Hehe so I’ve been writing a biography for Depths B) Here ya are: “Slow down!! You’re going really fast and I get to choose how fast we go.” I slowed my pace to a walk. “Sorry Your Majesty. Won’t happen again.” I replied, keeping my eyes on the floor, and slowing down. The bratty child ordering me around today was Princess Vapor of the riverwings, the second richest dragon tribe on the continent. Being rich didn’t contribute to your mannerisms, evidently. “Well, then you shouldn’t have let it happen in the first place.” She snapped back, her tone sharp as a blade. I winced. “Yes, Princess Vapor, Sorry, Princess Vapor.” I replied, gritting my teeth. I walked down the bustling hall, not by choice though. My father was an advisor in the kingdom, and I wasn’t yet old enough to be one myself, as he wanted me to be. So instead I was stuck with the dumbest of palace chores. I didn’t get paid, of course. Because Father has told them I was volunteering. Why did they believe that? Who in their right mind would think any self-respecting kid would willingly do stupid chores for hours? Escorting the younger heirs from place to place was one of the everyday duties. Protect them with your life, he’d said. What did that even mean? Did he really expect me to just throw my life away? If someone was going to kill, how would killing me make the heir safer? Honestly, I thought the kingdom was better off without anyone in my family helping. The whole lot of us were lunatics - besides my cousin and mother. They really didn’t deserve a family as bad as us. Arriving at our destination snapped me out of my thoughts. “Here’s your room.” I stated, opening the Princess’s door for her. She strode in angrily, then whipped around, her jewelry clinging together—like it was as furious as she was. “You couldn’t help me sneak out?” She hissed, half-spreading her wings in an attempt to look intimidating, and lashing her tail. I had to work hard not to roll my eyes. “Last time I helped you sneak out my father grounded me.” I explained to her, again. Of course Vapor had fun that day. I hadn’t been so lucky. She’d been grounded and instead of going to her chambers, I helped her sneak out and got caught soon after by my father, who had been on his way to a meeting. I’d received quite a beating afterwards. It only felt worse when I heard that Vapor hadn’t gotten caught until midnight, and had been pranking guards the whole afternoon. “I get grounded all the time.” It almost sounded like she was bragging. Then again, I guess bragging from Vapor wasn’t unexpected. “S’not like you actually get buried in the ground.” Yes. Grounded for an heir typically consisted of me having to escort the grumpy dragon to their room, and then seeing them out and about, happy as a lark later. “Well, I’m not fond of it.” I told the four-year old, sniffing condescendingly. “Now I brought you here, and I have to get home.” I turned and walked away, ignoring her yelling after me. I was actually supposed to be grounded right now as well, and for my sake, I had to get back home before my father did. The scent of minnow soup tainted my nostrils as I passed through the wooden doorframe of my house; Mother had made some food for me. Wherever she was. I sat down and sipped the soup sparingly, my stomach was churning and I couldn’t stomach too much. Ripple wasn’t here this week. But Saturday was almost over, so maybe tomorrow I would be more fortunate. The house always seemed emptier without Ripple, even though my cousin never made much noise inside. I dumped out my soup and washed my bowl in the stream nearby, placing the now-clean bowl on the shelf next to just one other. It struck me odd, that Father being a royal advisor still left the family poor. Or maybe he was stingy and was hoarding his money somewhere. Or maybe it was just plain lunacy. I knew my father best for lunacy. I dug my talons into the floor, hooking them around the edge of the near-invisible cellar door, and hefted it up and open. Father had locked me up in here before he left for work this morning, and I was supposed to have stayed in. I dropped in, closing it above me, and pulling a box out from the shadows, opening it and removing my escapism journal. The idea was that I would write about ways to get out of the different places Father locked me in, and then find a way to keep the journal with me all the time. That way if I got thrown in the cellar, or the caves, I’d have a way out.
