Even as Prince Nathan and his friends were making startling discoveries about sea serpents, Princess Nataleigh and Frangen were following a different path with similar surprises. Only minutes earlier Nathan had missed them in the darkness of the corridor just before he entered the serpent’s home. What he could not have known was that mere heartbeats before he entered the corridor his sister and Frangen had already met a sea serpent and disappeared from the passage just missing him…Nataleigh felt the blood drain from her head and thought she was going to faint for a moment as the two-headed shadow took shape out of the darkness. Frangen stepped in front of her, reaching to cock the stinkball launcher and aim for the serpent’s nostrils!
But his target was much lower to the ground than it should have been, barely taller than the inventor. And now as they looked at it more closely in the lamplight of Frangen’s hat, they both realized that one of the heads had no nostrils at all. It looked more like a stuffed toy with a paper tongue sticking out and button eyes. In fact, it was a stuffed toy. It was a rag dragon made of green silk and sewed together with large, golden thread and it was perched on the back of a small, obviously young sea dragon with only one head.
The little dragon screeched in shock as she found herself suddenly staring down the barrel of a stinky ball launcher and into the eyes of the muddled dwarf who pointed it at her. She jumped back and dropped her rag doll, putting her flippers to her mouth as she hiccupped smoke.
For a moment, no one moved as Frangen and the tiny serpent faced off, both shaking where they stood. It was hard to tell which was the more frightened.
Finally, seeing the fear in the serpent’s face, the Princess regained her composure and stepped forward, pushing Frangen’s weapon down.
“Hold on a minute, Frangen!” She said. “This isn’t a monster. It’s just a baby. And we scared her, the poor thing.”
Moving slowly she began to move forward and talk soothingly to the baby dragon.
“It’s ok, little one. We’re not going to hurt you.”
The little sea dragon seemed to relax instantly, her big blue eyes blinking in the spotlight and she even began to wag her forked tail.
“My name is Nataleigh. I’m a princess from the Ivory Palace and I love dragons, especially beautiful little sea dragons like you with your sparkling green scales. You’re just adorable.”
Suddenly the baby dragon came to life. Her eyes opened wide and she squealed again, only this time with delight.
“Do you really think so? OH, I knew you were real! And you’re nice too! Wait until I tell Coralee!”
And then she leapt forward practically knocking the princess to the ground as she threw her flippers around her in a big serpentine hug.
For a second, Nataleigh panicked again, thinking the dragon had turned on her and was attacking after all. She stiffened. But as quickly as the little sea serpent had grabbed her, it released her. Then sitting back on her tail like a sea lion, she clapped her flippers together and giggled.
“Are you really the princess of Amiera? I told Coralee that you existed! My name’s Anna Monee! I’m seven months old. Coralee’s my cousin. She’s eleven. She says humans don’t exist. Can you believe that? How silly ‘cause here you are!”
The princess was astonished by this turn of events. First she’d thought they were about to get eaten by a giant sea serpent, and then she’d thought this was a helpless baby. But now she realized that this little female sea dragon was neither. Instead she had discovered a bundle of energy with flippers. She smiled in spite of herself then looked at Frangen.
The inventor hadn’t moved, except to drop his jaw. He simply stood with his stink-ball launcher at his side dripping foul liquid on his shoe and not knowing what to make of this situation.
“Well, don’t just stand there,” laughed the little dragon. “You’ve got to meet her! She spent the night last night and we’re playing house. I was the mama and papa and she’s my child. I just left her back in the playroom down this side passage. We were pretending that it was our house and I was going grocery hunting while she took her nap. But forget that now! She’s got to meet you and see that you’re real! And then I’ve got to show you to my mama and papa!”
Anna Monee turned to go, but Nataleigh hesitated at the mention of a mama and papa sea serpent.
“Um, are your mama and papa going to be, uh… happy to see me?” she stuttered. “I mean, will they be glad to talk with me? They won’t think I’m dinner… that is that I’m uh, here for dinner, will they?”
