I do not own Wings of Fire.

Chapter 5

Spindrift led the way out of the dining hall, past multitudes of dragons in various different colors of blue and green. He pointed out several of them as they past, making rather snarky comments about each that amused Cerulean, though she tried not to show it.

Soon they'd exited the hall, and were wondering down seemingly endless winding corridors.

"There are so many of us princes," Spindrift explained. "Not only the eleven of us, but also the thirty-two other princes who were Coral's sons. Orca is super annoyed at all of them, but after she became queen, she didn't have the heart to kick all of them out, so they all live with us too."

"You've got a whole wing to the castle to yourselves, then?" Cerulean asked. It must be nice, having so many familiar faces nearby. While her own siblings hadn't always been the nicest, their presence was always comforting, and here in the palace, there was no one to turn to for comfort anymore. Except for Eddy, when she saw him, which was often but never often enough.

"Hmm," Spindrift replied distractedly. "Yes, in a way, but we all have to share rooms, so it's more like I personally get a bed to myself."

"No, I meant you and all your brothers, silly," Cerulean chided.

"Yeah, then, we do have a wing to ourselves," Spindrift nodded, shooting a smirk at her.

"That must be nice," the purple dragonet sighed nostalgically. "I miss my family."

"Not to sound cold or anything, but I'd be jumping for joy if I was in your position," Spindrift commented absently. "You can't imagine how impossibly ANNOYING it is to have so many brothers - and, I guess, uncles? That's so weird. I never really thought of Orca's brothers as my uncles, but I guess they are. That's SO WEIRD."

"I think I know what it's like," Cerulean replied sympathetically. "I had twenty-seven siblings."

"OCEAN CURRENTS," Spindrift yelped. "That's a lot! But not as many as I have. Well, I guess I technically have only ten siblings, because all the other princes are actually my uncles, but they're like my brothers so I feel like I have more than ten."

"Do you like them, your brothers?" asked Cerulean. "And, um, I guess you're uncles?"

Spindrift shrugged. "I mean, they're my brothers so I kind of have to."

"Yeah," she replied. "I know what you mean."

There was silence between them for a beat, and then the blue SeaWing spoke up again. "Here we are. Well, this is my room at least." He opened the door. "You all missed breakfast," he said to the room, addressing his brothers.

"Already ate," said one of them, dark blue dragon with lighter green scales dotted along his body, almost like freckles. He didn't look up from the ground, where he was designing an intricate-looking contraption that kept falling over, much to his apparent annoyance.

Another prince, this one so dark blue he was nearly indigo, spoke. "Azure's too busy to eat! I told him he wouldn't be able to stop building whatever this is - and I can't figure out what it is, even though I keep poking at it to see what it does - if he doesn't eat!"

"I told you, it's something to stop SkyWing's - " he shuddered as he mentioned the tribe - "from attacking our beautiful kingdom ever again."

The second prince snorted. "Yeah right, like Mother will ever use anything you've designed. She's always so grumpy around you, especially after you've pulled some joke on her."

Azure made a face, still not looking up. "You're just jealous because you're not smart enough to do anything worthy of Mother's attention, Freakwave."

"THAT IS A LIE!" exclaimed Freakwave dramatically. His wings lifted, scales flashing, revealing light blue scales on his body. "Mother totally notices me! Especially that last time when I stuck my talons in her shrimp."

Spindrift gave Cerulean, who was watching the dialogue between his brothers with a bit of wariness on her face, a lopsided smile.

"Well, these are the idiots that I'm related to," he said, and gestured to each dragonet in turn. "Azure, and Freakwave."

Freakwave looked up and a smile lit up his face. "Ooh! Spindrift's brought a female over! Spindrift," he smirked. "Like to introduce us? Anything you've forgotten to mention?"

Cerulean backed away, feeling a bit nervous by the huge smile on the older dragonet's face. It was very strange to see these princes, these brothers, behaving as they did, so casually teasing of each other. Back home, her siblings were in a constant competitive race. Everything was a challenge; who could swim the fastest, who could find the most seashells, who could collect the most coconuts, do their homework the fastest, take the quickest shower, even eat the most at meals, or eat the fastest. But these dragonets had a different vibe to them. They weren't ultra-competitive; they were relaxed.

Spindrift was speaking. "This is the next queen," he said, and smirked at the horrified look on Freakwave's face.

"WAIT, WHAT IS SHE DOING HERE?" he yelped. "Spindrift, what are you up to?"

Azure looked up. "Freakwave, they're not up to anything. Just taking a stroll or something."

"I know Spindrift very well," Freakwave announced. "I know LOTS about him. He has all good notes in his classes, his favorite of which is marine studies. He hates shrimp, loves eating seaweed for some reason, and also still sleeps with his stuffed animal Dewy the Dolphin."

