Sea Daffodil

Once upon a time, there was a painter who lived among the sea of stars. She traveled the kingdoms there alone, trying to find somewhere she could paint in peace and escape the red that was plaguing her old home.

One day, the king and queen of a kingdom—known for its arts—invited her to live in their kingdom as their child, alongside the knight commander who would become her guide. She earned the title of the royal painter, and starting from that day, she became part of the Castellanos kingdom. The painter was elated as she felt she'd find her place with them. So each day she helped around, trying to learn more about the new kingdom she lived in.

The queen took care of the flowers in the castle garden and sent them to neighboring kingdoms. From daisy to the rarest rose, the flowers flourished and sang each day. The royal painter often tried to help her with the flowers, but always messed up and opted to just stand on the sideline.

With all the flowers in the garden, the painter asked which one the queen liked the most. And with a happy hum, she led her to rows of sea daffodils. A precious flower that only grew in the sea of stars. The queen liked it for its meaning.

Though, a sad look crossed the queen's face, for now, she could only see the flowers that only existed inside her garden since the borders of the sea of stars were off-limits. But she hoped one day the flowers she grew could make it back to where they belonged, and the painter vowed to help her make that dream come true.

The king was an important storyteller in the sea of stars, sending thousands of letters to other kingdoms with the queen's flowers, in the hope his words could bring joy and lessen the pain other kingdoms might be going through. The painter admired the king for this and volunteered to paint the envelopes, adding more color to their already vivid contents. The king spent his time telling the painter his stories as she painted away, sometimes stopping to say what parts of her paintings he liked the most. And slowly, the painter found solace in the king's stories.

The knight commander was not around too much due to his job, but the king and queen still loved him the same and told the painter the knight commander does important jobs for the whole sea of stars. She never knew the details, but she never pushed further and relished her chats with the knight commander every time he came back.

The royal painter was happy with her life now. Their castle might not be the biggest in the sea of stars, and they have days where they must share food due to shortages in the kingdom, but they lived happy lives. And the royal painter wanted nothing more than that.

Alas, the sea, stars, and everything in between was the property of the dragons.

The mighty clan of beasts had waged war against the hydras of the sky of dawn for millennia, relying on the kingdom within its property for volunteers to fight on the frontline. The painter thought they didn't have anything important to do with the dragons, but she was wrong.

One day, the dragons came to the kingdom's door. They bared their fangs and asked about the whereabouts of the knight commander. And only on that day, the painter found out the knight commander actually wasn't serving the dragons. It's the opposite.

The dragons talked about sabotages happening on a few fronts and the decrease in volunteers where the knight commander has been. The painter couldn't wrap her head around everything, but she knew the dragons were not happy.

The king who always smiled became stone-faced that day. He told them to scram off and brought some evidence before returning. But the dragons said they didn't need any proof and had the right to track down the knight commander. The queen got enraged. She said what the knight commander did was for the best and the dragons should learn to treat the kingdoms in a more equal fashion. The king stood by the queen and said that he didn't appreciate what the fighting against the hydra had done to the people of the sea of stars.