another life

chapter 2 - the princess

fei giggled lightly as she felt a familiar snout nudging her out of her deep sleep. she reached her arm away from her pillow to the creature's head, fingertips finding the familiar feeling of cold scales.

"why are you waking me up so early, poseidon?" the girl asked, scratching the dragon behind his ears as he crouched beside her canopy bed.

in response, poseidon jumped up from his spot beside her and started chasing his tail in circles, making fei laugh.

poseidon was a relatively small PacificDragon, about twenty feet long and ten tall. he was almost full grown, with beautiful bright turquoise scales that shone and sparkled in the sunlight, with coral pink wings that matched the color of the webs between his razor-sharp claws. the dragon had a long, sweeping tail, that ended in a wide fin, which allowed him to swim incredibly fast through the water. combined with his deep blue eyes and long snout, it gave poseidon a mysterious and elegant appearance, though he was anything but.

in fact, poseidon usually reminded fei more of a puppy than anything, with his playful tendencies and need for cuddles. the only time he showed any signs of being aggressive was when someone tried to hurt fei, his best friend and human counterpart, whom he had protected since she was a baby.

poseidon stopped chasing after his tail and turned to fei with hopeful eyes.

"you wanna go for a swim, don't you?" the dragon grunted happily in response, bumping her eagerly towards the door with his snout. "okay, okay!" fei laughed. "just let me get ready first, poseidon."

the girl walked over to her large closet, picking out a simple blue dress and changing into it quickly, slipping her feet into gold sandals.

fei's room, like everything else in the palace of okeanos, was huge, with a tall ceiling, to accommodate the dragons, who took up a lot of space. there was an entire wall lined with ornate windows that were decorated with shells and miniscule sea gems. each one had a ledge beneath it big enough to fit a few people, and fei had placed soft cushions on most of them, and a few held her collections of objects she had found in the ocean when she went swimming with poseidon. most of them were from the old world, which the girl couldn't help but find intriguing.

on the wall beside her closet, there stood three tall shelves, lined with books, scrolls and maps of the okeanos and the other kingdoms. some of it was homework she got from her instructors, mostly about the history of her people, but the vast majority of fei's library consisted of adventure stories, tales of heroes with the most exciting lives.

fei's mother disapproved of such tales, saying that they filled her daughter's head with nonsense, but fei had made it very clear from a young age that she would read them regardless of what she thought, so her mother had eventually given up.

fei turned her gaze to her full length mirror, which, like the windows, was decorated with shells. she inspected her outfit, and then her hair. she did like it. it was dark and wavy, and it arrived at her waist, but she had come to the conclusion that it looked boring like this, so she began weaving it into twin braids. she had barely started when she heard an exasperated huff from behind her and something smacking her hand away from her head.

turning around, she saw poseidon staring at her impatiently, waiting for his swim.

"you whacked me with your tail, you little brat!" she tried to scold him, but was too amused by the sass she was getting from her friend.

the dragon looked unchanged by her accusations, so she decided to give up on her hair. "fine then, we can go now if you insist."

poseidon turned his chin up proudly and waltzed towards the door. fei followed him, chuckling to herself. spoiled creature.