"The dragonets are dead."
The words still swam within her jelly-mind when the news passed on to her.
No plans, no ceremonies, no feast.
Instead, the Kingdom of the Sea was wailing in pain. Every SeaWing seem to mourn to sea and waves. Everywhere Rainbow went, silence and grief seem to engulfed around her. Even the lively, energetic and majestic place of the Summer Palace seem to be drained out all of its usual beauty.
How was it possible? How could it be done? Was it the assassin? Or was it the curse everybody talked about?
All of those question seem insignificant now that dragonets had died. Rumours had it that Queen Coral had ordered to execute two of her council members, the Chief of 'Dragonet Care' and the deputy Chief. She remembered the chief was called Abalone. She had delivery his food to him before it was his turn to watch over the eggs this morning. From the short interaction she had with him, she thought he was quite capable and trustworthy.
She felt sorry for Abalone. The truth was nobody wishes to be the chief of 'Dragonet care'. All the previous chief had been appointed faced brutal punishment for failing to keep the female dragonet eggs safe. The ones who survived the punishment wish they didn't. The one that didn't; At least a quick death.
The description of the dead SeaWing rumoured by other dragons sent a shudder of chill sent through her back and wing. They said Queen Coral preferred to pluck the teeth of her victim as her means of execution. The pain would be so excruciating that it would certainly render most SeaWing unconscious in the process. Those teeth would then float disgustingly around the body as she worked on the next one, and the next, until the SeaWing either went motionless as a log or dead.
One more reason why I shouldn't meddle with the Royal family business.
Then again, rumours also had it that an underwater volcanic eruption should be happening few days ago but it didn't. So maybe, there is a chance that all of those are just rumours.
Rainbow's lingering doubt subsided as she shook herself back at the feasting floor of the Summer Palace. She was taking off the decoration which was meant for hatching celebration. They were told to cancel all plans which related to celebration and that something else might be done instead. Probably a funeral. And that she would also probably be transferred back to Deep Palace and go back to her usual schedule of cleaning duty.
She actually like it in here. Before the incident happened, Summer Palace was a beacon of peace and joy. Dragons talking a flying stroll around the pavilion, sunbathing their scales while floating at the surface and dragonets playing sands at the lowest floor. She felt so much alive than in the Deep palace. She definitely did not enjoy staring down at empty hallway or countless lifeless decorations that the queen has.
As she was carrying a table aside, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Tidal flew out from a cave below. He hovered mid-air scanning area. Searching for something or someone. Only when his eyes landed on her that he flew upwards and landed beside her. Slightly out of breath as he spoke.
"Hello Rainbow. I'm sorry that the original plan for the feast was cancelled. And it seems like all your work have gone to naught."
Rainbow shook her head in response.
"I don't mind. In fact, I finally have a chance to see the Summer Palace. It is as marvellous as they said." She said.
Tidal nodded. Seemingly agreeing that statement. However, the silence dragged on between them as she realized that there was more reason to just checking up on her.
"I'm not sure if you notice. But..." Tidal said. "Just before we talk, I was searching for a young dragonet. A prince to be exact. Have you seen him?"
Rainbow shook her head in confusion.
"I guess he flew off. Most likely, back to the Deep Palace. I would have tried to catch up with him but you wouldn't believe what had happened before." Rubbing between his temple he continued.
"Come with me."
Dropped down few levels below, Rainbow flew right in to one of caves besides the libraries floor alongside with him. A long tunnel with stone doors carved into them. Everything seemed normal, until he led her end of the tunnel to room labelled 'Private room' just beside a stone door. The door was slightly open to the side, revealing a glimpse of mess that what might be 'she couldn't believe'.
"Before the prince ran off, he made cause a little mess in the room. He seems really upset of what had happened to the dead of the princess. But I'm not sure why."
With a talon at the door, Tidal pushed the door and... 'a little mess' was an understatement. The whole room was a wreck. There were tiny hills of scrolls stacked at each corners of the room. Half-ripped papers scattered themselves all across the room until there were hardly any room for talons to step on. Ink dripping down from the corners of the table forming a pool black smudge. Besides ink bottle was a weird collection of odd trinkets. And what must had been a seaweed blanket that was torn to pieces and mixed together with the pile of scrolls.
