Can't Shred Our Love - Ripnami

Chapter 16

"Tsunami, wake up!"

"Go away," I groaned.

"Tsunami, you're going to miss breakfast!"

I flopped into a pillow. "Go threaten Clay with that."

"I'm going to bring in Typhoon!"

"Ah!" I sat up. "Why can't you let me sleep?"

Anemone shrugged. "C'mon, time for breakfast."

We headed down to the Council table, where the Council and my mother were already sat. Typhoon, for some reason, was not there.

"Good morning, sweetheart," Coral called. "Come and sit down, we've nearly finished."

"Where's Riptide?"

"Riptide? Oh, he's eating with Turtle and a few of your other brothers."

I plopped in to the pool skeptically. Mother had played this trick on me, but at least now I knew enough Aquatic.

"We've been discussing the people who captured you, honey," Coral announced.

"Mhm." Suddenly I remembered the conversation I overheard. "By the way, when Sapphire was torturing me–"

"Torturing?" Coral shouted. "They tortured you?"

"Yes, well, this guy stopped Sapphire and–"

"How dare they!" Coral yelled again, then sat down. "Sorry, darling, continue."

"This guy said that he wanted to hold me for ransom." Coral continued gazing at me. "Uh, I'm finished."

"Hmm..." Coral muttered, then began ranting on to the council. I ignored it and focused on breakfast.

Suddenly a guard ran in, in panic. I looked up from my breakfast as he ran into the room noisily, claws clattering on the floor and tripping, nearly smashing into Pearl, the treasury council member.

"Your majesty!" he panted.

"What is it?" Coral glared at him. "No one is supposed to interrupt council."

"But your majesty, Captain Tetra has been found murdered in the Purple Caves, with a message in her blood on the wall!"

"What?!" Coral stood up. "What does the message say?"

"The message says..." The guard shivered in fear as Coral stared at him. "Your life is your debt, Princess."

The council stayed silent for a moment. I dropped the fish I was eating.

"Tsunami," Coral began.

"No, mother, I don't need a guard." I stopped her.

Her tail thrashed. "But you could die!"

"Please, mother; I don't need a guard following me around every single day, killing every single dragon who dares to look at me."

Coral glared at me. "Tsunami, I will have my say in this!"

"No, you won't! I'm not your subject!"

"You're my daughter and I need to protect you!"

"I don't need protecting! Three moons, mother, I've been fine for ages!"

"You were caught and torture! That is not fine!"

"I've survived!" 

"You could have died!"

"But I didn't," I announced, and pushed my plates away. "I'm not hungry anymore."

"Wait! Tsunami!"

I ignored her and left the room.

"Hey, you." I pointed to a servant. What was his name again? Something long..."Um, uh...Operculum! Where's Riptide?"

"He's in the new seventh floor, your Highness. Do you need me to accompany you?"

I didn't reply, just shook my head and proceeded.

Riptide POV

"You've had the exact same 'you-need-protection-because-you-got-caught' reaction as mother," Tsunami fumed. "I'm fine! I can protect myself!"

"I know you can," I gentled my tone, "But it's better if you get more protection."

"I can enchant something." Turtle offered.

"I thought you didn't want to enchant much?" Tsunami peered at Turtle.

Turtle shrugged and looked at his talons. "You're my sister," he muttered. 

"Thanks then. I might hold you to your offer later." Tsunami turned back to me. "I don't need a guard or an escort or something like that following me around, slicing the face of every single dragon we meet! For goodness sake, I'm not some tiny little dragonet!"

"Fine." I grumbled. "But, if you ever get caught again, I swear, I'm going to throw all of those clodhoppers for the eels to eat. Or to Peril. By the way, what is this mysterious clodhopper you always speak about?"

Tsunami snorted and patted my back. "You'll know eventually.

"Stop being cryptic! What is a 'clodhopper'?"

Tsunami laughed, bopped my nose and ran out, smirking, ducking my glare. I chased right after her.

"Come here!" I growled.

Tsunami continued running, eventually leaping of the palace. I followed, and we flew for a short while.

"Wanna go to the waterfall again?" Tsunami flew closed and brushed her wing against mine.

"Okay. It's this way." I ducked down and headed south, towards the rainforest. "C'mon, we can swim there."

We both landed in the refreshing, cool water. Tsunami twined her tail with mine as we swam. I then popped back up. Tsunami popped up too.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just an island. We can have a rest here."

Tsunami climbed up. I swam back down, grabbed a few fish and dropped it. Tsunami grabbed it promptly. I chuckled.

"What?"

"That's why you don't walk out of breakfast." I smugly conceded. Tsunami threw a fish at me and began wandering around the island. I continued to eat the rest of the fish; if she didn't want them, I did.

"Oh look, there's a cave here. The walls are covered in  purple stuff!" Tsunami called. I peeked from behind her. "I think it's amethyst." I replied and wandered in. Then stopped in horror.

"What is it? Why'd you stop?"

Tsunami stopped too and froze. We both stared.

A dead SeaWing with pale gray scales lay on the ground, dead, looking like all the blood had been sucked out of her. A sapphire knife was stuck into her chest and the vein on her neck had been cut. There was also a knife where her tail met her body. Purple blood lay everywhere. A brush covered in blood lay in the blood pool. surrounded and dyed in red. 

And a message had been painted on the wall.

Your life is your debt, Princess.

halllo! sorry 'bout taking ages to update. i live in a muslim country where there's this holiday called ramadan and i didn't do much during ramadan except drawing actors all day long and making up backstories for my new OCs. ill try update quicker next time.

btw now that Im rereading it, what is a clodhopper? some sort of shoe, apparently? what sort of insult is that? okay, i'll stop ranting now and get to work on chapter 17. bai!