Visiting the Summer Palace was awesome, in the twins' opinion. There was so much to gawk at and so much to discover. Fin and Cyclone accompanied them with chuckles always at the back of their throats whenever the twins either commented on something or asked a question.
The library level had to be Gust's favorite even if Storm barely tolerated the number of scrolls that 'were going to bury them alive if Gust started pulling any out' (direct quote). Both princes had a certain love for the library, even if Fin was mostly fawning over the maps in the corner. There was an even better level, according to Fin.
"There are so many maps there! I mean, this level is cool too because there are myths and legends that dragons try to plot out from the stories, but the other level is better! Part of it is used for war planning and such so maybe Storm won't die of boredom," said Fin, adding a little joke at the end to curtail his excitement from overwhelming them. Not that he was overwhelmed by the warmth that grew in his chest at the sound of Cyclone's laugh, not at all.
"I would not!" Storm scoffed, Gust giggling at her offense enough to make her smile. "You said that some try to plot out legends and stuff? How would they do that?"
"Only really good cartographers try to do that. Even then, only a few are obsessed enough with old legends to try. They mostly just gather up a bunch of clues, write it out on a scroll to explain their reasoning, and put a dot on a map.
"Their maps aren't official, published, or anything and dragons mostly look at them for laughs or if they're interested in the legend themselves," said Fin, shrugging as he passed one of the scrolls to her. "That one is about some crazy animus who created a few hidden artifacts for no good reason."
"Is it now?" said Storm absentmindedly, opening the scroll a little to read a few of the bullet points. Understanding her interest immediately, Gust felt a little sick with worry that wasn't helped by Cyclone's confused glance at his sister. "Are there any other animus ones?"
"Uh, I think so?" mumbled Fin, squinting at the line-up of scrolls before picking out another one. "This one might interest you both. Twin animi traveled the seas and created temples to house artifacts, one each for every temple."
"Why do you already know that?" asked Cyclone in a teasing tone, distracting Fin as Gust grabbed the scroll.
"We all get a little curious sometimes," said Fin with a small huff and pout, getting a chuckle from Cyclone. His pout turned a little playful thanks to the guard's amusement. "Sorry we can't all be action first, questions second, Mr. Warrior."
"You wound me, Princey. It's almost as if you don't want my protection," Cyclone teased, bumping shoulders with Fin. For a good five seconds, Fin looked like a starstruck fish, opening and closing his mouth for nonexistent air and words. "Fin, you alive?"
"Yep!" Fin squeaked, the twins barely smothering their laughter at their flustered brother. If the glare they got from him was any indication, they weren't doing a good job. "Perfectly alive!"
(A bit too alive, if his pounding heart was any clue to that.)
"You okay? Do I need to be the big strong soldier and carry you to the healers'?" teased Cyclone, although a hint of worry made its way into his joking.
"Nope, no, I'm good," Fin sputtered a bit before getting his joking attitude back together. "I'm surprised you asked rather than just dragging me there."
"Shut it, Princey," Cyclone huffed, rolling his eyes with a small grin on his face. "I'm not sure if your heart could take that."
"And I'm waiting to see if your brain sustains any damage from asking rather than doing," Fin shot back, his voice a little too quiet for his liking. Pretending to be absorbed in their scrolls, the twins watched this go down with hidden grins and muffled giggles.
(Although if one paid enough attention to the two, they could see that Storm wasn't exactly pretending.)
"Your claws are out today, Princey. Maybe I should train you a bit so you can fight physically too. Between the activity and what happened a moment ago, I'm sure your heart would explode," said Cyclone, a flirty undertone appearing in his words much to Fin's horror? Embarrassment? He didn't know how to feel.
"Too bad you can't protect me from that too," Fin joked, a small bashful grin on his face.
"Really is too bad, you're too pretty to get harmed by such a thing," said Cyclone with a small smirk, now clearly flirting.
Sputtering at the blunt phrase, Fin took a second to gather words. "I'm flattered but I-uh... I think that maybe you're exaggerating a little," said Fin, easily chuckling off his moment of self-deprecation.
"The only thing that I'm exaggerating is the fact that you're a prince. I mean, you are, but that isn't all you are," said Cyclone, edging his talon close to Fin's and lightly brushing them together. "You're Fin, the funny, kind, and slightly ridiculous SeaWing who is a great brother to Gust and Storm."
"I-I..."
"If you say anything against yourself, I swear I'm going to punch you, you ridiculous SeaWing."
