Chapter Text
The northern lights fill up the sky with colors. A boy looks out the window, hands pressed against the glass. His eyes grow big as he stares at the colors, amazed by the beautiful lights.
Caine, the energetic boy, runs from the window to his sibling’s bed. He looks at Zooble, having an idea come to his little noggin. It was around midnight, but Caine seemed to not be tired one bit. He shakes the mismatched child.
Zooble groans as they open their eyes, staring at Caine. They looked tired and annoyed at the same time. Before they could say something, they were quickly silenced by Caine’s voice.
“Zooble! Zooble! Come on! We need to play!” Caine exclaimed with excitement. His floating dentures grinned as he kept shaking Zooble.
“Caine… What even- Why are you awake? It’s like midnight…” Zooble grumbled. Zooble sat up from their bed and quickly shoved Caine off their bed.
Caine looked back at the windows. Moonlight slipped through them. “Zooble, come on! Don’t you want to have fun?”
“I want to go back to sleep, Caine. We can play in the morning.” Zooble groaned, pulling the covers back.
“But I’m not tired at all!” Caine climbed back onto the bed and gave Zooble his puppy-eyes. “Please..? I really want to see the magic again…”
“Fine…” Zooble groaned. They got out of their bed and followed Caine to the ballroom.
The ballroom was never meant to be loud at this hour. It was huge and oddly quiet, as it was meant for spectacular parties that would go through the night. The two siblings would stand in the middle of the room.
Caine grinned in excitement, jumping up and down. “Zooble, can you do the magic? I want to see it again.” He asked them, eyes growing in size.
Zooble grumbles and looks away, not interested in doing this. “Do I really have to do this? It’s past midnight and I’m still tired. Why can’t you just be normal for once?” They grumbled, their tired eyes still looking at Caine.
“But you already came down here with me!” Caine exclaimed. “I really enjoy playing in the snow. It’s so majestic and wonderful! Zooble, your powers are amazing!”
“Fine, I’ll do it…” Zooble groans. They took a step back from Caine and waved their hands together, creating a ball of snow. They throw it into the air, and suddenly snowflakes fall onto the snow. Caine’s excitement grows as he looks around. Caine quickly runs around, looking at all the snow around him. He grows an idea. He rolls a snowball and shows Zooble.
“Don’t snowmen have layers?” Zooble asked him, curious about what he was making.
“This isn’t a snowman, Zooble. It’s a snowbubble!” He cheered. “If it was alive, I bet it would be floating in the air like a real bubble. Maybe he would be funny. I hope he will be funny. He would be a companion, Zooble!”
“That sounds stupid.” Zooble laughed at him, crossing their arms.
“Zooble you mismatched cash piano- I’LL TEAR YOU TO PIECES!” He yelled at them. He was offended. He always hated when Zooble mocked his ideas. After he calmed down, he just looked at them. “Okay, if you don’t like my snowbubble, maybe you can make icicles and catch me with those?”
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous? What if I don’t catch you in time and you fall?” Zooble asked, a little concerned about this new idea.
“It can be an adventure! Come on please!” Caine pleaded, giving them puppy-eyes.
“Fine, fine, but if you get hurt it’s on you.” Zooble gave in. Caine nodded and ran and jumped. Zooble quickly caught him with an icicle.
“Okay…” But before they could talk, Caine continued to jump. Zooble quickly caught him again. “Caine if you keep jumping-” They were interrupted by another jump. Zooble caught him again. “Caine you have to slow down or stop-” He jumped again. Zooble caught him again, getting more tired.
“Zooble keep up!” Caine shouted below. He jumped again. Zooble slipped on ice and fell. As Caine fell, they shot ice into his head, knocking him out.
Zooble opened their eyes to see Caine passed out onto the snow. They quickly rushed up to him. “Caine..? CAINE!” They shouted at him. They stared at him, and noticed something changing. One of his molars, on the top left, started to turn into ice. They touched it in fear, not knowing what to do. They shook him quickly. Caine wasn’t budging.
