Double Rainbow

Spritz-3

"Today is a super special day!!!"

"Please don't tell me it's Diving Fun Day. I mean, why on Dreamland did we let all the upper-classes swim around under the iceberg?"

"I liked watching you flounder around, retrieving them all." She laughs. "Actually, it's our anniversary."

"Oh. That." I blush. "I knew that."

She rolls her green eyes. "Of course you did. Anyways, we've got to have some plans- I laid it off, but I was thinking maybe a celebration and later at night, some quality time on a tiny iceberg by ourselves. Do you think you can do the water-freezing thing?"

I blow hard, and ice begins to form into a tiny spike. "If I can do it to air, doing it to water will be super easy." I confirm.

"Great!" says Snow Hare. "Well, I'll start with the decorations." She slides down the ice slide from our royal chambers to the upper-class halls.

"Don't forget the cider!" I call after her, but she doesn't reply. Even though we're technically too young to drink, when you're the ruler of a civilization, you kind of do whatever you want (within reason, of course).

I sit in our comfy bed of faux pelts imported from the mainland and think. How can I make our anniversary special? There has to be something I can do. I can't think of anything except to make sure to get everything just right tonight. I toss and turn, worried- there have been a lot of disappearances lately.

After a long, much needed nap, I go on downstairs to the lower-class halls. I can't believe how tiny they are, even after I helped to expand them. Finally, I find a tiny place that leads to the bottom of the iceberg. I walk into my old room, running my paw over the walls. No one lives there anymore, because most of the floor has caved in in the middle, but it still has a rich, homey feeling to it.

Smiling, I walk upstairs to the Great Hall. So much has happened there- the battle of Poisonberry, the huge announcement when Snow Hare told the whole Tribe I was going to be her King, and now, our first anniversary.

Snow Hare is already up on the stage. I spring up, flailing to get a grip and then finally hoisting myself on. Canira are already assembling, but soon the whole Hall is overflowing with our servants.

"Today," I begin, "Marks the anniversary of Snow Hare and I's rule. To celebrate the occasion, all ranks can mix and eat the food served in the upper-class halls and there will be games in the lower-class halls."

"Let the festivities commence!" Snow Hare says, raising a paw in the air.

I jump down, plunging into the horde of Canira. "C'mon, Snow Hare! Let's have some fun." I say.

She jumps down after me. "Okay, let's get some chow first. I'm starving."

We pick out our favorites and serve them to each other- I take a bit of sea serpent and she takes a bunch of kraken and giant squid. We switch plates.

I devour the squid, but try not to grimace as I taste the kraken. It's not that bad, but I just can't stand the flavor. It's really salty.

Snow Hare, on the other hand, slurps down sea serpent like noodles. "Delicious." She sucks another tail into her mouth.

She turns tail and runs the other way, and I follow. We come to a large dead end room where a bunch of young Canira are playing my favorite game when I was little, Snowball Tag. It's actually more like Capture The Flag, but you have to bean your opponents with snowballs to stop them. I was always chosen last when I was little because I had no powers.

"I'm going on this team, you go on the other one." I say with a grin, and Snow Hare pads over to the other team's base.

"3! 2! 1!" chants one of the Canira on my team.

"GO!" says everyone at once. A small Canira starts to make water vapor condense and snow on us, and another packs the snow into snowballs. I flick the snowballs at the other team as the first few scouts attempt to cross our boundaries. Snow Hare gets a load of snow in the face and walks to our jail, pretending to be angry. Our scouts end up going down really quickly as well, but one of the small, fast Canira tucks the part of his paws that lets him stand on ice into his fur and slides to their jail, freeing all of our prisoners.

However, while we rejoice, one of their teammates takes our flag halfway across the field before he gets smacked in the back with a snowball. I guard the flag (which was an icicle), but a Canira heads for the jail and I run for her, and Snow Hare darts in and runs our flag over to her side.

Their team cheers and although it was my fault, everyone smiles good-naturedly and doesn't pout about it. I look at the walls closest to the outside of the iceberg and find that they're darker than I thought, to the point where electric eels lining the walls begin to be the last sources of light.

"I think it's time." I tell Snow Hare. She nods excitedly, and we head down to the Great Hall. Two guards nod to us as we run to the exit, and I begin huffing and puffing. Water begins to freeze into a tiny raft, until a few minutes later, it's finished and I'm exhausted.

Snow Hare steps on, and I follow. It's a lot shakier than the huge, reliable iceberg we live in. This one is swayed by even the tiniest of movements and ripples. Using my tail as a rudder, I propel us away from the shore. Snow Hare stops me, and points at the sky. The Aurora Borealis isn't there tonight, but the stars are shining especially bright and a full moon hangs in the sky.

"It's really pretty out tonight." she says in awe.

"So are you."

I give her a small necklace with a seashell pendant, unclasping it from around my neck. "This is for you."

"I love it..." Tears run down her face.

We look at each other for a minute, and I find myself pulling in until our lips meet. I feel a tingling warmth spread down my body, all the way from my eartips to my tail.

She smiles, her face illuminated by the stars, and she steps away. Suddenly, I hear a crack. Her bit of the iceberg floats away from mine, and a wave whirls up between us. A wave? We're in the middle of the ocean and it's not even stormy! How can just one wave randomly knock us apart?!

"Snow Hare?" I call, but no one replies. The wave dies down to reveal an empty chunk of iceberg.

"Snow Hare?!" I call again, but there's still no answer. My heart starts to beat, faster and faster. I plunge into the water around me, but it's too dark to see anything. Freezing, I jump for her part of the iceberg. I find my paw slipping on a line. In the middle, I whirl around to see three circling claw marks.

At that minute, the heavens burst open with the light of a falling star, and I see a pure black spaceship going into a black void of nothingness, and I realize that she's been stolen. Breathing hard, ears down and teeth showing, I snarl at nothing.

I break the iceberg in two, smashing the pattern. The pattern! It was simple enough to remember in my head, but for good measure, I jump on to my own bit of the iceberg and trace it on my paw, deeper and deeper until it starts bleeding.

I feel nothing- grief and icy water have numbed it.

I will find her and bring her back. I let the thought repeat itself over and over in my mind as I swim home.

Whoever stole her is going to experience the full wrath of a king. I'll make sure it's something they'll never forget.