King of The Dragons (Wings of Fire X Monster Hunter)

Part 2: Chapter 7 & 8

"I think you should take me somewhere I can wait for my mother," Tsunami suggested in a low voice - or she though it was low, but the echoes still skipped across the water. And now there was more murmuring. Tsunami wished she had NightWing powers so she could hear the dragons' thoughts.

"Up there," Riptide said, nodding to the top of the pavilion. Ha glanced at Shark again. "You should bring your friends."
The other dragonets were sprawled on the white pebbles of the beach, in front of a tall cave opening with sand. They had their wings spread out and were gasping in a rather undignified way. All except for Glory and Stormcaller. Glory was sitting neatly by the cave while the other was as the very front of the beach. Glory's scales were now azure blue. Any SeaWings who weren't staring at Tsunami were staring at her.

Tsunami thwacked the water with her tail to get their attention. When Clay finally looked over, she pointed to the pavilion. He nodded, and she lifted into the air. Her wings felt heavy out of the water, and it took a few beats to get her balance. She wished the SeaWings would go back to whatever they were supposed to be doing.
Riptide flew up beside her. He looked uncomfortable with all the scrutiny as well.
"Tell me about the Summer Palace," Tsunami said, trying to distract herself.

He flicked his tail at the cliffs. "Guest rooms are in the caves. Queen Blister usually stays in the one closest to the tunnel. We brought in extra sand to line the floor for her, and it's the only cave where fire is allowed."
 His snout turned toward the pavilion as they flew higher.
"She meets with Queen Coral on the second level from the top, which is only for visiting royalty. Each level has a different purpose - for instance, there's a floor for dragonet school visits, one for celebration spectacles, and one for war planning. When they are hear instead of the Deep Palace, the Council meets on this level, halfway up."

He paused, beating his wings, so Tsunami could look across the middle level. Twelve dragon-sized pools were arranged in a circle with small channels running from one to the next and crisscrossing the center. Glittering emeralds the size of fish eggs, which were embedded in the stone, spelled out words by each pool. Tsunami saw one marked 'Treasury,' one labeled 'Defense,' and another said 'Secrets & Spies.' Before she could read any further, Riptide turned to fly higher.

"Council?" Tsunami said, catching up to him.
"They prefer the Deep Palace, as does the queen," Riptide said. "Only Shark, Lagoon, and Cascade are here at the moment."
Tsunami had no idea what he was talking about, but she didn't want to reveal how ignorant she was of SeaWing politics. She wondered if there was anything about a council in Starflight's favorite scrolls.

"So which level is for the missing princess?" she joked.
"I think the top pavilion would be best," Riptide said. "That's for new visitors, and we hardly ever have those. Queen Blister was probably the last - oh, no, it was that NightWing." He landed gracefully on the uppermost ledge of the pavilion, his claws catching on polished ridges in the blueish-white stone. 

"What NightWing?" Tsunami asked landing beside him. This level was bigger than she expected. A spiraling burst of webbed talon-print shapes was carved into the floor and filled with glittering water, lined all along the bottom with tiny pearls. Tsunami realized the pattern was the same as the one of her wings.
"I don't know," Riptide answered her. "He only spoke with Her Majesty and Queen Blister, and all I heard was that he wanted to fly out through the canopy instead of the tunnel - but of course they wouldn't let him do that. He looked big and bad tempered."

"Sounds like Morrowseer," Tsunami muttered, although she didn't exactly have a lot of other NightWing to compare to him to. But he seemed more meddlesome than the rest of them. While most of his tribe hid in their secret location, being all mysterious and unhelpfully powerful, Morrowseer kept turning up . . . delivering the dragonet prophecy, inspecting the dragonets, trying to get Glory killed, saving Starflight (but no one else) from the SkyWings, then giving him back once everyone had escaped. Tsunami could easily imagine him poking around here, although she couldn't guess why. She had a feeling Stormcaller knew why. That dragon probably knew more than he let on.