She would had believe if anyone said that there was a hurricane just happened to make visit to this room.
"He did all of these?" Rainbow asked.
"I'm afraid so." Tidal carefully swipe the scattered paper to one side with his tail. "I stood just beyond this door when all these happened. With all the sound of ripping papers and throwing stuff."
Tidal shook his head.
"This could take a whole day before we could wrap this up."
Rainbow's own estimate wasn't far off either. However, cleaning what's left behind of these destruction is one thing; The torn papers and scrolls were another. Those writing behind those scrolls were filled with words and images carefully talon-drawn by the scribes. To see them, now scattered into pieces was, to say the least, heart breaking.
Rainbow picked up pieces of the paper and feeling curious of its content. She wasn't able to figure which paper held the start or the end of the story. But through some lucky attempts, she managed to piece some of them into a readable paragraph.
Wait. These writing. There are too crude to be a writing of a scribe. It is some sort of scrapes for some stories.
"Look at these."
Tidal pointed to the both side of the wall. All the scrolls from the wall crevices were emptied. All except one pile of scroll. Sitting there. Stacking neatly upon one scroll and another. Unharmed from all chaos that had ensued.
"All the scrolls on the floor must have once placed at these shelves. These are... 'The Missing Princess', 'Tragedy of Orca', 'The Great Animus Slayer: Revised', 'Gardener's Pride' and many more." His talon went across them one by one as he spoke. "All of these were written by the Queen herself. Only her scrolls were given mercy of destruction. Poor little dragonet. The yearning for his mother's love manifests itself into a pile of scrolls. Hoping to close the distance between himself and her mother."
"I shouldn't have left him ran off like that." Tidal shoved the pile of scrolls to the corner of the crevice before talking straight at her. "Rainbow. I need you to go and find the prince. I'm afraid that he might hurt himself. He's probably at the Deep Palace."
"M-me?" She stuttered a reply. "I mean I wouldn't be suitable for the job. Caretaking. I could just stay here and clean the room. A job way more suit for a dragon like myself."
Tidal shook his head.
"Maybe there is but caretaking is a job most dragons do not understood how it was to be done. Yes, they do take care of a dragonet they assigned to. Providing the basic needs. Look out for trouble and danger. But they did it so mindlessly. So 'soullessly' that most of them never ever form any sort of connection with the dragonet. And now, this dragonet is in dire need of connection."
Tidal gently laid his talon against her shoulder.
"I need you to be his friend."
"Friend?" She murmured.
"Yes, the desperate dragonet is in need of a wing to lean on right now. Not someone who giving advice or life wisdom of the sorts. Lending an ear is what he needs. He needs a dragon whose age wasn't too far off from him. I fear he might collapse under the heavy burden that he holds."
"I think I can be a friend." She replied.
"Thank you." Tidal visibly relaxed by the answer. "For the record, I'm assigned you to be a caretaker of Prince Turtle. All other obligation shall be reassigned to other servant until further notice. Unofficially, you are hereby to spend time with the prince until he recovers from his grief."
"Alright." Rainbow answered.
It seemed like an easy task. But as she pondered, she realized something she should know but didn't.
"Who is Prince Turtle?"
There are thousands of SeaWings lived in the Kingdom of Sea. Few hundreds of them lived around the near vicinity of the palace. Only a tenth of them actually lived in the palace. Having to work at there for few moons, Rainbow was pretty sure that she had met everyone in the palace. Even though she may not know their name, she would have some sort of impression on each of them.
But Prince Turtle, she remembered neither of his name nor his face. Which one was he? Was he one of the young ones or the elder ones? Blue or green scales? Had she seen him in the gathering hall? Had she even heard that name before?
Is like a word in dictionary that doesn't any correspond to meaning she search. Blank on both sides.
Tidal explained that the reason why Rainbow hasn't met him before because Prince Turtle spent most of his time at Summer Palace's library. Reading scrolls and trying to catch his mother's attention. But that poor dragonet. His mother was so busy in her craft and kingdom, she never bothered to interact with her sons.
