༄ؘ 𝑨𝑹𝑪𝑨𝑵𝑬, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦

༄ؘ ✧ 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑶𝑵𝑬

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ ༄ؘ 𝑶𝑵𝑬 ༄ؘ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑵𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻 𝑾𝑨𝑺 𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝑴𝒀, 𝑻𝑯𝑼𝑵𝑫𝑬𝑹 𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑶𝑵 𝑭𝑶𝑹 𝑴𝑰𝑳𝑬𝑺 𝑰𝑵 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑮𝑫𝑶𝑴 𝑶𝑭 𝑲𝑨𝑻𝑶𝑳𝑰𝑺. Marin, the princess of said kingdom, lay awake in her bed at the late hour, staring out of her window. Of course, this wasn't unusual for the princess to do. Whenever it rained or stormed, she was always awake. While in the kingdom, Princess Marin was not permitted to go outside during the storms or the rain. Her mother, the late Queen Sarai, and her step-father, King Harrow, deemed it too dangerous for her, claimed that if she were to be let loose, her secret could be exposed by even the slightest mishap.

Being a half-breed sounded cool when she was a little girl, especially when she was told that the fact was to be kept secret from the world. But as she grew older she realized that the more she was confined to stay inside while the natural world thrived outside, it saddened her. She could not freely be who she was. She had no one place in the world to belong.

Faint sounds of snoring could be heard across the hall through her open door. Her little brother, Ezran, no doubt. The boys liked to keep the doors to their joint bedrooms open during the night, so Marin always knew if they were awake or not. And by the sounds of it, only one was asleep since she could hear her other sibling making strange sound effects with his mouth, whisper-yelling about one of his drawings, she suspected.

"Take that, marshmallow monster!" Callum quietly exclaimed. A small growl followed shortly after he said this, probably whatever was fighting this 'marshmallow monster.'

Marin snuck out of bed and over to her brother's rooms, making sure that none of the guards in the hallways saw her do so. Knowing that at least one of her brothers was awake comforted her, eased her mind to know that she wasn't the only one who couldn't seem to sleep. Although, Callum clearly had a different reason than she.

"Psst! Callum!" she peeked her head through the door, trying not to wake their snoozing little brother and his pet glow toad, Bait.

Callum glanced over in her direction and waved her inside eagerly. "Come on, before you get caught!"

Marin giggled and quietly shut the door behind her, tiptoeing passed a snoring Ezran, covering her mouth to keep from laughing when she saw her youngest brother had rolled over and drooled all over Bait, who was cuddled into his side.

"Shh! You'll wake Ezran!"

"I'm trying, Cal!"

The two siblings chuckled as Marin leaned over her brother's desk, raising her eyebrows at his latest drawing. "Dragon defeating a marshmallow monster? That's... creative."

Callum elbowed her, smiling. "Shut up! I'd like to see you come up with something better, Princess Imaginative. What's got you up so late, anyway? Storm bothering you again?"

"I guess so," Marin shrugged. "Always does. I mean, not in a bad way, never, but━I don't really know how to explain it. It's like... the rain is calling me. Does that make sense?"

"No," Callum said. "But I can pretend it does!"

Marin chuckled at her brother's aloofness. He was very smart, but when it came to things like Marin's connection to the Ocean Primal, he couldn't understand. She knew that, of course, because how could someone understand something truly if they haven't experienced it themselves?