"I DO NOT!" Spindrift defended, looking very embarrassed as he shot a look at Cerulean.

Cerulean spoke up at that moment. "Uhm, hi. I'm Cerulean. It's a, um, a pleasure, right, to meet you all and everything. But Spindrift, shouldn't we, uh, be going?"

Spindrift flicked his tail. "I don't know where Archipelago is. He'd be here if he was here. He's our other roommate."

"Ooh, looking for Archipelago?" asked Freakwave excitedly as if this were something super scandalous. "I wouldn't go after him just about now. He's SUPER upset because Mother totally came up to our room last night and banged on the door, and then got super angry at Azure because he pulled a prank on her a stole her tiara, but instead of being mad at Azure she got MORE mad at Archipelago and I don't know what she said to him but when he came back he kind of just glared at everyone and I thought he was going to MURDER me."

He took a huge breath. "Wow, I said that all in one breath."

Cerulean ignored this amazing feat and inquired, "The queen came to speak with him? Why?"

It was Spindrift who answered. "We don't know. But Freakwave's right, for once in a life time. Archipelago's pretty upset about whatever that was. And when he's moody, he's...well, he's dangerous."

"How so?" Cerulean continued probing. "And don't say 'I can't tell you.' I mean it. Why is Archipelago so dangerous? Why is everyone scared of him?"

The three brothers exchanged nervous glances. Even Azure stopped tinkering around with his project, instead choosing to fiddle nervously with his talons.

"Well," Azure began. "There's a reason SkyWings are SO TERRIFYING."

"Oh my moons," Cerulean sighed. She was getting very frustrated, which was a fairly rare feeling for her. She was normally semi-patient. But this was really bugging her. She needed to know about Archipelago. She needed to find him. She needed someone to just stop with all the secrets and tell her why the prince was so terrifying.

"It's okay, Azure just has a mortal fear of SkyWings," Spindrift said. "I swear, if one day he turns out to be a SkyWing, I'll laugh my head off," he added as a failed attempt to lighten the mood.

"That's not possible," Azure said, shaking his head.

"You're not distracting me from my question," Cerulean spoke again, ashamed to hear her voice wobble. Her frustration was mounting, but when all three princes looked at her with their piercing gazes, she felt like she was turning to jelly.

"Ceru - whatever your name is," Freakwave began.

"Cerulean," Spindrift corrected.

"That's what I SAID," Freakwave answered as if his brother were the stupidest thing ever. "Anyway, Cerulean, I know you don't like to hear this, but the truth is, we can't tell you why everyone's afraid of our brother." This was stated in a dramatic whisper, but the drama didn't seem unnecessary. Because Cerulean's own heart was beating rapidly, time seemed to be slowing down, and if music was playing in the background, it would certainly have been dark and scary.

Azure and Spindrift nodded at these words from their brother.

"What do you mean, you can't tell me?" Cerulean asked. "You literally just need to say a few words, relate some terrible history or something, and then I'll know. Maybe if you tell me," she added to Spindrift, "I'll stop wanting to find Archipelago."

Spindrift looked like someone had just died. This expression didn't fit him well. "Cerulean, when we say that we can't tell you, it means we literally can't tell you. Physically can't tell you."

His brother Azure spoke up. "It's true. It's like, we remember that we're supposed to be scared of Archipelago, but we can't remember why we're supposed to be afraid of him. Believe me, we've tried. And whenever one of us tries to bring up the whole incident, it's like...we get tongue-tied or something. Our voice stops working. And we can't speak again until we've forgotten."

This makes no sense, Cerulean thought. How can this be? It must be some kind of animus magic keeping them silent, but the only known animus dragon in this kingdom is Orca. She wouldn't cast any kind of spell on her own dragonets, would she? Even though she doesn't really like her sons all that much. But she wouldn't do that unless it was really dangerous, would she?

"So you're scared of Archipelago because of something he's done, but you don't remember what it is?" she asked to clarify.

"Yeah," Spindrift nodded.

"Totally," Azure agreed. "I'm almost more scared of Archipelago than I am of SkyWings, but NOTHING is worse than those red monsters. Speaking of which, I'd better get back to work on my invention." The blue dragon returned his attention to the contraption in front of him.

"Which will be TOTALLY useless," Freakwave added as he too turned to look at the thing, toying with a few of the mechanisms and hissing when Azure batted his talons away.

"I think you'd better get going," Spindrift said to Cerulean. "I'm sorry Archipelago wasn't around. But I'll tell him you were looking for him. And I've got to get ready for that hunting party with Touchy Tetra." He made a face.

Cerulean slumped, feeling dejected. "Thanks. I guess I better had. The queen will have been long ago expecting me."

