Tango's Suspicion

|✩'𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒'✩|

POOKIE BEAR QUILL REF <3
Art creds: Cyprus_Draegon on Deviant art.
ALSO: If you see any errors with the name Rattlesnake, we're referring to Sandstorm. Rattlesnake was her old name before we remembered Qibli has a sister named Rattlesnake, who's probably still alive. Apologies! :3
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The first thing Tango thought as she entered the world under the waves was: COLD.

It was freezing down there, and she glanced at Gardevoir, who was clearly thinking the same thing. The swim-scrambled over to the entrance they had seen, & managed to navigate into the structure.

Tango was slowly losing her air, but just as she was about to forfeit & go back outside, Gardevoir pointed to an area above water. They both swam up as fast as possible & gasped for air.

The Rainwing took a moment to breathe, before looking at her surroundings. The Island Palace. Obviously, a bit wrecked, but it still seemed amazing. The floors were made of sea glass, & the walls were made of different types of sea stones.

"Wow.." spoke Gardevoir, her voice echoing through the deserted palace, "this place is-"

"Gorgeous?" implied Tango. Gardevoir shook her head, "kinda creepy."

Tango understood that feeling, but overall she was too excited to be in the actual structure. They climbed out of the water, taking a few minutes to dry off, before setting off to explore. Tango glanced back for a moment, though, as a something in the water moved.

It's probably nothing, she told herself as she caught up with Gardevoir. The two travelled through the floors of the palace, which seemed to be a bit stripped of some of it's treasures, but it was still plentiful in art. They would often cross pictures of royal SeaWings, such as Queen Pearl, or Queen Lagoon.

"Ooh, Gardevoir, look!" Exclaimed Tango, as they stopped at a picture of a certain Seawing. It was Prince Albatross, who stared down at the Dragonets menacingly in the painting, though his expression seemed to say he was faking a smile.

Gardevoir shuddered, "this is the peak of scary things, can we keep moving?" Tango sighed, but she didn't want Gardevoir to feel scared. She nodded, & they continued walking. The paintings eyes seemed to follow them.

"According to this scroll, t-the area where they uhm...was here." Stuttered Gardevoir, who Tango hoped didn't regret coming with her. 

They both looked at the room, which still seemed to have the faint scent of blood in the air. Shattered glass was everywhere, as well as some fish bones. Tango pulled out a tiny little scraping stick, gathering what she needed from the little blood patches on the floor. 

"Got them!" she said, grinning. Gardevoir smiled, chuckling a little. "Okay then uhm, let's skedaddle, it's terrifying here."

"Did you just say skedaddle?" 
"N-no!"
"You totally just said skedaddle."

Tango chuckled as Gardevoir began to protest against saying the silly word, & they walked back through the halls. 

"Are you sure y-you don't wanna look for treasure?" asked Gardevoir, sounding a bit more comfortable. Tango nodded, "I don't want to disobey Periwinkle further." 

As they continued to walk, tango couldn't help but notice the more frequent piles of bones. Dragon bones, lost & forgotten within the palace. She felt bad, most dragons here died without a proper memorial. 

"Ooh!" exclaimed Gardevoir as they passed an overgrown wall, "Tango! Look!" Tango turned her head, confused. 

"This plant right here it a pitcher plant. It's one of the few species in the world that eats living things-" Tango's face turned into horror as she backed away from the plant, & Gardevoir chuckled. "It only eats bugs, silly." 

Tango sighed with relief, she didn't wanna get eaten by a plant. 

Suddenly, the room went dark- well, darker. Gardevoir shrieked, as if on cue, & Tango jumped a bit from the sudden pitch-blackness. 

"Tango!?" exclaimed Gardevoir, fear in her voice, Tango wrapped a wing around what she assumed was the Leafwing, as echoing footsteps approached. 

"W-who's t-there..?" squeaked Tango. This situation wasn't great, two tiny dragonets, who both pretty much are defenseless, in the dark, with a big scary monster. By instinct, her she hid her scales, also hiding Gardevoir in the process. 

The creature snorted out...was that a laugh?

"No need to be afraid" spoke the voice, which sounded much like a male dragon. Tango opened one of her eyes, & in front of her was a translucent SeaWing, who looked too much like somebody Tango knew. 

"GHOST!" shrieked Gardevoir, still hiding behind Tango. The dragon chuckled, "I won't deny that title, I suppose it fits." The tint in the dragons voice seemed a bit psychotic, as if he had been stuck here a while.

Tango kept a wing around Gardevoir, but learned forward, her eyes squinting. "I know you from somewhere, I-I'm sure of it.." her voice trailed off as her train of thought continued. 

The dragon had blue-gray scales, with spots so light they almost seemed to be white. His eyes were hooded, & deep blue, they almost seemed black. Upon his head was a spiky crown, which seemed to intimidate Tango even further. 

If he's a ghost, then he must have died during the massacre, & considering he's wearing a crown that means he was royal. Wait, there wasn't any male royals killed during the massacre...

Except one.

Tango looked at the dragon, then Gardevoir, then back to the dragon, who's crown shimmered with some sort of blood. 

"B-by any chance, is y-your name...Albatross?" 
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A/N: So ya'll are 100% confused, we know. But we promise he ties into the story in a Peril-like way. He's going to be a side character, & were not going to tell you more than that- but uhm, let's just say he had remorse like Darkstalker did at the end of book 10. Yeah. Sorry this is 10x shorter than usual, we just wanted to get it done for you guys. :)

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