Banished

Chapter 1

Sapphire was correct with her statement. The world really was never the same after that little meeting. Both of them tried to meet in private almost every single day, after the victory over the skybreaths, even though it was filled with lots of challenges. The more they did meet, the more their love and relationship with each other grew. No one knew about their meetings, especially their mothers, Coral and Queen Glacier. Sadly, one day Sapphire let it slip.

The note came from Frostwing, like it normally did, telling her to meet him outside of the ice wall he created as a gift for all of the icebreaths. Sapphire’s heart leaped out of her chest in joy and she stood up to leave so she could meet him there. Suddenly, Coral was in the doorway, blocking Sapphire’s way and smirking.

“Just where do you think you are going, Sapphire?” She asked. Sapphire stood taller and lifted her wings a bit, trying to look confident.

“I’m going out to meet with a friend.”She replied coolly. Coral snorted in disbelief.

“Is that so? What might this friend's name be?” She said it like she was actually curious, but Sapphire knew that she was just trying to get on her nerves so she’d say something she’d regret.

“Does it really matter what his name is?”

“Oh, so it’s a boy.” Coral laughed, angering Sapphire. “Is he your boyfriend or just a friend?”

It doesn’t really matter!” Sapphire finally snapped. “All you need to know is that Frostwing is…” She trailed off. She didn’t mean to let the name slip, but Coral was just frusturating her too much. She took a step back. Coral’s eyes turned slitted with anger.

“You’re meeting with the prince of the icebreath’s!” She screeched, making Sapphire flinch back even more. “How long has this been going on?”

“Well…” She started, knowing it was far too late for her to stop. “Since the meeting with the icebreaths three weeks ago.” Coral looked like she was ready to kill Sapphire.

“I thought I made it very clear to tell you to not talk to any other dragons except myself. Sapphire roller her eyes.

“Well, technically, he was the one that talked to me.” She muttered, but not surprisingly, coral wasn’t really listening.

“How hard is it to listen to one simple command that I give you!” Coral shouted. “I told you to not talk to any Icebreath, and you decide to go and talk to the prince!” Sapphire had enough of this.

“Look, if you would just listen to me, you might have heard that I didn’t go up and start talking to him. He started talking to me. Okay?” Even with that little piece of evidence, Coral was still able to find a way around that.

“Well, did you tell him that you weren’t able to talk to him? Because that should have stopped him.”

“Yes! Of course I told him.” Sapphire snapped. “He still wanted to talk to me though! What was I supposed to do? Tell him to go eat his own tail?”

“You should have just stayed by my side the entire time! That might have made you not be able to talk to any icebreaths in the first place!”

“Why are you even making this such a big deal! I got a friend, and we are very close! What’s the big deal with this?” Suddenly, Sapphire realized exactly what Coral was going to say, and then she’d figure out the real truth about them.

“Well, for one, you might have fallen in love with him.’ Coral growled. “That’s what’s wrong! You’d go behind the law!” Sapphire gulped, a little scared of what was going to happen next. That’s exactly what happened. She fell in love with him. There was only one thing that Coral wouldn’t guess, and that is he also fell in love with her. Sapphire suddenly knew that she should have spoken up, but it was too late. Coral could already see by her reaction that is exactly what happened.

“That can’t be possible.” Coral was barely able to choke out. “You really did fall in with him.” It really wasn’t a question, but Sapphire nodded anyways. Coral shook her head.

“No,no,no,no,no,no,no!” She shouted angrily. “This can’t actually be happening! He’d never agree to this! He must have been forced-”

“No!” Sapphire snarled, now angry at Coral for being oblivious. “He was not forced into this relationship! In case you’re to stupid to figure this out, he also fell in love with me!” Coral looked at her in disbelief, and she opened and closed her wings repetitively.

“So,” Sapphire finally said after being able to control her anger. “Can I go meet up with him now, please?”

“No. You can’t.” Coral replied in barley a whisper. “You’re going to be staying in your room, until I discuss all the consequences with, first, your father then… the the queen herself”

“Oh, come on! Why does there always have to be consequences! Can’t a dragon chose who they love without someone keeping them apart?” Coral let out a threatening growl.

“Do you really want to fight me on this?” She asked, barely controlling her anger. “Stay in your room until I get back!” Sapphire didn’t want to fight her now, especially when Coral was in her dangerous mode. So, she sat down. Coral stared at her for a second more, then she retreated from the doorway. Sapphire’s room was a small room in the corner of the house. Being the least favorite dragon of three siblings, all she had was a pile of seaweed in the middle of the room for her bed and a working corner, while all her sisters got beautiful gems and junk that they didn’t even need. Sapphire finally got up and went to her working corner where she made a work table out of wood for herself. She reached out her one window, and grabbed a piece of driftwood. She put it on the table, and sat down. First, using her claws she carved the piece into a large square. Quickly, she started shaping it into the shape of an icebreath. More specifically. Frostwing. To her right she had a beautiful shelf filled with all of her carvings of Frostwing. It was probably littered with more than 20 of them. When she was finally finished the new carving, she inspected it. From the nose down to the tail, and every detail in between. When she decided that this was probably the best one that she’d ever done, she put it directly in the center of the shelf, and in front of the others. She quickly glanced at the doorway, but Coral wasn’t there quite yet.