“Mom! Dad!” Zooble shouted, crying as they held Caine’s asleep body. Kinger and Queenie quickly rush to the ballroom, seeing snow all over the floor and Zooble holding Caine.
“Zooble, what happened?” Queenie asked them. Zooble couldn’t say anything. They just showed them Caine’s tooth.
“Oh no…” Kinger panicked. He quickly took his son from Zooble’s arms and held him carefully. “Caine… my poor boy…”
“He really wanted to play…” Zooble finally started to speak. “This was his idea… I tried to tell him no but he wouldn’t budge… I accidentally struck him in the head while we played.”
Kinger listens and thinks about a book. He tells Queenie to look after the two and quickly runs off to the castle’s library. A few minutes later, he returns with an old-looking book. It is inscribed with old text. The king scrambles pages until he finds an ancient map.
“What is that..?” Zooble asks him. Kinger sighs and closes a book. “It’s a very ancient book that has been passed down from generations. This map will lead us to the gloink queen. She is ancient, yet wise. She knows about all kinds of magic. I’m sure she can help Caine.”
Queenie takes Zooble’s hand and takes them to the stalls. She helps Zooble get on the horse. Meanwhile, Kinger holds Caine in his arms carefully. As the horses gallop, ice follows one of them. A young
When she gets to the destination, she notices shapes in the ground. “What are those..?” She asks herself. The creature wakes up and jumps, excited for a new friend. She just looks at everything and sighs.
Kinger sees the gloink queen approach them. With her raspy voice, she asks a question. “Was the child born with powers or cursed?”
“Zooble was born with their powers, and they are getting stronger.” Kinger informed the queen. He then shows her Caine, still unconscious. She examines him.
“You are lucky he wasn’t struck in the heart. It would’ve been fatal.” The gloink queen warned. The gloink queen turned their head to see two gloinks bothering the young girl. “SHELDON AND MARIO! GET OFF OF THAT GIRL NOW!”
Pomni shrieks as she sees the gloink queen looking at her. She stumbles away, scared. “I’m sorry!” She apologizes in fear.
The gloink queen then turns her head back at the royal family. “So listen, I believe if I remove all of those memories of magic, then perhaps things will go back to normal.”
“You can do that..?” Zooble asks her.
“Do it.” Kinger asks. “Please remove all his memories of magic.”
“Are you sure..?” Queenie asks him. Kinger nods.
The family watches the gloink queen use her powers to change Caine’s memories. Zooble looks saddened about it.
The gloink queen then looks at Zooble. “Oh, and if this happens again, I’m sure you will kill your brother.” Zooble grows fearful, and stumbles back. “Your magic will grow in both power and danger.”
“It won’t happen. I won’t let it happen.” Kinger told her. “Zooble, I’m so sorry, but we will have to keep you separated from Caine. I know you love him, but I can’t let another incident like this happen.”
Zooble sighs and looks away. “I’m sorry…”
“I know you are…” Kinger puts his hand on their shoulder. “But you will need to learn how to control your powers and keep them a secret from the whole kingdom before you eventually become monarch. We will have servants and maids that know about your powers keep it a secret and only serve you. We will also have to hire new maids just for Caine.”
Queenie looked saddened as well. “Are you sure this is our only option?” She questioned him.
Kinger nods. “When we get back to the castle, I’ll have our servants move Zooble to a new room.”
When they eventually got back, Queenie tucked Caine into his bed. When he eventually woke up, he noticed Zooble’s things were gone from their room. He rushed out of his room to find his father talking to some servants.
“Kinger! Where’s Zooble? Why did you take their things out of our room?” He questioned.
“Oh, Caine. Well, me and your mom came to a decision, and we decided to give Zooble their own room. They are growing, and they will need their privacy.” Kinger lied, trying to give Caine a believable explanation.
“Okay…” Caine said, looking down. He looked lonely. Kinger smiled at him. “Hey, what if your mom takes you to the garden? I know you love looking at the bees.”
