The cool starry night eloped Crystal City into fresh darkness. The strong wind swayed the trees with no leaves left and the cold moon shone bright only a few days away from its full round glory. The small lighted window was like a beacon of hope in the dark Tiger Castle but its Queen felt dark the same as night around her...
Sienna sat behind her turquoise stone-encrusted vanity mirror and brushed her golden hair slowly at the light of a few candles. She was dressed in a warm velvet pink nightgown and though she did not feel the coldness of the night, her heart felt like pierced by an icy arrow. She felt sad. She thought about her time with Sarcos which went away way too fast and she was replaying all the memories with him in her head...
Sienna understood that Sarcos acquired new powers and hoped he could tame them, but was worried at the same time."The way he rushed must mean the powers are strong..." she felt afraid suddenly.
Sienna looked into the mirror. Her beautiful golden reflection became blurry as she felt tears coming into her eyes..." I do not want to lose you again Sarcos..." she whispered into the darkness.
"Crystal Pincer! Who are you?"She locked her eyes inside the mirror as if looking for an answer. Sienna felt her heart becoming even heavier, her fear changing into frantic excitement. "I must do everything I can to get him out of Sarcos!" she bit her lips. "But where do I start? I know nothing about him. Doesn't matter! I have to do something!"She whispered to herself almost manically.
Sienna stood up resolutely as she dropped her golden hairbrush on the table. She put on the light blue velvet dressing gown over her nightgown in a hurry. She secured it with the golden belt which she tied up firmly. It felt as if she was going to fight the battle over her Scorpion King! Then she took one candle and opened the door of her room...
"Hi, what are your names?"She glanced at two tiger guards standing there...The young strong men met her eyes with surprised gazes. One was white-haired with blue eyes and one brown-haired with golden eyes.
"My name is Kuma." said the brown-haired one."And my friend is called Ash." He introduced the other guard."To your service dear Queen."Both of them touched their hearts with their right hand politely.
"Follow me!"Sienna ordered them seriously stepping out of her room boldly.
"Where to, dear Queen?"Kuma asked her politely.
"To the library," Sienna said in a serious tone...
"Sure."The guards nodded and went with her exchanging clueless looks behind her back. They should address her "my Queen" to be correct but they were taken aback by her beauty. Sienna's presence captured their minds and they tried to do their best to keep thinking sober next to her as they followed her dutifully through the dark corridors...
After a few minutes of fast walking, Sienna finally opened the heavy door to the library. The guards just came inside with her, and she did not mind. They stood at the entrance and watched her in awe. They expected just to watch the door of her turquoise bedroom and instead, they ended up here, watching her snoop around the library. It was a welcomed change from a boring routine for them. They guarded her door many times but she did not even know about it! They were as if invisible to her. But now, it felt quite nice to them, that she would know their names. It felt as if the nights they spent guarding were finally recognized by her!
The huge library was deadly quiet. It looked a bit scary at night. Sienna felt quite good to be there with some guards. The ancient books were neatly displayed on the heavy wooden shelves by their alphabetic order and subject. Sienna looked at the hoards of books...She wished to ask Magnus about it to fasten her search but she did not trust him...
"If Crystal Pincer could be Sarcos's weakness, I better not ask anyone about it." she thought."Maybe only Marath!"The sorcerer's cheeky grin flashed in her mind. "Read what can't be seen...whatever it was I should not take it lightly."Sienna nodded to herself."So, let's start with reading what I can see..." she sighed to herself.
Sienna followed the long corridors full of books till she found the geology section. She looked under C and found some books about crystals but nothing about Crystal Pincer. Still, she picked them up and put them on the table....Then she went to check the aisle with legends but there was nothing under the name as well, so she did not pick any book from there...She came back to the table, sat down under the candlelight and opened the first heavy book.
"I will read everything I can..." she whispered to herself and started to devour the books with her eyes...The books were interesting at first but soon became boring as she did not find what she was looking for. Sienna was tired after a few hours of reading and her long day of mating so her eyes started to close involuntarily as she was trying to find a stone which resembled the one from Marath's laboratory...
The young tiger guards were looking at Sienna for hours. They kept smirking at each other as her head kept falling into the books. Sienna went from sitting straight to entirely splattering over the table over the books till she just fell asleep on her hand!
"She is sleeping for sure."Ash whispered to his friend."What now?"
"Nothing! We will just watch her. I do not think our King will be happy to see us carry her in the corridors. He is too jealous." Kuma replied.
"Sure. And King Sharchan is here as well, I do not feel as adorning the walls." Ash chuckled.
"Haha, like Lord Ziran used to...Fly to the walls..."Kuma nodded entertained.
"Where is he, by the way?"Ash asked curiously. They belonged to Ziran's warriors entrusted with guarding their Queen, but they had not seen their leader for quite a long now. Lord Ziran was always so busy with the Queen.
"I heard he left. The Queen humiliated him terribly in Sand City. He wanted to fight Captain Bran to death and she forbade him!"Kuma whispered.
