~Serana⚜

Something was nudging my wing insistently forcing me to lift my head and at least try not to look like I was falling asleep.

Mira and I had gotten next to no sleep in the last four nights. We were up for even longer last night trying to get my dancing good enough to be passable as queenly. I still couldn't get through the first circle and move on to the more elaborate moves in the traditional dance sequence without stepping on Mirandiona's feathers at least once, if I was lucky.

I had, however learned to form the spade properly and stopped hitting her in the head every time I went to do it. After the seventh kidney shot from her sword hilts, I focused extra hard on not hitting her. We even sat there practicing just that for an hour until I could do it with my eyes closed.

At the moment I was pretending to pay attention to the delegates while using every bit of will I possessed to keep my eyes open. Glancing sideways at the queen I see her sitting up straight, eyes focused, and expression neutral but stern. I didn't mean to, and I certainly didn't make the conscious decision to, stare at her but there I was staring at the queen out of the corner of my eye.

A sharp kick to the side of my leg has my eyes darting back to the front. Flexing the newly bruised muscles I kick her back in retaliation.

I barely catch the flex of her jaw but I notice it nonetheless. Fighting off a smirk I sit up straighter and pretend like I'm listening to the arguing delegates.

"Your majesty!" A man with pink and white wings burst through the door in a flurry.

Working on sheer reaction both Mira and I look up and focus on the heaving man. "Yes?" Mirandiona prompts when the man just stands there breathing hard.

"Messages have just been received. Delegates from every region are on their way and will be arriving in the city by tomorrow, throughout the day." He pants trying to catch his breath.

At this news it takes all I have not to let the full weight of shock and fear register on my face. Glancing to the side I see Mira glance back with the slightest amount of panic showing in her eyes.

Avar stands up, drawing the attention of the room and cutting off all murmured conversation that had started up. "This meeting is adjourned until further notice." The man states firmly, leaving no room for argument.

The delegates start to mutter again but rise and make their way out of the room without further complaint. Once everyone has left the room aside from Avar, Fyko, and the messenger Mirandiona begins to speak.

"Saltur, inform the rest of the castle." She orders the messenger. "Fyko..." She calls turning to the man.

"Aye." He cuts her off rising from his chair.

Letting out a calming breath, Mira turns to the last occupant in the room aside from me. "Avar, go to Katal and help her with anything she needs. She will likely have to pull some of the guards from the city, if their captains start to get antsy..." She trails off expecting him to finish the thought on his own.

With an understanding nod he exits the room leaving the two of us alone.

Taking a deep breath to still my nerves. "Why can't anything around here be easy?" I question rhetorically.

Mira sighs in response before rising. "Come on, we're going to have to go over how to properly great the delegates when they arrive." She says making her way to the door.

Groaning internally I quickly follow into the hall and through the castle. We couldn't just go to the outer ring of the nearest tower and just fly up. No, we had to walk the whole damn way because Mira ran the risk of losing half her flight-feathers if she tried to fly, because I couldn't keep from stepping on them.

Once we finally manage to get up to her room and close the door behind us, I'm exhausted and just want to fall down on the bed. Before I can take more than three steps toward the welcoming mattress I'm being pulled away by the wing.

"If I can't sleep, you can't sleep." Mira's voice calls back to me as she drags me out onto the platform.

~💠~

The rest of my day consisted of learning how to bow properly with wings outstretched in a low sweep, one foot behind the other just so, my hands had to be light and graceful they couldn't just sit there limply. It was awful, all of it, awful.

At some point Mira had called for my nani to be brought up here without me noticing.

"Why is she here?" I question catching sight of the elder woman walking onto the platform.

I caught a giant wing to the back of my head for it, but I didn't care about being polite at the moment. "She's here because you have about as much etiquette as Etria." Mirandiona scolds flicking a wing toward the vyx who was currently peeing on a rock.

Fixing the vyx with a blank glare, I turn back to Mira when she continues to speak. "Also, I have to tend to my wings seeing as how someone's decided to use them as a rug." She almost snarls, giving me a borderline hostile look for the state of her wings.

Sighing in defeat I keep my eyes on the ground as Mira walks past me, and heads straight for the bathroom.

"Surely I'm not that bad to be around." Nani's teasing voice cuts through the late morning air.

"You'd be surprised." I mutter lifting my gaze to look at the woman.

Fixing me with a halfhearted glare she steps farther into the garden and stops a few feet in front of me. "Look, sweetheart I don't want to fight you." She says reaching up to cup my face.

Flinching away from her touch, she sighs and drops her hands. "How far are you on the greeting?" She ask, changing the subject.

Letting out a relieved sigh. "I've got the basics of the bow down. That's about it." I admit.

"Alright, we'll keep practicing with that. It's not difficult, but if done improperly you could very easily offend someone, or show that you are in fact not the queen." She starts, pushing my shoulders back and evaluating my posture.