And since Rainbow had only been working at Deep Palace for the past few moons. She wouldn't have any chance to cross path with the little prince. But surely, she would had seen him during SeaWing royal family gathering right, wouldn't she?
It didn't matter. She was about to meet the prince moment later and she would know who is Prince Turtle.
But first, she had to find him. Tidal mentioned that he was most likely be found at somewhere in the Deep Palace. Still, the palace is huge place and the veil of the night didn't help at all. Even with her night vision, searching a small dragonet was no easy task.
It was only through asking other servants for any sign of distressed dragonet that eventually lead her to a small room. Glowing lights shone irregularly through the door gaps as she approached it. Behind this slab of stone door must be the little prince.
However, Rainbow hesitated to push open the door. Few days ago, she promised herself not to involved herself with any of the royal families. Not only that, the royalties currently lost two of their dragonets in a day. Losing another dragonet would mean another devastating blow to the royal families. That could also lead to her possible execution.
Standing in front of the stone door. Her talon against the door knob. The last veil of separation between her and the royal families. Stepping through it shall break it and never could be undo.
She could have left here. Then, go on lying to Tidal that she had seen to his safety and that he could assigned more appropriate servant to take care him. And she would live her normal life and her grandfather would be healed in no time.
But the words from Tidal rang in her mind.
A burden that might collapse.
With last breath through her gills, Rainbow pushed the door opened.
"Prince Turtle?"
As the door slowly creaked open; the whole room reveal itself to her. The room itself was tiny that it could just barely fit three of her whole body in it. It was bare of content except at the far end of the corner there laid a pile of seaweed blanket. Glowing lime-green lights in the dark. With an emerald green tail stuck out of the end of it.
"Prince Turtle?" Rainbow calmly asked as she leaned closer to the seaweeds. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"
The pile of seaweeds shuffled a little. Then, his tail moved sideways.
"I'm glad you're okay."
She positioned herself to be seated beside the seaweeds and glanced around her. This room must be some sort of storage room. Like the one she used to store her cleaning equipment. However, there was nothing but a pair of stone slates and a weird piece of broken coral placed beside the seaweed.
"Are you planning to sleep here? I would have to prepare a seaweed bed for you just in case." She flashed.
"Don't..."
Is all what she could managed to understand by the pattern of the flash behind the pile of seaweed. Without knowing what part of his scales had flashed, she couldn't decipher the rest of the message meant.
"My fault. My... fault..."
Poor little guy. Something terrible must had happened. I wonder what it was.
Putting that thought aside, she picked up the stone slates and examined it. One of them was blank on both sides while the other one had scribbled of words and figures. Words like 'hero', 'brave', 'legend' but others were mostly were made illegible by numerous strikethroughs.
"You like to read, don't you?" Rainbow prompted.
The pile of seaweed gave a little tremble but there was no reply.
"How about I read 'The Missing Princess' to you?" She tried again.
"Go... away..." The seaweed pile flashed.
"I will. But I need to make sure you're okay." Rainbow shifting her talons. "Besides, you haven't eaten anything since afternoon, right? I had some snack."
She pulled out a talonful of shrimp from her satchel and gradually moved her talon close to the seaweeds.
Slowly but carefully, the little prince scrambled out of the seaweed. Took the shrimps out of her talon. And began chewing on them. It was a small dragonet. Over an age of one or two. Now sitting in front of her picking the shrimp into his mouth. His scales were green almost like emerald jewels along his back while his under scales were colour of bright green like it was craved from the insides a lime. Tinges of blueish-green appearing all over his body where his joint met. All together they form a gorgeous gradient of colour which please to whom their eyes laid on them.
So, this is Prince Turtle. She wondered why she had not met him before. Surely, he must have been at the deep palace before. Or the royal family dinner which held monthly. If he did attend, he must have some sort of power which make him invisible among his brothers.
"Hm... These tasted really good." He flashed.
Indeed, it should. Top grade snack which she carried around when she feels hungry middle of the day. Rainbow watched him as the shrimps disappeared into his snout one by one. He seems to regain himself, or at least not all depressed.
