Chapter 13:
The Ways of a SeaWing

"But I didn't want to go down to the Deep Palace!" Tsunami complained to her mother. "None of my friends can breathe underwater long enough to make it that far!"

"You don't have any reason to worry about that," said Queen Coral. "I only intended to bring you with me. The rest of them can stay at the Summer Palace as long as they wish. Now that the fun's over, it's time I teach you the ways of a SeaWing."

"But I can't just leave my friends!" Tsunami protested. "We've always been together, as long as we've lived."

"They'll still have each other," Coral disagreed. "They can handle a few days without you, and if they really are as good of friends as you've told me, then they'll understand why I am taking you to the Deep Palace. I sense that you wish to learn how to be like all SeaWings, and this is the only way."

"If it means being so far away from everyone I've ever known, then it's not worth it!"

Coral's eyes became wide and her jaw almost dropped.

"That's the kind of attitude Aquamarine grew up having. It's a law of my kingdom that we only trust other SeaWings for many reasons. This is one of them. You just go and become too attached to land-dwelling dragons, and then you either forget the ways of SeaWings…or don't want to ever learn them." Coral paused. "I'm not taking no from you as an answer, Tsunami. It will be good for you to learn all our customs."

Tsunami's next response was planting her rear on the ground, crossing her arms against her chest, and shutting her eyes. A few SeaWings who'd been watching this exchange between their queen and Tsunami began muttering amongst each other.

"I can't believe she's one of Coral's daughters."

"She doesn't act like a future queen should."

"You mean she won't ever be a queen with that attitude."

"Tsunami has a lot to learn if she's ever going to fight her majesty for the throne."

"What a disgrace. She's not proving herself worthy to have been born with the royal patterns under her wings."

Coral spun around.

"I didn't ask any of you for your opinions on this moment!" she screeched. "Now go find something better to do if you do not wish to see what my dungeon looks like! I am having a personal conversation with my daughter. You have no right of eavesdropping on it!"

The five SeaWings vanished in an instant without any argument.

Coral rubbed her head with her hand. "Ugh. I swear everyone here wishes to give me a migraine." She grabbed Tsunami by the wrist and picked her up with barely any effort. "Now come, Tsunami. The Deep Palace awaits."

Tsunami hung limply in her mother's grasp, further showing her disdain towards the idea of leaving her friends.

"I'm not going," she muttered. "My friends are all I need. I've gone this long without knowing how to be a 'proper SeaWing'. What's the point of learning now?"

"If you are going to fight me for my throne one day, you are going to have to learn all of our history and customs," Coral snapped. "Your fellow SeaWings won't accept a queen that knows nothing about the kingdom she is supposed to rule."

Tsunami huffed. "Well…maybe I was wrong. Maybe I don't want to be queen one day. Who says I would be cut out for it?"

"And that is fine. But there is no excuse for any of my daughters not to learn the history and culture of our kingdom."

Clay suddenly approached, his head held submissively towards the ground.

"Your majesty, can I say something?"

"No. This is a family matter and you're not family." She paused. "The truth is, I don't trust MudWings after what they did to us. We were allies at one point during the war, but then they switched sides and joined Burn and the SkyWings after assassinating one of my best generals, Tempest."

Peril almost lost it. She stormed over to them.

"You can't hate Clay for that!" Peril seethed. "He's never even known another MudWing! And Scarlet wanted him dead. You really think he'd want to fight for her? If you do, then you're just as CRAZY AS SCARLET IS!" she shouted.

A collective gasp rose up from some SeaWings that had been going about their business without listening in on Coral's conversation until now.

"You can't just talk to her majesty that way!" a female SeaWing hissed.

"She's not my queen," Peril scoffed. "I've bowed to no queen ever since I abandoned Scarlet. I'll talk to her and any other queen in Pyrrhia however I wish, if they're all hard headed as she is being right now."

"Get that SkyWing out of here!" ordered Commander Shark.

Peril crossed her arms. "Just you try it. I'll teach you how to prepare a new dish at your feasts. I call it charred SeaWing!"

The nearest SeaWing screamed when Peril glared at him before trying to grab him on the shoulder. She darted off before any contact was made.

Glory approached her. "Peril. There's such a thing as too far. You're beyond that. We're guests here. You can't just threaten to barbecue every dragon you come across."

Sunny perched on Glory's shoulders.

"She's right," she said. "Are you trying to get us all kicked out of here and never have any chance of seeing Tsunami again?"

Starflight only stared at everyone. He was too afraid of Peril to say anything.

Coral let go of Tsunami, then towered over Peril.

"Your friends can stay at my Summer Palace," she began slowly, "but you must leave. I don't tolerate hot-headed dragons on my land."

"'Hot-headed'!" Peril barked. "What, are you a comedian now? I have firescales!" She began backing up. "But I know when I'm not welcome somewhere. I'll leave…and here's a parting gift!" She picked up the nearest object, a conch shell, which she rubbed furiously against her chest so it would set ablaze faster, and then she tossed it at the statue of Coral in the middle of the room.

"You couldn't hit the broad side of a whale!" she heard a male SeaWing laugh.

Peril then realized that she'd misjudged her throw, and not hit the statue at all, but rather tossed the burning shell right out the open window at the far end of the main chamber.

"I'm leaving. A place with this much ice is no haven to someone like me. You can all stay if you wish, but I'm out of here."