Spindrift smiled. "Yes, she would've. Well, it was super nice to meet you, Cerulean. And just for the record, now that I've met you, I totally think you're going to be a great queen. Not that I've actually talked to you or learned much about you, really, but I've just got this feeling. And besides, because I live in this kingdom, it will definitely be the best."

She snorted but smiled. "Bye, Spindrift, Freakwave, Azure."

Spindrift waved in response, while his brothers muttered their farewells, still intent on the SkyWing contraption.

Cerulean was lost.

She'd been too intent on her conversation with Spindrift when she'd come walking to the wing with all of the princes, and even if she hadn't, there were so many twists and turns that she would've been lucky to memorize them all.

Needless to say, she was very confused.

The queen's going to kill me, she thought, and then shuddered at the thought of her death. Okay, she won't kill me - most likely - because haha, I am the heir to throne - chosen by the queen herself! So she can't kill me. But I'm still seriously dead. Think of something to say when I finally meet her, if I ever do...something convincing...

Considering so many dragons lived in the Summer Palace, she never ran into one as she wondered around aimlessly, growing more desperate by the minute. They're all still eating, she thought dejectedly.

Finally, she rounded a corner, looking over her shoulder, and ran right into a aqua colored dragon who was dressed in a guard's uniform. She yelped, stumbling backwards, and for a moment her hopes leaped - Eddy! - and then realized that this dragon was the wrong color and much too big.

The positive thing was that she was wearing a very friendly smile.

"Hi!" the guard chirped. "I'm so sorry I ran into you. You must be important because you're wearing jewelry. Um, I think this is where I curtsey?" The dragon attempted an awkward bending motion.

"Um, you're okay," Cerulean said, feeling even more awkward than the other probably felt. "You don't have to curtsey, but if you don't mind, could you lead me to the library? The queen is expecting me..."

"Oh!" the guard exclaimed, immediately straightening back up. "Of course I don't mind at all! I knew you were important, meeting the queen! I've never talked to her in my life, which isn't saying much at all. I'm pretty much the newest member to the guards..."

"Well, nice to meet you then," Cerulean replied with a smile, feeling nervous. "I'm Cerulean."

"And I'm Aquamarine," the dragon replied with a smile. "Right this way. I think this is where I'm supposed to add Your Majesty? I'm so sorry, this is so embarrassing. This is my first interaction with actual royalty, so I apologize. I must sound rude."

"No, you're doing fine," Cerulean assured Aquamarine. "Don't worry, I'm new here too. I'd prefer to be called by name, actually."

"Okay," Aquamarine chirped, starting to walk, and then she grimaced, looking back at the purple dragonet following her. "Um, sorry. I actually kind of forgot your name already?"

"Cerulean," she reminded the guard gently.

"Right," Aquamarine nodded seriously. "Please don't tell Gail - he's my boss, basically, other than the queen. But really, he's already on my case about my personality."

"I won't," Cerulean promised, wondering who in all the ocean Gail was.

"And...we're here!" Aquamarine announced. The two of them were now standing in front of brown wooden doors with golden handles and stained glass windows. She reached to open the door, but it opened before she could.

Out came two dragons, both guards, a rather large grayish blue one and a greener one. They had serious expressions on their snouts, but they looked more concerned than angry.

"Oh, there you are, Your Majesty!" exclaimed the grayish male one when he saw Cerulean. "The queen was absolutely scared out of her mind when you didn't show up. What were you thinking, worrying Her Highness like that?" he added scoldingly to her. "And Aquamarine, what are you doing here? You were supposed to go out with that hunting party!"

"H-Hey, Gail," Aquamarine stuttered. "And THREE MOONS, I totally forgot about that! I am so infinitely sorry! I'll go right now. It was nice to meet you and everything, Cerulean, bye!" She disappeared.

Gail sighed. "I apologize," he said to Cerulean. "Aquamarine means well, but she's so distracted she always messes everything up, forgets stuff..."

"Doesn't respect her elders, sometimes," the female guard added.

"It's okay, she's very nice," Cerulean spoke timidly, feeling nervous in front of two such powerful guards.

Gail flicked his gray tail. "Typhoon," he said, smiling at the other, "please go after Aquamarine and assign several more guards to that hunting party - I have a feeling that they might need a bit more protection, if you know what I mean."

"I do," Typhoon replied with a smile. She briefly curled her tail around Gail's, and then disappeared too.

The guard shook out his wings, and then beckoned for Cerulean to follow him into the library.

"Oh, thank the moons!" Orca exclaimed when she saw Cerulean. She wrapped her wings around the purple dragonet, and then said, "I was so worried! I know that I really shouldn't have been, seeing as I don't think you'd have left the castle, but with all my daughters dying, you must understand my paranoia when you didn't show up when I'd expected you to. Where have you been? What took you so long?"