"Despicable. Is he so enslaved he could not even decide when he wants to die?"Ash shook his head.
"She is just too kind, she would stop anyone. "Kuma noted.
"Do you think she is weak?"Ash was thinking as he watched the beautiful sleeping Queen.
"I think she is rather clever..."Kuma smiled.
"Hm, losing a bodyguard for a game is not a good move for sure, but still, it was his choice, she should respect it."Ash nodded his head.
"Maybe she is very strong then! Headstrong!"Kuma chuckled.
"For sure! You solved it! She is more headstrong than our Lord Ziran then, haha..."Ash laughed quietly. This guarding was quite fun...
"Well, King Sarcos was there...Who can cross him?"Kuma nodded his head seriously.
"Only the Queen, I guess..."Ash noted quietly.
"She will never do, she is worried about our King. His life is in her hands..."Kuma whispered.
"It is so complicated..."Ash shook his head.
"Yes it is," Kuma nodded...."Listen, what is going on outside? Go check it!" he sent Ash outside because the rushed noises erupted in the quiet castle!
"Sure..."Ash opened the door and watched as the hoard of warriors passed by the dark corridors. Everyone was searching and shouting, ignoring the surprised guards who watched as the huge commotion rose through the entire castle...
"What's going on?"Ash stopped one of the warriors. It was his friend.
"The Queen is missing. Both Kings are raging!" he panted and was about to run searching.
"Hey stop, she is here, in the library..." Ash called after him but the man was gone. They were scared of Sharchan's wrath and were way too frantic in their search!
Actually, all the warriors present in the castle were looking for the Queen! Sharchan wanted to check on Sienna but she was not in her room so he started a ruckus...Tyrell panicked and ran from his work. He did not even welcome his mate properly and now she was gone already!!! They called for Bran but he said the Queen did not pass the gates...
"She must be inside..." the strong eagle nodded his head seriously.
Meanwhile, Ash stopped the first passing warrior. "Tell the Kings the Queen is in the library," he grunted entertained and closed the door again, so the noises would not disturb her slumber.
Soon enough Sharchan barged into the library followed by Tyrell closely. The strong Kings stared in disbelief at Sienna sleeping over the ancient books.
"What is the meaning of this? "Tyrell looked at the guards firmly.
"She wanted to come here. The library is not on the forbidden list for the Queen. She has the right to come here any time, no?"Kuma reported innocently.
"In the middle of the night?"Tyrell lifted his eyebrows inquisitively.
"I'm not aware of any time restrictions..."Kuma replied curtly.
"That is a good idea, "Tyrell noted to Sharchan.
"Send them out."Sharchan pointed his head to Tyrell.
"You are dismissed!"Tyrell nodded to both guards." You did well, but next time send someone to inform me of Queen's whereabouts if she leaves her room."
"Sure my king." they nodded touching their hearts and left.
"This was close."Ash elbowed Kuma in relief as they went out...
The strong Kings were left alone in the library with their sleeping Queen.
Sharchan walked lightly around Sienna, lifting her golden hair from the books gently and checking what she was reading."Crystals! Something is off with Sarcos."The sneaky snake looked at Tyrell seriously.
"Why do you think so?"Tyrell furrowed his brows.
"Our Queen is reading books at candlelight in the middle of the night. Sienna is not into gemstones this much. She does not care for jewellery..."Sharchan grinned as he walked around Sienna like the sneaky predator.
"What you want to do...?"Tyrell felt Sharchan's wild energy and felt worried suddenly. The weird excitement entered his veins.
"We will interrogate our Queen..."Sharchan looked at him wildly. The snake was taking over in the night.
"Do you think she tried to hide something from us?"Tyrell asked worriedly.
"We will see?"Sharchan grinned and shook Sienna's shoulders gently."Sienna wake up!" he said firmly and crouched next to her.
Sienna wiggled but continued sleeping. Sharchan shook her a few more times till she opened her eyes groggily..."Sharchan..." she smiled and put her head down again.
"Sienna, wake up! What are you doing here?" he asked her not letting her sleep...
"Ahh...what? Crystals...Pincer...Power...a...a...reading...I love you so much." she slipped down onto him and fell asleep immediately.
"So?" Tyrell lifted his eyebrows cheekily at Sharchan. Sienna was way too cute falling asleep on the Snake King.
"It looks ok, she is not keeping secrets...We will continue tomorrow morning."Sharchan nodded and cuddled Sienna on his chest as he stood up.
"Sure."Tyrell picked up all the books Sienna had on the table and followed Sharchan down the corridors. He was calmer suddenly.
The strong Snake King took Sienna to her room and put her back in her bed, taking off her dressing gown and slippers. Tyrell dropped the books to his room and went to check on Sienna and Sharchan.
But as the Tiger King entered his Queen's room he noticed that Sharchan was already in his snake form curling under the window." Go next to her brother." he hissed at surprised Tyrell and closed his eyes...Sharchan felt his snake body was getting heavier as he was fighting off the hibernation urges for way too long...