The dog padded onto the marble. The Queen raised her head from its place on her hand and gazed at the skinny creature.
‘What am I now? Your dinner?’
The dog drooled. In truth, it looked too weak to pose any threat. But it's presence brought home the reality of the Queen's situation. Indeed, the situation of the whole world. Cracked walls. Barren fields. Alabaster skies.
The rains came too heavy when they weren't needed and not at all when they were. The sun blazed when there ought to be chill winds and hid when it was supposed to shine. It was all out of balance. The people had starved and those that hadn't had taken what they had and fled, to starve elsewhere. The Queen remained. The Queen and this dog.
‘Well,’ she said, clearing her throat and thumbing the sword in her lap. ‘One of us has to eat.’
Paddy Dobson
26th November 2023