Prologue;
In a faraway land of water, long, long ago, there lived the mighty beast; the dragon. They were majestic beasts, brightly colored and very elegant in the water. Our focus is on a small family, a mother and her egg. The mother, a small but fierce rose colored sea dragon floats above her turquoise, shimmering egg, watching over it intently. She backs off a little as it begins to crack open, a small bright nose poking out of the shell. She smiles a little, waiting for her baby to break through. She’s so attentive to the egg, that she doesn’t notice the scuba-hunter behind her. Humans, with their underwater equipment, intent on killing mysterious sea creatures for their hides and jewels. The scuba-hunter swims slowly behind the mother, and jams a harpoon into her back. On the tip is a poison that could kill a sea dragon quickly and efficiently, without destroying their hide. She looks lovingly at her egg one last time, and closes her eyes and starts to drift down the sea. The scuba-hunter grabs her and pulls her to the sea surface, oblivious to the cracking of the tiny dragon. He climbs into his boat, and speeds away without looking back, or seeing the red dragon hiding in the weeds behind him.
The shimmering egg falls open, revealing a small blue sea-dragon that looked much like it’s mother. It mewls softly, afraid to be alone so young. She looks around her, at her empty home and open waters.
A small, brilliantly bright purple sea-dragon swims near. While the blue baby has triangular fins, this one has squares. The blue dragon has a horn on the tip of her nose, and the purple one has them down her spine. The purple dragon floats near the blue baby.
“ Are you lost?”
“ I don’t know. I’m just alone,” the little blue one whispers.
“Then come with me!”
They swim away together, exchanging names. The purple one’s name is Tanis, meaning “serpent lady.” She is sweet and caring, and watches over the little blue dragon, who does not yet have a name.
“ My mother will name you, I promise.”
They get to Tanis’ home, a small sea-cave surrounded by sea-weed. The cave’s wall is entirely turquoise, much like the egg the small blue one just left. It shimmers as the sea moves, throwing off light here and there. The seaweed is bright green, and very toothsome, full leaves and great stalks.
Tanis’ mother, a long deep-red dragon that resembles Tanis, is going through her jewels in the cave. She swiftly moves them back into her chest when she sees the children approaching.
“Mama, its just a friend and I,” Tanis slowly said.
“I know, but i do not know this friend.”
“I have no name..I was alone when I was born. Ma’am, I would never steal your jewels, they are much too precious.” the blue babe said.
“Then I shall name you Dalinda! It means “noble dragon”, for being so kind as to say that.”
“Thank you so much!” Cried newly-named-Dalinda. She was so excited that she swam in a circle, chasing her tail.
“Would you girls like to hear a story? I know a good one, all about treasures and sailors,” Tanis’ mother said.
“Oh, yes!” Cried the little dragons.
“Once upon a time, there lived a human. His name was Davy Jones. This human was actually friends with the sea-dragons, he would scavenge the human lands for treasure to share with the dragons. One day, Davy Jones met an evil sea-dragon, one who was conspiring with even more evil sailors. They plotted against him to steal his jewels and to steal from his friend-dragons also.”
The little sea-dragons gasped at this, horrified to hear it.
“ It doesn’t end there, little ones. The largest dragon, a dark cobalt black one attacked Davy Jones after his greatest plunder on the humans in centuries. This dragon threw Davy into the sea, and dragged him into the deepest, darkest cave, one that no one else knew about. Some other dragons sunk Davy’s ship, stealing some treasure but letting most of it drown with Davy Jones. They swam away with the sound of Davy Jones’ last dying gasps behind them. To this tale, it’s said that you can hear his breathing in the water, guarding his chest of treasure.”
“That’s horrible!” Cried Tanis.
“ I don’t understand how a dragon could do that to a human who helped them, humans are good,” Dalinda said softly.
Tanis’ mother looked at her sharply, and then lovingly. She then realized that Dalinda hadn’t hatched yet, therefore Dalinda hadn’t seen her mother’s murdering. She caressed Dalinda’s head with her tail, and Dalinda looked up.
