Wings Of fire: Shadowstalker

Chapter 39: Queen Coral

With a quick breakfast, hasty preparation everyone was ready to meet with the seawing queen. For convenience, she'd agreed to arrive at the harbor to speak with Shadowstalker and Tempest. The two giants sat on the shore and waited for everyone to arrive. It was a warm calm morning. Several seagulls flew overhead and occasionally the prince spotted a whale far off in the distance.

"Woah, a whale! Never seen one of those before." Shadow smiled and leaned forward to get a better look. "Very cool."

"Oh, Tempest was that your cousin?" Nighthawk called as he walked out to them, gesturing towards the whales. She turned with a small glare.

"Do you want to get smashed?" She growled and moved so she was looming over him.

"Ah- haha, come on. Just a little fun! Shadow save me.." Nighthawk begged and turned to him. The prince shook his head and just sat back, waiting for whatever Tempest was going to do. With a small growl, the large seawing stood over and led down on top of Nighthawk. Despite how much he protested and squirmed he couldn't escape or push her off, so he was stuck.

"Ha! There. Think about this next time you call me a whale." She spat and relaxed. "I'm not moving by the way, not until the queen gets here." She grinned, and Shadow laughed. It was always entertaining to watch their antics. After about half an hour of talking and catching up, five seawings emerged from the water. In the lead was Queen Coral. To her left was her brother Shark, and to the right was Piranha. The last two were other council members. Shadow and Tempest both stood and bowed. Nighthawk followed suit.

"Your majesty.." Tempest said calmly.

"Commander Tempest. Good morning, and Prince Shadowstalker, it's a surprise to see you here, but a welcome one at that." Queen Coral smiled. As usual, she was covered in bands of pearls. "What brings you to the sea kingdom?"

"Good morning.." He replied and lowered his head to her. "We need help stopping Darkstalker, I already spoke with the others, and-"

"Woah. Hold on. You didn't mention Darkstalker." Coral turned to the member on the left with a scowl. "How are we supposed to defeat him? What if he destroys my kingdom?" Shadow paused and rubbed the back of his neck gently with a small sigh.

"You didn't mention it?" He glanced to Tempest.

"I did! Someone must not have relayed all the information- whatever. Darkstalker is planning on taking over Pyrrhia, and if we don't attempt to stop him, we could all be killed." She explained. "Or enslaved.."

"Enslaved.? But would he really come all the way out here?" Coral gasped.

"He very much would.." Nighthawk huffed. "And he'd also likely try to use your family's Animus heritage for himself." Shadow hadn't even thought of that, but it sounded like something Darkstalker would do. It was sinister enough. The queen talked to her council for a moment. Once they were done she turned back.

"We've decided not to help. It's too dangerous, and our tribe doesn't want another war." The queen said with a small frown. "My deepest apologies, but I'm sure you understand."

Well that didn't help. The prince thought with a sigh. "Of course.." He mumbled, but felt a small nudge from Tempest beside him.

"I'll still help you, and so will the others." She offered before patting his shoulder. "I hope that's alright, Coral."

"If that's what you want to do." Coral added and shrugged. "I can see if anyone else would like to join you, and I will let you know."

"Perfect, the more the merrier!" Tempest barked.

"Thank you for your time." Shadow said to the queen with a final bow. She nodded and they turned before heading into the water, vanishing back underneath the waves. He was quite disappointed, but he wasn't going to force them to help. "Great..."

"Cheer up lad!" Nighthawk chimed in. "As long as we have this big behemoth on our side, we won't lost!"

"Watch your tongue." Tempest scoffed again. "Or I'll crush you."

"You don't scare me." He grinned, which quickly turned into a look of fear. "Oh moons-" The two started running down the beach, Nighthawk yelping and laughig as Tempest roared and cussed at him. Starshifter and Sulu came out of the house and walked up to Shadow.

"Annnd my husband is going to die." Sulu huffed. "I hope you weren't too close to your dad, Star." They both snickered a bit. "How'd it go?"

"No luck. But at least you guys are still helping.." Shadow led down and put his head on the sand with a sign. "How are you two getting along?" He asked.

"Very good! We both cook, we like being in the sun. We're going to get along good, I can't wait to try some new recipes together."

"And I'm sure I can come up with something very special for you with her expertise." Starshifter grinned at Shadow. He received a small pat on the nose, making him huff. She did it again, it was a little embarrassing and he let out a small squeak.

"Stop that- haha.. that sounds great.. glad you two are good. I was a little worried about that."

"Oh you don't have to worry about us! Anyway, we should probably go get Nighthawk.." Sulu shrugged and stood. Shadow nodded and glanced towards where they went before looking back behind him. A seawing and a rainwing were flapping towards them. Shadow tilted his head, and when he got a better look, he realized it was Turtle and Kinkajou. They landed on the sand, both panting and looking frightened.

"Oh, moons.." Turtle groaned and flopped down. "I can't.. we made it- wow.." He mumbled.

"Yeah.." Kinkajou helped him up. "We need to see the seawing queen, immediately. Is Tempest here? We were hoping she could take us to her."

"She just left.. but Tempest is further down. Why? What happened?" Shadow asked, confused and curious. She turned to him and they locked eyes.

"Darkstalker attacked the rainforest.."