“Sure, fine…” He walked away, still visibly upset with this sudden change. He passed a mirror and stopped. He saw his face, and the icy tooth. He wondered if that was always there. He touches it with his gloved finger and winces in pain. “Is this… normal..? I don’t remember my tooth being…” He touches it again. It felt cold, like if he had put ice cubes onto his hands. He shivered. “This isn’t normal…” He looks at Kinger, who was starting to have a conversation with his wife. Caine starts to think, still looking at the mirror. “I don’t think he’s telling me what’s really going on…”
He goes to Zooble’s new room and tries to open the door. It’s locked. “Zooble? Are you in there? I don’t think Kinger is telling me the truth. He says you wanted to move out, but I know you. I know you really don’t want to leave my side, do you..?” He asks from outside the locked door. Zooble sighs and doesn’t answer. Caine knocks. “Zooble..?”
“Sorry Caine…” Zooble muttered. Caine looked saddened.
“Can we at least still go on adventures together..?” He asked.
“No, we can’t…” Zooble told him.
“Why not?” He started to argue.
“We just can’t. I wish I could explain, but you wouldn’t understand.” Zooble told him. They look at their hands, looking at the frost. If Caine saw this, they knew he would freak out. Caine had forgotten that they had these powers. “Sorry Caine… I don’t think we can continue to stay friends, I mean we never were…”
“We were never friends..?” Caine cried. His tears were falling onto the ground as he sniffed.
Zooble looked at the window, staring outside. “You can always leave the castle grounds. I’m sure there is someone out there who would want to be your friend. But, I really doubt that our parents would let a stranger outside, especially now.”
“Why not?!” He shouts, his anger starting to grow. He hated being left out of information. Yeah, he was a child, but he was intelligent just for an eight year old boy.
“I wish I could, but dad says I can’t. I really do wish I could tell you.” Zooble stopped speaking after that.
Caine tried to get Zooble to talk more, but they didn’t talk anymore. He sighs and walks off. He eventually sees Queenie and runs into her arms, crying.
“Oh… Caine…” She says. She hugs him back. It devastated her to see Caine like this.
“Kinger and Zooble are acting weird… Zooble doesn’t want to be my friend anymore, and Kinger isn’t telling me the truth… Did I do something wrong..?” He asked her. He couldn’t stop crying.
“No no no! Caine! You didn’t do anything wrong…” She comforts him, rubbing his back. “Don’t worry honey, this isn’t your fault one bit…” She pulls away from the hug and holds his hand.
“You mean it..?” Caine asks again. She nods. "Can you tell me what happened?"
Queenie just shook her head. "I'm afraid not. I tried to convince your father to let you in, but he really wants you to be safe." Queenie tried to tell him.
"You are saying like that Kinger thinks Zooble is dangerous." Caine observed. Queenie looked away. That was true. Kinger really did believe that. But, Queenie chose not to let Caine believe that.
"Caine, listen. Zooble is not dangerous. They are just... different. They chose to move out on their own. I don't know what happened between you and Zooble, but I'm sure that they will open up to you one day." Queenie told him. "Kinger doesn't believe that they are dangerous..."
"But, what about my molar?" He brought up, pointing at it. "I remember it not being cold as ice. It literally is ice, isn't it."
Queenie nodded. Kinger had told her to try and convince Caine that it was always like that. "Oh Caine, you were born with that, silly." She lied, trying her best to convince him. She understood that he was smart for his age. Caine looked down at the marble floor.
Queenie then patted his shoulder in comfort. “Let's go to the garden, okay? I’ll have a servant give you some ice cream. Perhaps the bees will make you happy.” She convinced him. He nods and follows her to the royal garden. He looked at the bees when he entered and started to smile. Those fuzzy bugs never failed to make him happy. He sat down on the bench and looked at Queenie.
“Thank you mom…” He smiled. A mannequin servant gave him an ice cream cone. He slowly started to lick it.
Queenie smiled back. The two spent time together looking at all of the bugs and bees in the garden. Caine felt like he understood Queenie the most. She was the one who always was calm and comforting towards him.
