my butt hurts from sitting on the throne for so long. Thankfully, this petitioner is the last. He's going on about some villager rampage that's destroyed some of his crops. I tell him he can have some logs from the storehouse to build a fence, and send Eric to go with the farmer and collect the logs. Almost immediately after the doors to the Spire are closed, I rip the crown off my head and throw it across the room, swearing.

"I hate that blasted thing! It's so heavy!" Trott snickers a bit behind his hand, trying to hide his laughter. Smith has no such restraints; he throws his head back and laughs the sound echoing through the empty expanse of the Spire. I glare at him. "Smith, it's not funny." Trott's snickers grow a bit louder, Smith just laughs harder. "I'm serious, it sucks!" Now Trott is laughing, the two men's laughs echoing even louder.

I sink my forehead into my palm, closing my eyes and shaking my head. Those two are unstoppable. Oh, what I would give for a minute of the happiness they share. We've lived in the Spire, formally named Angel's Reach, for close to seven years now; it was completed in the twelfth year of my reign. For five years, I had ruled New Tekkittopia from a hole in the ground, over which the Spire was built.

For the past three years, Trott and Smith had lived in the same room, and for two and a half years, had shared the same bed. I was happy for them, but I often found myself longing for the simple companionship that they had shared, and wishing that I could have a friendship that had evolved like theirs. Maybe that could have happened years ago, but now every girl who was presented to me simply wanted to be queen. They didn't care who I was as a person, they just wanted the position that marrying me would bring.

Being a king is a lonely affair, I realize.