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

Part 2: Chapter 15, 16, & 17

(3rd Pov Tsunami)

Queen Coral tried flashing more questions at Tsunami, but finally she flapped her wings and pointed to the surface. Tsunami pressed the egg to her chest and followed mother, up and up through winding tunnels and cavernous palace rooms, through emerald-studded coral and pearl-laced curtains of golden sea grass. They swam to the top of the palace, where a guard stood watch over a view for miles underwater.

He saluted to the queen, and she swam up past him toward the gray light overhead, where raindrops pelted the surface of the water. Anemone paddled in her wake, glowing like a pale blue pearl in the dark sea.

They emerged into a storm so fierce, it almost felt like they hadn't left the water at all. Tsunami faltered in the air as wind and rain tried to sweep her back into the ocean. The egg was slippery in her talons. 'Don't you dare drop it,' she hissed to herself.

"This way," shouted the queen, banking toward the nearest island. A large cave yawed open onto the beach. Rough, dirty, and muddy, it was still the driest spot they could see. The three of the, huddled into its shelter.

"What do you think your doing?" the queen demanded as soon as Tsunami's talons touched the ground.
"Someone has to protect this egg," Tsunami said. "It's not safe in the hatchery."
"It'll be safe in the hatchery if I put all my guards on it," Queen Coral fumed.
Tsunami shook her head, "Haven't you tried that before? Has it ever worked?" She paused and glanced at her sister, "What did you do for Anemone?"

The queen shook out her wings. "I slept by the egg myself, for the entire year," she said.
"You did?" Anemone said. Rain dripped off her tiny pale wings into puddles around her feet.
"I barely left the hatchery. I let Gill run the war for me, but - that's how I lost him." Coral's voice caught and she frowned. "I can't neglect my duties as queen, now that's he's gone."
"So let me do this," Tsunami said. "Let me protect this egg."

"But you have to stay in the hatchery," the queen insisted. "It must be kept warm especially right before hatching."
Tsunami glanced down at the egg, especially if there was a secret entrance. Besides, she couldn't stay in the Deep Palace; she had to go back and check on her friends. "I have a better idea," she said. "Trust me. I'll take it back to the Summer Palace."

"The Summer Palace!" the queen flared her wings. "No, you don't want to do that is this weather. It gets terribly flooded there during a storm. Better to wait out the rain here at the Deep Palace, where you'll hardly notice in happening."

"Flooded?" tsunami echoed. "Do you mean - the caves? And the beaches? Where my friends are?"
"Oh." Queen Coral waved her claws dismissively. "I'm not sure they'll be all right. Can't they swim?"
"Not like we can," Tsunami said. "I'm going back to check on them.".
"With my egg?" Coral growled
"You've tried trusting everyone else," tsunami said, taking a step back toward the pounding rain outside. "Now trust me. I promise this dragonet will hatch safely."

Her heart beat like the thunder in the clouds. Was this, finally, the right thing to do? Was she doing it for the right reasons? Or was she being impulsive again - trying to prove something instead of thinking it through?

'I'm doing this for my father. I'm doing this to make up for all my mistakes.'
'And I'm doing this to save my little sister. How can that be wrong?'
"If anything happens to that egg," Queen Coral hissed, "I'll lose two daughters that day,"

So much for being a special princess. "I need a harness for it," Tsunami said, looking her mother in the eye. 'See. I'm not afraid of you. Maybe you should think about your next queen will come to power before you start threatening me.'

"The harness they were making for the dragonets," Anemone piped up. "One of those should work."
"How will you get back to the Summer Palace?" Coral demanded. "You don't know the way, and my court is staying here with me."