"Okay okay," said Fin, laughing at Cyclone's threat that seemed very real. "Thank you, you're pretty great too," Fin dropped eye contact, staring at their very close talons instead of Cyclone's curious green eyes.
They all stayed like that for a bit, with Fin staring at their talons, Cyclone staring at Fin, and the twins absorbing themselves back into their scrolls. Eventually, they moved onto the level that Fin had been talking about. While they were there, Cyclone paid extra attention to Fin which succeeded in making the SeaWing flustered to no end and the twins giggle.
Night was no better for the poor prince, Cyclone making sure to take the place closest to him while the twins curled up together. He even went as far as to lay his wing on top of Fin's slightly extended one, making Fin jump a little at the sudden contact. Even so, he fell asleep in due time with schools of fish flitting around in his stomach.
(And if one paid close enough attention, they would notice that Gust was in a type of sleep that could only be considered dozing. To fall into a deep sleep was near impossible for Gust after tasting dragon blood for the defense of himself and his sister, so Gust settled for an odd in between. A point in sleep where he could pay attention easily but still felt well-rested in the morning.)
Morning didn't stop Cyclone's sudden velcro to Fin, the guard making sure to be beside Fin during wake-up, breakfast, and majority of the rest of their stay in the Summer Palace. Once, Fin had tried to send a pleading look at his siblings only to get mischievous grins in return. They were content to let Fin suffer and dig his own grave.
On the way back to the Deep Palace, Cyclone let up a little. If only to placate Cyclone from any more velcro-ing (especially in front of the rest of the princes, that would be a nightmare and a half), Fin kept up a steady conversation that Cyclone gladly engaged in. Storm did as well, Gust throwing in an occasional remark when he thought it was necessary.
The rareness of his comments didn't let them notice until long after it happened that he wasn't with them.
A piece of kelp had wrapped around his left leg, halting Gust's journey for a moment. It seemed an easy enough task to simply cut the kelp and be on his way, but it wasn't. Not when a shark was involved.
Jaws and jagged teeth clamped around that leg, making him cry out as pain flared. Desperate, Gust didn't think about it as he bashed the shark's nose with his spiked tail. Blood flowed more rapidly when the shark let go, dying the water around them a royal purple. Gust glanced around and quickly dove into a little crevice, squeezing in between the crude stones as jaws closed around where his tail used to be.
The shark continued to try to brute force its way past the stones, no effect other than creating a muffled banging and showering sand onto Gust's head. Just in case, he dived a little deeper. Somewhat confident that his head wouldn't be chomped off, Gust took a look at his leg.
The pain that throbbed from the wound was justified, seeing as it looked like Gust was lucky to have his leg at all. Where his leg met his body, there was a line of torn scales and flesh that went down to the bone. The same was true for where his back talon met his leg. The sight made him even fainter, blood loss already not helping on that front.
With no other viable option, Gust grit his teeth and summoned up a familiar frost at the back of his throat. Craning his neck closer to the bleeding wounds, he dug his claws into the nearby stone to brace himself. With a sharp inhale of preparation, he began using his frostbreath.
Frost crept along the wounds with his guidance, the stone getting new scrapes along with it from his attempts to lessen the pain. The pain of the freezing only added onto the original pain from the wound, making him see double. Even so, he soldiered on until the wounds were sealed.
When that was done, Gust could do nothing but wait for the shark to stop trying to get in. When it stopped trying to get in, he had to wait for it to lose interest. If it lost interest, he still had to wait for anything else attracted by his blood to also leave.
He didn't know how long he waited, his paranoia making him wait a moment more every time he gathered the courage to leave. To occupy himself, he mentally cataloged his surroundings and any shifts he could sense from outside of the crevice. The crevice didn't have much, it wasn't even that long, but that gave Gust reason to pay attention to what he could find outside the crevice.
And that let him notice almost immediately when there were flashes. Familiar flashes. He waited a moment more to reassure that it was familiar enough before finally leaving his little hideout.
Once Gust was out in plain sight, Storm was suddenly tackle-hugging him. "Gust! Are you okay?" she let go of him and looked him over, gasping at the sight of the bloodied frost. "What happened?!"
"Shark," said Gust, not able to say much more before Fin and Cyclone were suddenly there, worrying over him.
"Gust, are you okay?" said Fin, Cyclone noticing before him that Gust's leg was definitely not okay.
