Sitting at the back of reef while Mother chooses an egg for me to take seemed like an eternity.

The royal hatchery was the only safe hatchery down here, unlike the common hatcheries other dragons used. For one, its openings were covered, allowing no one to see the eggs. Secondly, it was heavily guarded.

Common hatcheries had none of those things. You could steal an egg from there and no one would even notice or bat an eye. Whereas if you stole from the royal hatchery, a hunt was on for you and the stolen egg.

But everything was determined by Mother, the Depths, and how many Scales you had. At the end of each Turn, Mother was busy, determining who would work where in the sea. She also worked on this the rest of Turn, if nothing major was bothering her.

But since keeping her heirs was of upmost importance to her now, she was swamped in work at the end of the Turn; leaving either Eagre, Whitecap, Surge, or Riptide to lead the capital temporarily.

Once Mother determines who should be who, she gave this information to messengers, who reported to the various dragon cities in Eukarya's oceans. These cities were made out of coral reefs, and they could be anywhere in the world – anywhere.

In the capital, your occupation was determined by who your family was. If your parent was a jeweler, you became a jeweler. If your parent was a commander, you became a commander, and so on and so on. But your behavior and number of Scales was a key factor in if you inherited the family's occupation. If you had low Scales and bad behavior, you were demoted from the family occupation and given menial tasks like cleaning the caves.

Dragons had once thought that my family's killer was one of these dragons, but it was quickly thrown into the currents as they weren't even allowed to approach the royal hatchery.

Dragons swam above and around me, performing their duties. Some were cleaning the coral, preventing anything like straggled algae that had found its way down here from growing on it.

Heat burbled through vents in the floor, warming everything. Tubeworms were clustered around them, and crabs and snails made their homes there, feeding off of it.

At long last, Mother emerges from the tunnel leading to the royal hatchery, carrying a green egg in her talons. She notices me at the back of the giant, blobby reef, and swims towards me.

Mother pins me down with her eyes. Come, she says, I need to get you fitted for a harness if we are to "test" this theory of yours.

I follow her into the back of the reef, which is hollowed out like most of it.

She sharply banks right in the middle, which leads into a small cavern. Here, dragons are making materials for the capital such as weapons, seaweed for nests, and other supplies we leaders might need.

Mother swims to a nearby dragon working on a weapon, maybe a long metallic spear, at a stone table. Based on their feature, I could tell that dragon was male.

The dragon looks up at her as she looms over him, and fear permeates his eyes. Mother's presence spoke louder than words sometimes.

Yes, Your Majesty? the dragon says, fear quivering throughout his green scales.

Please bring me a harness.

The dragon tilts his head at her.

Now, Mother demands, and he darts off to another section of the cave.

Everyone else in here occasionally looks at Mother as the green dragon finds me a harness, hoping they aren't her next victim.

Harnesses came in three parts – the harness that the parent had around their chest; the rope that tied the parent and child's harnesses together; and the harness that connected the child to the rope and (ultimately) their parent.

The green dragon then returns with the part of the harness made specifically for the parent, although it's a slightly larger than my chest. This one is made from seaweed with various underwater plants woven into it – not the clear, white one that I was chained to for four Turns. Is this for you?

No, Mother replies, it's for my daughter.

With that in mind, the dragon weaves and loops the harness around me until its stabilized.

Mother peers at the green-purple-and-blue harness. Do you have a smaller size?

Yes, Monarch, the green dragon says and unwinds the harness from me before taking it back to where it came from.

Soon, he comes back with another harness, and loops it around me again. It's snug against my scales, and it would keep any dragonets close to me. However, it probably wouldn't stabilize at egg effectively until it hatched.

Get an even smaller one, Mother hisses at the dragon after studying it, and he quickly skirts to the back and comes back with another small harness.

He takes the one off of me before putting the smaller one around me. This one feels... constricting, as if a sky-creature had decided to put whatever it made on me.

I've never seen a sky-creature up close before, but I do have an idea of what they look like and where they might or do live on Eukarya.

Mother studies the harness. Perfect. Now, can you please loosen it so I can slide this into it? She shows him the green egg.

Uh, sure, he says before loosening the harness.

