A Drop of Magic (A Wings of Fire Fanfiction)

Chapter Three

"How did we lose them?" Droplet asked. "We couldn't have been playing for that long."

"Maybe they were just flying really fast." Emerald suggested.

"Nope. Not possible. Those dragonets are all slow pokes." Rainstorm said. "You're being slow too, Droplet. You have to go faster if we have a chance at getting back before mom finds out we're missing."

Droplet frowned. It wasn't her fault she was smaller than her siblings. While Droplet was better at tight maneuvering, Emerald and Rainstorm could fly quite a bit faster than she could.

"I think we're past that." Emerald huffed. "We should start coming up with a good excuse."

"We can say we were captured by humans, but we escaped and ate all their cows." Rainstorm suggested.

"Humans could never overpower dragons. Even if they can talk." Emerald said with a flick of his tail.

"We saw some treasure and went to go find it."

"From the surface? No one would believe that."

Droplet tuned out her siblings' argument, instead focusing on flying. She had no idea where they were, but Rainstorm was sure she knew exactly where the new summer palace was.

"Are you sure... we're going... the right way?" Droplet panted. "We've been flying... for a while."

"Absolutely sure." Rainstorm said, but she looked a little uncertain.

"Hey, look. I think I see them." Emerald cried, nodding towards a group of SeaWings in the distance.

"I don't think that's them." Droplet said as the SeaWings spotted them and changed course to fly towards them.

A couple moments later, the SeaWings had reached them. Most of them were familiar, but Droplet didn't remember any of their names. Except for the large male in the front, with scales a pale, greyish green, and numerous battle scars marking his body.

"Commander Shark." Emerald said, faltering in the air.

"Your majesties." Shark said in a slithery voice. "What brings you all the way out here?"

"We got lost." Emerald said. He was the first born and the biggest of the three of them, and moved slightly in the air to be between his sisters and Shark. "We're looking for the summer palace."

"Well, you're going the wrong way." Shark said with a cold smile. "In fact, the direct opposite way of the summer palace."

"We are?" Rainstorm said, twisting around and squinting at the horizon. "Hmmm."

"Don't worry. We'll escort you back." Shark said, flicking his tail. The SeaWings with him moved to surround Droplet and her siblings, herding them back in the direction they had come.

Great, more flying. Droplet thought, wincing at the soreness in her wings. Couldn't they slow down a little?

It wasn't too long before they reached the summer palace. Droplet had been there before, but it still amazed her. Huge pillars of marble carved to look like ocean waves held up a domed glass ceiling covered in intricately woven vines and leaves, so that the light that filtered through was tinted green and gave the effect you were under water. The ground was soft sand, dotted with large pools of ocean water connected by a network of water channels. A large platform in the center held pools of water laid with pearls for the queen and council, and there were several separate rooms that housed everything from art to homes to kitchens to storage rooms. And of course, the giant library.

Shark directed them to land on the sandy ground next to one of the pools.

"Wait here. I'll go fetch your mother." He said in a dangerous voice before flying off.

"Now's our chance." Rainstorm hissed, grabbing Droplet and Emerald.

"To do what?" Droplet panted. 

"To find mom first so we can tell her why we got lost." 

Droplet looked helplessly at Emerald, who just shrugged. She sighed and let Rainstorm drag her away. Several SeaWings gave the trio curious glances as they walked past, but none stopped them.

"There!" Rainstorm said, nodding at where Tsunami was coming out of one of the art rooms, the Sapphire winglet in tow. "We did it!"

"Uh uh." Emerald shook his head. "Shark got there first."

The three watched in dismay as the grey-green SeaWing landed in front of their mother and growled something to her. Tsunami's eyes filled with relief until Shark turned and fixed his unnerving gaze on Droplet. Their mother's expression turned hard as she raced over to them, leaving her winglet with Shark.

"Where have you been!" Tsunami roared, kicking sand in their faces as she screeched to a halt in front of them. "Do you know how worried I've been? But I couldn't come looking for you, not with an entire winglet to watch. I thought you three were more mature than this!"

"We are." Rainstorm said, pushing forwards. With her dark blue scales and fierce expression, she looked like a mini version of Tsunami. Droplet had always thought that her sister seemed the most like Tsunami's daughter. Droplet was a lot more like her father, Riptide. "We just stopped to play in the ocean, and when we came up you were gone. So we tried to find you, ended up getting more lost, and then Shark found us and took us here. We were fine."

"Yeah. This is our kingdom too. We should be able to be on our own for two hours and not get in trouble." Emerald said, stepping up beside Rainstorm. They both turned to look at Droplet.

Oh no. They want me to say something. But... we made mom worry. Shouldn't we just apologize and not argue? Oh, why am I so bad at this stuff?

"We're sorry for worrying you." Droplet managed, looking at her talons instead of her mother's burning gaze. "We didn't mean to wander off. We won't do it again."

"That's right, you won't." Tsunami growled. "You three are grounded. When we get back to the island, you're staying there until we go back to Jade Mountain. Now stay close and don't wander off again."

She turned and stormed back to her wingled, tail lashing. Emerald and Rainstorm turned to give Droplet accusing looks.

"Thanks a lot." Rainstorm growled in a tone similar to Tsunami's.

"What? I just said sorry." Droplet protested.

"She almost forgave us, until you were like 'we're sorry, we were bad.' Next second we're grounded." 

"Sorry." Droplet mumbled, trailing a claw in the sand. Rainstorm huffed, marching away with a flick of her powerful tail. Emerald came over to Droplet and bumped her wing with his. 

"Don't be upset. You know how Rainstorm is." He said. "You were right to say sorry." 

"Hmph." Droplet sighed. 

"Come on." Emerald nudged her again. "I want to go find another sand dollar for Rainstorm. There's got to be one somewhere around here." 

"We have to stay with the sapphire winglet." Droplet pointed out. 

"Yeah, but I'm sure we'll stop at a souvenir shop or something. It'll be fun." 

He draped a wing over Droplet's back, and she gave in and pressed up against her brother. Emerald always put his siblings first. He was a good big brother. 

Tsunami and the sapphire winglet were waiting for them, and Rainstorm glared daggers at Droplet as she and Emerald joined them. Tsunami was worse though, eyes holding distrust and disappointment. Droplet winced and looked away. 

The field trip had barely begun and already she had gotten her siblings in trouble and lost her mother's trust. Oh, well. At least it can't get any worse.