Chapter 1
Lantern stared out into the beautiful sunfish lake as her mother pat her on the shoulder. “Honey, don’t you want to have dinner yet?” Sunfish asked, stirring a small pot of fish. The magnificent river that flow along the sides of the talons of light castle was, indeed, named after sky’s mother, Queen sunfish, who loved her dearly. She has heard of the cruel stories across the continent, of Queen coral’s daughter, who mysteriously vanished into the sunset.
But lantern didn’t believe that story. She knew that the queen’s daughter was a very clever and diligent dragon who would follow any orders even if she was royal. “ mother, what really happened to Queen corals daughter? Is she ok?” Lantern asked, drinking up the warm soup. The queens eyes shut tight and her hands clutched onto the brown table, her voice turned cold and distant.
“How do you know?” She whispered “you should of listened to uncle Magyar, he would help you through times like this. Queen coral had no daughters, they all died in their eggs.” She sat down and took a deep breath. “there is a myth.” She continued, breathing heavily, “ that one of them may have survived, but the Queen tried to keep it quiet, since she knew that if she had a daughter, one day, she will have to step down from her throne.”
“And when your father passed away, I decided that I will let your siblings live at ground level, in your fathers old bedroom in Queen lemon hue tower. Yes, lantern, she does have a last name, and so do I, which is also hie. Only the kings and queens will pass down the royal family name, ours is hue. And back to what I was saying, if the Queen has a daughter, she will indeed have to step down from the throne and die.”
“Of course, she didn’t want to. So she tried to kill her, leave her out in the sun for too long, trap her in chamber with no water. But seems like none of those worked, since the myth still flows to this day.” She turned around to look at lantern. “And, why you have no siblings is because they are useless. I think you are perfect for the throne one day, you can rule this kingdom, chose one dragonet to rule the kingdom and step down when you are around 50 years old. You can still live, but not as Queen anymore. You see, we have a way more fair system.”
Lantern was stunned. “You mean to say you killed my siblings?” She asked. “No, they lived in brightly lit up chambers underground. They still live, but they are not the chosen one. Unlike you, they have no royal mark on their foreheads. No headlights that will guid them in the dark.” Mumbled sunfish, although she knew that she would not want lantern to know the whole truth about the kingdom. She did hope that lantern didn’t hear it though, but of course she would have.
Lantern tilted her small bottle of squid ink ,dripping small drops of black ink onto the upright canvas. It flowed down, a line that looked as if it will never be straight. Her paintbrush flew from side to side as it drew perfect lines. She had to find out more, she had to twist free of sunfish’s grasp. Even though she was chosen to be the next queen, she wanted- no- NEEDED to find out more about his conspiracy that her mother had never thought about telling her.