"Peril! Wait!" Clay cried. "You don't have to leave!"

"Why should I stay, then? Her majesty's—" There was no respect in Peril's tone when she said 'her majesty's'. "—lackies have shown me no respect since we arrived. It's not my fault I was born with too much fire!" Now Peril pointed a talon at Coral. "And now this two-faced bitch is saying she's friends with Blister!"

Now even her friends gasped alongside the SeaWings who had gathered to watch this exchange.

"Peril!" Kestrel gasped. She didn't even know what else to say.

"That's the last straw," Coral said, visibly shaken by Peril's word choice. "Leave my kingdom. You are no longer welcome here if you bring such a vulgar dragon here. That goes for all of you, except for Kestrel. I cannot just send an injured dragon back out into the world before she's recovered."

"Now wait just a minute, your majesty!" Kestrel said. "That's my daughter you're sending out into that world. If you want her to leave, then I'm going with them even if it kills me. You either shelter us all or you shelter none of us. Where Peril and her friends go, I go. Is that clear?"

Coral blinked.

"Peril is your daughter?"

"Yes! If you think for a minute you're going to split us up again when we've only just began knowing each other—"

The SeaWing Queen relented a little. "I would never split up a mother and daughter," she whispered. "But you must understand. She cannot use such vulgarities here."

"Yeah, well, you can thank Scarlet and her soldiers for that. They're the only dragons my daughter ever had the displeasure of knowing. They corrupted her and used her for horrible things from the moment she hatched. It is not her fault she is like this." Kestrel paused. The rest of her group couldn't believe she was on the verge of crying. "Please, your majesty. Try and forgive her. She will control herself in the future, as long as they don't hound her over her firescales anymore. She can't help it she was born that way. Peril is surely as special as the animus dragons you shelter."

Kestrel trying to restore peace, Tsunami thought. Am I dreaming?

Coral looked all of her daughter's friends in the eyes with a more caring expression than she'd had this entire time.

"Peril," the queen said softly. Some of the gathered dragons sensed she was moved by Kestrel's brief speech. "I am sorry. You do not have to leave. None of you do." Then she looked back to Tsunami. "Please do consider my offer, daughter. I know it will hurt to go somewhere your friends cannot, but if you really do want to challenge me for the SeaWing throne someday, you must learn as much about our history and culture as possible, if you wish to be a respected queen."

"Can I talk it over with my friends?" Tsunami asked in a low voice.

Much to her daughter's surprise, Coral smiled. "Of course."

Tsunami turned to her friends.

"What should I do?" she asked. "I've always wanted to learn about how my own kind live, but I can't stand the idea of being so far away from all of you. I don't know how long it will take for me to learn everything I need to."

Clay stepped forward. "Take as much time as you need. We'll still be here when you return." Everyone else nodded. Even Kestrel, Tsunami thought with a shocked expression on her face. Clay clearly spoke for everyone when he said that. "All of us would want to learn about our own tribes if it were the first time seeing it."

Sunny flew over and hugged Tsunami around her neck. "I'm going to miss you," she sobbed. Tsunami felt the little hybrid's tears against her neck. "We'll be thinking about you all the time while you're gone."

Tsunami was in tears too, but she managed to joke, "You're not gonna sing a goodbye song are you?"

"I'd cry for a week if I did right now." Sunny smiled weakly.

"Starflight?" Tsunami gasped when the NightWing hugged her next.

"Please come back soon," he said genuinely. "Who else am I gonna debate with? Glory?"

Glory laughed weakly. She couldn't hide that she'd been crying. "Hah! You know…I'd always win any argument with you, Starflight." She turned to Tsunami. "Don't be gone long. I feel like a part of me is already missing and you haven't even left for the Deep Palace yet."

Tsunami hugged Glory back. She chuckled weakly and tried to smile, before saying, "I always knew you had a soft side somewhere in there."

Peril couldn't make herself look at Tsunami or her mother. She was still seething over the argument caused by Coral. But Tsunami wouldn't hold that against her; she knew Peril would need time to forgive any of the SeaWing tribe. They hadn't treated her well from the start, afterall.

"I'll see you guys again soon," said Tsunami. She was trying to be strong but it was even harder for her not to cry now. "It'll be hard not to think about all of you." She turned to her mother. "I think I'm ready."

"Grand!" exclaimed Coral. Then she looked to Tsunami's friends. "I'll have her back as soon as possible, I promise. I know it can be hard being away from someone you've known for so long."

After giving one last glance back at her friends, Tsunami dived into the water after her mother. While she continued thinking about her friends, she still had the thought of what life so far under the ocean would be like. She hoped her mother was right, that it would be worth spending a few days away from her friends to learn how SeaWings live. She'd rather do it at the Summer Palace so she could be with her friends, but something told Tsunami as she swam after her mother, almost always struggling to keep up with her, that learning with her is a better option.

Tsunami wished she could tell her mother to slow down, but her Aquatic skills were rusty at best. Webs hadn't really made it his primary concern to teach Tsunami aquatic when they were underneath The Claws of the Clouds Mountains all those years. How she wished he had now. It would definitely help with asking her mother to slow down, and tell her that she's not as fast of a swimmer as she thought.

As long as I don't lose sight of her, Tsunami thought, I'll be fine. I hope.