Let The Chaos Continue

Explain Yourself

Glory ended the meeting shortly after, and Kelp quickly left, casting a worried glance at the chakram embedded in the wall on the way out. He wondered if the assassin had a plan to mount Macaw's head on a wall, or if there'd be nothing left of the Rainwing to display.

Kelp was placing his bets on the latter.

"Kelp!" Rainkeeper caught him on the way out, looking worried. Of course he was worried. They all were. "Can we talk?"

"I'm not going to tell you," Kelp began, already knowing the Prince's ulterior motives. Rainkeeper sighed.

"WHY?" He demanded.

"Because Joy asked me not to, and I will respect her wishes,"

"Screw that!" Rainkeeper declared. "Let me make something clear to you, Kelp, because I think this is flying above your head. My ONE job in this life is to protect my little sister. That has always been my job, and I reluctantly handed said job over to you when you married Joy, and I expected you to take care of my sister just as well as I have. Well, I'd hoped you'd do better than I did considering all the insanity she went through at school. But if something happened, if Macaw did something to her or hurt her in any way on YOUR watch?" A murderous gleam sparked in Rainkeeper's eye at the thought and Kelp's eyes widened. He'd seen Rainkeeper's resemblance to Deathbringer before, as everyone did, but he'd never seen the murder side resemblance. The dragon staring at him now was no longer the calm, collected Rainkeeper he knew. It was closer to the dragon that had thrown a chakram at the wall and sworn threats inside their meeting.

This was scary Rainkeeper.

Kelp had never seen scary Rainkeeper before. He hadn't known he existed until now.

"Don't make me hurt you the way we're ALL going to hurt Macaw," Rainkeeper warned.

"I know what you're thinking," Kelp admitted. "What you think he might've done."

"And am I right?" Kelp made a face.

"It's complicated."

"Then help me understand it so we can properly punish the dragons responsible." Kelp sighed.

"Joy will kill me for this,"

"A risk we're willing to take."

"Just... Don't tell Deathbringer or Glory? Especially not Deathbringer?"

"Why?"

"Because unlike you, he WILL murder me."

"I could murder you,"

"Yes, but when you hear what happened, your murderous rage will be focused on MACAW, not ME. Deathbringer will just kill us all."

"...Okay, can't argue that logic. Spill." Kelp glanced around, making sure no one was watching, seeing as in the Rainforest, gossip spread faster than a cold in a group of young dragonets. 

"Do you remember, I doubt you do but, when Joy and I were dating, we were about eleven or so, and she told you all that she was going to come and spend a week or so with me in the Bay of a Thousand Scales?"

"Yes," Rainkeeper frowned. "She stayed a lot longer than we liked, but we didn't dare bother you."

"See, that's the thing," Kelp made a face. "The day she was to arrive, I sat and waited. And she never showed up."

"...What do you mean, she didn't show up?"

"I mean she wasn't there. She didn't arrive until four days later, and-" Kelp stopped. A haunted, yet rage filled look flooded his face. "She... She wasn't good, when she showed up. Not in good shape, not in a good mindset."

"What happened?"

"Apparently, Macaw's father was upset with the fact that Macaw hadn't gotten on Joy's good side. So he decided to kick things up a notch and interfere. Supposedly that's what he does when he determines that he son is screwing up the plan. They ambushed Joy and kidnapped her."

"But it's JOY, how-"

"Snuck up on her. Sleeping darts. I think that stung her pride more than anything. She said she woke up on the Nightwing Island, chained up. The plan, she said, was that they were going to try anything to get her to get Macaw or someone of their lineage on the throne, one way or another. She refused all of their ideas, of course, so then they tried to... persuade her."

"Torture?" Rainkeeper whispered.

"Something like that," Kelp cringed. "They tried to....hurt her. But Joy's stubborn, you know? If she doesn't want you to touch her, then she'll fight tooth and claw until either you stop or you're dead. But two against one while you're chained up, breathing in unbreathable air, and basically robbed of sunlight for days? Makes it more difficult to fight back. They didn't get far in their attempts, but they tried, and that's horrifying enough to me. But the Nightwing Island is fragile, or at least it was. It took her four days to get the chains off, and whether she fought them off or ran, I'm not sure, but she said she didn't stop flying until she reached the island we were going to meet on." He shook his head. "Macaw had always been obnoxious, but he was just that. A pest you swatted until it went away. But after that, I guess we realized that we'd been underestimating him. On his own, he's an idiot, but his father isn't. He's evil, but smart. If Macaw was able to capture Joy again, I have no doubt his father's involved somehow."

"Why wouldn't Joy tell us this?" Kelp shrugged.

"I don't know. Part of me thinks she was a little ashamed that Macaw got the best of her, but I think she just didn't want you all to worry about her."

"Well of course we would've worried, but we also would've MURDERED Macaw and stopped this current problem from ever happening!"

"And maybe that's what she didn't want," Kelp offered. "It seems to me, that this whole thing, no matter what they do to each other, it's between Joy and Macaw. If anybody gets to end his life, it's Joy who gets the right to do so."

"Well she better, or I will," Rainkeeper growled. 

"But it's also Joy. Who knows. She might think of something more creative."

"Like Foeslayer's fate?"

"Eh, maybe. You never know with Joy."