The boat was rocking. The current of the river had suddenly gotten stronger, and foam bubbled over the side of the monster-headed boat. As the boat tossed and bucked, Ralsei and Noelle held on as tightly to the sides of the boat as possible. Ralsei was completely horrified. He was facing the front of the boat when it started, so he had a clear view of the mirrored marine menace causing chaos. However, Noelle was facing away. Noelle, in between shaking water out of her face and constantly regaining balance, hazarded a look backwards.
That almost had to be it. What she glimpsed in the water.
The crash of the river was powerful. Noelle struggled to turn and face the serpent full-on, and when she did, she noticed something. It was hard to see among the spray of freshwater, but the water serpent was…incredibly bright. It looked to reflect what little light there was shining through the trees, the flashing of its scales almost distracted Noelle from the fact that it stopped…right…in front of her.
“...It’s not doing anything?!” Noelle squeaked.
Ralsei was absolutely mortified. His mind raced to remember anything relating to this darkner that might be written in the prophecy. And there sure was, but then another problem arose.
“...The silver drake, brought down by…by…oh, dear.”
“What?! Brought down by what?!?!” the serpent was looking, glaring at the royals, now officially up a creek without a paddle.
“Ice-” Ralsei gulps, and yells, “Brought down by ice and blade!”
The Silver Drake releases an ear-piercing screech. It has decided that the battle has begun.
Noelle and Ralsei have a not-so pleasant chat while waiting for the drake’s attack. “I mean, I guess I have ice covered, but…!”
Ralsei grasps Noelle’s shoulder, “Noelle. We don’t have a blade! I’m-I don’t think I’m even supposed to be here!”
“Not supposed- Is this about the prophecy?”
“YES! Look, it’s. It’s not that important, okay, why don’t we just try…”
“If you’re worried about it, then would saying it out loud help??”
You don’t understand! I’m not supposed to be here so I don’t know what I should do! SUSIE is supposed to be here! You just-...Ralsei didn’t finish his thoughts. The serpent swatted the water with its bright tail. (someone attempts to balance on a see-saw platform while avoiding droplet bullets.)
“...I just…I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO! Yes, your magic is part of it, Noelle, but the other part has to be…there’s something bothering it!” Ralsei blurted.
“Okay! Okay what’s bothering it, I can help…” Noelle turns to look at Ralsei. He stares mortified at the serpent, muttering to himself. Suddenly, he decides something.
“No. I can do this! I can do this…” Ralsei says. Without warning, he launches an axe-shaped fireball aimed at the serpent’s tail!
“Whuh…?” Noelle turned, out of breath, to a beautiful blue-and-red flower and a sharp-looking purple one, growing in tandem along the bank of the river. Ralsei sighed in relief. The blue-red one’s main petals were blue and looked akin to peace lily petals. Smaller petals lay beneath, seen between the blue ones. They were red. It looked comforting, and mysterious, and a bit like…something related to that word she learned once…anemoia? It was anemoia-ic. It induced anemoia. Sounds like anemia. Huh.
The purple one had a thick, spikey stem, a dark purple like the border between the day and the night. It was made of many bright purple florets with yellow centers, and… “The Susie one looks like a gladiolus,” Noelle blurted out.
“A gladiolus? What’s that?” Ralsei asked.
“It’s a kind of flower that represents strength. The symbolism is kind of enhanced by the thorns, now that I think about it.” Noelle nodded to herself. “Mr. Dreemurr would send this to my dad all the time. He’s varying the flowers now, but. Mm-hm.”
As Noelle and Ralsei watched the flowers drift away, they barely glimpsed the floral duo throw themselves into the mossy bank face-first. Both of them sighed. Yeah, that checks out.
Ralsei thought to himself for a second, and then pointed to a pink flower nearby. “Does the color of flowers mean different things, Noelle? If– if it’s okay for me to ask?”
Noelle, pleasantly surprised by the prince’s question, chirped; “Oh, absolutely! That pink one, although pink generally means youth and playfulness and, um, o-other stuff; because it’s a lilac that means it…” and on and on, about colors, petal numbers, specific flowers –things that Noelle never thought she had stored in her brain– flowed out of her like syrup onto butterscotch-cinnamon pancakes. The ones that Noelle and Kris would have after a sleepover at Kris’s house. Noelle would always remember drawing with crayons at the adult’s table while Kris, Asriel, and Dess played Super Smashing Fighters in the next room. She would run off with her crayons and drawing book when they got too loud and…pushy. Sometimes Mr. Dreemurr would talk about the sales he almost made that week, sometimes Noelle’s father would talk about how he ousted some rando from the milk section, sometimes Mrs. Dreemurr would talk about this wonderful child with potential she helped through some writing homework, and Noelle’s mother would say: why, Noelle is doing so well in her writing classes, it’s a wonder why I haven’t entered her into the spelling bee yet, and Noelle would hear about the new bluebird kid Mrs. Dreemurr was talking about and she would think I wonder if he likes Cat Petterz. It was so long. So long ago, now.
Ralsei, on the other hand, was listening very attentively. After each new flower fact, his eyes got a bit brighter and he asked a new question. There was a light in there, shining with promise and truth. It was beautiful to feel warm again, the two thought.
