Queen Crimson paced the length of her throne room, her tail lashing angrily behind her. Her claws were almost to the point of digging in the palace floor, but she knew better than that.
“So, the StealthDragons appear to be dormant right now?” She asked her second-in-command, Sanguine. He was slightly bigger than she was, with sharper claws and bigger horns. His scales were mostly black, with streaks of dark red and white. His underbelly was white, along with his horns and spikes.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” he answered, tapping his tail barb gently against the stone floor imbedded with jewels. "Their forces are pinned elsewhere. Their exact strategy and activities are not yet known, but our spies report that they appear to be looking for something."
“Then we should strike.” Crimson paced over to the map and stabbed a claw at the StealthDragon Kingdom. Sanguine walked patiently up to the map.
“We have not yet located their palace yet, Your Majesty,” he said. He tapped a mountain range near the seacoast. “This is where it most likely is. A strategic place to keep a palace, well-hidden and easily guarded. It would be a massacre, Your Highness.”
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“You don’t have to call me ‘Your Highness’, Sanguine,” Crimson replied. She tapped the edge of the map, thinking. “I don’t want to send my people to a slaughter.”
She lay her head in her talons.
The head that was unworthy to wear the crown.
Crimson missed her parents. She wasn’t ready for the weight of the throne, and she had a war on her hands. It hadn’t been her to declare the war on the StealthDragons, it had been the council. They were all dead now, but the war had already started. Sanguine was the only member of the council still living.
“Can we tell Clawmaker to send the assassins?” Crimson asked Sanguine.
“We could…” Sanguine looked thoughtful. “In fact, I think Clawmaker summoned an All-Call. She said something about trying to find her favorite weapon, Razor-something, It think? Anyways, all of the assassins are in place.”
“But…wait.” Crimson faced Sanguine. “Wouldn’t that make us just as bad as the StealthDragons?”
“Yes,” Sanguine admitted.
“Then no.” Crimson went back to pacing the throne room.
“We could wait it out, Crimson,” Sanguine pointed out. “Then there will be no indecision.”
Crimson sighed. “It looks like we’ll have to.” She turned towards the portrait on the wall of her mom and dad, cradling a baby Crimson in their arms. What would you have done? She wondered.
Sanguine’s eyes sparkled. “After all,” he said cleverly, “patience is the best weapon of all.”