Chapter 13: Day 15

Letting the currents under her wings carried her, Rainbow glided herself towards the Summer Palace. Alongside her were few SeaWings who she presumed was heading the same way. Currents of the sea were a blessing to the SeaWing tribe. Even more so when there were currents going between the two palaces. Some even gave these currents the name of 'Fin's Highways'. (Not to honour Prince Fin, but maybe his adventurous deeds in the future could earn that.)

Today, her plan would go something like this. Find Prince Turtle as soon as possible. If found, then all is well. If he wasn't in his room, then she would go to the library. If not, she would try to look around and see if she could spot him lurking around the pavilion. Or else, she would have to ask someone nearby, see if anyone else saw him.

Imagine her surprise when she realized that a speck of green dot at the edge of her vision, swimming towards her was Prince Turtle. He wore a pouch around his neck that must be from his writing room. She dislodged herself from the current and swam towards him.

"I'm had been *huff* looking all over *huff* for you!" The prince flashed his scales between his breaths. "Where have you been?"

"Prince Turtle, it's early in the morning. I haven't been anywhere."

"I meant yesterday. I couldn't find you anywhere." He flashed. "I tried asking the other servant where you have been. But none of them answer me."

"Oh!" A pang of guilt rose in her. "Sorry, I forgot to mention it. I always had a day off in every week. I was spending time with my grandfather yesterday."

Now, the guilt was transferred to the little prince as he lowered his head.

"It's not your fault. You didn't know. So, why are you searching for me anyway?" Rainbow asked.

"I need your help. And we need to go. Like right now!" He flashed.

"Wait! Where are we going?"

But Prince Turtle had already turned around and swam. Leaving her no choice but to follow him by the tail.

It wasn't hard to follow him. Especially when there was no one around except them. But having to swim into some place so bare of life was concerning. White sands and tiny cluster of rocks were all the scenery she had seen. The direction they swam had point neither to any of the palaces. It was simply just going nowhere, out into the sea of unknown.

Just as she was about to get his attention on that matter. Prince Turtle flicked his tail and swam upwards towards the surface. She followed closely behind and breached the surface.

She saw nothing except where the navy and sky blue met together at the farthest possible point. Waves all around sending her bobbing up and down as she tried to locate the prince's location.

It was only when she was floating beside him that she saw what he was looking. A deserted island. No larger than a pavilion floor back in the Summer Palace. Few coconut trees and boulder protruding out of the sand. On the other side, seagulls perched on a rocky cliff squawking while roaring waves smashed themselves against the cliff.

Prince Turtle motioned her to the island, and they dragged themselves on the beach. They settle down underneath a coconut tree while she waited for him to catch his breath. Even though she thought they had not swum a distance further between the palaces.

"This is the place." He said with his sides still heaving. "I need you to help me hunt two fishes while I gather the shrimps. Once we got them, we'll gather here." He pointed the boulder on the beach. "I know. It would seem like this place had barely any fish around here but on the other side of the island there were few schools of fishes often swam pass there. I will go to a nearby coral reef to look for shrimps. Got it?"

Rainbow nodded. Before she had a chance to say anything, he leapt into the sea and swam around the island. She would have to save the questions for later. She crossed the island on the other side and dived right in.

The prince was right. The wait was short before both her talons plucked a tuna off a coming school. She returned to the said boulder and placed the fishes on top of it. Judging by the sun, she hasn't been gone for less than half an hour. Catching shrimps shouldn't take too long. He was probably swimming back by now.

But Prince Turtle hadn't come back. Rainbow had already moved her position and the fishes thrice into a shade before the sun almost touched the tip of the sky.

She almost readied herself to dive back into the sea before she spotted him dragging his body across the sand down the coastline. His back dripping with seaweed still clinging on and his pouch was loosely hanging from his neck. One talon held close to his body.

Oh no.

She quickly scrambled towards him.

"Prince Turtle! Are you hurt?"

She examined his wings, tail and body, but there was no sign of injury. When she looked into his talons, she saw a gleam of blue flashed within them.

"I caught some shrimps." He lifted trembling his talon into her view which revealed few blue shrimps. "But I think it's not enough."

