Goldest and the Kingdom of Thorns by Joanne Durda Page A

throughout his room, trying to induce him to sleep, and to sleep peacefully. He realized the Monks knew about the troubled folds of his heart.
I must not think of her
, he thought to himself as he brushed the memory and smell of her away. His mind immediately made an effort to forget her.
    Strange, how there is no rain with this violent force of nature unfolding before my very own eyes
, he thought to himself. He watched as the steam got heavier, as if it was enshrouding the fields so that he could not be made aware as to what was taking place out there. He knew the Monks were performing a cryptic ritual which no others were permitted to watch. He strained his eyes and thought he could see the tall, muscular Octagon. His skin prickled and a creepy sensation crawled up his back.
    “Strange people, these Monks be. I feel uneasy at whatis about to come forward. I shall have to be observant, watch my own back – no thoughts of her must shadow my mind and hinder my own self being at this given time,” Savagio whispered to himself in deep thought.
    The wind turned more savage and started to howl, but still no downpour came. The hidden fear of nature was releasing itself, but Savagio knew there would be no weeping of the rain tonight – no puddles would appear on the ground tomorrow.
    “The rain will only put the fires out that they have all built to warm the fields and whatever is simmering out there,” Savagio summed up to himself. “So, it is true. These Monks are powerful and can cultivate power if they want to. And I believe that tonight they have accomplished what they had set out to do.”
    At those spoken words, the moondust fell from the moon and enveloped the thorns. The cryptic ritual was completed. A groggy Savagio staggered to his bed and fell upon it. He immediately lost himself in a deep slumber, and slept the sleep of the dead that night.
    In the meantime, while Ushi tossed and turned and tried to sleep on the cold marble floor of the cave, with Goldest giggling all night, and while Savagio contemplated about the eeriness of the scene outside his open castle window, the Tooth Fairy Princess, in deep distressful thought, sat at her long table in the main dining hall of the castle, toying with her potato and radish soup. Her dinner of stuffed chicken lay untouched, and had grown cold. Goldest’s two pastel snake buddies, Meta and Methna, peeped into the roomand saw the lonely princess. A single tear feel from her eye into her soup. The two sad snakes slithered up to her and with their large, dark green eyes looked up at her. The princess felt their presence in the room and looked down at them. She sighed heavily.
Do not give me those sad, sad eyes
, the princess thought to herself, with emotional exhaustion.
    “Sorry, no more of your games tonight – or any other night,” she told them with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
    Meta and Methna whimpered. They missed their playful little friend and wanted her to come back. They blamed the princess for letting Ushi go, because he had taken Goldest with him. They had wanted to go with her, but she told them that they could not. They were to stay here and keep an eye on the princess, and if Savagio should return, to cause havoc with him and the princess. The princess was in their safekeeping – keeping her away from Savagio, with whatever means were deemed necessary. Those were Goldest’s orders to her two buddies, whom she had befriended and whom she’d molded into her two most trusted companions. She had enlisted them with just cause to keep Savagio away from the princess until Ushi and she returned. The princess belonged to Ushi and not to Savagio. She had stressed that fact to her two buddies before she had left. Meta and Methna had pledged their loyalty to the golden frog.
    The princess sighed again, and looked down at the faces and two pairs of pleading eyes of the snakes. “I suppose you miss Goldest just as much as I miss Ushi’s presence. I can feel how