Slowly, you trudge your way through the scorching desert sand. The sun pelts down its wrathful rays, drying your very skin as the heat leaches all water from your body. 

Your step is shaky, and your vision swims, but you continue regardless, you have a promise to keep.

A once proud man, you now walk this land, old and withered, all but a fading candle in the wind.

These past three days have pushed you past the point of exhaustion for your tired body, and yet, you continue on. 

For her...

The wind picks up, blowing the sands into your burning eyes. You clutch your chest and wince in pain. Every bone, every fiber, every organ and limb of your body aches and screams at you to stop.

But still, you walk, because she waits for you.

A dry cough leaves your lips, and you take one more step forward.

Another step...

One more.....

Finally, you crest the swelling sand and gaze out unto what was left long behind.

Four vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert, their tops worn by the sands of time.

As you approach, your footing slips sending you tumbling into the molten sand, burning and blistering your skin.

You scream in pain but do not relent.

Using the last embers of strength you pull yourself forward, reaching the closest leg.

You crawl, on withered hands and torn knees through the desert.

But at long last you make it, her head half-sunken, her face fractured. But still, you make it.

"It has been a long time, little one." her soft voice echoes across the sand. A comforting voice, one that once kept you safe from all that would do you harm.

"It has." You wheeze out, taking refuge in her shadow.

"You've grown old," her faded eyes still shining with sadness.

"Your features may have worn but you are still as beautiful as before," you cough as the desert air scorches your lungs.

A gently loving smile graces her stone face, "You truly are persistent."

You lean in, the very sandstone crumbling as your weight shifts, "Stubborn to the end."

Your eyes growing heavy give one final request, "Tell me what you did the first time we met." you hack and cough as your body slowly fails you.

Her eyes look out over the rolling waves of sand, "Once, long ago, a kingdom resided here."

"It stretched far and wide, and brought much happiness to those who lived in it."

"Now, nothing remains, boundless, and bare. Gone... one with the desert sand."  Her words are grim, yet peaceful.

You smile, "And yet to those who lived, it spanned their whole lives. Born, raised, died."

"And through each and every life, new experiences were had, they loved, they hated, they live." 

Your breath grows labored as the desert heat saps you of life.

"And now they too are sand." she continues.

"Fear not the fleeting nature of life, though it may pass in but a blink of my eye it is your everything."

"The faces of those you meet, the lives you touch, each has value." 

You wheeze, blood staining your tattered clothes, "Perhaps one day we may meet again, the sands of our existence forming something entirely new."

The sun's blaze slowly dies as it hides from view, "It is a comforting thought," she smiles.

"But until then, if I can make your long life brighter even just for a moment, I'll stay with you."

You close your eyes, shutting out the world.

"Until then I'll be here," she whispers as you drift into the darkness.

"Goodbye, my Queen of Queens."