Chapter Text
Tsunami continued to run. She reached the coast and dove straight into the water. She didn’t know where she was going, hopefully towards home, but her tears so blinded her that she didn’t notice a blue whale had gotten in her way. She crashed into its side, almost instantly knocking her out.
The ocean pushed and pulled Tsunami’s body, making her closer and closer to a kingdom in the middle of the sea. The Sagadore kingdom, home of King Verdigris and many Seawings. One of Verdigris’s generals had found Tsunami’s limp body, watching the water flow in and out of her gills. That told Nivation the lost royal Seawing was alive. The Sea and Ice hybrid grabbed Tsunami and carried her to the kingdom.
They went to the guest lodging and set the dragonet down on the seaweed nest. Nivation nodded at Tsunami before swimming off to the throne room to tell Verdigris.
Verdigris talked to some of his guards, albeit in an aquatic language since he was underwater. He looked over at Nivation, grinning at his general. The hybrid was mostly white; it reminded him of a great white shark. Butterflies filled his stomach as he stared at his general.His general.
‘General!’ He flashed in aquatic, getting a hello back. ‘What can I do for you?’ The king continued to flash.
‘There’s a lost Seawing heir in the guest lodging. I made sure to give her the best room.’ Nivation flashes back, even though his bioluminescent scales were only on his arms and stomach. Verdigris won’t lie when he says he has Nivation in his room once in a while, seeing as he has no Queen. The Sea King tilts his head slightly, hearing about a lost Seawing heir. Especially one that’s this far.
‘Show me.’ He flashed an apology to his guards as he got up to follow Nivation. The hybrids nodded and swam off back to where Tsunami was resting, with the King following. When they reached the room, Verdigris poked his head in to look at the dragonet. Tsunami had curled up, hiding her face in her talons. The two saw bubbles rising to the cave's ceiling, telling them she was crying. Verdigris waved Nivation off.
‘I’ll deal with this. Thank you.’ He flashed to the hybrid, watching Nivation nod, and he swam off.
Verdigris looked at Tsunami, picked her up, and swam to the kingdom's top. Where the mangrove lives. Shadowspur, as the King named it, was animus-touched to be fireproof and difficult to destroy. Its roots framed the kingdom in the water. A platform sat outside the water, so Verdigris placed Tsunami there. He climbed onto the platform afterward and grabbed a crab that got too close to the dragonet. After inspecting it, the King set the crab in the water. It was one of Verdigris's breeding females; he placed a tag on the crab in an area where, no matter how many times she molted, the tag wouldn’t leave.
Verdigris shook his head, getting off topic as he stared at the crab. So he turned his attention to the dragonet. Now that he looked more closely, this dragonet resembled Coral. He sat down to think about Coral's offspring. There are only two, if he remembers. Tsunami and Anemone. This dragonet looked too old to be Anemone, so it was Tsunami.
Speaking of Tsunami, she woke with a groan, a talon holding her head where she had smacked into that whale. She realized that she wasn’t alone, so she looked over to the larger Seawing. The royal patterns on the wings told her that he was like her.
“W-where…” Tsunami coughed, rubbing her head. “Where am I?” She froze when she noticed that she wasn't the only one, and looked back up at the King. He was mainly green and teal with light blue limbs. Verdigris lowered his head to meet Tsunami's eyes. “You are in my kingdom, Sagadore. It’s a long way from the mainland, but you were found by my general, knocked out.”
Tsunami frowns. She heard about Sagadore from her mother, but her mother painted them as insane and hostile Seawings. But her mother was clearly wrong. It wasn't the first time her mother had lied to her. Just thinking about that made her head hurt. The dragonet looked around.
“This doesn’t look much like a kingdom.” She tried to joke, which went well when Verdigris laughed. “We’re on the very top platform where non-Seawings can land to take a break. It’s more like our meeting room. You were in our lodging, but I brought you up here since I heard that you aren’t that good at aquatic.” Tsunami gasped in offense, but she knew it was true. “I was never taught growing up, being locked away in a cave.”
Verdigris nods. “You’re part of the Dragonets of Destiny. But why are you here? Shouldn’t you be with your friends?”
Hearing that sent Tsunami into a fit of sobbing, which made Verdigris panic. “I’m guessing something happened?” Verdigris shifted closer to rub Tsunami’s back. Tsunami just nodded, still crying with hiccups here and there. Verdigris frowned.
“We can wait for you to calm down before you can tell me.” Tsunami nodded, sniffling. She wiped her tears away and looked up at the King.
“Two…” She cleared her throat. “Two of my friends are dead.” Hearing that, Verdigris hugged Tsunami close. Verdigris carefully rubbed Tsunami’s back to comfort her. “Come on. I’ll take you to the above-water kingdom so you don’t have to use aquatic.” He picked her up and carried her to the rocky center of the mangrove forest. Some roots formed makeshift dens. The walls were made from packed mud. Nests made from mangrove leaves littered the floor, along with some empty bowls under one of the windows. Vergi looked around the hut and carefully set Tsunami down. Looks like he'll have work to do. No one has used the upper platform in a long time, perhaps because his kingdom was in the middle of the ocean. The King looked down at the dragonet, watching some stray tears fall.
"You can sleep. I'll stay guard." Hearing that, Tsunami nodded, curled up, and fell back asleep. Verdigris looked away from Tsunami, a million thoughts running through his head. Two of the dragonets of destiny were dead. What will that mean for the war? He clenched his jaw, curling a talon tightly. His kingdom didn't ally with the three; he thought the war was stupid and pointless. It was just their kingdom after all. The other Sand kingdoms probably thought the war was stupid too. He stared out at the vast ocean and sighed. He has a lot of work to do.