Chapter 16: Day 20

"Turtle wait up."

Rainbow flashed, but he did not seem to notice. He was swimming away from her at about a few dragon wingspans ahead. His tiny talons and wings paddled themselves in a frantic rhythm that it worried her.

She could have easier caught up with him. But had deliberately slowed herself in hope that Turtle gave it more thought on it before proceeding.

It had been five days since he had placed those fishes and shrimps on that secluded island. No doubt by now, it would have been rotten to its core. In anticipation of the ceremony, he would eat them up in hope that he made himself sick. Hopefully, he would be just sick enough not to attend the ceremony and avoid the death's door.

The sun was high in the sky when they had returned to the rock ledge where Turtle had left the food to rot. She was just about to break surface when she saw him surface, and immediately leapt back into the sea. He was gagging as if there was fish bone choking his throat. Unable to get any answer from Turtle, she decided to peek through the surface to see what was wrong.

The smell was so overwhelming that the moment she took the first breath from the air, her lunch almost forced themselves out of her mouth. She should have to mimic Turtle by skipping lunch just for this occasion even though she did not plan to have any of the rotten food.

Maybe this would deter Turtle enough to make him not to take the food. But when she had recovered from the reeking smell, he was already climbing towards the rocking ledge. She had no choice but to follow him up the cliff.

"Turtle! You're bleeding." Rainbow said.

On the ledge, Turtle was standing there looking at the pile of shrimp. He didn't even notice there was a small pool of blood form under one of his back leg. He lifted his leg to reveal a cut underneath it.

"Must have been injured when I was climbing." He said.

Rainbow grabbed a seaweed nearby and bandaged the wound up.

"Turtle, you ought to be careful. You're a prince." She said.

"No. I'm just a nobody." He said with a rotten fish grasped in his talon. "But being a nobody could help me to be unnoticed. For once, I'm happy for that."

"But you're not nobody. There are dragons still worried about you." Like her, and his brother. She did like to say.

Turtle shook his head but didn't answer. He raised fish up in the air. The fish was bloat at its gut, and it smelled so awful that she could almost taste it through the air.

"Maybe we should reconsider this. That doesn't look safe to eat." Rainbow said.

"I thought that was the point."

"No, I mean that you might die from these. You're young and would be sensitive to any food that you ate." She saw some shrimp even had some black goo oozed down from its shell. "I don't think even a full-grown dragon could survive those." Pointing at the rotten pile. "Maybe you should try faking it instead. You hide in your room while I cover you from the outside. If anyone asked, I can say that you're having a contagious disease and have to be quarantine."

He gave it a thought but in the end, he shook his head.

"That might work for most of the dragons. But I'm not sure about Whirlpool. I got a sense that he would do anything to make anyone attend the ceremony. Especially those who are from the royal families. One time I heard from my brother that he was supposed to attend something else on the ceremony day, but Whirlpool dragged him all the way to the ceremony just to test him." He shrugged. "So, I really have to be sick if I want to avoid it."

Rainbow would have heaved a sigh there if it wasn't the smell in the air. She supposed she had no choice but to allow Turtle to continue on this. According to their plan, once Turtle had his fill, she would gauge whether he would require immediate medication or not. If he does, she would carry him straight towards the healers, no question asked. But if he can manage, she would hang back and watch over him for a while until the food has taken its effect.

"Here goes."

Turtle held the fish up and a bit right through the middle. He immediately coughed out the bitten meat. It must taste terrible with all those meats had turned crimson instead of bright red fresh. He then opted to just swallowed them whole by putting the fish head first into his muzzle and slide them through his throat.

One by one, the fish and shrimp disappeared down into his stomach. She wished she could do more for him. But all she could help was getting water from the sea to help him better swallow his food and muttered some encouraging words for him.

It took a while until Turtle finally finished the shrimps. When he did, he just stood there. His muzzle gapping, his eyes staring out into sea blankly.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

His answer was a pile of half-bitten rotten shrimp and bits of fish meat vomited back on the rocky ledge. She quickly grabbed his talon away before he tried to take them into his jaw.

"Leave it. We should get you to the healers. Quickly." She said.

"No. I'm alright. Just dizzy. That's all." He said and flashed, mixed together. Clearly not at all well.

"At least let me carried you. I don't want to see you stumbled off this ledge to your death." She said.

Turtle didn't protest. He let her carried him on her back. Carefully, she climbed down the ledge and back into the sea.

"Still hanging on?" Rainbow flashed, looking back at him.

Turtle just nodded. He must be exhausted from eating those terrible food and being sick. She decided to let him be as they swim back to the direction of the palace. She wondered how long it took for the sun to get rid of the smell from the island. But she was pleased to leave it as soon as she could.