"I'll be better when we get home," said Gust, the other prince finally noticing the damage done with a gasp. "Can we get going? I don't want to stay around."
"Yes," said Cyclone, starting to leave with the others quickly on his tail. "What happened? Why is your leg frosted over?"
"A shark got me, I didn't have much choice if I didn't want to bleed out," said Gust, wincing a little when a stab of pain decided to make itself known.
"How did you get away?" asked Fin, a small frown on his face. "Sharks don't normally give up, especially not when they've drawn blood."
"I hit it in the nose with my tail, that stunned it enough to let me escape into a little crevice where it couldn't get me," said Gust, dipping into a current to try to get away from the fallout that his statement would bring.
It didn't work. "Seriously?!" her statement was added onto by her doing a quick loop-di-loop. Storm also had a grin on her face that was filled with pride for her twin. "That's awesome!"
"And smart. Nice quick thinking," Cyclone complimented, only making Gust want to bury his head into a sand bar more.
"I'm glad you're okay. We need to get to a healer fast though, I don't want to trust the frost with Gust's life," said Fin, getting nods from the others before they shot off towards the Deep Palace.
The healers met Gust with frantic rushing and too many bandages. His sister stayed close by his side, the other two standing an impromptu vigil near the door. Although the frost did hinder the healers a little bit, it didn't take long before Gust was left alone on a cot to rest, his sister standing nearby.
And if the healers gave the two adults the bad news that Gust would have a limp for the rest of his life, they didn't let it affect them when they smiled at Gust.
{(:)}
One day, when Gust and Storm were chatting in the small underwater library, a dragon who they'd only seen from a distance almost ran into Gust.
"Sorry about that..." the dragon did the Aquatic equivalent of trailing off, staring at the two like they weren't even dragons. Like with their mother, Gust shied away while Storm stood tall. The king continued to stare at them, trying to process what he was seeing.
"It's fine," said Storm, dismissive towards him as she buried her nose back into the slate. Gust took a cue from her and did the same.
"Right..." he said, still not leaving.
"Do you need something?" she asked, not looking up as she conveyed all of her annoyance into the Aquatic.
"You're Storm and Gust, right?" he asked, blatantly staring at them. More accurately, at their IceWings features.
"What of it?" she snapped back, looking up from her slate to narrow her eyes at him.
"I've only heard things about you so," he said, ending off his sentence with a shrug.
"Well you've seen us, I think that's enough," she shrugged much more aggressively and tried to ignore him with the slate.
That didn't work. "I'm sorry for Coral's actions. You two are fine," said Gill with a soft smile that the twins almost accepted. If that smile wasn't tainted by pity.
"We know that. Sorry, Gill, but it would be better if Coral didn't catch you with us," said Storm with a fake smile to reciprocate his.
He seemed to understand immediately what had gone wrong, glancing between the two with a small frown. His gaze rested on Gust for a moment longer than Storm, his curiosity for the silent twin clear as day. "I suppose. Have a good day," he said, still staring at Gust as he made his way to leave. Gust hunkered down a little more, clearly uncomfortable with Gill's attention.
"Good day," Storm responded absentmindedly, wrapping her wing around Gust to calm him down. He rested his head on her shoulder, grabbing one of her talons to add to their contact. She squeezed his talon, reassuring her brother further.
They rested in silence, reading their slates peacefully. After some time passed, they left the library and headed for their room. Before they could get there, they saw Fin in the hallway with a slightly troubled expression on his face.
"Fin, is everything okay?" Storm asked, frowning at Fin's expression while Gust showed a small frown of his own.
"Yes and no, we should discuss this with Cyclone too," said Fin, leading the trio to the guard's room.
Cyclone looked up from the slate in his talons when the door opened, setting down the slate almost instantly as he picked up on Fin's distress. "What's going on?" he asked, standing up to meet them as Fin carefully closed the door behind them.
"There's a new princess," said Fin, getting surprised looks from everyone.
"Isn't that a good thing? Why are you all doom and gloom?" asked Cyclone, getting nods from the twins as he voiced their thoughts.
"I wouldn't think it if it didn't happen before, but what if someone goes after Storm? Even though she's not a full SeaWing, she can still challenge for the throne. If someone remembers that, namely Mother, Storm might be in danger," said Fin, startling the others both with the trueness of the fact and that he brought it up at all.
"That's true but what can we do about it? Other than hiding Storm, of course," said Cyclone, a frown on his face as he started to think it out.