Years would pass. Caine would sometimes annoy Zooble, singing Daisy Bell to get them to talk. It would never work, sometimes only hearing Zooble grumble. Meanwhile, Kinger offered gloves to Zooble, telling them to conceal and not feel. They never left their room. Servants would give them meals from the door. They had their own private bathroom. They trusted the servants. They knew of their powers, and were told by the king and queen to keep that a secret. Speaking about their powers would be seen as treason.
Caine was allowed to leave the castle on his own. One day, he saw a girl by herself in the market. He approached her with a smile. Pomni, the girl, looked a little older than him. She introduced herself as someone who lived on her own. She was taken in by the gloink queen. The boy looked a little familiar, but she didn’t seem to really know where she saw him before.
She nodded. “Oh, I work with ice. I’m an ice harvester. I’ve been doing this since I was young. We go to frozen rivers and harvest ice. I come back here to sell it."
“That seems so cool!” He says, his eyes growing with amazement. “I’m a prince… I live in the castle.”
“Do you have any friends? You seem lonely…”
“No… I don’t. My older sibling Zooble just locks themselves in their room. I think it's been three years…” Caine sighed, looking sad.
“You want to be friends?” She asked him. He just nodded. She took him to a stall and bought him ice cream.
“So… why does the future monarch hide themselves in their room?” Pomni asked as she started to eat her ice cream. Caine didn’t say anything. He still didn’t know the reason.
“I don’t know. I really don’t, but I want to know…” The eleven year old looked away. “Zooble is weird. My parents won’t give me any real reasons either. I know there is something going on. Even the
She understands. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”
Caine looks away. She sees his frozen molar. “Your tooth is ice…”
“Yeah… That’s the thing. One day it was normal, the next day it’s ice. Kinger says that it was always like that. And so does the doctor…” He explains. “Something is going on, and no one is giving me any clues to work with.”
Pomni nods. “That does seem suspicious. You are the prince. You deserve to know the truth…”
Caine frowns. “I wish I could take you to meet my parents, but they forbid strangers into the castle.”
“I hope we can meet again…” Pomni offers. He agrees.
“Thanks Pomni…” He smiled.
The two would meet up in the market a few times. The two grew close.
More years would pass. Caine was almost an adult. He had grown a lot. He runs to his parents and hugs them. The two told him and Zooble that they would be sailing to another kingdom for a wedding of some sort.
“I’ll see you in two weeks…” He told his parents, looking a little saddened.
Zooble came out of their room for once. They just stared at Kinger until they finally spoke. “Are you really going?”
“Zooble, you’ll be fine…” Kinger assured his child. Zooble nods and returns to their room.
A few days pass. Caine was in his room when he heard a knock. He opened the door to see a servant who looked sad. “What happened?”
When he heard the news, he dropped to his knees and sobbed. Was it true? Did his parents die at sea? Now, he was truly alone. He hadn’t seen Pomni in years, and Zooble still wouldn’t talk to him.
Caine just nodded and followed the servant. “Does Zooble know?” He asked.
“Yes, another servant let them know about this.”
“Will they be coming to the funeral?” Caine asked again, his head still down.
“No, they wished to not attend the king’s and queen’s funeral.”
“What about Zooble? What will happen to them?” He asked the servant, knowing very well that they were the next in line to become monarch.
“Zooble isn’t old enough to become the next monarch. They are only 18. They’ll become the next monarch once they turn 21. The council will run over this kingdom until then.” The servant told him. “Now come along. You are needed for funeral arrangements.”
“I understand.”
“The funeral will be held tomorrow at noon.”
Caine didn’t say anything. He just cried. He understood everything.
After the funeral, he returned to the castle in all black. He saw Zooble’s room and sat against it, crying.
“Zooble… What are we going to do..?” He asked them. He then just sobbed. Zooble chose not to leave or say anything. All they saw was ice covering the walls of their room. They silently sobbed, putting their hands onto their triangle-shaped head.