Beyond the Abode

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Beyond the Abode is a fanfic written by DABADABADOOBURD about an isolated SeaWing princess freeing herself from isolation, and making naïve decisions which forbid her from returning to the place she once called home.
=== Prologue ===
Keep swimming. Find mother. Ask her and get over with it.
Waterwheel repeated the same thoughts in his head.
Keep swimming. Find mother. Ask her and get over with it. Keep swimming. Find mother. Ask her and get over with it. Keep swimming. Find mother. Ask her and get over with it.
He searched the halls of the deep sea palace. He checked the library, the throne room, the dining hall, and even his mother’s room. Where could a SeaWing queen possibly be? He wondered. He didn’t want to take too long.
He didn’t want to make Phthalo wait. Phthalo…
He had met her 3 years ago while out exploring. He was looking for a large batch of coral. He was planning on making underwater writing tablets, and coral was just the thing to use. He was heading to the reef and the kelp forest just so happened to be on that way, but thank the moons that it was.
He was swimming right through it when he saw a beautiful dragon collecting underwater herbs. She was the most beautiful SeaWing he had ever seen. She had beautiful, indicolite over scales that glittered like pearls, and a deep navy-blue underbelly that reminded him of the shade of trenches.
He was watching her in awe as though he had just witnessed a great war coming to an end. There was something about this dragon. He silently swam towards her, and gently tapped her on the shoulder. She suddenly turned around and seemed like she’d been started. Her expression didn’t change when she saw Waterwheel. "Hey," he flashed his scales in aquatic and did a small wave.
"I didn’t mean to startle you, sorry about that."
"And you would be?" She asked. Waterwheel moved back a little. He had seriously gone up to a random dragon in the middle of the kelp forest and said hi. "I’m- I mean- Uh-"
His scales went dark. She looked at him, confused and waved her talons in front of his eyes. "Are you okay? Sir?" She asked. He shook his head and snapped back into reality. "Sorry, sorry! I went speechless for a moment! I better get going, I need to collect coral!" He said with a nervous expression.
He swam in the direction of the coral reef and took one final glance towards her as he was swimming. "Goodbye! I’m usually here if you ever need me!" The dragon flashed.
That trip was most certainly not his last trip to the kelp forest. He visited again the next day. And the next, and the next. It had been a year, and they were in love. He wanted to move out of the palace, somewhere far away from where his wretched mother was, where he could live his life in peace with Phthalo. And that’s why he was looking for his mother, to let her know.
Slam!
The gates to the deep sea palace burst open. There she was, queen Coral. She was holding a ton of stone tablets, and swam straight for her workroom. Waterwheel quickly followed, but was stopped by a guard. "The queen has urgent business," the guard flashed. "Let me see her! I’m her son!" Waterwheel demanded. Coral had so many sons, that not even the guards could tell who a normal citizen was and who wasn’t. Waterwheel expanded his white webbed wings to reveal his royal patterns. The guard seemed reluctant, but Waterwheel pushed him aside and followed his mother to her workroom.
He pushed the doors open, and Coral immediately reacted. "WHO DARES ENT- oh- Waterwheel. Get out, I’m busy," she said. Coral didn’t know her sons well, but she still knew Waterwheel. He was the eldest son of Coral and was from her first clutch, the same clutch that Orca was in. Back then, she didn’t have may sons. Of course she knew him. She was arranging stone tablets from place to place, and she seemed as busy as usual at the moment. Poor Auklet, she was following around not to be dragged by her mother’s harness from place to place.
"Mother, I have something important to tell you."
Coral didn’t seem to care about what he had to say. She was reading something off of a stone tablet, and partially looked up. "Quick, I don’t have time."
"See, mother, three years back, I-"
"A story?! Waterwheel, just say it straightforward, I can’t listen."
"I’m moving away with my partner-"
"Alright, move away from the palace. Do whatever you want. Now, get out."
The doors slammed shut behind him. It was heartbreaking. The once loving mother he knew now didn't care if he moved out of their home. His hate for Coral burned even stronger. Stop feeling bad for yourself, Waterwheel! You should be happy! He thought to himself. She had said "do whatever you want." Waterwheel wasn't sure that she got the last part about his partner, but she had technically given him permission. Perhaps Coral hadn’t noticed, but Auklet had,
Auklet’s eyes had widened when Waterwheel told their mother, but it didn’t matter. What could a dragonet possibly do about it?
