Stories of the Stars: Frozen Mountain III

Frozen Mountain was in the main hall with the other servants, as Eclipsa was giving the orders for the day. It was a pretty casual activity for the Queen, she was less tense than usual. Soon most of the servants left to fulfill the tasks that she gave them. He was still a child and didn’t exactly get any tasks, as he was mostly asked to hang out around Selenara and make sure she didn’t need anything.

After almost all the servants left, someone knocked at the door and the guards opened it. It was a strange thing for a grifix to be allowed in without the Queen being informed about it, but it all became clear when he saw the healer disciple, Black Sunset, standing in the door. She was still just a child, at around the same age as Frozen Mountain, but she was a healer and that gave her a lot of privileges, especially since she already seemed to handle more of the healing tasks than the mentor herself. 

‘Good morning, my Queen.’ She said as she bowed. ‘I am here with a request, coming from both me and my mentor. We are running low on our herb supplies, and someone needs to go pick up new ones. My mentor however is too busy to do it so I have to go, but as a child I need permission to leave the village, and also a guard to keep me safe.’

That usually wouldn’t be the Queen’s job, for the guards were sent out by the Captain of the Warriors, and the permission could have been given by any of the filly’s parents or the healer. However, there has been a fight with a pack of timberwolves recently. Even if all Warriors came back alive, they were mostly wounded and unable to perform any tasks. The only available Warriors were the castle guards, and those were under the Queen’s order. So she had to come ask for Guards from the Queen.

‘I see. You can take the two Warriors guarding this room. I’ll assign new ones here.’ The Queen replied.

‘Thank you, your majesty.’ The filly said and turned around to leave the room.

‘Wait!’ Frozen Mountain stepped up. ‘Your majesty, may I accompany her too? I believe it would be useful for me to, at least briefly, know the locations of herbs. Considering my position in the future such information may be necessary in some situations.’

The Queen looked at him quietly for a second then replied: ‘Very well, you may go. But be careful, both of you.’ Then she turned around to leave. Despite the warm meaning of her words, they sounded cold and careless, not like she actually told them to take care.

The two of them walked outside the village, through the dark forest, followed closely by the two guards, that stood quietly behind them, far enough to don’t get into their personal space but close enough to jump in front of them at any second in case of danger.

‘Haaaa, sweet of you to ask to accompany me, was it hard to come up with an excuse for it, mister future Queen servant? You could’ve just said that you wanted to hang out with me, I’m sure the Queen would’ve accepted! You don’t have to hide it!’ Black Sunset suddenly spoke. The moment he heard her words he instantly regretted deciding to come along. But he couldn’t go back, he had to prepare himself to be the greater servant for Selenara, even if that meant having to endure the dark mare’s insolence now and then.

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t hide anything, I told the truth. That is the only reason I am here.’ He replied.

‘Haha suuure! That’s what they all say. But it’s fun to play around with them, letting them have their fantasies!’

‘Huh?! Told you already you got the wrong idea about me. But the problem here is you. The healer is supposed to be one of the most loyal grifix in the village. You should be more serious about your job and stop fooling around like that. Be worthy of the noble task you have assigned in this life.’

‘Haaa? So you came here to lecture me? Gah, what a pain you are…’

‘There is no way I’m letting someone so disrespectful near Selenara. You should learn to take your job seriously, the healer is supposed to help the Queen but at this point you’d be a horrible influence on her.’

‘That’s what you think, huh?’ She lastly said. Her mood turned completely down and she stayed quiet for the rest of the trip, as if he would’ve hit a weak point. They retrieved the plants and went back to the village, where she went straight to the Healer’s Hut and shut herself there, without even going back to report to the Queen. That however confirmed to Mountain all that he said, she really wasn’t serious about anything she did - he thought.