Nanowrimo? haha apparently not this year

Remember how I said I would try to do Nanowrimo? (If you don’t, it was one of my last posts). Well, I didn’t. Something in me said that I was too busy with the blog and basically let my head excuse it for me, without much guilt.

I didn’t do Nanowrimo, but I do have a (very) short story (about 800 words), that I’m actually very proud of, and will put on this post. I think the reason I like it so much is because of the concept. It’s about a cold hearted queen, and I’m kinda obsessed with the idea of royalty, kinda just their power and the harshness of it. I’m in to mushy princess-y stuff too. It’s just the idea of a Queen in some elaborate dress made for show, with a sword in her hand and a man at her feet pleading for life, is some kinda moodboard. Not sure if that made sense or made me look like a sociopath (please go with the prior to the latter).

Without further ado, here it is: The Queen

    She was draped in the most beautiful gems, across her chest, wrapped around her ears, woven between her fingers and up her arms, and in the most beautiful display, a crown that could make an empress jealous. She was the most beautiful sight to any creature. That is, any creature who didn't recognize her soul. It was as ugly as could be. She was monstrous. Turned this way by heartbreak upon heartbreak. 

    Her first love, a baker in one of the towns she ruled over. He was everything she had ever wanted. Her parents, of course disapproved, but she risked her head and her crown by being with him. In the end, he only wanted the title she could give him. So once he learned she was risking her own title to be with him, he rejected her.

    Our Queen, Maeve was once the most beautiful in all of every land, even on the inside. This first trial of hers, tested her in every way imaginable. She fought through it, and still came out of it nearly as lovely as before. Before this baker, she wore her heart on her sleeve, but he taught her to tuck it away. Shortly after she recovered from her first heartbreak, she was set up with one of her parent's allies. She didn't want to learn to love again. She desperately wanted to keep her heart hidden, away from this foreigner, Noah.

    Her parents were not well. She found out this was their dying wish— for her to marry this man. She relented, wishing to make her parents happy. So they were married, their kingdoms combined. It was the most beautiful affair in all of the land. Every town was celebrating; every town was overjoyed to be living through the affair of the century. It was all anyone talked about since the engagement was announced. Maeve was elated to find everyone so happy by their upcoming union. She and her fiancé were sparing no cost. They invited every single person out of every single town they combined would be residing over. Flowers were to be hanging everywhere, and visible from every vantage point. 

    Her parents died, before the ceremony could take place. She was torn. Noah tried his very best to keep his heart open waiting for hers to crawl out of its hiding place. He was her rock, and stronghold through recovering from the grief of both her parents passing. It was a year exactly, before they were supposed to be married, that she finally opened up. She let her heart find his. Vulnerable through it all, she loved him.

It was the night before their wedding, something felt off; she felt ill. Immediately her prince sent for their nurse. She was pregnant, miraculously. Both of their hearts were full, with each other and their baby. It didn't stay very happy for long. The next morning, their wedding day, Noah was murdered. He was getting flowers from their garden, and he took a dagger to the heart. The Queen was devastated. She was lost in her own grief. Instead of hiding away, she felt her heart harden. She wanted his murderer dead, and she didn't care what it took. 

    The baby was her last piece of him. The last piece of her beloved that she had or ever will have. And she lost it too. It was three months after Noah passed. Still consumed in the loss of her husband. She already had a name picked out, well one for each gender it could be, either Abigail or Noah. She was completely hardened now. She felt her heart, not only hide away, but completely act like it was never there. Emptiness filled her every thought. She had lost so much, including herself. She lost everyone she loved and then she lost herself. 

    She finally put on her wedding dress five months later. She put on all of the jewelry she was supposed to wear with it. She felt closer to Noah than she had since before he passed. Instead of celebrating, she went to the dungeons. She walked through the puddles of disgusting water on the door, and walked right up to the cell. The specific cell that held her fiancé's killer, and made the guard open it. She grabbed him by the neck and crushed his airways. Killing him herself, while getting the pleasure of seeing him suffer the same way she has every day since the day Noah was killed. She's felt like she was drowning and couldn't breathe. It was like she was so far underwater she had started falling away from reality, but this was it. This was her reality.