Letting my face draw up in a confused expression. "How do you know so much about this?" I ask, suspicion coloring my voice. The more I thought about it, the less it made since as to way she would know so much about the nobility. Vavi was the noble not her.

"When you've lived as long as I have, you pick things up." She answers sharply. "Now bow." She orders before I can ask another question.

Clenching my teeth I save the questions for later and bow as instructed.

"Good, but you need to angle your body up a bit more. Fan your wings out a bit wider." She critiques, walking around me to study the flaws in my form.

And that's how the rest of my day passed, Nani showing me anything and everything I might need to know or do upon arrival; while Mirandiona shouted other things I needed and the occasional curse as she treated her wings along with whatever else she could possibly be doing in washroom.

When the sun started to set Nani finally let me rest. She turned to the bathroom to speak with Mira, leaving me to trudge to the bed and flop down on my stomach, with one wing covering the bed and the other half hanging off it with one of my legs.

I was just about to pass out when I hear footsteps exiting the washroom. Keeping still so as not to alert them of my still conscious state, I listen in to their conversation.

"You two should get some rest. We'll have plenty more time to work on her dancing now that the other delegates are coming." Nani says in a low whisper, just loud enough for me to hear.

I hear a sigh nearer to me signaling Mira's presence. "Thank you, Evyo." The queen speaks in a tiered voice.

"Of course, your majesty. Oh, and before I forget. You haven't said anything to Serana have you?" Nani questions.

"I'm afraid I don't follow." Mira admits.

"She asked why I knew so much about these things earlier." Nani clarifies.

"Ah." Mira says, as if that explained everything. "No, I haven't said anything. But she's going to find out at some point. The winds are turning cold with the beginning of autumn, and we do not have the necessary dyes here to cover your wings after the molting." She states. "Why do you hide it from her anyways?" She ask.

"It was an old habit." Nani sighs. "I picked it up to keep it from the others in the village, and... well I never really saw reason to tell her." She admits.

"You'd think she'd figure it out." Mira huffs in what sounded suspiciously like amusement.

"I doubt it. She never really liked school, much less actually payed attention when she bothered to go." Nani scolds softly.

"Hmm." Mira hums softly grabbing my wing and pushing it onto the bed with me. "You said her vavi had red wings, correct?" She questions.

"Yes, bright red with three white stripes along the interior of his primaries. Why?" Nani responds.

"She was what, six, seven, when he died? That's old enough to remember." Mira speaks again in a low voice so as not to wake me while she lifted my leg onto the bed as well. "And she never questioned why her wings are black, or why she has arc colors? Both of which are very dominant traits."

"I'll tell her when the time is right. Just please don't say anything to her." Nani ask.

"I won't. But if she starts asking, I will not lie to her. I am many things, but I will not be called a liar." Mira answers pausing in her task of taking my jewelry off.

"Thank you. That's all I ask." Nani sighs. "Goodnight, your majesty." She says much closer this time. A moment later I feel the light pressure of lips on my forehead. "Goodnight, baby girl." She whispers a hairsbreadth away.

It takes nearly everything I have not to twitch at the feel of her breath on my face. With a sigh she pulls back and I follow the sound of her footsteps as she leaves the room.

Another sigh has my attention turning to the queen still standing next to me. "Why do you have to be so damn difficult to get into bed?" She huffs mostly to herself.

When she grabbed my clothes and started to strip them off, I was amazed at my own self-control to not tense up and/or leap up and kick her in the teeth.

When my clothes were completely stripped Mira left me be and walked to the other side of the bed. Stripping herself on the way, judging by the sounds of cloths hitting the floor.

When she got to the other side of the bed she pushed my wing out of the way and climbed in. "Skies you sleep like the dead." She breathed, shifting around a bit more before settling down.

I waited for several minutes until her breathing evened out before I found the courage to move. Opening my eyes first I lift my head to see if she was really asleep.

When she didn't move I pushed myself up onto my knees. I stilled as she groaned, shifting a bit herself.

Letting out the breath I'd been holding, I relax and focus my gaze on the steadily darkening sky.

What. A. Day.

I sat there staring out at the sky for what felt like hours but could only have been a few minutes. My attention was brought back inside when Mira shifted on the bed again.

Looking down at her, she rolled over and reached out for something.

I couldn't help the little smile that pulled at the corners of my lip as her brows furrowed when she didn't find anything.

Carefully laying down beside her, I bite my lip to tone down the grin spreading across my face when her arm snakes around me pulling me into her, and she wraps her large wing over me like a blanket.

Who would of thought the terror inspiring queen was such a cuddler? I snicker to myself.

Knowing that it was useless to try and stop her, I just curl into her, using her arm as a pillow, and let the pulse running through her veins lull me to sleep.

We had a long day tomorrow, and I had a lot of questions for Nani.