The first sign that something was wrong had been the realization that not all of the Rainwaings that had gone missing in the last few years of the War of Sandwing Succession had made it back to the Rainwing Village. Not that Queen Glory had recognized that fact. After all, she'd hardly known any of the Rainwings at that time, let alone ones she'd never had a chance to meet. And when she had received accounts of Rainwings that were still missing, it had been easy to dismiss it as an unfortunate casualty of the Nightwing experimentation (even if the Nightwings maintained that they'd never killed any Rainwings) or even just due to the same Rainwing lack of care and attention to where other dragons were that had allowed them to be captured so easily in the first place.

The second sign Glory had indeed noticed, although she had no way of knowing the true implications of it: the renewed disappearances of Rainwings, something that she had made an effort to ensure didn't happen again. But even then, a whole tribe of dragons was a lot to keep track of, and it seemed that every report she had of a dragon that had gone missing for a day inevitably turned out to have fallen asleep on some tree and lost track of time. And for the clawful that hadn't shown back up…well, she had Deathbringer have dragons look into it. As queen of a whole tribe, she could hardly be expected to track down a few wayward dragons by herself that were most likely not even missing.

Of course, by the time she realized just how grievous the situation was, it was already too late for those dragons. And they would not be the only ones.

But that was still the future, unknown to Glory or anyone else. In the present, her mind was consumed by other things. She was holding her court, listening to the concerns of her tribe, and bored out of her mind. It seemed like half her subjects had the inability to solve even the smallest conflicts without needing her to mediate or voice her opinion. Like the Rainwing who brought her a complaint over his sister poking him with a stick, or the two dragons that had come to her because one was picking wild fruits that the other had claimed for himself without telling anyone. And that was on top of things like dragons feeling the need to schedule an appointment just to show off their new pet sloth to the queen.

Truthfully, she was beginning to realize just why the previous Rainwing queens had been so willing to share the throne. She'd been at this for four hours today with two more planned, and she could barely keep her eyes from glazing over.

"Now, the construction continues to proceed, but it's going slower than we originally planned," Glory was brought out her thoughts by Greatness, the Nightwing providing an update of the Nightwing village construction—which was one meeting Glory actually needed to pay attention to. Even then, she'd zoned out after so many others. "The Rainforest trees are proving difficult to work with, and we've been having problems with Rainwings keeping us from cutting down and using certain trees for no other reason than they liked them."

"Mmm-hmm," Glory nodded.

"At your request, we've also been working on the town hall," the Nightwing continued, "We're planning to lay the foundational posts in the next day or so, but I am worried about some of the material we're working with. We've already had a couple instances of supports unexpectedly breaking and bringing down the whole building."

"I see," Glory said, unable to suppress a yawn, "I'll talk to some of the Rainwing supervisors that are helping with your construction and ask them to let some of their trees fall. Will that help?"

"Immensely," the former Nightwing princess nodded, "I mean, pretty much all of us Nightwings have shelter with the makeshift huts, but there's a difference between that and a real house and home. And to make those, we do need real lumber."

"I know, I know," Glory sighed and rested her head on a claw, "Is that all?"

"I believe so, yes," Greatness said, giving a small, respectful bow, "Thank you, Queen Glory."

The Rainwing Queen waited until the Nightwing had left the throne room to let out a groan. It was one of those days, and she wasn't enjoying it. Even her throne felt stiffer than normal. Three moons, at this point she was just looking forward to sun time and a good long break.

"Next," she called out for another dragon to enter, and when she saw that it was another dragon that just wanted to show off his sloth, she'd had enough. "Deathbringer!"

"You called?" From the shadows of the room (shadows he'd intentionally set up the room to contain, Glory always reminded herself) the former assassin appeared. He looked at her, then at the other Rainwing that was holding out his pet towards her, as if expecting her to pet it. "Not that I don't trust your judgement, but that sloth doesn't look like a particularly dangerous threat," he joked.

Well, it's killing me right now, she grumped mentally, but instead she just sighed. "Go out and tell the dragons waiting that I'm closing court for the day. Tell them to reschedule with my appointment manager."

