bulllordem:

The agile reptile, which can effortlessly spring for the neck of a person, knows better than to approach this King. A dutiful server of a very special royal guard, it precedes and announces the Queen’s arrival. 

The King nods and, once noticed, the redblackwhite serpent recedes back into the golden warmth of the bedchambers.

His wait over, the man shifts position. Yet, striking another relaxed pose. That might fool many, if not all in the court. But not his Queen. While others only arrive at his image like a threshold, from where to respectfully behold his divine presence, she regards him as a window. 

She sees through him. 

bulllordem:

For frail and flighty is royal solitude.

Coming from the corridors leading to the bedchambers, the King recognizes the voice of his best loved counselor. Though the good man actually whispers, as he goes around inspecting the guards. The King has counted three of them, the elite only, on such a night. They must have performed their ablutions before duty, tonight, according to precise instructions of the High Priestess. 

Like the King himself has, according to her recommendation. Scrubbed and rubbed with the finest aromatic oils, his body burns with expectancy.

And it doesn’t take long for our man to hear the distinctive slither of skin and scales on fur and stone. As the redblackwhite serpent appears on the terrace, the King feels the tingle of his own snake starting to awaken between his thighs.

bulllordem:

The kind of escorted solitude that is available to a King whose dominions spread beyond this great island, encompassing several foreign colonies. 

At the only other entrance to the terrace adjoining the King’s bedchambers, a royal guard stands. Hand resting on sword, if not tense, ever alert.

Of the few steps separating King and servant consist our man’s precious, frail solitude.

bulllordem:

His posture, unceremonious and relaxed like hardly ever observed, as those who watch him from the distance could attest.

Feverish are his eyes, though. Concealed by the long dark waves of hair he cultivates since adolescent,

his countenance,

heavy with concern. 

Facing the night, only gods, spirits and the owls are testimonies to the torment seizing his brow. They might be the source of it, too. (No, not the owls)

All the more rare when he is awake,  the man enjoys a moment of solitude – permitting the world to weigh on him.