2222 A.D.

The eggshell floated to the top of the cavern as we all gathered around the hatchling's nest. Mother picked up the corpse of her child – my sibling – in her claws as our brains reeled in horror.

The assassin had struck again, and we weren't even close to discovering their identity. For all anyone knew, it could be one of us, one of Mother's children.

But that would be impossible. I was with Mother every day, preparing for the day that I would lead the OceanWings when she wasn't around. Swell spent most his time reading books, especially those about alternate worlds where the characters had fantastic adventures. Flood was busy working around the capital, and the same applied to her hatchmate brother, Riptide. Surf... well Surf was learning how the politics of the sea worked.

The dead hatchling had blue scales like Mother's, and judging by its less-formed smooth features, it was a female hatchling.

There were now four eggs left in our family's hatchery, none of us knew if the hatchlings were male or female. Mother suspects that three of the eggs are female, while Flood is convinced that there's more males than females.

I never really cared about if my siblings were male or female – I only cared about them surviving to hatching and finding who the family killer was.

Warm jets of water surrounded us, as Mother grieved her dead hatchling for a moment before turning around to face the two openings of the cavern.

The openings were covered with a golden seagrass, allowing the eggs to be unseen by outsiders, and they led back into tunnels that snaked back to the main cavern of the OceanWings' underwater capital.

Tide, Flood, Mother tells me and my older sister with her face stripes, without even looking at us. Take Turtle and Requiem to the prison and asks the guards there to tell me or any of you when they wake.

Yes, Mother, I respond with my snout stripes.

I look at Flood. Which one do you want to take?

She studies the two guards. Requiem's turquoise scales make her look like was one of the poor OceanWings lived, despite the fact that she was the strongest of the two and grew up in the capital her entire life. Turtle was skinny and had a thin frame; her green-yellow scales made her look like a kelp forest that had turned itself into a dragon. Despite her appearance and her lack of fighting power, she had the brains to know who intruders were and who weren't.

I'll take Requiem, Flood says, and you'll take Turtle. Is that okay?

I nod, and Flood swims over to Requiem and picks her up in her front claws before swimming out of the cave and into the tunnel.

I swim over towards Turtle and wrap my forearms around her, making sure that her comatose body won't slip out of my grip as I swim to the prison.

After I make sure Turtle's in my grip, I swim out of the hatchery and into the tunnel that leads towards the main cavern of the capital.

The tunnel's slope goes up as I swim through it until I emerge into a cavern full of bioluminescent coral, making it look that the stars had managed to trap themselves underwater. Luminescent jellyfish pulsed throughout the cavern's waters, providing further light down here.

This is the main cavern, where everything occurs and where everyone lives.

Ahead of me, in the center of the giant cavern, is an amorphous blob of a coral reef, where me, Mother, and the rest of our family lives (since we are the leaders of the OceanWings), as well as the dragons that directly serve us.

It is said that the coral and jellyfish that inhabit the caverns because they found the opening to the cave system while wandering the ocean. With no way back to the surface, they settled and adjusted to the lack of light down there.

In the corner of my eye, I spot Flood swimming towards the upper part of one of the cliffsides on either side of the cavern. I swim up to her, still holding Turtle in my forearms.

As I head towards my sister, I pass various stone buildings that were carved by dragon claws. These buildings house other dragons that live in the capital, but don't directly serve me or my family. An example of this would be the soldiers that defend us from domestic and external threats.

On the top of cliffside, is an opening that leads through a small tunnel system, where prisoners are held. These are exclusively OceanWings, as none of the other dragons of Eukarya can breathe underwater.

I follow Flood into the tunnel, and there are dragons pinned to the walls by thick metallic chains wound around their neck, wings, wrists, and back legs that prevent them from escaping. In the past, some of the prisoners have tried to escape, although these were some of the desperate, dumb, and foolish ones I've seen over the Turn.

Chained dragons bite and snarl at me and my sister in contempt and anger as we swim past them. These dragons weren't in here for petty crimes such as stealing. They were in here because they caused a ruckus amongst the reef cities, encouraging their residences to disobey Mother and the Depths. Or because they looted in hopes that their stolen goods would be "free from corruption".

Either way, crime does not go unpunished here in the ocean. And neither does failing or disobeying your leaders.

Flood finds two areas which haven't had a prisoner in them for a while, and flashes her stripes to guide me.

The chains are like thick, floppy eels on the wall, but they won't be once Requiem and Turtle have been chained.

The process of chaining a dragon to the wall is this – first, wrap the chain that goes around their neck and bolt it too the wall. Second, once the dragon is in place, do the same thing with the wings. The wrists and back legs should be done last.

Usually, the process takes time, as the prisoners will try to bite their captors as a means of escape. But here, its easy to do with knocked-out dragons.