With a glance, she could easily sum them up to three. But they were blue shrimps. Such is a rare delicacy even for a SeaWing. How did he manage to get a talon on them? He must have a stroke of luck to get them.

"I'm sure it would be good for a small snack. But what exactly you need them for?" She asked.

He lowered his eyes.

"I-I need them to avoid the Talons of Power." He said.

Rainbow lowered herself down to look at him.

"Why? And how?"

"By making myself sick. If I can't physically attend the ceremony, I wouldn't be test."

"But don't you wanted to know whether you are an animus dragon?"

"I…I…"

Prince Turtle was trembling now. His wings clasped around him. Eyes shut so tight, his whole face had gone skewed. It reminded her of that night when he saw Snapper's body. So terrified and helplessness.

"It's alright. You don't need to tell me." She mustered a smile. "I'll help. I'm your caretaker after all."

He uncurled his wings down and looked back into her eyes.

"Thank you." He whispered.

"Though, I still have no idea how you're going to make yourself sick. Are you planning to stuff yourself to the fullest?"

Prince Turtle shook his head.

"I'm going to leave them under the sun to rot. Then, come back later to eat them." He replied

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I don't want to scare you, but I'm afraid you might not only get food poisoning. You might even die from it." She said.

"But I must. I can't think of another way to get sick safely."

She didn't know much either. She knew some fishes and corals could poison you, but she didn't know how to properly catch or handle them. They might even end up with two dead body instead of one.

"Alright." She finally said. "But if you are going to eat the shrimps. You might need more of them."

Prince Turtle stared into the shrimp for a moment then grabbed his pouch.

"I got an idea." He said. "You wait here while I- err catch some more."

He leapt back into water. It took him half a day to caught three shrimps. She wouldn't imagine how long he would need in order to catch a talonful of them. He must not have spent much time on hunting, being the prince. She supposed a prince would have better things to do for the kingdom in the future. Like being a noble gardener. But she couldn't imagine anyone managing a kingdom, couldn't hunt for himself.

Before she decided she should help him, he had already come back up from the sea with both of his talons cup together filled with blue shrimp that he just caught.

"Prince Turtle. That's amazing. How did you catch in such a short time? And all them are blue shrimp!"

"Oh. I guess I'm getting good at it." He said meekly.

She also noticed something was holding the shrimps. A wooden bowl underneath them. He probably found it somewhere along the shore.

"Now to put them somewhere where the sun can reach…"

He glanced around the area and spotted the rocky ledges. With the fishes in her talons, Rainbow followed him to the ledge. She helped chased away a couple of seagulls, and he placed them on there.

"You might want to consider putting them a few levels higher than that." Rainbow put the fishes to a ledge higher above. "Also, tide rises during the night."

"Oh, yes. Good point."

He, too, placed the shrimps right next to the fishes.

"Alright. I guess that's about it." She said. "These would at least get half a day of sun during the day. Let's hope it doesn't become dried food when we came back."

Both of them climbed down the ledge into the sea and was about to head back to the palace before she remembered.

"But how are we going to stop the seagulls from eating the food? Those sea-rats would never have left anything edible to go untouched. Maybe we should cover them with leaves or something."

"I'll do it." Prince Turtle said and he turned back.

Rainbow watched from the beach as he climbed back up to the ledge. She saw him staring at the food blankly then smacked himself in the forehead. He must have realized that he had forgotten to bring the leaves. Then, something odd happened. Instead of flying around the ledge to fetch some leaves, he grabbed a stone between his talons and started to mumble.

Was that some kind of ritual? Was he praying?

Then he gathered some more stones and placed them around the food. Then, he glided down back beside her.

"There. All done." He said.

"With stones? I'm not even confident that leaves with kept them out. But stones?" She asked.

"Oh err… Trust me on this. The seagulls won't able to get close to it." He yawned. "Besides, they say: The only way to truly get rid of them is to kill them. And I'm not going to do that."

Rainbow was glad to share that sentiment. Just as they were about to head back into the sea. Prince Turtle said.

"There is something I think you ought to know but- I- Erm- Tomorrow Morning. At the Summer Palace. I will tell you everything." Then he yawned deeply and said. "But today, I'm tired."

"Very well. Prince Turtle. Tomorrow it is then."

Putting him between her talons, he snoozed off by her neck while she carried him back towards his room.