"For now, we make sure that Storm stays in large groups. Our brothers can easily help out with that. If we're that paranoid, they can stay in my room at night," Fin suggested. "Are you two okay with that?"
"If it keeps Storm safe, yes," said Gust without hesitation, the difference from his usual confidence (more like lack thereof) was quite astounding.
"If it's necessary, I'll go through with it," said Storm, a grim expression on her face. The grimness was universal, all of them understanding the possible stakes. "Can we get more training from Cyclone? Better to be safe than sorry."
"Some of our brothers need the exercise anyway. How about we go gather them up?" asked Fin, being the first to the door with the others on his tail.
"While you try to herd them into some semblance of order, I'll try to think of a big enough room to house everyone," Cyclone sassed, getting a small laugh from Fin and Storm. Gust flashed a small smile but it quickly vanished, nerves gripping him tightly with their unforgiving claws.
Paranoia wasn't unjustified, much to the group's grim content. It took a few days for it to happen, most likely because of the shift in rooms, but happen it did. And like before, Gust was the first to react.
His doze-like state allowed him to notice the shift from the door's displacement of water, making him signal to Storm as he had a year ago. She responded in kind, both of them bracing for contact. And just like a year ago, a heavy talon on one of their backs set them into motion.
Changing up the theme a little, Storm flashed brightly instead of trying to squirm her way out of the attacker's hold. That loosened their hold greatly, a strike from Gust's tail to the face releasing it. The twins regrouped quickly, assessing the situation.
Two dragons without armor and two with it were slightly stunned from Storm's flash, although that wouldn't last for long. Their brothers were starting to rise from the commotion, rather slowly as they expected the other princes to be messing around. So the twins just had to cause enough mayhem to get past the brothers' tolerance, easy! Not.
Nodding at each other, they united their forces to knock one of the armored dragons onto their back. He couldn't react in time to dodge the twins' body slams, still blinking away the last of Storm's distraction. Knocked onto his back with enough force to slam his head into the wall, the pain gave the twins another opportunity. Frosting over parts of his armor, the twins added onto his pain.
Ever the aware, Gust glanced back in time to tackle Storm out of the way. One of the unarmored dragons had their charge thwarted, their luck not looking up after that. Tripping over their armored companion, the SeaWing was sent tumbling into the hallway.
Disentangling themselves, the twins split off in time to avoid a swipe from the last unarmored dragons. Storm had to dodge another blow from the armored one, flashing brightly enough and close enough to Fin's face to get both of their attentions. The armored dragon stumbled back from the repeated trick, also getting struck by Gust's tail for a second time (this one on the neck).
Finally waking up, Fin took one look at the scene before darting over to the other three princes in the room to wake them up too. That didn't help the twins at the moment, both of them dodging another swipe from the unarmored dragon. They began baiting that dragon towards the door, buying more time for Fin.
Not quite tricked like her fellow, she jumped over the dazed armored dragon and continued to swipe at the illusive dragonets. Twisting away from another strike, Gust got a glance towards their new aspect for a new trick and pushed Storm out of the crossfire. Two full-grown dragons then collapsed in a heap, hindering each other from their goal with well-timed placement.
Following Storm back into the room, Gust joined her in attempting to bait the last dragon. She didn't have any of it, only growling when Gust and Storm got out of her range and not moving to try another strike. In Gust's book, that was fine as he suddenly darted in and gave her a thin cut on her snout. Too startled by the sudden development in the dragonet's aggressiveness, she didn't notice until it was too late that he was a distraction for someone else.
Taking a little glee in it, Fin gladly slammed his tail into her side. Sent reeling, she stumbled back and into her recently recovered companion. Not giving them a moment to breathe, the twins were there to drive them back with claws and frostbreath. Extremely against getting anymore frostbite, the recovered armored dragon rapidly backed up and into the other two of his party. Hesitant as well, the last dragon also backed up, albeit more slowly.
Taking the opportunity as it came, Gust moved the icicles from their missed frostbreath attacks into the hall with a couple strong strokes from his wings. He rushed in, gathering all of the attackers' attention easily. A single glance back to Storm told her of his plan.
"Close eyes!" Storm turned around and warned their brothers, most of her Aquatic hidden from the attackers. They did so in an instant, allowing the plan to move on smoothly.
Flaring his scales as brightly as he could, Gust was much more efficient than Storm at blinding them, even if they looked away. Reason number one, his scales flashed a lot brighter because of his early mastery of Aquatic. Reason number two, the ice reflected the light so the attackers were blinded even if not by him directly.
