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

Part 2: Chapter 18, 19, & 20

"Stop it!" Tsunami clutched her head. It couldn't be true. "She's not like that. She loves her daughters. When she found the other egg broken -" Tsunami paused, realizing how much they didn't know. She backed up to tell them all about the Council, her mother's scrolls, the mysterious dragon who'd tried to kill her in the tunnel, and the way Queen Coral had reacted when Tortoise failed her.

"So you see," she finished, "it can't be her killing off the female dragonets. She wants them alive more than dead."
"Someone tried to kill you?" Clay said. "Are you all right?"
"I'd like to know what would happened to us if they'd succeeded," Glory said angrily.
"We would be suspects," Stormcaller said, eating another fish.
"Are you saying Sunny's in danger now?" Starflight demanded at the same time. "Because of the egg? Why would you do that to her?"
"I don't mind," Sunny said, cuddling the egg to her chest. But she looked paler than usual.

"No, listen," Tsunami said. She took a step back toward the cave entrance. "Don't you see? We're doing a good thing by keeping this egg alive. And now Queen Coral has to take care of all of us, because we're protecting her daughter. She can't chain you up and not feed you anymore - if that was her idea in the first place."

Glory and Starflight exchanged "yeah, right" glances. Tsunami frowned and Stormcaller sighed.
"And if we find the real assassin," she hurried on, "then we'll be heroes."

"Not if it's your mom," Glory said firmly. "Which it is."
Tsunami wanted to kick her. "It can't be my mother," she said again. "The dragon who attacked me in the tunnel didn't have a dragonet attached. Where are you suggesting she stashed Anemone while she came after me? And how could she have broken one of her eggs when Anemone is with her at all times?"

"Ooo, I have a few guesses," Glory said.
"I think it's Shark," Tsunami said, ignoring her. "Tortoise pointed at him before she died. He was at the Deep Palace before the rest of the council. If I'm right and there's a secret entrance to the hatchery, he could have snuck in to kill the dragonets without anyone knowing. And he could have attacked me in the tunnel, too. Or he could have sent someone else to do it. Queen Coral thought she'd sent him on ahead already, so nobody knew where he was exactly."

"It couldn't have been Shark," Stormcaller said. "Or Cascade if you were thinking of him. You wouldn't have had the chance to fight back if they were to attack you."
Tsunami looked at him for a second. She did think Cascade was a possible candidate for being the assassin. It was almost as if he read her mind.

"Tsunami," Clay said, nosing her with his snout. His forehead crinkled worriedly. "It doesn't sound like you're safe here. Maybe we should go."
"Or at least we should go," Glory suggested. "You can stay here if you really want to. We could leave now, while no one is guarding us."

Tsunami hesitated. It was so much harder to fit in with the SeaWings than she'd expected. And she didn't like seeing sides of her mother that scared her. She preferred the image in her head that she'd dreamed about her whole life - the loving queen from The Missing Princess.

She fingered the pearls around her neck, thinking of how Coral had given them to her the moment she saw her, and how happy she'd been.
"No," Sunny said unexpectedly. "I'm not leaving this egg until it hatches." She rested her talons on it protectively. "And we can't split up. We have to fulfill the prophecy together."

"I agree with Sunny on this one," Stormcaller said.
"I also agree with Sunny," Said Starflight. "I don't love it here either, but we have to stay until we meet blister. That was the whole point of coming here."

'Not for me,' Tsunami thought. She'd forgotten that Blister would would be coming to meet the dragonets. She was not at all sure that was something to look forward to.