As I step back from chained Turtle to the wall, I notice that she looks more like dead prey in a trap than an imprisoned dragon.

This is our reality. We are being killed by someone or something for unknown reasons. Some dragons in the capital think that the killer is someone close to our family, but they're in the minority. Many of us suspect it's the Undercurrents, the most dangerous coalition of dragons in modern Eukaryan history.

Nobody knows how they really formed, but many believe that they're killing us off to enact their master plan – usurp power from Mother and the Depths so they can rule the ocean their own way.

________________

"Have you analyzed the evidence yet, like I told you too?"

"Yes, sir", he said not even looking at Forest. "I have found that the DNA we have obtained matches the one found on Root's scarf."

"So?"

"That means we can go arrest her."

'That's the only evidence this dragon has to convince Kestrel for murdering Avalanche? Are they serious?'

I continued onto the next chapter, "Chapter 31", and read.

I'd been reading the novel The Depths of the Ocean for nearly a season now, and I was now getting halfway through it.

You could say that long days got in the way of my initial goal finishing it within one-third of a season.

Reading was strongly encouraged in my family, as it was necessary for being successful in life. I was a decent reader myself, but there no other voracious reader than Swell, my younger brother who hatched several Turns ago.

He was currently reading Skies of Fire, a series that I grew up with and loved reading. Many dragons did in fact, grow up with this series and wanted to be like Rise, the series' author.

But recently, Power of Fire, the most recent and final book in the series, showed the world what her political agenda was. And just like that, dragons began searching for other non-political books to read and distanced themselves from the once-beloved series.

One time, I had heard overheard from a capital guard that parents wanted the newer books to be removed from bookshelves to protect the youngest generation from "indoctrination" into insanity. Even though I don't have dragonets (yet), I agree with the guard. Young dragonets, like my brother, shouldn't ask their parents why there is a romantic relationship between two female dragons in a book.

The book I was reading, on the other talon, had what readers wanted – no same-sex relationships, no crazy ideas. It had a male-female relationship that was portrayed realistically, and an interesting murder mystery woven into its plot.

Right now, I was on the precipice of the main action of the plot – a murder trial for the alleged killer.

She flew towards Ebb's store, the warm air flowing through and past her wings.

Eventually, the store came into sight, that wooden structure on the water, and Kestrel gave the OceanWing a toothy smile.

He didn't smile back, and stared at her with hard, brown eyes.

'Oh?'

Something was wrong. Kestrel could feel it in her antennae.

There was movement in the surrounding foliage.

She stopped flying and beat her wings so she could look around while hovering in the air.

'It's the authorities; it must be.'

She scanned the trees and the bushes with her eyes, and saw no one, even though her antennae said that there was someone in the vicinity.

'They're going to arrest-.'

There was a flashing of stripes in the entryway of my room, and I looked up from my book.

It was Riptide, Flood's hatchmate brother and the oldest of my siblings.

Get ready for the last meal, he said. Mother's not cancelling it, even though her hatchling was murdered today.

He then swam away, presumable in the direction that led to the side opening of the giant reef that led to my family's rooms.

I put the book down on my nest, a bundle of soft seaweed only found in the warmer waters of the planet, and marked where I was with a thin piece of stone I had.

I stretched myself before swimming over to a stone box near my room's opening. I opened it and inspected its contents.

There were several options – ropes of pearls, ropes of corals, and a combination of the two. I chose the pearl-and-coral rope since it would look nice.

I wound them around my chest and wings, even though I always wore a pearl necklace every sunrise. After the last meal, the coral-and-pearl ropes would go back in the box, and the pearl necklace would be placed near my nest.

With that in mind, I headed out for the dining hall.

_______________

The dining hall was on the side opposite where the palace residences' residences were. It was in a giant hollow of the reef that was either natural or carved by dragon claws. The structure of it roared "carved by dragon claws", but I didn't know.

The only way a dragon could access it, was if they swam through the palace's main entrance to a tunnel on one of its sides. From there, you followed the tunnel's path until you emerged into a large dining hall that could hold around forty to fifty dragons in it.

I swam to the dining hall after I deemed that the pearl-and-coral ropes I wore was enough décor, and saw that Flood and Riptide were already there. The father-son duo of the Depths, Whirlpool and Rush, were also there.

I took my place next to Flood, sitting in a stone chair, as the four were using their stripes to converse.

Are you sure that it's Vulcan that's been attacking our outposts at North Archaea? Riptide gawked.

Whirlpool nodded. That's what one of the messengers told me earlier. He turned a small rectangular piece of metal that looked like it was piece of something larger over in his claws. He also says that this came off a piece of armor not seen anywhere in the history of Eukarya.

The northern and southern poles of Eukarya had formed an alliance with each other so that their mutual ties could be strengthened; it just so happened that they were both named "Archaea".

