CHAPTER ONE

He dunked the brush back into the red liquid. He flung the brush up to the white rose and plastered the thick liquid carefully onto its petals. Without time to spare he moved on to the next flower. Ace gazed up from his work to the green grass patch where the croquet game was being held. High society members were looking over their large rimmed glasses at the young petite girl focusing with the flamingo in hand. The hedgehog, formed in a ball, waited anxiously, knowing that his life depended on his next move. The girl took in a breath and with a smooth motion hit the hedgehog towards the first gate. The hit was too soft and anyone with eyes could see that the hedgehog wasn’t going to reach the gate. But miraculously he went though, spinned on to the second gate and went through six more gates before reaching the end in perfect timing. Everyone clapped like their lives depended on it, which sadly was the case, and congratulated her on her success.

Four of hearts grumbled next to Ace.

“Pathetic suck ups.”

He took care not to say it out loud, for just like them, his life depended on it.

Ace looked at the queen, whose face showed no ecstatic emotion but looked rather tired. He wondered what she was thinking. Did she even enjoy the game that she played every day when the sun was at its brightest?

Ace wasn’t like the other car soldiers. Perhaps because he was Ace of Hearts. Perhaps that made him believe in a life that was better than the one he was living. Perhaps because unlike all the other soldier who resented and hated the queen, he instead felt a moving sensation in his heart whenever he saw her. He made sure no one else ever knew how it made him feel when he saw those beautiful sad eyes, when he saw her lips turn into a tight scowl, when he watched those delegate hands move when she was mad. He was probably crazy for feeling the way he was. But he had no desire to feel anything less.

As he watched the queen and her entourage stroll away, leaving the soldiers to pick up their mess and the grass piles that were left by the hedgehog’s pens, he decided determined that he would somehow talk to the queen. And soon.