“ It’s just a tale. Don’t worry about it, dear. Alright, off to bed kids!”
Dalinda and Tanis went to sleep, sleeping together with Tanis’ mother watching over them.
“ The poor dear, all alone in this world. She mustn’t know that my story is true, neither of them can never know. They would go for the gold and die trying,” Tanis’ mother softly said to herself. She nestled into her own bed and fell asleep.
She missed her young daughter’s ears pricking up, listening to her mother saying thoughts out loud.
“ I must find this, if it is true!” She thought to herself. She glanced over at Dalinda, and woke her up.
“Pssssst, Dal!” She stage-whispered.
“Whaaaat Tanis, I’m sleeping here, can’t you see that?”
“Hey, so. I think we should go for that treasure. My mom just said that the whole story was true; Dalinda, we should GO FOR IT. We can leave NOW.”
“Uhm, we won’t get in trouble? I don't’ want to make her mad after she names me...” Dalinda said slowly, unsure.
“ Uh, no. She’ll be fine it, I’m sure. C’mon, let’s just go!”
They swim away under Tanis’ mother’s nose, barely making a whisper in the water. They leave the cave and swim away, laughing softly to each other.
They swim for a while, enjoying their freedom and being with each other. They swam until they were stopped by an underwater ship. Tanis and Dalinda looked at it wide-eyed, when suddenly ghost sailors come pouring out the peep holes! They brandished their swords at the small dragons, who were moving backwards, trying to get away.
“ Oh gosh Tanis, how do we get out of this!? We never should have left!” Dalinda wailed.
Tanis looked around, unsure of what to do. She missed the small green turtle who was swimming by, spectating the show. The turtle, named Atira, sped up and bonked one of the sailors in the nose. The ghost sailor roared horribly, and flew back into the ship. His gang of ghosts followed him, a swoosh of wind going after them.
“Thank you so much! How could we ever repay you?!” Dalinda cried to Atira.
“ Well, where are you guys going? What are you doing?” Questioned Atira.
“Oh, just swimm--” Started Tanis.
“ Lost treasure!” Dalinda yelled, butting into Tanis’ sentence. Tanis looked sharply at Dalinda, upset that she shared their secret with this turtle.
“Well, could I join you guys?” Atira asked quizzically
“Yes! The more the merrier!” Dalinda said excitedly, while Tanis looked at her like she was crazy.
The three friends swam away from the haunted ship, happy to have the ghosts gone. Soon, they got to a dark cavern, with many little loops and holes. A dim light came up from one of these holes, and Atira swam in to a get a closer look. She came back, excited.
“ IT’S THERE GUYS ITS ALL THERE.”
Tanis and Dalinda followed her back into the hole, bumping into each other and the wall in their own excitement. They all entered the small cavern with the light of the gold jewels and treasure in their eyes. The girls gasped and started to freak out, happy to have found it.
“We found it--”
“My mom will be SO excited!”
“Look at this!”
Tanis started to pile jewels into the pouch on her stomach and Dalinda threw a tiara on her head, while Atira just gazed around her.
“Think I have enough to make my mom happy?” Asked Tanis.
“ I thought you said your mom would be OKAY with this, Tanis!” Dalinda yelled, a little scared now.
“Yeah, she will be. Now that we found it!”
Dalinda shook her head in amazement at her friend’s bravery.
They swam out of the cavern and went back home, tired but happy.
They came home to a MAD dragon mother.
“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN TANIS OUT TO ALL HOURS OF THE NIGHT AND WITH THE HUMANS ABLE TO SEE-- Hello Dainda dear, I’m glad you’re safe, hello little turtle, please stay and sleep-- GO TO YOUR BED THIS MINUTE YOUNG LADY” Roared Tanis’ mother.
They all went to bed under the eye of the raged mother.
“ Hey, we’ll tell her tomorrow, Tanis, about the treasure, we can surprise her!” Whispered Dalinda.
“Yeah, okay. Hey, Dal, thanks for going with me and doing this. And Atira, you were a great help too.”
They all hugged, as two sea-dragons and a turtle could hug.
-Amber( sorry for the new post, it's long!)
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