Joy couldn't believe it. Coral was dead? Queen Coral. The mother who hated and obsessed over her dragonets at the same time, the Queen on the wrong side of every war, the dragon she HATED. Dead.
"How?" Joy demanded.
"Natural causes, apparently." Glory explained. "It's logical. Coral was a very old dragon."
"Are we SURE it was natural causes?" Joy questioned. "Not, oh, poisoning, assassination, strangled to death, beaten, tortured, stabbed with an animus touched spear, choked on her own sparkly pearls, impaled on a swordfish-"
"None of those." Glory confirmed.
"Well that's such a shame." Joy said, disappointed. "Those were just some of the cleaner versions I have envisioned killing her with." Glory rolled her eyes.
"This brings us to our next issue." Glory explained. "There's not a current queen on the Seawing throne."
"Oh, please tell me we're not going to have another war over a throne."
"Doubtful. The problem is that there's so many heirs. We've all agreed to leave out Coral's sons from the picture, because that's 32 princes' worth of daughters, granddaughters, and in some cases, great-grand daughters. But that still leaves Tsunami, Anemone, Auklet, Seashell, Stream, and then there's Rin and Ander."
"Wait" Joy frowned. "Rin and Ander are heirs to the Seawing throne? I thought that wasn't allowed."
"According to the agreement Tsunami made with Coral, she and Seashell aren't allowed to challenge for the throne. The only restriction pertaining to Kelp is that he's not allowed to marry or have dragonets with a Seawing. Coral assumed this would be enough, seeing as she never considered the fact that Kelp would marry a hybrid. And since she didn't plan on him having a daughter, she didn't put any restrictions on his dragonets, so Rin and Ander are potential heirs."
"So who's going to take the throne, besides Tsunami and Seashell?"
"Well, Anemone doesn't seem to want it, and I suppose no one can blame her. Stream is too young in my opinion, and Seashell doesn't want her to be queen anyway. Rin and Ander are more needed for royalty here, seeing as Apple does NOT want to be queen."
"So that leaves Auklet."
"I guess so." Glory sighed. "Looks like we'll be having a Queens Meeting soon."
"Ah, the infamous meeting of all of Pyrrhia's queens." Joy teased. "What do you even do there?"
"Well, whenever there's a new queen, we have her sworn in, in our own way."
"Boring."
"And we may go through super secret trunks of tribal secrets that only a queen can open."
"....And WHEN do I get to see those?" Glory rolled her eyes.
"Cahllenge me for Queen and we'll talk."
"No thanks; I'd lose. You're not ready to give up your seat, and I don't feel like having any responsibilities."
"...You have three dragonets. Aren't they responsibilities?"
"I don't think Kelp completely trusts me with them."
"Still?"
"Yeah. Well, I do have a pretty bad reputation..." Glory shook her head, smiling.
"What are we gonna do with you?"
*~*~*~*~*
Joy's family and their friends seemed to take the news about Coral surprisingly well.
"DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD!" Ander yelled out. "Which old witch? THE WICKED WITCH!"
"Mea, that's rude!" Ray exclaimed, but he was laughing.
"So," Kelp asked. "How soon is too soon to throw a party over this?"
"Where's she buried?" Rin questioned. "We could have a dance party on her grave!"
"So, no respect for the dead, then?" Shore asked.
"Not this dead one!" Kelp declared. "I hope she rots!"
"You all really hated the Queen this much?" Ray questioned.
"Oh YES." Joy announced.
"It was personal." Kelp glared.
"So, is it true that Ander or I could be the next Seawing Queen?" Rin clarified.
"Yes."
"Oooo, that'd be fun." Ander said dreamily. "Ray, you could be a king!" Ray crinkled his snout.
"No thanks."
"Then it looks like the crown falls to me." Rin declared.
"In the rainforest, yes. But no being Queen of the Seawings." Joy proclaimed.
"Awww."