“Of course not! Don’t be silly! Though Mama always insists that everyone stay for dinner.” She cocked her head to one side in thought. “But Papa is the keeper of the Key and you’ll want to talk to him about that since it practically belongs to you. Maybe you can convince him to get rid of it! He spends too much time on it anyway… But never mind that right now. First you’ve got to meet my cousin. Come on. Just follow me.”
This time, without waiting, she spun around, picked up her rag dragon, and scooted down the tunnel. After only a few dozen feet, she took a quick turn to the left and disappeared down a smaller side passage that neither of them had noticed before.
The Princess turned again to Frangen who simply shrugged his shoulders. Then both of them followed, still somewhat reluctant, but caught up in the infectious joy of their new little friend as she called for them.
A moment later they too had disappeared down the small side tunnel, the light of Frangen’s hat lamp gone just as Prince Nathan ran down the corridor in the dark, missing the side tunnel in his panicked search for his sister.
* * *
And so, while Prince Nathan explored the sea serpent kitchen and cavern pool looking for her, Princess Nataleigh and Frangen followed the baby sea serpent down different tunnels to a cave that was obviously the sea serpent family nursery.
The nursery cave was smaller than the cavernous living area with the pool, but it was still large by the standards of dwarves and human children. The cave seemed smaller than it was, however, since it was cluttered with toys of every kind. Nataleigh was amazed at how many toys and playthings sea serpent children played with. In fact they weren’t much different than human or dwarf children toys. There were sea-weed stuffed toys and dolls, rocking dragons, clamshell dish sets, water color paints on a large rock table with seahorse-hair brushes and even books lining shelves. The princess wondered how sea dragons read books with flippers for hands, but before she could wonder about much else, Anna Monee was introducing them to her cousin.
“Coralee, Coralee!” she bubbled. “Look what I found out in the passages! Humans, Coralee! See. I told you they were real!”
Coralee was obviously older than Anna, standing a whole serpent’s head taller with pinkish blue scales rather than the green that Anna Monee’s family had. She was a very pretty sea dragon and obviously took great pride in that fact. Her eyelashes were long, her claws painted and her scaly skin was sprinkled with some kind of glittering dust or powder.
Coralee was obviously shocked and a bit frightened at the sudden appearance of strangers in the nursery, but she recovered quickly as they approached. In fact, once she saw the princess her eyes grew as wide as saucers and she became almost as giddy as her cousin.
“Anna Monee, where did you find them? She’s beautiful!”
“Why thank you,” Nataleigh stuttered, not knowing quite how to handle the compliment.
“So you’re the Princess of Amiera?” Coralee sighed. “Oh how dreamy. You must have the most wonderful make-up and clothing. Please sit and tell us all about it. I just love to learn new beauty secrets!”
Suddenly she wrinkled her nose and drew back. “Ew, what’s that awful smell?”
Frangen had just walked up behind the Princess, his stinkball launcher still dripping foul muck all over the place. In all of the excitement, the inventor had completely forgotten his brother’s warning about keeping it held upright. Now he blushed in embarrassment as the three girls covered their noses and groaned.
“Sorry.” He apologized sheepishly.
Coralee looked as if she were going to be sick as she gave quick instructions. “Anna Monee, why did you bring this dwarf in the lair? You know what your father says about dwarves! They are filthy and they shed hair all over the place! And this one stinks! Gross! My stomach!”
Then waving toward another tunnel, “Take him to the bathing pool down the corridor before I pass out! And make sure he uses soap!”
Anna’s face fell at the command. She wanted to stay and be part of the girl talk that was sure to take place while she was gone, but she shrugged and headed out. Frangen looked lost. Holding the launcher up so it would no longer drip, he followed the younger sea dragon, still tracking stinkball juices from his boots to the floor with every step.
“Oh, that stuff is horrid!” Coralee said through her flippers turning back to Princess Nataleigh. “Who is that and why did you bring him along?”
