"And I am finally done!" said Wura happily as she put down her paintbrush on the ground and Nora turned to look at her.
"Oh that is nice my Queen, can I see it?" asked Nora as she smiled and Wura nodded.
"Yes, but please do not judge me, in my opinion it looks horrible, it is definitely not my best work" said Wura as she shook her head.
"Well it does not matter my Queen, as long as you enjoyed doing it" said Nora as she smiled and Wura turned the canvas around and showed Nora the amateur painting of the teacup.
"My Queen I do not know what you are talking about, the painting looks great" said Nora as she smiled in surprise, it was better than what she had expected.
"No, no, it does not look great at all, can you not see, my brushwork is lacking, the lines and colours do not blend properly and it looks messy more than realistic" said Wura as she criticized her own painting.
"Well were you going for a realistic look my Queen?" asked Nora as Wura shook her head.
"No, not really, but I expected it to be better than this" said Wura as she sighed.
"Well my Queen, it looks great to me, I think the colours look off because the colour of the teacup is a mix of greens which you do not have, and also, it looks fine for your first time painting in a long while" said Nora as she smiled.
"Oh you always say the nicest things Nora" said Wura as she sighed.
"That is because I mean it my Queen, this painting is very nice" said Nora as she smiled.
"In fact, I believe that it is good enough to be hung in one of the halls of the Castle" said Nora as Wura shook her head violently.
"Oh no, no, no, I do not like other people seeing my work, and what if they do not like it?? That would just be horrible" said Wura as she shook her head and Nora laughed.
"My Queen, you never act as if you care what people think" said Nora.
"Well on a normal day I would not, but not when it comes to something very important to me" said Wura.
"My Queen, your painting is fine, if you do not want to hang it up, that is also fine" said Nora as she smiled and Wura sighed.
"Thank you Nora, it means a lot to me that you actually think so" said Wura.
"Of course I do my Queen, what matters most to me is that you really enjoyed painting it, and it made you forget about your troubles for a little while" said Nora as she smiled and Wura smiled.
"I guess it did..." said Wura as she smiled and she glanced out the open windows to see the orange sun starting to set.
"Oh my the sun is already setting, and I did not even notice..." said Wura in disbelief as Nora laughed.
"I did notice, and I was just about to go and get your dinner" said Nora.
"I am surprised, it is funny how uncontrollable time really is... when you want it to last longer, it goes faster, and when you want it to go faster, it slows down" said Wura.
"And when you decide to ignore it, it decides to ignore you back" said Wura as Nora smiled and she placed the painting on Liam's desk.
"I do agree with you my Queen, I will be right back with your dinner" said Nora as Wura smiled at her and she left the room.
Wura sighed as she turned to the right to look out the window again... just like that a day was almost gone... and now she only had three more days left till she would be able to go back to her normal routine, she could not wait for that at all.
...
The next day.
Wura was busy doing the only thing she could do while on mandatory bedrest, which would be painting, when she heard a knock on the door of her room.
"Come in" said Wura as she did not look up from what she was doing when she heard the door open and someone walked in, she knew that it could not be Nora, since Nora had no reason to knock.
"Good Morning my Queen, how do you feel today?" asked Mero as he gave a soft smile.
"Oh Mero, what a surprise, good morning, I am better than yesterday if anything, and also Nora is not here Mero, she stepped out a few moments ago" replied Wura as she looked up with a smile, she had not expected Mero to come and see her today.
"That is good to hear my Queen, I am not looking for Nora, I saw her on my way here, I just wanted to check on you and make sure that you are feeling alright" said Mero as he smiled.
"That is very kind of you Mero" said Wura as she smiled.
"How is your foot?" asked Mero.
"Ahhh well wonderful, those herbs the physician gave Nora work exceptionally well, I no longer feel unbearable pain" said Wura as she smiled.
"That is also good to hear my Queen, I hope that you have not been too bored?" asked Mero.
"Not at all Mero, I decided to start painting again, I have painted a few items since yesterday" said Wura as she smiled happily and that caused Mero to smile.
"That sounds nice my Queen, I can see that you have been keeping yourself busy" said Mero.
"That I have Mero, if I had nothing to do to keep myself busy, I would have gone insane" said Wura as Mero let out a chuckle.
"I can imagine that, you are not one to stay put my Queen" said Mero as Wura looked at him.
"Of course not, I never have and I never will be, this is just a short interlude which will never repeat itself again" said Wura as she sounded more like she was assuring herself more than anything else.
"Anyway, enough about that, you are very sweet for coming to check on me, but I am upset" said Wura as Mero frowned.
"Why are you upset?" asked Mero.
"Well are you the only one who knows that I hurt my foot?" asked Wura as Mero shook his head.
"The whole Castle knows" said Mero.
"Exactly, and yet those four men Zechariah, Zuph, Luc and Elihu have not even come to see me or check on me once" said Wura in obvious annoyance.
"I mean I can expect such behaviour from Elihu, but not from Zechariah, Luc and even Zuph, they cannot even come and see me once to wish me well" said Wura as Mero just smiled.
"I apologize my Queen, I forgot to inform you, Zechariah, Zuph, Luc and Elihu are currently not in the Castle, they went on posting duty to check on the outposts of Wyverdale" said Mero.
"Oh..." said Wura as this was news to her, she did not know about that.
"When did they leave?" asked Wura.
"Last night, a few hours before you hurt your foot" said Mero as Wura was even more surprised, how come she had no idea of this at all?? She was Queen and yet she did not even know what was going on.
"Only a few people know my Queen, it is kept as a secret for safety reasons" said Mero as Wura nodded.
"Ahh I see..." said Wura.
"Yes my Queen, they are unaware of what happened to your foot, I am sure that if they had, they would have come to see you by now" said Mero.
"I know... I feel guilty now for blaming them for something they did not even know about" said Wura as Mero laughed.
"It is only natural my Queen" said Mero as Wura shook her head and suddenly remembered that she had been busy painting before Mero came in, and that reminded her to be careful not to get paint all over the bed.
"I guess so, but I should have known that they would not be that rude" said Wura as she continued painting.
"What are you painting my Queen?" asked Mero out of curiosity.
"Oh, I am painting the meadow outside, it is just simply beautiful with all the flowers" said Wura as she smiled and looked at Mero.
"That is true" said Mero as he looked outside the window at the beautiful meadow filled with colourful flowers.
"May I see your painting my Queen?" asked Mero out of pure curiosity, he did not know that Wura painted, although now that he thought about it, he could recall Liam buying her some paints a long while ago.
"Ummm... sure Mero... but I am not quite done yet" said Wura as she smiled and turned the canvas to show Mero a quick peek of her painting.
"It looks very... impressive" said Mero as he took a step forward closer to the bed so he could take a good look at the painting.
"Why thank you Mero, although I would not say that, it is barely done" said Wura as she looked at her painting.
"I am sure you will see what I am talking about once you are done with it" said Mero.
"Thank you Mero" said Wura as she smiled and Mero smiled softly when his eyes landed on her face.
"My Queen, you have something on your chin" said Mero.
"I do??" asked Wura in confusion as Mero nodded and she placed the paintbrush on the ground as she tried to wipe of whatever it was that was on her face.
"Where?" asked Wura as she could not find it, her fingers trailing her chin.
"Right there" said Mero as he pointed and Wura still could not find it.
"Here?" she asked as Mero shook his head.
"Over there" said Mero.
"Here?" asked Wura as Mero shook his head.
"It is over here my Queen" said Mero as he stepped forward and wiped off the stain of paint of her chin as that caused Wura to suddenly freeze.