Chapter 1
Pool had never been an honor student, a good role model, or a stickler for rules. She couldn’t even be considered a very good SeaWing; never mind a proper princess.
She liked to graffiti the palace in her spare time and snickered when she was caught and lectured about public defacement. Throughout her adolescence she had grown to become the text scroll definition of an edgy teenager. The day that changed her life didn’t start out any different.
“Need I remind you,” continued her Aquatic tutor, the gold flecks in his eyes seeming to twist with frustration. She’d been caught red-handed scrawling ink across the walls of a hallway. “This is the third time this week you’ve committed a felony within this palace.”
Pool, with all the haughtiness she held in her heart from being royalty, smiled keenly. “A little makeover won’t hurt this place! Look at this marble.”
She trotted across the room and ran her talons down the beige-gray slabs while glancing over her shoulder at him. “Hideous! And don’t even get me started on---” The princess paused, subtly feeling a presence at the entrance way. A few bubbles escaped her throat.
“Father!” she exclaimed.
The disappointing gaze of the large SeaWing at the doorway, king Sandbar, caught her eye. He had broad shoulders, a muscular tail, and a stern look in his eyes. It was the look she always expected and received when he caught her doing something she wasn’t supposed to do. He was definitely not the first dragon to look at her this way.
“Pool,” he commenced.
Oh, by the moons, she thought to herself. She looked him over as he began his obnoxious speech about responsibility and consequences and all the other things she couldn’t be bothered to listen about.
It took her exactly fourteen seconds (she counted) to escape the room. Sandbar failed to realize this and didn’t cease to continue his grumblings, even as her tutor repeatedly jabbed a talon in her direction. The king could be described as pride himself and maybe that had something to do with his eyes being shut all the time when he went off with his self-righteousness.
Pool returned to the place she felt safest after a big buzzkill like what she'd just experienced: the hot springs. She claimed to have found this place while on one of her many explorations and had kept her mouth sealed about it.
Even before she slid beneath the jagged rocks that nearly covered the entrance, she could imagine the bliss she'd soon feel. The place smelled of hibiscus and various tropical fruits thanks to her little homemade candles she liked to craft. Wedged between most crevices in the ceiling were bacteria that lit the hidden grove with a brilliant aquamarine.
Her special place was tucked beneath an overhang and guarded by many rows of trees and tall-standing herbs that acted as a barrier to separate her from the outside world. Pool had brought a small boulder to sit on next to the hot spring and some of her favorite scrolls to read. It was peaceful. It was her home away from home.
Nobody else knew of this place.
That's why it was so surprising to her when she saw a dark figure relaxing while grazing the water with their talons.
it's amazing
*gasp