It was a small, faded blue book, held together with some old wooden binding. There were old dragons who preferred scrolls still, but it was much easier to find your chapter in a book. Many scrolls were being rewritten as books nowadays. Although, books would never seem as sacred as scrolls. That was something I agreed with the old farts on. When I’d originally told Ripple about the idea of having a journal, he laughed and said that was a girly thing. I had stolen an unwritten book from the kingdom storage anyway and hid it from my family. I hadn’t written anything yet, but now I grabbed a quill from the mess of a cellar I was in, and wrote something at the bottom of the page. PS: Ripple’s Mother’s birthday is tomorrow, get her something nice. I scrawled this in the best cursive I could manage (which wasn’t very good, mind you), and then blew softly on the ink to make it dry before closing the book. I heard Father come inside and quickly stashed my journal away, putting on my best bored expression. Father raised the hatch and I looked up and squinted in the light, the silhouette of Father ominously standing over me. He growled calmly. “Get out.” I complied and jumped up, scuffing my talons on the floor as I hefted my body out of the pit, and then looked at the ground, breathing carefully. It was crucial that I said and did the right things when it came to Father. “Come outside” was his next command. I did what he said once more, quickly walking outside and standing on the sandy beach. “Stand still.” I hated those two words. Before I knew it, sharp talons slashed across my face, skimming my left eye and I stumbled, blood turning my vision red. The wound hurt more like ice than fire, and I shuddered. I looked up at my father with my right eye instead of cowering like most would. “You left the cellar today, Depths.” He growled, voice shaking with anger. Probably not anger. To me it was more like insanity, but saying that wouldn’t get me anywhere, now would it? “I didn’t.” I replied, blinking away red droplets. Father hissed. “Don’t take me for an idiot.” Yeah, I was only eleven, but I’d been putting up with my dad since I was a hatchling, and fear was the last thing on my mind. Hatred was more accurate. “Come.” He growled, and I followed, glaring at the back of his head as we walked. We passed both of the usual caves, and I began to sweat. He’d never gone this far down the beach before. A new cave. As we approached I quickly looked over the cave. No bats. Not great. As soon as we were inside, Father shoved me into the jagged wall with a bone-crushing crack. “Running away is not permitted.” Pain jolted through my being like lightning and the shock escaped in my scream. Something broke. I was certain. My world was filled with black blotches and then everything went out. At some point I must have thrown up. When I woke up my head was dizzy, but I still knew I had to get out. From my vantage point on the ground, I could observe enough of the cavern to get an idea of what to do. Escape tactic No. 1 - Scare the bats and they’ll lead you out in an attempt to get away. No bats were in this cave, sadly. Would’ve been nice. And I couldn’t go deeper. The caverns around here were a labyrinth of catacombs that just kept going. Cross that off the list. Escape tactic No. 2 - Wait for help. The first time I’d been locked up, I’d waited three days to be let out. Nothing. Then I spent the next day, dehydrated and starving figuring a way out of that cellar. I learned pretty quickly that my Father didn’t care if I lived or died. The only advantage to my being alive was that he would have a slave. One night, I had almost stayed and starved just to spite him, but then it occurred to me that he would find a way to replace me with Ripple, and the thought made my stomach churn. Escape tactic No. 3 - Find the weak point in the cave-in and blast it. I hated this tactic. Mostly because producing a water blast dehydrated me enough to faint often enough. But I really had no choice. So I stood up, and immediately fell to the stone again with a sharp cry of pain. My left side screamed in pain and I could have swore there was steam coming from it. So after a few minutes of laying in my pain, I stood up again, and faced the opening. Well, opening wouldn’t be the correct term. Father had used his water breath to dislodge the rocks and cause the opening to collapse. I hunkered down in front of the opening, and summoned a jet of water from inside, shooting an icy beam at the rocks. Steady. After a little bit of adjusting aim, I found the weak point, and the wall collapsed, sunlight lit up the cavern. Dizzy from the work, I blacked out once more. Yw! Anyway, I need to revise chapter two one more time so—Yeet