“Not back yet.” She sighed. “I guess that I’ll just keep carving.” Once again, she reached out the window to grab a piece of driftwood. Only to find out that it was all gone now. She sighed unhappily. She wanted to climb out and get more driftwood, but she was afraid that she’d get caught by Coral. Thankfully, at that very moment, Coral came around a corner and stood in the doorway.

“Come on!” She snarled. “It’s time that we both go and talk to the queen about your stupid choice.” Without waiting for Sapphire to reply, Coral had disappeared around the corner again. Sapphire rolled her eyes, but started towards the door. Then, just for a bit of luck, she turned around and grabbed the new carving of Frostwing. She ran out of the house, where Coral was waiting impatiently. She looked at the carving then glared at Sapphire.

“You are going to leave that here!” She spat. Sapphire drew it closer to her chest and glared right back at Coral.

“It is coming with me, no questions.” She snapped. Coral rolled her eyes out of anger, but started flying towards the palace. Sapphire took off after her, and was already able to see the queen’s palace, since Sapphire’s house wasn’t very far away from the palace. Even though it wasn’t very far, it still felt like she was going to fall out of the sky after only a few minutes, because she was built for swimming, not flying. After what seemed like an eternity of flying, they reached the front entrance of the palace. Sapphire had always imagined that the palace would be big, but this palace loomed over her, amazing her. Coral caught her gazing, and quickly shoved her through the front doors. The place felt like a maze through all the halls, but somehow Coral seemed to know exactly where she was going. A few quick turns, and they ended up at the entrance to the throne room. Two bulky guards stood in front of it. One of them noticed Coral, and gave a short nod.

“Greetings, Coral.” She said “What brings you here today?”

“I need to talk to queen Pearl about my troublesome daughter.” Coral replied coolly. The guard quickly slipped into the room, than emerged à couple seconds later. 

“You may enter.” He said. Coral tipped her head slightly, and both of them walked through the doors into the throne room. Queen Pearl waited for them to get closer before speaking.

“Coral, I assume that this is your troublesome daughter?” She stated. Coral smiled maliciously, and nodded.

“Yes, she is.” She replied. Her fate is now officially in your hands.” Queen Pearl laughed evilly.

“That is just what I want.” Sapphire finally caught on to what was happening and turned to Coral.

“You already went to the queen!” She exclaimed.

“Yes I did.” Coral laughed. “And it’s a good thing that I did too. I love what the consequence is.”

“You said that you were going to go and talk to father first at his job!” Sapphire shouted angrily. “You lied to me!”

“I did not lie to you.” Coral growled. “I merely changed my mind in the order I did. Now listen to the consequence.” Sapphire growled at Coral but turned to face queen Pearl again.

“Sapphire, daughter of Coral,” The queen started. “Your punishment for talking to prince Frostwing of the icebreath’s without permission is death in the courtyard. Guards! Escort her to the courtyard and kill her!” Four large guards circled around her, making escape improbable. Sapphire froze where she was standing, too afraid to try to escape from them. All she wanted was for Frostwing to come swooping down from the sky and save her, but she knew that this was up to her to save herself.

“Wait, your majesty!” She cried, making the guards pause. “Why can’t you give me a second chance? I promise that I’ll do better!” Queen Pearl almost fell off her chair laughing so hard.

“I’m not as stupid as your sisters, Sapphire.” She finally said. “I know that you’ll say anything to leave this palace alive and see Frostwing again. Guards, continue.” Of course her plan had worked. A gap had appeared between the guards, so Sapphire took the chance. She leaped through that gap and sprinted through the large doors, where two confused guards awaited their orders. After a second, they came.

“Guards!Catch that dragonet!” The queen screeched. Thankfully, Sapphire had a very good head start, and had already rounded two corners. Plus if the hallways were just as confusing to them as they were to Sapphire, she had a half decent chance at escaping. Two more halls passed her and she could finally see the way she would get out of. She was so close! Suddenly, a large, muscular dragon stood in front of it. Sapphire didn’t know where he came from, but she had a plan on how to get out. She charged straight for him, wings spread to look bigger. WHen she got close enough, he finally ducked a little, giving her the space to leap over him. She slammed into the top of the doors and they flung open. She made it! Sapphire knew that she could no longer return back home, since everyone else would return to the house after a couple hours. She had only two options. She could leave the island forever and find a new one, or she could go and try to live with the icebreaths. She took a minute to think about it, then she took a deep breath to calm herself. She turned north. She was going to go exactly where she was sure that she’d be safe. Quickly, she flapped her wings hard to gain a little bit more speed. She knew that she’d be a little late, but it was better late than never showing up. She just hoped that Frostwing would be patient and wait for her in front of the icewall.