Can't Shred Our Love - Ripnami

Chapter 21

(btw this is tsunami pov but from now on ill probably not put the [Tsunami POV] becauese it's almost always tsunami's pov so if it doesn't say anything above it's probably tsunami's pov)

"Once," Shark growled. 

"What do you mean, once? I'm asking if you had another sibling or not!"

"We don't speak of her!" Shark shouted, his rigid demeanour evaporating for a brief moment before he recovered and sat back down in his pool. 

"Because you murdered her?" I growled right back.

"When a killer is commanded, do you blame the killer or the master?" Shark retorts back. "I had my reasons."

"Sure, really? Let's hear them then."

"Who are you to command me to tell you reasons of my choices?" Shark snarled.

"Your conscience should be enough for that!" I shout. "If you had a heart!"

Shark flinched, then his eyes flared, glaring red. "The rulers of nations must never appear weak. That does not mean being cruel, but to show the citizens their limits. Do you think I, or anyone in the army, kills because they wish to? Do you think that everyone who kills does it for blood, victory and satisfaction, unreasonable and cold blooded? If a person kills, should he be killed as well, a life for a life? You don't understand any of this, apparently, so you have no right to question me!"

"Tell me your reason then, if it isn't just to murder!"

Shark snarled once again. "It's none of your business! I was right to do it, and if I could have I'd do it again, even earlier!" 

I gaped at him in shock. "You're a monster," I whisper, then stomp out of the room, bumping into Anemone.

"Hey, Tsunami! Tsunami?"

I glance at her, then move on. 

"Uh, Tsunami? You look irritated, are you okay?"

"Absolutely not," I growl. "I want to know why Shark murdered our aunt."

Anemone gasped with shock and looked around nervously. "Shhh! Mother hates being reminded of that."

"What? You know about it too, and you didn't tell me!" I snarl.

"I don't know exactly what happened either, some scandal about a princess, I think. They tried to hush it up as much as possible, so I'm pretty sure only the people who handled the records know about it. You should ask that dragon in the archive, he probably knows."

I relaxed slightly. "Thanks, Anemone. That's helpful." Anemone nodded and scurried away while I wandered to the archives.

The dragon there was quite old, around forty already. He scrunched up his eyes to look at me, then bowed, murmuring, "Highness."

"What do you know about my aunt being killed?" I immediately asked. Okay, headstrong and rude, but I wasn't in the mood for any type of small talk.

"When time passes, life fades into legends, and now, only myths remain. The dragon paused, then coughed slowly. "Are you sure you would like to know about that, Princess?"

"Yes," I immediately replied. "I command you to!"

The dragon sighed. "Very well, then. You already know that once, you had an aunt."

I nodded.

"She was beautiful, royal sea blue scales, small white teeth and, like your mother, warm grey eyes. And her name was...Princess Sapphire II."

I almost gasped audibly, but managed to contain it.

"Princess Sapphire II was one of the most desired dragons in all of the SeaWing Kingdom, but as a princess, she was untouchable, unreachable. Yet the young rash princess  did not follow the rules at all. She was supposed to be married to the lord in the kingdom, but she loved a traitor."

Like me and Riptide, I thought. At least we're not dead...yet. How will this legend end?

"On the night of her marriage to the lord, she eloped with the traitor. The lord was infuriated, but there was nothing he could do. But the Queen was enraged that her face had been lost in front of the entire continent. She commanded hundreds of soldiers to find them, including your uncle Shark."

"Shark finally found her. Princess Sapphire II was Shark's elder sister. They were close, extremely close, and when Shark begged her to return, she agreed, and when she returned, even the Queen's heart melted, and she agreed to not execute her for her crimes."

Not that she did do anything wrong, she just loved, I thought.

"But the lord would not accept it. Furious at his ruined reputation and the scorn from others, as well as his betrothed's involvement with someone who he had deep, everlasting hatred with, he demanded the betrothed and the traitor's execution. He badgered and badgered recklessly, spreading rumours of the Royal family's corruption and elitism, sending henchman to attack innocent dragons to back up his rumours. When the dragons began to revolt, the Queen had no choice but to send out the beautiful young princess."

"But when it turned out that the traitor was not present, the lord was not satisfied with just the princess's surrender. He demanded something that scared even the citizens of the Kingdom. His demand was that a member of the Royal Family had to execute Sapphire II with their own talons."

I didn't contain my shock this time; I gasped, loud and clear, affronted and shocked. Who was this lord, so cruel and merciless?

"And so the tale ends, Sapphire II herself agreeing to sacrifice herself for her family to not be slaughtered in rebellion, agreeing that her own brother would execute her, would draw his claws across her soft neck. The lord was satisfied with it and served the royal family loyally afterwards. The young princess's traitor lover was never found."

"And...then? What happened afterwards? Did the lord not get executed?" I asked, and immediately regretted it, realising how stupid the question was.

"It is not a fairy tale," the dragon slowly pronounced. "The good do not win over the bad by default. The lord remained rich and powerful till the end of his life." He sighed again. "Of course, there are tales...but they are tales, nothing else."

"What tales?" I immediately ask.

 "They are tales, rumours, fake and made up by the common folk's boredom! I do not pay much care to them!" 

I just stare at him and wait. He sighs for the third time.

"Very well. Some say that that was not all, not the end of it. It is said that the young traitor lover, filled with anger, cursed the royal family. That no love would remain in it, no two royal lovers to die in each other's arms after. That each princess's lover would live a painful life and die a brutal death, killed by their own kin, like Sapphire II. A rumour that circulated after His Majesty's death. Ridiculous, of course. King Gill was killed by a brave SeaWing maiden who had suffered the same fate of dryness as he had, yet held herself together and ended King Gill's life to end his suffering before ending her own."

I bit my lip with nervousness and fear. I had killed Gill. I was royal. Gill had been killed by his own kin, and had died a brutal death, and had lived in pain before his death. What if...what if Riptide would suffer the same fate?

The moment I thought that, I growled internally. He wouldn't die. He wasn't allowed to. I would make sure of that.

No matter what happened, a scandal like Sapphire II's would never happen again if I had anything to do with it. I would make sure of it.