Waterwheel swam out the gates of the palace and headed to the kelp forest where Phthalo was waiting. "What did she say?" she asked. A smile spread across Waterwheel’s face. "She approved!" he flashed his scaled as brightly as possible. Phthalo dove into Waterwheel’s arms and wrapped her wings around him, going into a hug. He held her tightly. He could already dream how their home would be. What their dragonets would look like.
They would move far, far away from the cities and towns of the sea kingdom. Somewhere nice, where their dragonets could grow up away from the royal family. If he ever had daughters, they would never go on to challenge Coral. They would live a peaceful life, away from all other dragons.
Just Waterwheel and his family.
=== Chapter 1 ===
Gulf was having the time of her life. She was chasing around dolphins, making crowns out of pretty seaweed, and exploring the area around her home. It was her day off, and she was enjoying it to the fullest. Usually, her father would’ve been teaching her this time of day. Boring topics, such as the history of Pyrrhia and Pantala, about other dragon tribes, botany and other sciences. It was boring. It was really boring. Gulf didn’t have a choice but to learn this stuff, however.
They lived far from the closest SeaWing village. And besides- her parents isolated her and themselves. They didn’t want anything to do with other dragons. Her parents thought of this life as a peaceful, quiet life. The same didn't entirely go for Gulf. She was eager to see what was beyond their home. She wanted to see that other dragons looked like. She had never seen a dragon other than her parents before, and she was dying to meet new dragons. She didn’t have a choice, however.
First of all, she would disappoint her parents if she were to run or fly off to society. Secondly, she didn’t know the way. Thirdly, her life really was quite peaceful as opposed to what she heard from her father. 
Even if Gulf had never seen the world beyond her humble abode, her father told her all about it. She knew a lot of details. She knew that she was the SeaWing queen’s granddaughter, she knew that she was a princess. However, she wasn’t very proud of it.
Her father would always mention how horrible Coral was, how she mistreated her sons and how killed innocent dragons for failing to guard her eggs. Not a single positive thing about coral came out of her father’s scales.
She tossed around a rock in the water, and the dolphins began to play around with it. The dolphins always brought a beam of sunshine into Gulf’s mood. But even your favorite things get boring at times. One hour. Two hours. The dolphins left to go hunt, and Gulf had gotten bored anyways. She headed to the nearest kelp forest and swam around to see what she could do there.
The kelp forest was very pretty. Beams of sunlight leaked in through the thin leaves of the kelp. Sea otters swam around, hunting urchins. Crabs crawled on the ocean floor. Crabs…. That’s what she’d do! She’d hunt crabs! Crabs were Gulf’s favorite food. Fresh crab was amazing. It was like a party full of colors on her taste buds. She swam up and a bit above the roots of the kelp, and prepared to dive. She wanted to catch a crab when it least expected it.
It has been a solid twenty minutes, and Gulf saw no crabs. Bummer. Right as Gulf was about to leave, she noticed something red from the corner of here eye. She immediately turned. There it was, a nice, red, juicy crab. It was standing there at the roots of the kelp, frozen. Gulf imaged that the crab was exchanging looks with her, challenging her. She wasn’t about to lose this challenge.
She lunged at the crab, swimming as fast as she could, and she grabbed it.
"OW!" She yelled in Aquatic, and a few bubbles came out of her mouth.
The crab had pinched her. The pain was like geyser over a fresh cut would. She had no choice but to let go. The crab kept running. "You may have won the battle… but you haven’t won the war!" Gulf exclaimed. She knew that the crab would never understand, but she’d like to imagine that it would. The crab ran off, and Gulf followed. There! Right as Gulf was about to grab the crab, it went into a small burrow on the ocean floor.
"No, no, NO! Gulf said. I did NOT wait twenty minutes for an empty stomach! Come out of there! I COMMAND you to come out of there, you dumb crab!"
Suddenly, the crab walked out of it’s burrow. She was quite confused. Why would the crab walk out to be prey? Did it... listen to her?
"Crab, snap your claws 3 times."
The crab did exactly what she said. Was she talking to it, or controlling it?
"walk around in a circle"
The crab did as she said.
"Suffocate yourself."
The crab stuffed sand into it's gills, and then went limp after a minute.
…did she just do that?
=== Chapter 2 ===
Gulf picked up the now dead crab. She looked at it for a moment in surprise. She definitely wasn’t talking to it- she was strictly commanding it. She was controlling it. If she had only been talking to it, the crab wouldn’t have suffocated itself. Surprise flooded Gulf’s face. How on Pyrrhia-?! was it just crabs that she could control? What if she could control other animals too?