Rainbow turned around to study the pile of scrambled seaweeds. It probably had been the seaweed blanket which the prince used during his sleep. She would need to replace a new blanket just in case the prince planning to sleep here tonight. Also, that broken piece of coral. Suppose she could throw that away.
"WAIT!" Prince Turtle flashed.
Just as she put her talon over the coral, the coral tucked her talon so hard, she almost fell forward muzzle first. She tried to pull her whole body back but the force exerted in her talon was much stronger than hers. It was slowly dragging her out toward the exit of the room.
"What's happening!?"
She tried to dig her talons into the seafloor but the sands were too loose for her grip on. She felt she was about to float away with the coral in her talon.
But then it stopped. Or rather, she couldn't feel anything in her talon anymore. When she opened her talon, the coral wasn't there anymore.
So was Prince Turtle.
As she swam out and peered down the hallway, she saw the glow of unmistakable lime-green just swam past the corner. Quickly, she launched herself into hallway and after him into the vast deep dark sea.
.
Rainbow secretly thanked the moon and sea for being born with night vision eye sight. With the lights of half-moon shone across the sea, she managed to spot Prince Turtle swimming just ahead of her. About five dragon wingspans before she reached him with her talon. She could easily outswim him in term of speed. After all, she was a full-grown dragon compare to Prince Turtle little wings and tiny web talons. His chubby little belly did not help him either.
The question was what Prince Turtle was chasing after? Was it a pet? A prey?
And the way the little prince swam, he was banking left and right, avoiding fishes and coral alike with precise movement and most unnatural way. His talon outstretched away in front him. It was like he was dragged unwillingly across the water.
As she tried to swam closer to the little prince,he suddenly banked right around a mountain of coral and stopped. Prince Turtle caught on with it but his faced turned pale as ghost. Curious, Rainbow edged herself closer and saw what he had seen.
It was a dead body of a SeaWing dragon. Laying on a coral hill. Bloodied on its side and snout. Its web talons were curved outwards. All four legs were outstretched and its head was being held all the way up as if it was trying to gasp something above the sea surface. The whole posture suggested that it had experienced an agonizing pain just before it died.
But the most horrifying of all was the scattered white pieces all around it. She was not sure until she examined the mouth of corpse. They were teeth. All of them. They were everywhere: in the corals, on the seafloors, some of them were still floating around the corpse that made her scale crawled inside out.
"Snapper..." Prince Turtle voice trailed off.
Snapper? The chief deputy council of Dragonet Care? This dead body was her? She was not able to recognize her in this misshapen body. She had a glimpse of Snapper's appearance when she delivered her and Abalone's food. But with her body covered with wounds and tooth all plucked out, she hardly able to tell it was her.
On the talon closer to the body, a glimmer of light reflected off her illuminating scale. It was some sort of jewellery. Rainbow held out her talon and slow slipped the jewellery off Snapper's tight grip. She thought it was a ruby with colour close to coral pink than red. It was shaped into a fine rectangular and one of its side had carving etched into it. She could just barely able to see the letter 'S' craved into it.
A memorial? Someone must have given it to her for reminiscence. But who?
Rainbow's scatter thought was broken off by slow glowing scales just below her. Prince Turtle had huddled himself into a ball, wings curled inwards and around him. His whole body was trembling visibly as if he was about to turn himself into a speck of algae and disappeared away. Rainbow wished to comfort him, to reassure him. But she was clueless as a fish dropped in middle of a desert.
For the moment, she felt someone nudging her. But Prince Turtle was still there curled up. Then, she saw Snapper's body was moving on its own and the moons were flickering against the sea surface.
An earthquake?
As her instinct called, she grabbed Prince Turtle by the shoulder. Quickly flashed to him.
"It's not safe here. We need to head back."
Prince Turtle did not response, letting her guide him by the wings as they swam. He was still trembling and his talons was gripping something tight against his body.
So much for my first day of caretaking.
A glimpse of shadow figure went past her. She glanced back to look but she saw nothing but darkness behind.
Was there anyone following them? Or was it her imagination?
Cautiously, she swam towards the Deep Palace guiding the little prince alongside her. Away from the disfigured of Snapper's body as it continued to haunt her for the rest of the night.