The Lone Ocean

Prologue

It hurt Copperband to know how cowardly his son was. He wanted Isonade to be the bravest SeaWing in the Deep Palace, with common sense of couse. He got exactly the opposite of what he wanted. Minus the common sense. His son's latest hiding place was the ruins of the Summer Palace. He would commonly go there with the equally cowardly prince, Mizu. Copperband understood why Mizu was cowardly. His siblings weren't exactly the most peaceful. Not at all. In fact, he wasn't sure whether the debate between Waterfall and Kani hadn't finished yet. Mizu had swum through one once and nearly died due to their tails lashing. He sighed. It was time for Isonade's battle lessons. He swam off to find his son.

Copperband found Arame crying, her eggs were calmly nestled next to her. Despite Queen Monsoon giving them permission to use the Royal Hatchery, Arame hadn't felt quite safe to leave their eggs there. Queen Monsoon hadn't had an egg hatch in 4 years. Not from the Hatchery. Not since Mizu and Kani hatched. Isonade had disappeared for 6 months at this point. Copperband was as worried as Arame. A messenger poked his head into the room. "General! Sir! I have news!" Copperband poked his head up, his scales starting to flash the underwater language of Aquatic. "Is it about my son?" The messenger shook his head as well as sending another sentence of flashes. "We aren't that lucky, sir. But he might have some information about Isonade and the rest." Arame twisted her head to her husband. "You should go. I'll protect the eggs. It's your job after all. I won't interfere." Copperband nodded. "Thanks Arame." He smiled at her and swam off. The messenger led him to a room where a shivering green dragonet was huddled. Copperband recognized this dragonet. He had often seen him helping around the palace. "Torrent!?" The green dragonet looked up. "General! I finally made my way back!" General Copperband looked at Torrent strongly. "Wait until the Queen's here before you tell us anything." Torrent nodded and Kani swept in. "Waterfall decided to be an idiot. So Mother's occupied right now." Copperband looked at Kani confused. "What do you mean?" Kani rolled her eyes. "My seaweed brained sister decided to challenge Mother." Copperband couldn't believe it. It was true that Waterfall was 9. Waterfall WAS old enough to challenge her. But Queen Monsoon was much older. Waterfall couldn't win. Plus, there was a lot to account for. Nobody could beat Queen Monsoon. Ask her 4 dead sisters. Copperband flinched, remembering the death of gentle Princess Ai, who challenged Monsoon during the Forgotten War. Nobody was allowed to know about it. Wait, wait. Wrong princess. The previous queen hatched 6 daughters and two sons. Monsoon was the oldest princess. Then Ambergris and Beluga. Larimar. Molly. Ai. The princes were Copperhead's close friends, Tidal and Torpedo. He dashed into the hall to see a pair of dark blue scales flying in combat. Monsoon and Waterfall. A small SeaWing swam into the hall. "Another challenge... It's been so many years." Ai was back. She flicked her wings. "Been a while, huh? Wanna get Arame and fly? I've got so much to tell you about what I've been doing!" Both SeaWings paused as the large SeaWing queen gripped her talons on Waterfall's neck. The younger SeaWing was looking up at her in terror. "You're a fool, Waterfall. You never should have challenged me if you wanted to keep your life." And then, she slit her daughter's throat.