Tide

Eggs

Jolono

I wandered among the trees, not knowing where he was going. I ended up at the ocean. I smile, jumping into the cool water.

Athena! I shout with my mind, as she had taught me.

Yes, little one? Her vast presence enveloped me comfortingly.

Tell me about yourself. She was silent as she swam up to me.

Well... I love the deep parts of the ocean. I roost there all the time, and it is where I guard my closest secret.

Secrets, eh? I smile underwater

If I show you, you must never tell another living soul without my permission. Her massive eyes still paralyze me with their beauty.

You know you can trust me, Athena. But I still swear I won't tell. We swam for some time, eventually coming to a large underwater ravine. Athena dives into it. I hesitate but follow anyway. My vision faded into black and I looked up to the light, finding it farther than I had first thought it was. Finally, the darkness brightened. At first, I was blinded, but when my eyes adjusted, I gasped.

In front of me was a massive hall. The pillars were twice as large around s Athena herself and were solid gold. The floor was marble shot through with emerald. The ceiling had intricate carvings of fish, octopi, sharks, and in the center was Athena curled around a small circle. I swam up to get a closer look and found that in the circle were what appeared to be eggs. Athena's eyes had sapphires in them but didn't nearly match their beauty. There were four eggs. One red, a ruby. One green, an emerald. One blue, another sapphire. One black, made of onyx. I looked back to Athena and saw her at the end of the hall. She looked up at me.

The real ones are here. Only one is mine, though. I swam back to her. The eggs were about a foot in diameter and 2 feet long. The black egg pulsed with a dull red glow.

The black one, why does it glow?

It is a Black Drake. The green egg is a manticore, the protector of nature. The blue egg is mine, and the red one is a phoenix.

My eyes widen. A phoenix is extremely rare, and manticores had gone extinct hundreds of years ago, but the one that shook me to my core was the Black Drake. Black Drake's were extremely powerful and were the king or queen of all creatures, even griffins. As draklings, Black Drakes have bright green eyes, but as they grow older, their eyes turn red. They start all black, but their wings also turn over time, becoming burgundy or dark red, and the spines along with their back fade to a deep blue. Although, a Black Drake hasn't been seen for over a thousand years.

We stayed there for a few more minutes and then swam back to the island. Thank you for showing me that. We should spend more time together. I walked onto the shore and said goodbye to Athena before going back to the village.

"Sis, have you ever heard of a Black Drake?" I say as I walk up to Phaedra, Falon, and Arya.

"A Black Drake?" Arya peers at me. "Why do you ask?"

"Because Athena mentioned it." The words came spilling out of my mouth just before Phaedra vigorously shook her head.

"A-Athena...?" Arya's eyes widened, and there was fear in them, but it quickly turned to rage. "That beast murdered everything I care about! And you conversate with it?!"

By then she was shouting and Rehan had to come over and intervene.

"Son, you shouldn't have said that. She is extremely sensitive about Athena. She lived here before we crashed." Rehan sighed. He stood up from his kneeling position in front of me. "Give her time, she'll accept it soon enough."

I was staring down at the hut floor, embarrassed. "Do you think she'll forgive me?" Rehan glanced back.

"I'm not sure. She is quite distant and it may take a while, though I believe she will forgive you eventually." He walked out silently. I continued staring at the floor.

"I messed up." I closed my eyes and lay down, falling asleep quickly.