Despite having Turtle on her back, she hadn't really have any much trouble. For most of the time, he had held himself pretty steady. Except maybe his back leg, he had been rubbing his leg against her back on and off. Maybe he didn't fit well behind her back and was trying to find a better footing. But she continued to swim on, albeit at a slower pace.

Besides that, she did notice something odd. The amount of fishes in the surrounding area seemed to be fewer than usual. The surrounding creatures were nervous. Most of them saw her had maintained a certain distance even though dragons don't usually hunt this place.

She felt a tapping on the shoulder, and she turned to look back at Turtle.

"Rainbow. Have you ever felt lonely?" he flashed weakly.

"Turtle?"

She let him off her back and examined him closer. Was this a sign of Turtle going to die? He just looked like he was sicked from fever with his tired eyes and droopy wings. But any sickness can be deadly for a little dragonet. Still, he put up a pretty adorable 'questioning-face' he could muster.

"Yes. Even more so since I started working in the palace." She answered.

"Doesn't that make you sad? It makes me sad. And crazy. I have never been so lonely before. Like truly, truly lonely." He flashed.

"It does. When it happened, I usually thought of my grandpa. You missed your brothers, don't you?" He nodded in response. "Everyone feels lonely at times. No one can be at each other for all their lives. It's normal. I usually just do stuff to get the feeling off my head. So maybe you could return to your writing. Maybe that will help."

"I don't know… I promised myself not to do that any more. Stop myself from dreaming too-"

Rainbow interrupted him by grabbing his back leg. There was a tiny red mist coming out of it. Underneath it was a cut. The bandage on it must have slipped off when they climbed back down the ledge.

Something flashed in her eyes behind Turtle. It was far away, the water between them had to blur it into a shadow figure moving about. But there was no mistaken it. The way it soared through the water. The shape of its fin and its body.

As an old saying goes, 'Where there is blood, there is shark'.

Rainbow hugged Turtle into her chest and swam for it. Every SeaWing dragonet was taught how to deal with a shark. Normally, an adult like her would have stayed her ground while the young ones would try to hide or stay under the protection of the adult. She would have whacked the beast with her strong tail, give it a good whipping before letting it go. But with a dragonet on her side, she feared she might accidentally hurt him instead.

Turtle didn't struggle in her chest. With his head prod up at her shoulder, he probably had seen the shark by now. She felt the pokes on her shoulder and she saw his talon putting up 'three' claws for her to see.

Three! There are three sharks following them now. Didn't he once tell his brother that sharks only hunts alone? Why there were three of them on their tails. What sort of strange things that cause them to behave so differently? And so out of place as well.

Strange things… Hadn't the king told her about staying in the safety perimeter? Was this one of the strange things he meant after a volcanic eruption happened?

No time to draw conclusion now, she could feel those menacing teeth were closing on her. Eager to have a bite out of her. With neither palace in her sight, she knew she had to do something before those sharks caught on. A cave, a current or something. Anything.

Down below her, between the white sands of the seafloor, she saw a boulder jutted out of it. She took a sharp turn towards it and Turtle flashed in worried.

"Rainbow?" He asked.

"Lean on this, Turtle. And don't go anywhere. I'll try to hold them off." She flashed

Among all the environment to fight in. Underwater have the most nuances; on the ground, you would only put your attention on the distance between you and your enemy, on the same plane. In the sky, you would always try to gain altitude against your opponent and overwhelmed them from above. But underwater, threats can come from all direction. Not only you had to put your attention to your surrounding. You have to be aware of anything above and below.

That was why she opted for staying on the seafloor. With a boulder behind her and sands underneath her, she only needed to focus anything in front and above her. Four ways instead of six.

The sharks seemed to know her strategy as they swim around her as she had anticipated. There were more of them now. She counted five among them. Each hovered at one of her sides while two of them stayed at the front.

Rainbow brandished her tail and flashed. "You'll have to get through my dead body to get him."

The first shark came from her left. She swung her tail in full arc. It barely missed the shark as it turned away at the last second. Another one came from her right. But she already had her claws ready and swiped at it. A trail of blood followed the shark as it retreated to its position.

Before she had a chance to pat herself on the back, she felt a surge of sharp pain at the tip of her wing. A shark had latched itself on her, biting furiously into her wing bone. She tried to claw the shark, but it held on tightly while manoeuvred itself away from her.

"Get off me!"

Her flashes were so bright that it stunned the shark to let go. With a turn and a swing, she sent her tail against its head, and it went spinning away from her. When it finally stopped, it was floating unconsciously against the current of the sea.

"Rainbow!"

"Stay back Turtle. Or they might get you too."

But Rainbow was grateful for his flashes because she did not notice that she had drifted away from the boulder and was now exposing her back. Maybe that was how the shark had sneaked behind her and got a bite out of her.