Cerulean winced, the lie she'd planned to tell the queen slipping from the tip of her tongue unconvincingly. "I - I was finishing my meal, and then I tried to find the library and I, um, got lost."

"And nobody found you?" Orca asked, looking not at all suspicious as she swallowed the lie full. "Three moons! What kind of world are we living in? But never mind that now. You're here, and we are a bit behind schedule so we've got to get going with this lesson."

The queen turned back, and Cerulean got a clear view past her, at a table stacked with official looking scrolls. And also, another dragonet. And looking at her, dark sapphire blue scales gleaming in the lights of the library, dark gray-blue eyes gleaming, Cerulean had a feeling that another problem had just entered her already problematic life.

Author's Note: So, sorry if that chapter felt a bit rushed. And also sorry that Archipelago didn't appear in it! But he'll probably appear next time. This was mostly a chapter for some information, but also a bit of character building. Thank you to everyone who left OC's for me to use! The ones I have now will likely have pretty big roles in the story, so I'm hoping everyone doesn't mind. If you've got a problem with that, let me know and I'll try to fix it.

Hmm, anything else I must speak of? I do not believe so. Read and review as always! Thank you all for reading!

Someone: Thank you for all of your kind and eager reviews! I'm so glad you think this a great fanfiction! That means so much, as do all of your other compliments. A million thank you's could not cover how grateful I am to you. Don't worry, I definitely plan to continue this story as I have a whole plot planned out, and I hope you approve of Azure's character! I know he's supposed to be funny and quirky and I sort of wrote him off as quieter, but I will definitely try to bring out those characteristics in him soon! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thank you so much for reading and reviewing!

jadewolf334: Thank you! Sorry that Chrysocolla didn't appear in this chapter, but she will in later ones. I'm glad you liked my characterization of her. I think I've mentioned this before but she's really fun to write for. I feel like her personality's a lot like mine, so I really like writing scenes with her in it. Cerulean would also like to thank you for the compliment of her! I must admit, in this chapter I found it a bit difficult to be consistent with the personality I'd established previously for her. I struggled with her timid side, especially in the scene with the three brothers. She had a bold moment there, and then I tried to reasonably tone down her sudden boldness into her more familiar timidity. Thank you for the compliment! And you're reviews are fine, I love reading them so much and they make me super happy! Spindrift is also really fun to write for, although again I feel like I failed epically at his funnier side in the chapter. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Guest: Thank you thank you thank you! I'm blushing, seriously, at all your kind words! Reading your review made me so happy! And I was more than happy to include your OC in the story. Aquamarine is great for writing. I know you didn't include 'nervousness' in her character, so I hope you don't mind that I made her that way around Gail and Typhoon. I just felt that, given her rank as a low guard and the rest of her personality traits, she'd be a bit shy and overly nervous around dragons who are "more important" than she is. Please don't be mad at me! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thank you so much for reading and reviewing!

Pancake Unicorn: Thanks! Good to know this is intriguing. I'm afraid you didn't find much out about Archipelago in this chapter...MWAHAHA. Just kidding. Thank you, I'm glad you think Spindrift is hilarious, and no problem! Sorry Tetra was only briefly mentioned in this chapter, but she might appear later on. More chapters are on the way after this one. And thank you for reading and reviewing!

My OC Storm: Thank you for leaving such a descriptive profile. I know Storm didn't technically appear in the chapter...well she did, but at the end. There will be a feature with her in the next chapter! And just a heads up, I might at first write her off like she's Cerulean's rival, but I promise she's not. It's just that she'll know that Cerulean lied to Orca, and like you said, she doesn't like dragons who lied! So she's kind of upset about that. Tell me if you'd rather that not happen, and I'll try to comply, to my best ability. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing!

Queenyisthebestmedicen: First, a question of utmost importance. Are you a fan of Fantastic Beasts, and when mean Queeny from that movie? Or is this some other Queeny you are referring to? Please let me know, I really want to find out. (I loved the Fantastic Beasts movie, by the way.) Secondly, thanks for leaving an OC! I know that Gail and Typhoon only appeared briefly in this chapter, but you'll see more of them, along with Dolphin. Also, is Dolphin male or female? I'm guessing male, but if you'd like to tell me, please do! Otherwise I'll assume male. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing!

Jaysong: It is such a relief to know that I wrote Spindrift well! Thank you so much! I tried to include more Spindrift flirting in this chapter, but hmm, not sure if that worked. This character is really amusing in my opinion. And, if you don't mind, I will continue to use him throughout this story. Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter! And no problem, I love Spindrift. Thank you for reading and reviewing!

Remained unnamed: Thanks for your OC Freakwave! I continue to beyond appreciate all your support and enthusiasm. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing!

Wow, that author's note was probably longer than the story...sorry.