Can't Shred Our Love - Ripnami

Chapter 31

I wake up with a start, my heart pounding in my chest. Where am I? What happened?  There was something about reincarnation...Lord Stonefish...Princess Sapphire, and the one after that...a man's scream. "Why did they execute her? She was my love!" Typhoon...Whirlpool...Whirlpool! The soul! His soul in me...the agony... It all comes rushing back to me in a jumbled mess.

But I'm fine. At least I'm alive and Whirlpool isn't back. No slimy oily relatives of rotten blueberries to disturb me or the peace of the kingdom, hooray!

"Tsunami, you're awake," a voice startled me out of my thoughts. I turned to see Turtle and a SeaWing healer, concerned looks on their faces. "Thank goodness. Do you feel any pain?"

I considered it for a moment. "No?"

"You're physically fine, but you'll need to rest for a few days, I'm afraid." Turtle looks terrified, as if I'm going to protest. And I would have, if I were feeling any less drained.

I nod, still trying to process everything that happened. "What about Typhoon?" I ask.

"He's been apprehended and is now safely in prison," Prince Turtle tells me. "Don't worry, Tsunami. Everything is going to be alright." 

I nod again, still processing. "The egg," I say, remembering. "What happened to it?"

"It's safe, along with the other eggs," Prince Turtle reassures me. "Don't worry."

I look around at my surroundings. The hospital room is white and sterile, with a royal SeaWing banner hanging on the wall in splashes of green and blue. I look out the window and see the blue of the ocean, the sun shining brightly to illuminate a patch of coral just outside the window. A pink dolphin floats away in a relaxed manner, fins just barely moving and eyes closed contently. The scene radiates tranquility, serenity, peacefulness.

Turtle glances at the healer. "Well, we have to leave now. There are soldiers to treat and mother wants me for some reason."

"Okay," I say. They leave out, only to be bumped into by Riptide, who charges in and knocks them over noisily. A nurse hurries over full of reprimands but Riptide ignores her.

"Tsunami! Oh, thank the moons you're alright! I was so worried about you!"

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. You don't have to go on and on about it."

Riptide frowned at me angrily. "You gave me a heart attack there! Don't ever do that again!"

I raise an eyebrow. "Do what, get attacked by the maniacal soul of a desperate power hungry dragon whose body I just destroyed to prevent his brother and a group of animus from the SandWing kingdom to put into a synthetical body? Of course, I'll be sure to rearrange my schedule then, just to make sure it doesn't happen next Wednesday too."

Riptide looks sheepish, and I chuckle inwardly at the familiar expression. "I'm alright, like I said. It's all fine. And the eggs are fine too, so no need to worry about that."

"Oh, right! The eggs!" Surprise briefly crosses Riptide's face as the phrase slips out. He hastily covers it to assume a funeral expression, but of course he messes it up. 

"Yeah, the eggs. You didn't already forget about it, did you?"

Riptide returns to his sheepish expression. So much about being a good actor. "Thank god you're not in charge of them. Turtle said they're safe, so no need to worry about them." 

Riptide looks relieved again. "That's good. I was so worried about you. And the eggs, of course. Definitely."

"Well, you don't have to worry anymore. I'm here, and the eggs are safe. No need to go about it anymore." I smirk. "What were you saying before all of this? Something about not getting to spend enough time with each other? Well, here's your chance. Time to plan another date."  

Riptide sighed. "I'm pretty much out of ideas by now...maybe you should plan the date this time? You are the princess after all."

I scowl at him. "Exactly! I'm the princess and I deserve to be pampered. You're meant to be the one with romantic declarations and lavish dates. And the food."

Riptide's face instantly hardened to become serious. "Tsunami, you know how much you matter to me. I know we've had our ups and downs, and events disrupting our relationship and murder plots to prevent us from progressing -- but I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Even if you'd like my nose to be a herring more or if you think my wings sound like sharks snoring -- that could be a good thing I guess -- I'll still be supportive and protective of you. You're everything to me Tsunami. I...I love you."

A lump forms in my throat and for a few seconds, I say nothing. I swallow it down as hard as I can. Three moons, what's wrong with me?! Finally I managed out: "Riptide..."

He swallows hard. "It's okay if you don't feel the same away about me, but--"

"Shut up, squid brain! You know how I feel about you. You know that I love you!" I growl, and Riptide's face instantly fills with emotion.

"You do?" He grins.

"Now you're going to try to get me to keep saying that like a lovesick..." I sigh. "Yeah, I guess you're not that bad. I love you, Riptide."

Riptide grins harder.

"I'd love you more if you actually planned dates for me!"

Riptide's grin doesn't vanish. "I'd do anything for you, Tsunami. Whatever you like."

He sits by my bed and holds onto my talons. We both look out the window at the coral gently swaying. Somehow it seem to glow with a vibrant, iridescent light as the sun shines down on it. The sunshine seems like a spotlight, a godray, reinforcing the rainbow. Schools of brightly colored fish dance in and out of the coral, while crabs and shrimp scurry along the branches. The silence gives way to the sound of chirping, chattering, and clicking as the animals go about their daily lives. A few moments later, majestic sea turtles glide through the water and into view with grace, their shells shimmering in the sunlight. Schools of dolphins and whales can often be spotted frolicking and hunting amongst the coral, their powerful bodies moving effortlessly through the water.

Typhoon, Whirlpool, Sapphire, they were all gone and safely apprehended. Perhaps they didn't deserve it, with their motives and backstories. But that was a worry for another day; at the present moment, there were only me and Riptide in calm companiable silence, a pleasure to my jumbled mind, like a pleasant cool breeze after a storm, settling down...finally, into peace. 

It was over...we could finally relax.

hello! @DragongDoesMSM and @Qibli_Gatorade (sort of?) said they'd like me to continue...so here I am, after... a year? 2 years? idk... I checked my notes, and it turns out, I was nearly already done! so ig it was a pity i stopped when i was nearly done...or maybe i had some new ideas and forgot about them? anyway, you can check if it flows fluidly or not, and i'm always open to suggestions! there are 2~3 chapters after this, if i count the epilogue i plan to write.

 But there are a bunch of plotholes i didn't fill yet either and stuff i'd still like to explore.

such as, how did tsunami get pregnant (since i don't think i mentioned this prior, maybe very slightly touched on it in sapphire's monologues but otherwise no)? and no, they did not...do it...they literally just got into a relationship! i mean okay they've technically been making an eyes at each other for ages but i think both of them aren't the type to just go for it straight away -- so don't say "oh right tsunami became pregnant because that's what happens when a girl dragon loves a boy dragon very much" etc. I did have plans for this long ago but never got around to writing it. 

Also, I would like to give both sapphire and typhoon better redemption arcs than just a vague explanation of motives.

so...BOOK 2? COMING WHEN?