Tsunami found her way back to the Summer Palace with Riptide leading the way.
She thanked him once they were by the cave her friends and Rider were kept in.
She kept her little sister, still in her egg, close to her chest to keep her warm.
She stepped into the dark cave and saw dark lumps on flooding cave floor. Dread filled her.
She quickly lit up her stripes and to her relief her friends were okay as well as her Rider.
Kailani smiled warmly at her. It was the same type of smile that Riptide gave her that made her heart jump with joy; Riptide made her heart jump and scales tingling with joy at the same time.
   "Finally. Whoa! Is that your egg?" Glory said.
   "Awwwwww! Tsunami is going to be a mommy." Sunny said from the top of the pile. Beneath her was Starflight then Glory, and then Clay. The Riders were either scattered on the pile of dragons or found small rock ledges to stand on.
   "No, this is not my egg. It is Queen Coral's last female egg. And I'm sorry I haven't been here in like a day. I've been incredibly busy with things."
   "Ya, like playing kissing face with Riptide," Glory muttered, getting a chuckle out of Clay and Tarren and a hesitant one out of Starflight.
   Tsunami hissed at Glory, and then went back to everything that has transpired since they were taken to the cave.
   "Someone tried to murder you?!" Kailani exclaimed with anger and worry.
   "I was hoping one of you," she meant the Riders, "sensed his or her mind's."
   "Do you have any idea who might want you dead?" Sam asked, looking at her with his black eyes. They creeped her out sometimes when she looked at them. They reminded her too much of Burn.
"A few dragons. Shark, Shark's daughter Moray, and...Abyss, one of Queen Coral's eldest, possibly deceased, twin daughters."
"Wait. You mean Orca and Abyss?" Starflight asked, amazement and a thirst for learning written on his face. "You mean one of the Royal SeaWing twin princesses survived? How?"
"I don't know if she's alive. But Coral did kill Orca. So don't you think Abyss, who ran away the night before, would be angry and try and get revenge? Maybe it was her who's been killing off all of Queen Coral's heirs."

"I don't know." Sam said, looking to the other Riders for confirmation. "I didn't hear a female mind. It felt like a male."
"Maybe it's Shark." Tarren said. "What if he wants Moray to challenge Queen Coral for the throne? You know so then he can basically run the kingdom his own way with his daughter carrying out his orders."
Everyone looked at Tarren with amazement.
   He and Clay had many things in common, and it was not paying attention and not absorbing information were two of them.
"For the past six years of learning magic and history and fighting, you manage to ace this?" Aisha asked, keeping watch on the egg Tsunami gave to Sunny to keep warm. "I think Tarren has been replaced by a changeling."
"Ya, right. If Tarren was replaced by a changeling I think would have all noticed by now." Kailani added. "Oh, and you and Clay stay away from that egg. You two will probably smash it. If that happens Clay will probably sit on it. And you will most likely chuck it at a guard thinking it's a rock."
"I would never sit on it." Clay protested, the water sloshing as he moved.
"Ya, and I wouldn't throw it at a guard. I have more sense that that." Then he added, "I would throw Sam at the guard."
"Barbarian."
"Am not, Mcsmarty pants."
"Boys, shut up. Don't make me come down there and knock you both upside the head." Lin told them, sitting on a narrow ledge.
Tarren muttered something that Tsunami didn't catch it. But she did hear him say something about chains.
She looked and saw silver chains around each of Clay's ankles. It looked like they've already tried melting them with fire. It must be the same type of fireproof metal from the Sky Kingdom.
   "Please tell me you've tried magic."
   Sam nodded, and Tarren grumbled something about stupid purple rocks set in the shackles.
   Taking a closer look at the shackles, she saw that there were a purple rock set into each shackle.
   "We're going to need the key then," she muttered to herself, and marched out of the cave and over to the four guards playing a game with fish bones.
   "Give me the key to the MudWing's shackles, now," she said in a demanding voice, holding out her talon for the key.
   All the guards looked scared of giving her the key.
   "We can't. He'll have our heads if we let you free the MudWing." One said, not looking her in the eyes.
   "Shark? You'll have more trouble to worry about if you don't give me the key." She was surprised by the menacing tone in her voice. She was Coral's daughter after all. But when she thought of that it made her remember what her mother did to Tortoise. She never wanted to have to anything like that ever. So she tried a different approach.
   "Don't you care that an innocent dragonet that hasn't hurt any of you is going to drown when you can do something about it?" She asked. When she thought about fighting them for the key it reminded her all too much of when she killed her father.
   "Yes, we care. We know that's her part of the prophecy. But we aren't allowed to talk about it." One said. The he looked up at her with a glimmer of hope in his blue eyes. "Are you really going to stop the war?"
   "It has to end." Another one added.
   "Well you can help me stop the war by giving me the key so I can free him and he can live." She told them, holding out her talon once more.
   The four guards looked at each other for a moment, and not a second later they pressed a small, cold metal key into her talon.
   "Thank you for saving my brother, the one with the slashed gills." She told Tsunami.
   She thanked them, and went back to the cave.
   She dove under the rising water and unlocked the shackles.
   "Thank you," Clay told her gratefully.
   Tsunami scooped up Kailani and let her climbed onto her back and the ten of them headed for a higher, dryer cave.
   "Okay, everyone good?"
   "Yep. Can we get something to eat now?" Clay asked, his stomach grumbling so loud that Tarren fell off his back in a fit of giggles. Which led to Sunny and Aisha getting into a fit of giggles. That led to them all laughing like they used to. She could head their laughter echoing all over the Summer Palace.
   When she was done laughing, she headed for the kitchens to find some water and food.
   She found a cauldron of fish and water. She had to take two trips to get them both back to the cave.
   As soon as she got back with the water the raw fish was already smoking.
   "Aww, you didn't save any raw fish for me."  
   "Raw fish is disgusting."
   "I second that." Glory added. "You are overruled, Your Highness."
   She playfully hit Glory, who threw a charred fish at her. She ate it anyways.
   She sat down next to Kailani, who was eating a blacken fish. She could tell that all of the Riders were hungry. They couldn't go as long as dragons without eating. They had to eat at least once a day.
   "Stay still." Kailani told her, and she instantly felt her hurt gills from the assassin attack heal. It felt like a relief to have her gills back to normal.
   "Thank you," she thanked her Rider.
   "Any time." Then she added, "I think you're right about Abyss possibly still being alive."
   "What?! Why didn't you tell me this sooner. It would have been nice to know before I got attacked."
   "Uh, remember, cave."
   "Oh, sorry."
   "Well anyways, I was searching the palace for your mind when I came across one that seemed to be in a very deep sleep. It was a female mind. But when I tried to figure out who it was I couldn't. It was like there was a barrier between me and the mind. But even if I got through, the mind was moving so slow and in such a deep sleep that not even the nine of us together would be able to rouse her." Kailani told her to her surprise.
   "So you're not sure who it is?"
   "No. For all I know it could be a very, very old dragon in a deep hibernation because of their massive size. It would be hard for them to get enough food."
   Tsunami didn't ask anymore questions. Kailani didn't have enough information to tell her more about the mysterious mind. Maybe they could go looking tomorrow for the source.
   Tsunami stretched and yawned.
   The five dragonets and Riders curled up together around the egg in a protective way; the Riders casting spells on the egg to prevent anyone—Clay—from rolling on top of it during the night or smashing it.
   They all went to sleep.
   Tsunami enjoyed sleeping underwater. But she missed the rising and falling of Clay's chest under her chin. Not even sleeping underwater could replace that. It was the only time she felt safe and not alone. Her friends would forever be her own little tribe, even if they were annoying.