Nataleigh was disgusted by it herself, but her mind was preoccupied by something Anna Monee had said when they first met her. All the way from the corridor to the nursery, the princess had been replaying the little serpent’s statement about a key over and over in her mind. What had she said? Her papa was the keeper of the key? But more importantly, Anna had said it belonged to the Princess. Could this key be the Serpent’s Eye? And if so, why would it belong to her? Was it her father’s maybe? The possibility filled Nataleigh’s heart and mind. She was so close to her goal! She could feel it. All she had to do was get these two young sea serpents to help her, and that didn’t seem like it would be too difficult with how much they seemed to gush all over her.
“His name is Frangen. He’s helping me to find something that my family lost. That’s why we’re here.” The princess explained. “Coralee, I’m looking for the key that Anna’s father is keeping for us. Do you know anything about it?”
“A Key to what?” Coralee asked without interest. “Anna’s papa has all kinds of little trinkets in his treasure cave, but we’re not allowed to play in there. Besides, I’d rather get some advice from you. They say that if you want to look good, ask a princess, especially human princesses! Oh, I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about neck-ridge treatments and horn buffing!”
Coralee moved over to a bowl shaped stone next to the stone table and slid into it, plopping her fins on the table top. “Now, tell me what you think of my talon colors. Do you think this color compliments my scales?”
Nataleigh rolled her eyes and sighed. Maybe this wasn’t going to be as easy as she had thought. Coralee, especially seemed one track minded. The princess had to think of a way to get her mind off of beauty treatments and on to this treasure cave she had mentioned. Suddenly an idea hit her.
“I think your talons and eyelashes, even your scales are gorgeous, Coralee. But have you ever considered jewelry?” Nataleigh teased. “That’s what you’re missing if you ask me. There’s nothing that hi-lights glittering scales and glowing eyes like some sparkling jewels around one’s neck. And dangling a string of them from your tail or wearing a bracelet around a fin or two, that’s simply to die for!”
Seeing the young sea serpent’s eyes widen with delight, the princess continued to bait the hook.
“Pearls! That’s what you need. Nothing would match the undersea aqua shades of your scales like pearls. The bigger the better! Do you have any around that we could try on you?”
Coralee’s eyes dimmed and she lowered her head as she considered the answer. “No, my parents say I’m too young for jewelry and so do Anna Monee’s. Neither of us have any yet. I have my crest pierced, but I can’t put anything in it more than a boring ol’ stud.”
“Oh, come on now.” Nataleigh tempted. “Surely we can scrounge something up around here, just to see how you look. They don’t have to know. I mean, it’s not every day you have a princess around to give you some tips. Right? If we try some stuff out, I can tell you what looks best on you and then when you’re old enough you’ll know what to go with.”
“That’s true!” Coralee brightened and then frowned again. “But I don’t know where to get any of the good stuff.”
Nataleigh smiled and reeled in her catch like an expert fisherman. “What about that treasure cave you mentioned? You said you couldn’t play in there, but we won’t be playing. This will be some serious business going on. I bet there are some gorgeous pearls in there that would look just dazzling on you. Should we go take a peak?”
“You think so?” Coralee beamed again.
“Absolutely! Come on.”
The sea serpent bounded up and led the princess out of the room the same way Anna Monee had just taken Frangen, but she quickly took a different passage to avoid being seen by her little cousin. A few tense moments of creeping down passages later and they were at the entrance to the treasure cave. Princess Nataleigh quietly entered and nearly gasped at the beauty of the chamber.
Everything one would imagine a treasure to contain was in this place: piles of gold and silver, treasure chests - some closed, some tipped over and spilling their contents onto the floor – giant gems, pearls and strings of jewels tossed about and hanging on perfectly molded golden artifacts. There were finely crafted weapons, suits of armor, statues and even some furniture with silk cushions sitting around the chamber. But the princess was not sidetracked by all of this wealth for long, for sitting on a platform at the end of the cavern sat what had to be the object of her quest: The Serpent’s Eye!
No comments:
Post a Comment