As his nest melted and left his egg floating in a deep puddle during a freak storm before the Crystalline Gala, this snapper hatchling felt more in tune with the mysterious depths of water than with icicles and blizzards. One night he silently snuck away from his ice clanmates and entered the Sea of a Thousand Currents.

The young snapper did not know then that he would never resurface.

Down into the abyss he dove, deeper and deeper, feeling the pressure compress the air in his lungs. Strangely, he did not feel the need to breathe, and swimming was effortless as an unnatural undertow swept him along. Starlight gave way to utter darkness, which again gave way to an array of strange moving lights. Bioluminescent creatures in a neon rainbow of colours scattered before the diving snapper, and many more dark figures lurked just out of sight. He felt watched, and that feeling grew as a colossal structure came into view; the Spiral Keep loomed before him, glowing faintly and thrumming with power. The snapper hatchling now knew that this had been his goal all along. The current petered out just as his feet touched the entrance.

To be continued~