Frigid Straights

Queen Bluebell

As we swam on under the water of the sea, we met a SeaWing dragonet about our age with her scales a light blue, aqua green wing membranes and eyes. She told her name was Tempest. She guided us through the water and I looked around as we past through seaweed and bright yellow anemone. It was all breathtakingly gorgeous.

We broke the surface of the water as we took in breaths of fresh air. Then we prepared to dive back into the water but two large SeaWings came up out of the water just as we were all about to take a deep breath and dive back down.

"Princess Tempest! What the heck are you doing, you insolent little brat! Your mother has been worried sick when you had swam off without telling her. Your a princess and you need to have a guard with you at all times!" Tempest just rolled her eyes and flapped her wings.

"Stingray! Calm down. She's only a dragonet for moons sake. Princess Tempest, who are these three IceWing dragonets?" The other SeaWing chimed in, stepping in to defend Tempest.

"These are my new friends. The one next to me is Auster, and these two are friends, Frostbite and Silverstream," Tempest explained as she gestured with a wing at Frostbite, Silver, and myself.

"We wish to speak with Queen Bluebell," I said while staring up at the smaller SeaWing. She smiled warmly at us and spoke up once more. "Well it's your lucky day! We'll show you the way, oh, and my name's Shoreline by the way," the deep blue SeaWing said as she spread her wings and took to the sky, leading us to where the Summer Palace was located.

We flew for a while before we came to a small outcropping of islands, then we dived down into the water and swam down to where the palace was located. It was very cleverly hidden behind rocks and bright yellow anemone and pearls of the deepest blue and the lightest purples.

"THREE MOONS! THIS IS SOOOO AMAZING!" I exclaim, looking around at all of the fish swimming around us in large groups. Tempest smiled widely and lit her luminescent scales. I smiled widely and nodded to the SeaWing princess.

"You know aquatic? But how?" Shoreline exclaimed in both aw and surprise. "You're an IceWing, so how in the three moons would you be able to understand what Tempest is saying?" I grinned cheekily up at Shoreline and followed Tempest into the palace with Frostbite, Silver, Shoreline, and Stingray following close behind. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" We all halted in our tracks, causing a stream of bubbles to blind us for a moment, we all spun around to see a large sky blue dragon and two smaller dragonet's following close behind her.

"Uh-oh" Tempest says in a small squeak.

"WE'VE BEEN SEARCHING EVERYWHERE! DID YOU GO SWIM PAST THE BORDERS OF THE PALACE OR SOMETHING? THREE MOONS, I THOUGHT I RAISED AT LEAST SLIGHTLY DISCIPLINED DRAGONETS! BUT NOPE!"

"Mom. Chill." Tempest says.

"I don't normally agree with Tempest, but she's right. You seriously need to chill." Aquaria steps in.

"Well, look at the runaways" Shellfish says, joining the conversation. Tempest flashes her scales and her face screws up into an exasperated expression.

"Shellfish, go stick yourself up your own butthole" She says, already exasperated with him.

"Well hello, miss snarky!" He says with a sneer.

"Shut up. Just shut up."

"Tempest, that's no way to treat your future mate!" Queen Bluebell says. She sighed and flashed her scales and gave a frustrated hiss.

"Who's Shellfish?" I whispered to Tempest once we had left the throne room. Tempest sighed and gave another frustrated hiss.

"Shellfish is a very disrespectful SeaWing. But for some unknown reason, my mother thinks he'd make a good future mate for me." She spat, her luminescent scales flashing brightly and her green eyes blazing with fury.

"But why in the three moons would your mother be trying to find you a mate at such a young age?" I asked her with a confused frown on my face. Tempest just shrugged her wings and huffed in response.

"I honestly have no idea, I don't like Shellfish!" Tempest growled angrily. "He's a disrespectful, snaibrained, fish-eating lizard, who doesn't know the first thing about how to flatter a girl!" Tempest exclaimed with a roll of her eyes. I burst out laughing at the SeaWing princess's comment about Shellfish.

"Don't let mother or Shellfish hear you say that." Came a voice from the entrance of Tempest's room. We all looked up to see Aquaria, one of Tempest's sisters.

"Aquaria? What are you doing here? I thought you were out catching fish with mother?" Tempest said, blinking and tilting her head to the side in confusion.

Aquaria sighed softly and shrugged her wings in response. "Well I was, but I got bored, so I decided to come back here and wait for mom and Pearl to return with dinner," Aquaria replied, swimming into the room and taking a seat on her coral bed beside her sister.

"So, why exactly did you and your friends leave the IceWing kingdom?" Aquaria asked, tilting her head and staring at me with wide and curious eyes.

"Well, the truth is..." I began slowly, trying to think of the right words to say as I continued speaking. "I don't really agree with the IceWing aristocracy," I explained, sighing softly and shaking out my wings.

"Auster is from the circles, though she's much more... open in her opinions about it." Frostbite explained, answering for me. "At the quarterly summits the queens attend at Sanctuary... let's just say she's caused some IceWing spikes to rattle." Frostbite added, clearly poking fun at me good-naturedly.

I rolled my eyes at Frostbite. "Haha, IceWing puns. Hilarious and original! What's next, coming up with the cool and cold jokes?" I asked, clearly sarcastic, but Tempest noticed there was no mean spite in my tone to Frostbite.

"So you're like, what, against the circles?" Asked Aquaria, frowning.

"Not necessarily." I added. "A hierarchy or chain of command is certainly needed. I'm not an anarchist or anything... but in practice, the system of the circles are flawed and dated. It doesn't have to go away, but it does need to change." I explained.

"Oh, I get the joke! But what are the circles?" Aquaria questioned, tilting her head in confusion.

Frostbite looked up from her scroll briefly and added, "The IceWings have rankings and they go up depending on how high in the circles you are. Most of the IceWings are really... let's just say they're all pretty cold to others. They are also very strict in their traditions and they don't really take well to anyone going against the system." Frostbite explained while glancing over at me every few seconds.

"IceWing royals are instantly placed at the highest ranking in the circles. I'm from the circles, I'm actually pretty high up in the rankings, but I don't really agree with the IceWing aristocracy," Frosrbite continued, though the IceWing's expression changed slightly at the mention of the circles.