Queen Denaasi

Ted appeared in the entrance to the tent and beckoned Emily to join him. She followed him past a large rack of weapons of different shapes and sizes; next to this was a trestle table with a charging station for walkie talkies and a couple of people working on laptops. The tent was separated into different rooms by canvas dividers, and Emily was led to the furthest one.

‘Queen Denaasi,’ began Tom, ‘please allow me to introduce Lady Alexa, Champion of the Holy Order.’ The Queen was sitting on an inflatable bed on the floor of the room reading a magazine. She looked up, then smiled broadly and stood to greet Emily. Denaasi was beautiful, with long braided blonde hair over one shoulder and wearing a flowing white silk gown which clung to her curves. She gave Emily a hug, wrapping her arms below the armour over her chest. ‘My god, you look brilliant!’ She stood back, holding both of Emily’s hands, admiring the suit of armour.

‘Now, I have a little bit of business to attend to,’ Ted was checking his phone as he spoke. ‘So I’m going to leave you two to get acquainted. Alexa, your main events start tomorrow morning so I hope you enjoy a little free time this evening.’ He nodded to Denaasi, then the two girls were alone.

Denaasi sat cross legged on the bed and motioned for Emily to join her. In the suit of armour she was **** to lounge with her legs to the side, and struggled to keep the metallic strips of her skirt in place.

‘Is this your first time?’ asked Denaasi.

‘Yes,’ smiled Emily, ‘I actually only got this job a week ago.’

‘Well, I hope you are ready for it,’ the queen laughed. ‘I’ve done a couple of these, it’s a lot of fun if you just let yourself go! My advice: have a couple of drinks before your story events, they go a lot better that way!’ She produced a bottle of vodka from beneath the pillow, and smiled as she handed it to Emily.

Emily didn’t really want to, but trying not to appear rude she took a small swig from the bottle. The girls chatted for a short while about the weekend to come. Denaasi admitted that this was her first time with the Holy Order, as she had previously always been on the ‘bad guys’ team. It was a pleasant change to have a nice frock to wear, she said, as being evil clearly meant that the women had to wear long black boots and little else for the whole event.

Emily found herself laughing a lot at Denaasi’s jokes, and realised she had quickly grown fond of her queen. Before long she had met Angel and Cat, the royal bodyguards, and Allegra, her handmaiden. The guards wore shiny armour adorned with golden dragons and stood straight, seeming quite serious. The handmaiden wore a plain white dress with a gold boddice, although at one point Emily noticed she was wearing shiny black high-heeled boots which didn’t seem to match the frock at all.

Denaasi was trying to persuade everybody to join her in the bar, she clearly intended to get drunk this evening. The guards, however, intended to train for a while to prepare for tomorrow’s battle, and said that they would be honoured if the champion would join them. The handmaiden stood quietly to the side of the group, and said she would like to go to bed if the queen was no longer in need of her services. Emily was torn. It would make sense to practice fighting, especially since the guard had mentioned a tournament tomorrow. But she did quite fancy another drink now that the warmth of the vodka she had drunk was spreading through her. She looked at the queen, at the guards, and the handmaiden, and made her decision.