He gave her a concerned look. "Problem?"

"No," she gave shake of her head, "Except that I'm tired, and bored. And I'm the queen, so I shouldn't have to hold court when I'm tired and bored."

"And grumpy, I take it?" Deathbringer added, "I've never seen you so short with a dragon like Greatness before."

"I'm not grumpy, just tired," she huffed.

"You're always grumpy when you're tired," he pointed out with a smirk.

"Well maybe I'm just grumpy around you."

"Then why do you always smile when it's just you and me?"

He had her there, and maybe she would have pushed it further in a different mood, but for now she just half-heartedly swatted at him with a wing. But she did indeed smile—slightly—and he gave her a knowing look before stepping away.
Glory rolled her eyes as he left to do what she'd asked, then noticed the other Rainwing still standing there, holding out his sloth. She sighed and left her throne, approaching the dragon and patting his pet on the head. "Yes, yes, it's a very nice sloth," she said, trying but probably failing to sound enthusiastic, "Thank you for sharing."

The Rainwing beamed and thanked her in return before leaving out the main entrance. She had a few moments of peace and quiet to close her eyes and yawn before she heard Deathbringer coming back in and the door shutting behind him.

"They weren't particularly happy, but I told them you had a minor emergency come up and that satisfied them," the Nightwing told her, "That should clear your schedule for the rest of the day."

"Thanks," she said, then shook her head, "You know, whenever I imagined being a queen, I never thought of how boring it could be. Or how tedious."

Deathbringer gave her a look, then sat down next to her. "I don't think I have to tell you this, but being a ruler is more than just looking after yourself; it's looking after the tribe. Serving and helping them. Sometimes that means brash action, sometimes it means making them happy by complimenting their sloths."
"I know, I know," Glory snorted, then found herself leaning against him. "But you try sounding interested in doing nothing but that all day."

"Well, look on the bright side," he shrugged, then put a wing around her, "Nothing exciting normally means nothing bad. No wars to fix. No crazy ex-queens wanting your head. Why, it's enough to leave an expert assassin like me down on his luck and out of a job."

"You have a perfectly fine job, Deathbringer," she told him.

"That I do," she could hear his grin in his voice, "After all, what other dragons get paid to look at and watch over something so beautiful and precious all day?"

She felt some heat rise to her cheeks at his flattery, and did her best to keep from changing colors. She'd never admit it to his face, but she did enjoy it when he did that. Especially when they were like they were now—alone, with his wing around her.

A different day, she probably would have melted into him completely and spent the rest of the day by his side. Perhaps flying to that nice little lake they liked, or going to that Rainwing restaurant that they both liked, or even just going back to her hut. Most days that would have sounded wonderful, but right now she really did just want to find a nice sunny spot and take a long nap by herself.

So, reluctantly, she pulled herself away from him and stood. "Thanks, Deathbringer," she told him, "For the reminder of why I do it, I mean."

He smiled, more genuinely. "Just don't make a habit of putting the small things off," he told her, "Or it will just make things worse later."

"Yeah," she yawned. "I'm going to my special sun-tree, if you need me. Hopefully I'll feel better after sun-time. And maybe we can reschedule some of the appointments then, too. Get a few more out of the way today."

"Sounds good," Deathbringer stood and stretched his wings. "Do you want me to handle that, or come along, or…"

"Actually, if you would, go talk to the Rainwings in the Night Village that are giving them problems over the trees. See if you can't get them to figure it out without me needing to step in. Then before or after that, see if you can find Jambu. I haven't seen him in a few days, and he promised me he'd get me some pineapples the next time he went out looking for them."

"Will do," Deathbringer nodded. She thanked him, then left the throne room, making her way towards that aforementioned tree. Just being in the sun again made her feel a lot better—and she smiled as she took to the sky and went off on her own.

A few minutes later, she was in her tree, eyes closed, absorbing the sun. In those moments, she could just about forget about being queen. She could just enjoy the world she'd helped create, ending a war and bringing peace to her tribes and to Pyrrhia. For just a while, Glory could be content in life.

She drifted off, peacefully, a final moment of quiet happiness before what would come.