Jade Mountain's Next Generation

Chapter 36 - Queen

It was the day of the fight. Anemone had vowed on her life not to use animus magic, and sealed it with a spell: I enchant myself to be unable to use animus magic in any battle to be queen.

Almost everyone in Pyrrhia had come to watch the fight. The other queens sat in one corner discussing who knows what. Queen Glory was a violent red, for once not seeming to care whether anyone knew how she was feeling.

Shine, Light, Stormchaser, Cas, Sahara, Chill, Rose, Copper, and Alligator were all sitting together, chatting.

"There's a new MudWing Queen. Moorhen's daughter Queen Fern challenged her right after Jade Mountain ended. Queen Fern is only eight, but she is actually a fairly good queen."

"Okay, you'll never believe this." Chill began excitedly. "Winter, the teacher, can't come back to school next year because–" He was cut off by some SeaWing announcing the fight was beginning.

Shine watched the fight intensely. She didn't want to miss a moment of it. She didn't know who she was cheering for, only that she didn't want to take her eyes off the battle.

Cas half expected the fight to begin and Coral to instantly kill Anemone. Coral, of course, was older, bigger, stronger, and more experienced.

But Cascade had underestimated Anemone. It looked like Anemone had been practicing, training for months, maybe years. And Coral hadn't fought in over 15 years.

Not that anyone but someone who had been training to fight since she was one, aka for almost five years, would notice. But Cascade knew immediately that Anemone was going to win.

Anemone was confident. The fight began, and she ducked under Coral's wing and slashed her side. Coral growled and caught Anemone's wing with her talons. Her claws raked the membrane, and Anemone screamed. With a battle cry, Anemone flipped over Coral and slammed her tail into her head. While Coral yelled and turned, Anemone dodged.

She sliced her talons across Coral's snout, but Coral retaliated with a slash to the chest. It went deep.

Tamarin winced as Anemone screeched in pain. Anemone could not die. Why, Anemone?

Anemone slid under Coral and sliced her talons into Coral's chest. Coral roared in pain, but wasn't able to move fast enough to hurt Anemone. She stabbed her mother in the chest again, deeper this time, and Queen Coral was killed.

Queen Anemone had risen to the throne.

The cheering came immediately. That was the first thing Rose noticed. She opened her eyes slowly. All of that blood... it reminded her of how Drip had died. That was why Rose had always been glad that RainWings didn't fight for the throne.

Copper twined his tail around hers and she smiled at him gratefully. She was happy that now Tamarin was happy, and that Copper loved her.

"ALL DRAGONS OF PYRRHIA!" Queen Anemone yelled, addressing the crowd. "I AM MARRYING TAMARIN OF THE RAINWINGS."