when axolotl, auklet, and coral arrived back home, they were welcomed as per usual for the royal family.

'welcome back, your majesties.' a seawing servant flashed to the three.

'glad to be back, kelp,' axolotl flashed back.

as a royal, one is expected to not care for the servants in the palace. however, axolotl cares deeply for all their servants and subjects, and wishes to know all their names. for example, there's kelp, a seawing who helps keep track of the royal family's duties. then there's trench, the seawing who took care of axolotl when they were little.

'where is the new queen?' coral flashed to kelp.

'she is in her quarters.' kelp flashed back.

'wonderful, tell her i'll be there shortly.' coral flashed to her.

'of course.' kelp then bowed and swam away.

'i'll be in my room.' auklet flashed to her mother and sibling.

'me too, i'm exhausted.' axolotl flashed back.

as the two went off in their separate directions, axolotl noticed that there were fewer seawings around. wonder what's up with that? they thought to themself.

they finally made it to their room; it was large and blue-green. there was a bed of seaweed for sleeping, and many shelves with trinkets and jewelry on them.

axolotl settled down on heir seaweed bed and closed their eyes, drifting to sleep.

  ————————————————

axolotl awoke with a start. they heard what sounded like crashing, and rushed out of their room to find out what was going on.

they found many seawings in a panic, swimming around frantically. they wondered what was going on, so they went to find their mother.

they found her in the throne room, where they also found tsunami, anemone, and auklet.

'what's going on?' they flashed to the three.

'there is an attack on the surface.' coral explained. 'if this continues in this manner, it will mean war.'

'not another war!' auklet flashed in despair.

'i'm afraid it may come to that, little one.' coral flashed in response.

'but... who is attacking us?' axolotl flashed questioningly.

'sandwings.' coral flashed ominously.

               ———————————————

as axolotl and their family swam up to the surface, many thoughts raced through their head. why would any sandwings do this? aren't we all on good terms after their war? what would cause them to attack? the thoughts were seemingly never-ending, attacking axolotl's mind.

the group finally arrived at the ocean's surface, where there was a group of three dragons; a sandy colored mudwing, a sandwing with curled horns and bioluminescent scales, and a dark colored rainwing. perhaps those two are sandwing hybrids? axolotl asked themself.

"what do you want with us?" tsunami asked authoritatively. the other royals stayed silent, knowing that as queen, tsunami should be the one to take care of it.

"oh, nothing with you. we're here for the little pink one." the sandwing with curled horns and bioluminescent scales said. probably a seawing hybrid. axolotl thought. wait, did they say they're here for me?

"and just what do you want with my little sibling?!" tsunami roared back. coral gave her a look that said 'contain your anger'. tsunami then took a breath and asked again, calmer this time, "what do you want with them?"

"well, if you have to know, we came across one of his little 'friends'. he seemed too nice for my liking, if i'm being honest," a mudwing with sandy colors said, blatantly misgendering axolotl.

"they don't have any friends outside the seawing kingdom." tsunami answered, with emphasis on axolotl's preferred pronoun.

"oh, really? then explain why a simple mudwing would have knowledge that a pink seawing royal brought him back home. care to give us the details?" the seawing-looking sandwing said with a smirk.

axolotl looked at coral, who looked back, very concerned. what are they planning? axolotl thought to themself.

"well, if you must know, my dragonets and i were out for a swim near the delta, and we found a mudwing, who was very disoriented and so we brought him home. is that such a big deal?" coral explained to the other dragons.

"well, it is when he's the son of a traitor!" the sandy mudwing said angrily.

"traitor?" tsunami questioned. she seemed rather invested in their story.

"ugh... don't you idiots know anything?!" the mudwing was practically steaming now. "we're a part of a... group, and that mudwing's father was, too. until he betrayed us! now he's on the run. we tried to find him, but all we could find was his stupid dragonets."

wader and his siblings! axolotl thought frantically. they've been captured?! they looked at auklet, who looked equally as concerned.

"and what did you then do with said dragonets?" tsunami asked the sandy mudwing.

"what else could we have done with them?" the sandwing-seawing said.

"you didn't kill them, did you?!" auklet cried, earning a small shove from coral.

"huh? of course not! what good would they be to us dead? we took them back to our lair, obviously," the sandwing-seawing answered, clearly unimpressed with auklet's concern.

"you idiot! why would you tell them we have a lair?!" the dark colored rainwing hissed at the sandwing-seawing.

"oh crap... uhh y-you didn't hear anything! we don't have a lair! no lairs here, nope!" the sandwing-seawing panicked. the dark rainwing facepalmed.

"well, now that that's out..." the dark rainwing started. "come with us, little seawing. the mudwing said you'd be more than happy to bargain for their freedom."

"absolutely not! axolotl is going nowhere with you," tsunami snapped at them.

"tsunami..." axolotl said. "i want to go with them."

"what?!" tsunami, auklet and coral said at the same time.

"i'm going to bargain for wader and his family's freedom," axolotl reinforced. "i'll be back, don't worry."

"don't go, axolotl, they'll hurt you!" auklet cried, highly concerned.

"i'll be alright," axolotl stated, confident.

and with that, axolotl flew off with the three unknown dragons, off to help wader and his siblings.

"unknown dragons" owners;
rainwing: eva23hope 
sandwing-seawing: Lexi_exe130
mudwing-sandwing: Lexi_exe130