It's a temporary breather as Mother slides the egg into the harness near my chest before the green dragon ties it back up again.

Soon, it looks like I'm a mother to the green egg, although I'm actually it's older sister.

Alright, I think to myself, you're putting yourself through this for your family – your sister. Now what?

_____________

When everyone gathered for last meal that night, Whitecap, my uncle and Mother's hatchmate brother, had announced who he had chosen to represent the OceanWings while at Mistral's interspecies meeting.

He had chosen me, Mother, Whirlpool, Seaquake, and Current.

Seaquake was one of the most powerful generals in recent Eukaryan history. But that power paled in comparison to the power and ferocity of her daughter, Tsunami, another powerful general. I had a hunch that if Whitecap had chosen Tsunami to go, it would be political and physical suicide for the OceanWings.

Current was a messenger who worked around the capital. However, he wasn't the one that told Mother about Mistral's meeting.

Mother asked her brother about his choices, and he simply stated that Whirlpool will represent the Depths, while also being Mother's body guard; that Seaquake will represent our military; and that I've been primed to become the next leader, even though Flood and Riptide have been subjected to this same training in the past. He also mentioned that Current will represent the commoners, as well as being the messenger in case "something big happens".

"Something big"? Mother arched an eye ridge at Whitecap. Like what?

Like war breaking out across the world, or if there is a second wave of sky-creatures descending onto Eukarya. Something like that.

As I ate what was served, I could see Surge leer at the two siblings, agitation visible on his face. I wanted to claw that entitlement off of his face and tell him that he didn't have any talent representing his species.

Some point in the conversation, Mother and Whitecap stopped speaking as I was eating an octopus tentacle. Swell was munching on a small octopus, floating above Mother in the water.

Mother's face seemed pensive, as she was considering her brother's choices.

Then, she flashed several stripes on her snout to declare her decision.

I approve.

________________

Several sunrises later, me, Mother, Seaquake, Whirlpool, and Current had packed for the long flight and the stay at the StormWing palace.

Swell was dragged into this, as he was still harnessed to Mother.

I had packed some food, some seaweed for a nest (just in case), a knife (as means of defense), and the book I was reading. You always had to be prepared for trips like these.

Mother had told us tonight that we should go to sleep early, as we were going to leave early the next sunrise.

Good thing she told me, as I wasn't going to read The Depths of the Ocean that night.

______________

Something lightly tapping my snout woke me from a dream where the egg slipped from the harness and floated down to the sea floor where sky-creatures hunted it.

I opened my eyes and it was Swell. Tide, he flashed, keeping his stripes dim. It's time to go.

I got up, stretched myself, and yawned before putting my pearl necklace on. I looked down and saw that the harness and its egg were still attached to me.

I looked back up, and saw that Current and Whirlpool were already awake and near the coral ledge that led to these small caves.

Swell looked behind him before looking back at me. Come, he flashed with his snout stripes before swimming out of my room.

I followed him, and saw Mother, Whirlpool, and Current conversing each other. Between the three of them, they all had our bags slung across their backs so they we wouldn't carry anything extra.

You're sure we should fly there? Current asked. But we don't know anything about what's in those skies.

Trust me, Whirlpool told him. It would be much better off if we were killed by crazed birds than unsuspecting currents.

Whirlpool's right, Mother responded. If we're going to make it to Mistral's palace alive, we need to break standard procedure and leave the sea. We need to fly.

Fly? The only time OceanWings left the sea to fly was when they were learning how to fly and how to speak the physical language of dragons.

If this was how we were going to Mistral's palace, this would be the first time I would be out of the ocean since hatching. Mother's children weren't exempt from protocol around here, even if they were harnessed to her at all time.

Alright, Current said, let's do it. The only dragon we have to wait for is-

He stopped when Seaquake swam up the cliff.

Her blue-grey scales were dull from many Turns, and she had less scars that her daughter.

Your Majesty, Seaquake bowed. She had a bag slung around her neck. Are we ready to leave for the Mountain Claws?

Swell and I paddled towards Mother, ready to leave. Mother took a look at us and her surrounding before answering the commander.

Yes, we're ready to leave.

Originally published: 03/17/2023 (typed up manuscript of chapter 3, book 1 to page); edited: (WIP)