As she repositioned herself, she noticed there were more sharks filled their rank. More than her talons could count. All of them surrounding her, brandishing their teeth. It must have been her blood that attracted them. Cuts were often deadly under the sea because of this very reason. The first drop of blood attracted the first shark and the rest came after more blood were drawn. No matter it was hers or theirs.

This was it. She had imagined herself fallen into all sort of demises within the palace but never like this. Torn to shreds by the sharks in a frenzy feeding. The apex predator of the sea turned to prey. What a way to go.

Rainbow turned to look at Turtle. He already had his head down and talons clasped together, mumbling to himself. Probably saying his last prayer before their eventually demise.

Few of the sharks broke their formation and rushed towards her. Their teeth opened wide ready to clamp on her. She held her ground, waiting for them to be in striking range.

Then the whole world turned into blackness. Or rather, her eyes were stung so badly that she could not open her eyes. She tried to rub her eyes and forced it to open. But all she was able to see was darkness ahead. Was she blind?

Rainbow felt a series of strong tugs on her arm. It was Turtle. He was trying to drag her away from there. Since she could not rely on her sight, she followed his tugging and hoped it was somewhere safe. After a few swimming strokes, the darkness broke off, and she finally could see again.

The 'darkness' was actually a huge mist of black ink. It covered a huge area such as she could no longer see the boulder and sharks that surrounded them.

"What's that?" She asked.

"Octopus's ink" He said.

Before she could ask anything more, one of the surrounding shark appeared from the ink mist. It was thrashing to what must be the stinging pain of the ink. But when it saw them, it began to drone in on them.

"Run Turtle! Run!"

Rainbow tried to swim, but the injury on her wing slowed her down that she could not even catch up with Turtle. She looked back to see more sharks were appearing out of the mist. Some turned and swam away while others followed the lead shark towards them.

Turtle did not run off. Instead, he was pulling her talon away from the sharks. In any other times, she would appreciate the help, but she knew she had to sacrifice for him to survive.

Before she attempted to push him away, a pink figure shot pass her in a blur. She turned around to see that it had smashed itself headlong against the leading shark. It jabbed the shark with its long snout and whacked it with its tail. More of its same kind came and joined the fray.

"Look Rainbow. Dolphins. They are fighting the sharks."

One of the shark tried to swim around the dolphins to them but was caught on its side with a dolphin's snout before it swam away in fright. The fight was already over before it began. Outnumbered by two to one. The sharks quickly retreated as the dolphins gave them one last chase before shrieking echo towards them.

The leading pink dolphin came up towards them and nudged Turtle in concern. It was the same one they had encountered during the day they had a tour around the Summer Palace.

"Thank you. We owed our life to you." She flashed and caressed the pink dolphin's head. "Oh. Him? He was sicked if that's what you are concerned about."

Turtle pet the pink dolphin reassuringly, and it returned the gesture by nuzzled him back. Then, it gave one last squeak and went away with its pod.

"I guess it really did find its way back." Turtle said.

Rainbow nodded. She hoped the same for the little prince too.

The journey back to the palace was not as uneventful as she hoped for. Turtle was hugging his stomach and his talons periodically gripped hard into her scales as she carried her by her back. He even belched forwards a few of times but nothing came out from his mouth.

She would very much like to bring him to the healers. But he insisted that he was to be taken to his room.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." Was his constant reassurances.

She obliged him by putting him back at his small room. She also placed a bucket near his bed if something did come out from his mouth.

That night, according to his plan, he was to appear in the dining hall and convinced the others that he was not fit to be in the ceremony for tomorrow. But she was sure he did not need to convince them of his sickness.

Turtle was vomiting left and right as he entered the hall. Bits of shrimps and fish can be seen floating in the open water. Others were quick to make way and kept a distance from him. Even she was afraid to get close to him.

Few other servants were quick to pick up the content he left. However, the sight of the vomiting substance had evidently taken everyone's appetite as for a long time no one had to continue eating their food.

Still, Turtle had a presence of mind to settle himself at one end of the hall. Clutching his stomach, he laid his head flat on the table.

"Someone carried him to the healers already. We can't eat with him throwing up like that." One SeaWing Prince flashed.

Queen Coral didn't seem to be bothered at all. She continued her conversation with another councillors. She did not seem to even know that the vomiting dragon was one of her sons.

Unable to watch any longer, Rainbow grabbed a bucket and slid it under his talons. The others seeing that he vomited into the bucket instead of the open sea, began they were eating. As if what had just happened was just another day in the palace.

"Turtle. I think it's enough. The others have returning to their food." She flashed with her wing as cover.

She wasn't sure he saw her flashes but his tired eyes and gapping muzzle suggested that he had enough. For one last time, she carried him up in her back and exited the dining hall.

As she made her way to the Garden of Wounded, she felt tiny twitching movements on her back. She later found out that he was crying on her back.