Why are you talking about Vulcan? I asked him, thinking that whatever he said was important.

He looked up at me with surprise. Oh, Tide! I didn't know you had come!

Whirlpool gave a look at Flood, who gave him a look that said, "Explain it to her" before looking back at me.

We've heard reports about how the VolcanoWings are sabotaging the outposts we've established in North Archaea, he said. We don't know exactly why they're occurring, but some think it's Vulcan either declaring war on the planet or giving us a warning of what he'll do if we refuse to surrender.

Vulcan was the leader of the VolcanoWings, much like Mother was the leader of the OceanWings. I assumed he was descended from a ruling family like us, but I could be wrong. I've never met him up close, only hearing whispers and rumors about him.

Leaders in Eukarya ranged from being strict and manipulating, to just plain senile. Mother was somewhere in between but leaned more to the "strict and manipulating" side. The leader of TreeWings, however, was senile and old like dirt.

If Vulcan's declaring war on the planet, I said, wouldn't the other dragons try to fight him sooner rather than later?

Whirlpool gave me a look at me. I know what you're thinking, but war with him would be suicide. Us and the world would be destroyed in an instant if we tried.

But aren't there any other ways of fighting him.

Yes, Rush chimed in. Using words.

I raised an eye ridge at him. Words?

He nodded as Flow, one of the female members of the Depths, swam behind him.

Using words to fight Vulcan would be asinine, she said as she slid into her seat next to him. It's like trying to tame a fire by using more fire.

And the only way to put out a fire is with water, Whirlpool clarified as another Depth swam into the hall and took their place next to him.

Are you talking about Vulcan? the dragon next to Whirlpool asked.

He let out an audible sigh. Yes.

OceanWings can speak underwater, like how other dragons take in air and let it out as sound. Instead, we take in water and let it out as sound.

However, we do not speak underwater as it wouldn't be practical in the long flight that is life.

Instead, we use the stripes on our bodies to communicate. The idea came from Marine, a dragon only known in our legends. It is said that she devised a way for OceanWings to speak underwater while not even producing sound in an era of great strife. While we don't know the true origin of why we speak her language, we call it "Marine" in honor of her.

Ah, the dragon continues. I hope this is because of-

You know what it is Splash.

Splash's face is permeated by gawkiness on her face as Whirlpool raises an eye ridge and gives her a look of displeasure. There is an awkward silence in the hall and its waters.

Nobody speaks with their mouths nor their stripes. Its deafening like thunder in a storm.

Whirlpool turns the piece of metal in his claws before giving it to Splash. This was retrieved several days ago from North Archaea.

Splash takes the piece and studies it. What is it?

A fragment of the new armor that the VolcanoWings have recently developed. If it's true, then this will allow them to wipe off the face of the planet, as if we'd never existed in the first place.

What do you mean?

It will allow them to survive in the most extreme places, like the poles or ocean trenches.

I shivered. Whirlpool was right. With that armor, the VolcanoWings would exterminate us easily.

As Whirlpool and Splash had their conversation, other dragons filed into the hall, such as the rest of the Depths, my aunts, uncles, and younger brother. This was Surf.

The brother here was not Swell, as he was still attached to Mother via a harness, and this one was slightly older than him.

And those two weren't here yet. Did something happen to them? Or were they late?

As if on cue to relief my fears, Mother and Swell entered the hall. They took their place at the head of the table, the farthest seat away from the tunnel that led to the area.

Swell was only a few Turns old, and he would soon be released from the harness.

Because of the assassin killing us off, Mother had each of her children attached to her for around four Turns before unharnessing them and giving them duties to perform in the capital.

But that didn't assure that they would still live. They could be killed while working, for that matter.

Mother slumped into her ornate stone seat, with Swell floating in the water above her. Her shoulders were hunched, and her head hung down, nearly touching the table.

Mother? Riptide gently said and put a talon on her shoulder.

She looked up. The grief and pain were still in her.

Just send the servants in, she flashed with her stripes.

_____________

My room was the only place I usually went to after the last meal, regardless of what happened that day.

And today was no different, except that someone part of my family was killed before they could even hatch.

The only way to deal with it was to get in the flow of your routine, even if that involved reading before sleeping.

She scanned the trees and the bushes with her eyes, and saw no one, even though her antennae said that there was someone in the vicinity.

'Ah, yes, there I am. The potential arrest of Kestrel.'

Where are you? she thought, as something jumped out of the trees towards her.

Kestrel darted away like a fish avoiding predators and dove into the swamp, following the waters that ran through it as an escape route.

Soon, her antennae told her that there were several dragons following her.

Hunting to survive was one thing, but being hunting – quite another.

______________

Originally published: 03/16/2023 (added text from manuscript version to page); edited: 05/10/2023 (fixed in-world book text and edited text to match current manuscript)