Faded Rainbows

Unprepared

The Techno troll ancestor, when they fled from the Pop trolls with the Techno string, had been smart in choosing a new location for his tribe. They had found a naturally occurring barrier reef system in the deep ocean, with the added bonus of being a breed of coral that had LED like properties. Since that time, the tribe had bred and carefully monitored the growth of their reef, ensuring that natural predators had a very hard time getting in, as well as for the optimal light show.

Trollex sighed, not particularly surprised that this discussion had come up. His parents each fell on a different end of the parenting spectrum. The king was always overly cautious whenever it came to his wife and Trollex. He said the ocean was an unpredictable and dangerous place.

His mother, the queen, on the other fin was always more lax, encouraging the king to allow Trollex some more freedoms and responsibilities the king had said were too dangerous or too soon. He was often the cause of discourse between the two, so he often stepped in to offer the tiebreaking vote. Sure, he was biased, but he was still the only tiebreaker.

And so, he swam towards his bickering parents, and set a hand on his father's arm. "Dad, come on. I really don't think we'll need a sword! We'll even keep the barrier in sight so we can swim back if anything shows up!"

The queen shot her husband a victorious grin, giggling as she watched him struggle to cling to the last strands of this argument before eventually relenting to Trollex's puppy-dog eyes. The king groaned, pulling the sword and belt off of his body and hanging it back amongst the other royal swords. "Fine, fine! But if we run into a shark, don't come crying to me about it!"

Trollex and his mom shared a quick high five, gathering their kelp bags before swimming for the door. Trollex called back after his father. "Come on, last one outside is a sea slug!" With that, he flicked his fins and darted out the door. He used his track skip, the ability of his people to travel faster than usual, called as such because it left after images behind them.

After a close race, eventually it was the queen that swam out of the front gates first, cheering and whooping as she swam in circles, celebrating her victory. "Whoop! I still got it, baby!" She spun around and grinned at her husband and child, both of which were panting as they leaned against each other to catch their breath.

Trollex laughed breathlessly, turning to his dad to whisper. "How does she have so much energy?"

The king chuckled, straightening himself as he stared admiringly at the queen. "Because she's amazing." He swam over, sharing a gentle kiss with the love of his life, who melted into the embrace with a content sigh.

The young prince laughed, letting out a sound of mock disgust. "Ugh, get a ROOM you two! Come on, we're wasting time!" He spun around and swam out towards the edge of the reef. "Hurry, hurry!"

Both the queen and king smiled, following their son. The day seemed to be going great for the royal family, Trollex having taken to collecting fascinating looking rocks and shells he found on their trip. Even his father found a rather cool looking abalone shell, which had been chipped and worn away to look like a heart. He, of course, gifted it to his wife, who gushed over the sweet gift and her loving husband.

It had been a few hours of swimming through the neutral zone outside of the barrier reef, and Trollex was starting to have troubles keeping himself from yawning. This didn't escape the notice of his overprotective father. "Maybe we should start heading back to LED castle, you seem tired Trollex."

Trollex shook his head at that, and grinned at his dad. "No way, we're having fun! Just a little longer, I saw something shiny over there and I want to check it out!" He flicked his tail and darted off in the direction of the light he spotted.