Coral Moon (The Ice Dragon)

Coral Moon

(The Ice Dragon)

"Wake up! Fucking Royalty!" A violent throbbing radiating across Coral's cheek interrupted a perfectly wonderful dream. "Walk away, NOW!" That voice had chastised her many a time before. Once again, she was late for something, and here was Aurora to scold her. The arrogant tone of a girl half Coral's age mixed in with a familiar whistle on the air.

"Child, you forget who your Queen is!" Coral's bed was soft, cold, and filled with dreams as bright as the dawn. A glorious sunrise she forged with the help of an extraordinary woman. If not for her lifelong friend, Coral wouldn't tolerate Aurora. What use found in the crass child was beyond Coral's understanding.

"Never! Never a heretic Queen!" Pins jolted across Coral's nervous system in waves as the second voice startled her senses back into full function. There was no glorious dawn to greet Coral. Only a whistle upon the air, a bellowing cry, and a heavy thunk.

"Aurora?!" Seconds ago, Coral was wonderfully lost asleep in a beautiful dream. Rubbing the haze out of her eyes, Coral became acutely aware of her reality. Grim moonlight had replaced the sun-bathed glow of her imagination. Gone was the enigmatic woman that had guided her along this path in life. Instead, her bed-chamber was alight by the blazing runes upon Aurora's bronze skin.

In the silence, Coral could hear the faint dripping of what she assumed was blood. It took only moments to understand what was happening. Aurora would not enter full glow mode for a simple blade fight. Her assassin just made it so obvious, so dull. The glacial blue cloak with the silver trim emblazoned with the visage of a silver dragon. This attempt against her life was an organized effort for these zealots to gain access to her chamber.

"How infuriating! Here I was dreaming about a Goddess and all the nasty things she could do to my body." Coral huffed, jumping out of the comfort of her ice-cold bedding. "Now I must clothe myself for what? What exactly is this, Aurora?"

"Really?" Growled Aurora somewhere in the darkness. Coral was too busy battling the frilled black blouse she attempted to slide over herself. "I told you this would happen, but you wouldn't listen" The voice was louder as Coral fidgeted her legs, sliding them into her loose-fitting trousers. No point in getting any of her spectacular dresses bloody.

"I'm sorry dear. Were you saying something?" Coral said, finally turning to face her early morning visitor.

"You vapid clueless royal cunt.." Aurora screamed back at Coral.

"Meow kitten.." Coral enjoyed these moments of being rebuked by a child.

"If not for the mistress.." Aurora said in a tone Coral took for confidence. Authority? Ignorance?

"If not for your mistress Aurora." Coral snapped back as she kicked her would-be killer onto his back. "You would have perished the night you attempted this lunacy." Kneeling before the poor soul that just lost their life, Coral sought nuanced answers to all this. Her assailant's hands were ungloved and smooth. Trousers that had grown thin and tattered. A pale blue shirt no thicker than her bed sheets now stained a muddy brown from the solitary puncture wound in the left breast. Aurora was always so precise with her blades.

"Poor thing, I'm sure they promised you a future." Turning her gaze from the pale green eyes of a child, Coral couldn't help but feel responsible. The Or-Ne-Dra was never going to absolve its theocratic control of Atlantis. If all their organization existed for was to perform fellatio on a Dragon, Coral was right here and ready for a great time. The tale of Ultima & Gaia was just a fairy tale they used to control people.

"I am relieved the blood is not yours," Coral said, looking in Aurora's direction. Her "savior" was still in full-blown glow mode but unharmed from what Coral could gleam. "Do you recognize them?"

"No, my Queen." Finally, some respect from the angry kitten.

"Full glow for a nobody child?" Coral couldn't help herself. After all, she was the Queen. What good was that if she couldn't poke fun at Aurora?

"I warned them; I was hoping to scare them." Aurora took an instinctual step back from Coral.

"Your face alone didn't do the job? Had to flare up and kill a kid?" A jest, but Coral believed this loss of life was avoidable, much like Aurora's mistress would.