Bumping into Storm when he rushed back in to notify her of his arrival, the twins scrambled to close the doors. Their brothers joined the effort when they opened up their eyes after a second or two of hesitation. The doors slammed closed, the other princes holding them in place as the twins froze them shut. Several other objects were also placed in the way, the twins freezing them to add onto the barricade. Panting was the only thing that affected the silence, everyone pausing to process what happened.
"I'm glad you two are unharmed," said Fin, suddenly hugging the two close to him. "How are we going to get to Cyclone? The doors are sealed and I don't exactly fancy tearing down our barricade to meet the dragons we just handed their tails to."
"There's no need, Cyclone will be coming out to check up on us soon. He'll notice the four, most likely not giving himself away as he goes off to gather some guards," said Gust, getting an understanding nod from Storm while the other four just stared at him like he had grown an extra head.
"He checks up on us? How do you know that?" asked Tail, the brother was Fin's clutch-mate.
"He's not very sneaky, at least not to me," said Gust, shrugging as he said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Who were they?" asked Wave, his clutch-mate, Surf, nodding to support the question.
"The simple answer is that they were attackers after Storm. Now that Anemone is now around, Storm isn't the only heir to the throne," said Gust, getting grim nods from Fin and Storm. The three previously uninformed princes took a moment to process, copying those grim nods when they did.
"You said that was the simple answer. What's the complicated one?" asked Surf, directing a questioning look at Gust who fidgeted under it. Everyone realized it too, adding onto the scrutiny that Gust was suddenly placed under.
"You wouldn't want to hear it," Gust said quickly, shying away from them as he tried to cover up his small blunder.
"I think I want to hear it," said Storm, clearly joking despite the slight edge that her eyes held.
Sighing silently, Gust bit the bullet (more like frostbreath). "Brace yourselves because this is a long answer. Stop me at any time, although this might help pass the time until Cyclone gets help.
"The attackers are two males and two females, equal division of gender between those who have armor and those who don't. The males were the first knocked down and those with armor sustained the most damage. They're probably guards and servants of Coral or a noble, the latter is more likely since Coral has ignored us since our first hatching day.
"The armored dragons haven't seen many battles, they most likely just stay at the Deep Palace. The female has seen more battle than the male, the male most likely a recruit. The female favored her right leg, the scar on it suggesting IceWing claws.
"Both unarmored dragons haven't seen any battle and both were weakened by hunger, the male more so. They both have ink stains around their talons, suggesting that they used to work in the library of the Summer Palace. I say the Summer Palace because the male, who had darker stains, seemed much more clumsy underwater. Neither swam like they had done it all day every day, suggesting that the transfer is a punishment of sorts.
"The unarmored female seemed to be the more clever of the bunch, even if the armored female had experience in fights to back her up. Both males were clumsy, probably from nerves and lack of experience, and neither responded well to pain. It's unclear how well the unarmored female reacts, seeing as the few times she was in pain was during the flashes.
"The dynamic of the group was likely framed so the unarmored female was the leader. The armored female was a type of second in command while the armored male was the worried voice in the background. The unarmored male was probably just silent in the background and/or adding in his little piece every once in a while.
"No matter how the dynamic worked out, it's likely that it wasn't planned. The armored female is the best candidate for a leader if one doesn't look into it too much. As such, she was much more independent and probably didn't listen to whatever plan the unarmored female had.
"So basically, we just fought against an arrogant fool, an unlikely leader, a well-protected coward, and a silent background character."
Jaws were dropped to the floor at the rant Gust dissolved into. Even Storm was surprised, also staring at her twin like he had grown a third head. Taking their surprise as a bad thing, Gust compressed in on himself and silently prayed for his frostbreath to create a snowdrift that he could bury himself in.
"How did you...? The fight barely lasted three minutes!" Fin finally voiced what everyone was thinking, prompting Gust to say something rather than hide.
"I was just doing what I've done since day one, observing and taking guesses," said Gust, gaining Fin and Storms' startled expressions at the joke/reference. Poor Wave, Tail, and Surf could only stare at the trio in confusion.
And if the barricade had come down to reveal five dragons with their minds partially melted, Cyclone only had to take one look at Gust's shy expression before giving the rest a pitying look.
(And if the mind-melting wasn't helped by Cyclone worrying over a soon-to-be-flustered Fin, at least the poor prince's siblings got a good show.)