She swam up towards the surface of the water to find otters. She saw one holding onto a piece of kelp, sleeping. She didn’t swim too close to it, not to scare it away. “Wake up and swim to me,” She commanded it. The fuzzy little otter twirled around and dove into the water, swimming towards Gulf and stopped right in front of Gulf’s snout. It looked adorable with its little poofy face and cute black eyes. No matter how eager Gulf was to keep it, however, her parents didn’t allow her to have pets. Gulf didn’t know what to do with the otter now that it was there. Perhaps she could try some more commands.
“Twirl around!”
“Do a loop!”
“Speak!”
The last command was stupid. Otters didn’t have bioluminescent scales. They couldn’t speak.
But then, bubbles came out of the otter’s mouth. The otter was trying to orally speak. She could make the otter speak?!
Gulf never learned to orally speak, or speak with her voice. She was raised underwater her whole life, and only surfaced at times to look above the water. Like the villages, the closest island was very far away. She had never heard or seen oral speaking in her entire life, no speaking with words. Perhaps this was the first time she would hear it. She surfaced, and so did the otter. Sound came out of the otter’s mouth. It sounded sharper than how sound sounded underwater, but it was all gibberish to Gulf. She wished that she could make it speak aquatic, but it didn’t have bioluminescent scales.
Gulf let out a breath (sigh) and dove back down. She grabbed her dead crab and took one final look at the otter. The otter was still looking at her with its adorable face. It’s dark eyes overflowing with cuteness was staring into Gulf’s eyes. It was as though it was calling for Gulf to take her home. Gulf couldn’t resist it and commanded the otter. “Be tame.”
Gulf began swimming home, and the otter followed. As she swam back, she stared at her talons. She couldn’t get over the fact that she could control animals. It was like- magic. She remembered that her father had mentioned something about some sort of magic a few years back, but she didn’t remember the details. Animal magic, something like that. Perhaps this is what it was, the magic was about controlling animals. She glanced at her talons and felt special, but empty. With each command had come a slightly chilly sensation that felt as though a tiny part of her had been plucked out and replaced with a new one. It was hard to describe, even to herself.
The beams of the setting sun were reaching into the water, making the sea floor look like the colors of golden crabs. She finally reached her home, a cave in the middle of a coral reef. The entrance was surrounded with pretty carnation and sea fan coral, with all sorts of shades of red and pink. Her mother loved decorating the house with coral. It added joy to their home.
Right as Gulf was swimming into the cave, her father arrived too. He had taken a visit to a SeaWing village (not very) nearby to get some processed food. Processed food! It wasn’t usual that her parents got processed food, but it was amazing. It was food made on the surface where it was easier to add and mix in ingredients or seasonings to it, and it was her favorite too. Crab meat, sun dried and seasoned with salts and various peppers.
Gulf was about to go into the cave when she remembered the otter. She turned to her dad.
“Dad, I found this otter today. I know I’m not allowed to have pets, but can I keep it? Pleaseeeee?”
Waterwheel slowly shook his head. He put his talons on her shoulders.
“Sorry, Gulf. We’ve talked about this before with the dolphins too. You can’t keep pets. These are wild animals that have natural habitats. Besides, otters can’t breathe underwater. It would have to often surface for air. I hope you understand.”
Gulf suddenly felt guilty for forcefully making the otter come with her. Waterwheel was right, it had its own habitat and own life. Perhaps Gulf could visit the otter at times, but it had to stay at its home.
“Go back to your home,” she commanded it.
The otter took off and began swimming back to the kelp forest in the distance. Her father blinked a few times, confused. “Did you tame an otter? In this short of an amount of time?” he asked. While Gulf didn’t technically tame it, she did technically command it to be tamed.
“Well- yes. Kind of. I’ll- I’ll explain more at dinner,” she said. Her father nodded and smiled. “I’m looking forward to knowing about it!” he replied. Gulf began getting worried. How would her parents react if they knew that she could control animals?
They swam into the cave, and Gulf’s father took out the nicely packed dried crab meat from his shark skin bag. He took out plates and placed them onto the table, right as Gulf’s mom, Phthalo also arrived.
“I’m here!” she said, holding a net with a dead shark inside it. She hung it onto the kitchen wall from its tail and swam over to the table. They all began eating the dried crab meat. As soon as she took a bite from the crab meat, the flavors danced on her tongue. A bit of salty from the side with a touch of sweet… how delicious!
“So, Waterwheel, how was your day, dear?” Phthalo asked Waterwheel as she ate.