"Fucking hate you!" As the ruby glow leaves Aurora's body, Coral is relieved she still has Aurora's ever-glowing hatred of her as a guiding star. Coral needed Aurora to maintain her fiery defiance. Aurora will need that resilience and will to survive what is about to happen.

"That's ok, kitten. I loathe you too." Coral couldn't help releasing a smirk and a giggle as she popped to her feet. "But, sadly, my daughter loves you, and I would do disgusting things to your Mistress."

"Goddess, spare me your vulgarity." An audible gulp of disgust before the chorus of screams broke the silence. Such inexcusable loss of life and for what? The vanity of an elite few? Was Coral's future so vile that children believed she was evil?

"By your Goddess's grace, may she sit on my face!" Coral retorted back. How long did she have? Minutes? Seconds? More whistling through the halls of ice. Sound traveled quickly in Atlantis, echoing across the glacial walls of her homeland.

"I should let them kill you?" Aurora had expressed such desires before. After all, she had tried to do the job herself more than once. Coral couldn't help but be excited by the prospect of them trying. Life was dull with her friend away. Maybe an earnest attempt at her life was what she needed right now.

"What makes you certain they could?" Again Coral couldn't help but giggle to herself. Who the hell would be crazy enough to challenge her within her home? The hubris to think they could slay a dragon in her natural element.

"My father," Aurora's response hit Coral like a train causing her heart to skip a beat. She couldn't allow Aurora to see any signs of her rising heartbeat. Even as much as they hated each other, Coral was Queen. It was her job to lead.

"Oh! Are you sure?" Stupid body breath! It's just one relic refusing to relinquish power he doesn't deserve to have. Could the father succeed where his child failed? Two more involuntary moments of severe pressure compressing her heart.

"He was leading the forces in the dock. I pinged him instantly from the tower." If only Coral had the slightest inclination that Aurora was capable of lying. Such a boring and dutiful child. Daddy's perfect little assassin, now Coral wanted to vomit.

"Whatever happened to the Queen being the voice of Ultima?" An external joke to mask the genuine internal monologue of "FUCK!" Coral had replaced the whistling on the wind with the howl of repeated internal "FUCKS!"

"Got a plan, my vulgar vapid Queen?" Aurora was strong and proud in the tone of her speech. Coral now had crossed the room to her current companion. Brushing Aurora's hair behind her ear gently with her fingertips, all Coral saw was a frightened young woman. The still and conditioned body of a warrior, paired with the trembling eyes of a tortured soul whose devil has arrived to collect.

"Plan? Silly kitten, I have already flooded my castle with their blood!" Coral couldn't help but giggle again as Aurora stared up at her. Was Aurora's look one of amazement? Skepticism? It didn't matter. Coral had spent the length of this boring conversation using her palace as a living weapon. Vesper had come to claim the life of a dragon. All Coral had to do was sit back and wait for the relic to attempt to claim his prize.

"What?!" Aurora had not become aware that the whistling upon the air, the clash of blades had halted. Coral enjoyed being vulgar, and if finding people boring made her vapid, that didn't matter to her. She was the Queen, the Ice Dragon of Atlantis. Anyone tiresome enough to invade her home will face her fury.

"Listen carefully, kitten. I won't have time to repeat myself." It was never within Coral to flee while her people suffered. Lilith had taught Coral how every life was precious, even the life of this child she hated. Aurora was now Coral's only hope. Without removing her gaze from Aurora's, Coral swiftly raised her hand, striking the same cheek that ached only a few minutes before.

"Better?" Aurora finally had rustled free of Coral's grip and unblinking gaze. Maybe Aurora believed she was staring straight through her soul. The morning sun began to lighten her castle walls as rainbow prisms spread across the icy crystalline borders. Nothing even remotely close to her fantasy dawn, lying next to the exotic naked figure of Lilith. Aurora loved nothing more than to stare longingly into those wondrous blood-filled eyes.

"No, you're too hideous for this to be a dream." Coral was going to miss Aurora.