“Oh, fine, I suppose. I did see a SeaWing guard at the village, probably sent for patrolling reasons. I felt as though I recognized her a bit, but I couldn’t put my claw on it…”
A worried face spread upon Phthalo’s face.
“Oh my- she didn’t notice you, did she?”
“No, I’m pretty sure she didn’t. We did make eye contact from a distance for a few seconds, but she didn’t appear as though she knew me from anywhere.”
Phthalo let out a few bubbles, presumably sighing in relief.
“That’s good to hear. If they did, they could’ve reported it to queen Coral… Anyways, Gulf, tall me about your day.”
Gulf froze, having a soup of emotions. Excitement flowed into her at the speed of a diving seagull, but the seagull it’s self was a seed of fear, plummeting what her parents may think of it.
“Oh, yes! You were going to tell me about how you tamed the otter!” her father added.
Gulf looked up and hesitantly started.
“See, today- I was in the kelp forest, right? I was looking for crabs n’stuff. And I find one, but it goes into a hole. I get mad and I tell it to come out, and it does.”
Gulf’s mother was still elegantly eating her food, but her dad lifted and eyebrow and narrowed his eyes.
“Continue?”
“Then, I told the crab to snap its claws three times, and it did. I thought that maybe the crab could understand me, so I told it to do something it would never do no matter how much it could understand me. I told it to suffocate itself, and- it did.”
Phthalo stopped eating. Waterwheel didn’t say anything but looked at her with worry written all over his face. Her parents glanced at each other for a moment, they were exchanging looks. It’s as though they knew what it was and what was going on.
“Mom? Dad? What is it? Do you know what it is?” she asked. Was it bad? Was it not normal? Gulf wanted answers.
Her father looked back at Gulf.
“Your mother and I must discuss this, okay? For the meantime, don’t use your abilities at all. You can lose yourself. I’ll tell you more later tomorrow, alright?” he said.
Panic swept over Gulf. What did he mean by “You can lose yourself”? Was she going to die?! Her father seemed to have noticed her panicked expression.
“Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine as long as you don’t use it. Okay?” he said reassuringly. Although it was quite tempting, she feared what “losing herself” could’ve been. She nodded her head and swam to her room. She settled herself on her bed. The soft sea moss pillows were comfortable on her scales, making her get tired the moment she had made contact with them. Her father was waiting at the tunnel to her room. Her mother came up and gave her a hug.
“It’s going to be fine, okay dear?”
Gulf’s mother tried to maintain a warm smile, but Gulf could see the worry behind her eyes. Gulf nodded and curled up in her bed as she watched her parents leave the room. The question lingered over Gulf’s head. It was very odd…
Gulf got up from her bed, and quietly swam down the hallway-tunnel of her cave. She peered into the main room, but her parents were nowhere to be seen. She crept to their bedroom. Maybe they were there. If she saw them, maybe she could see a bit of their conversation. She peeked into their bedroom too. Nope, nowhere to be seen.
After looking into every room in the house, she realized that they were gone. Of course, they’re gone, she thought, they’re not idiots! They know that I’d try to see what they were saying! Gulf swam out the house and gazed across the ocean floor. Nowhere to be seen. The water was as still as a stone, no activity, no sea animals, and nowhere where her parents were talking.
Before swimming back in, Gulf looked up to catch a glimpse of the moon.
How beautiful… wait.
She noticed two figures at the surface of the water. She slightly swam up to catch a better glimpse, and it was none other than her parents. There! Finally, she could- wait. The closer she looked, she noticed that they weren’t speaking in aquatic. They were speaking above the surface.
They knew. They knew that Gulf would try to find them. Even if they didn’t, they took extreme precautions, just in case she did. Was it really that serious? Disappointed, Gulf swam back to her room. Before going back to bed, she looked out her window, taking one final look at the glittering moon. How beautiful. She headed to her bed and curled up.
Her thoughts took her on a trip to sleep. The moon was white and glittery sometimes. Her father had taught her about IceWings before. Was that how IceWings were too? Glittery, pretty moon dragons. That’s how Gulf liked to imagine them. She liked to imagine snow as clumps of clouds. IceWings. Moon and cloud dragons. Chilly, cold. Cold like she had felt on her scales today….
W.I.P.
=== Thank you ===
I would just like to say that if you took your time and read till the end of this article, thank you. It means a lot to me. feedback really helps in improving too. I'll hopefully be updating the fanfic. 
Once again, you have my greatest thanks. Have an amazing day.
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)
Category:Genre (Adventure)