Young Writers Society

For the rest of that night Zoltar couldn't get to sleep. His head was spinning and the pain in his leg didn't help. Slowly the long hours ticked by and the stars faded into the blanket of blue as the dim light of the rising sun appeared on the far off horizon. Streams of vivid fire red streaked across the orchid purple sky, the glittering sunlight sparkling off the thin coat of snow covering the ground. The pine tree Zoltar was resting under was covered in a fresh layer of frost and tiny icicle spears dangled from the pine needles.

The pain in Zoltar's leg had faded a few hours earlier and he was ready to try and walk on it. Cautiously, Zoltar got to his feet. A dull throb pounded through his leg, but it wasn't too bad. He gave tired yawn and stretched before thinking of the consequences. A sharp bolt of pain shot up his leg and Zoltar gritted his teeth as he waited for the burst to pass. The vivid images of last night whirled in front of him and he instinctively shot a quick glance at Felistia. She was still curled up in the same ball of silver scales she’d been in last night. Her tail was lied out over the snow covered grass like a poisonous snake waiting to strike, her tail spikes still stained with specks dark blood.

A thin shiver ran down Zoltar’s spine. Last night he’d gotten over his dream and had been prepared to go with her to the ice kingdom, but now he wasn’t so sure he wanted to go with her anymore. He’d been nervous enough before she’d struck him, but now he felt a bit like a rabbit being hunted be a venomous viper, never knowing when she might lash out again.

‘Stop it!’ he yelled in his head, ‘she's a dragon. I mean come on she is covered in spikes and barbs from head to tail, accidents are going to happen.’

Zoltar looked over at Felistia again, her paws were wrapped over her snout like she was hiding from something and her legs were curled in close to her body.

‘Come on, she doesn’t even know that she hurt you. The least you could do is give her another chance.’

Sighing, Zoltar painfully walked over to the ice dragon, carefully avoiding her deadly tail as he treaded through the talon deep snow. He really just wanted to get this over with and had decided to risk waking up Felistia. Swallowing the growing lump in his throat, he cautiously stroked her head, trying to wake her up without startling her.

As his paw touched her shimmering scales, Felistia breathed a deep sigh and stretched, splaying her talons like a leopard, causing Zoltar to recoil in alarm. Once he realized that she wasn't going to hurt him, he gently inched back towards her.

Her eyelids were slowly fluttering open, revealing her glittering snake-like pupils as they swam into focus.

“Zoltar?” she murmured sleepily as she rubbed her snout, “What are you doing? Where am I and what happened to the pri…?” She trailed off as a flash of realization brushed over her face. Blinking, she stared back up at Zoltar, who was busy trying to figure out what she had been about to say.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Felistia asked, wrinkling her snout as she sat up. Her eyes caught on the twisted gash streaked across Zoltar’s back leg and she let out a horrified gasp, “What happen to your leg? Who did this?” she snarled, her eyes glowing with rage, “Tell me and I will rip their wings off.”

“Felistia,” Zoltar intersected calmly, “You…did it.”

“But I couldn’t have,” Felistia cried, the pain clear in her high pitched voice, "I was asleep the whole night."

"You kind of having a bad dream and well I was near you when you started flailing around as though you were fighting someone?"

A look of guilt spread over Felistia’s face and she curled her tail in closer, hiding the spikes under one of her wings, “But…I didn't mean to hurt you,” she whispered in a voice quiet as the falling snow around them. She couldn’t look straight at Zoltar and her eyes kept darting from the pale ice speckled grass to the pine tree next to her.

 "I know," Zoltar said, not wanting her to get the wrong idea, "I'm not say that you hurt me on purpose. I'm just saying that you were tossing and turning last night and I've never seen you do that before. There has to be a reason that you were fitful last night. Where you having a bad dream? Fighting someone maybe?" Zoltar pressed, trying to get her to look him in the eye. He was worried that she was hiding something important from him and it that it was affecting her behaviour in a bad way. She'd been acting off ever since he'd mentioned the fact that they were going to the ice talon kingdom. Zoltar was sure Felistia was hiding something from her past; something deep.

Fear and rage lit up on Felistia’s face, but then it was gone as quickly as it had appeared and Zoltar wondered whether he had imagined it.

“No! I wasn’t fighting anyone!” Felistia hissed, turning her back to him. Her wings where pressed in close and her back was hunched over, "Look, you have no right to ask me these questions. What goes on in my head is not for you to know. I may have been having a bad dream and I might have been fighting with an ice talon. Okay so I hurt you with my tail, but you really shouldn't have been hovering near me. I mean what were you doing that close to me at that time of night? Let me ask you that?"

Zoltar stared at her dumbfounded. 

"I thought so," she growled, raising her tail threateningly, "Now get out of here before I really hurt you."

“Okay. I’ll just let you be then,” Zoltar said hurriedly, walking away from the hissing ice talon, thinking. Her reaction to his questions confirmed his fears. She was hiding something and what ever it was, she didn't want to tell him about it. Her actions so far had suggested that something was wrong, but know Zoltar was sure there was something dreadfully wrong. Her aggressive behaviour meant she was a danger to all of them. He padded over to Shiraku and Emerald, who were curled up in a ball together, their sides gently shaking with the cold. Glancing over his shoulder at Felistia, Zoltar lightly tapped them both, hoping to wake them up without making too much noise.

Emerald let out a soft sigh and spread her frost blue wings before getting to her feet. Shiraku just flopped a paw over her snout with a groan.

“Get up,” Zoltar growled quietly through gritted teeth as he lightly shoved Shiraku, “I have something important to say and I need you to be awake for me tell you.”

“Does it have to be this early? I need my beauty sleep. These bright blue scales don’t stay shiny by themselves,” Shiraku moaned, yawning so wide that Zoltar could see the back of her cavernous throat.

“No! This can’t wait,” he hissed firmly, dragging Shiraku to her paws.

“What is it Zoltar?” Emerald asked as she wrapped her shimmering white tail tightly around her talons a look of concern darkening her questioning eyes.

“It’s about the next part of the mission,” Zoltar sighed, wondering if he was making the right choice, “I am going into the Ice Kingdom and I need you two to stay here. Felistia will come with me and I should be back within a week. I don’t want to..."

"Wait! Wait! Shiraku bellowed, cut Zoltar off at the knees. "How come does Felistia get to go? She's the one that smacked you in the leg with her clumsy tail. I would say that she's the last one to go with. She's been acting all weird lately."

Emerald shot Shiraku a dirty look.

Slightly taken aback by the interruption, Zoltar continued, mildly annoyed, “You guys would freeze with in hours of reaching the ice kingdom. Being a shadow talon I can withstand the cold for a few days, because I am a flame breather. Felistia's coming because this is her home and it really isn't my chose to make if she stays here or not."  

Shiraku lifted a talon and opened her mouth for a second before shrinking back again, a look of annoyance burning in her eyes. “Fine,” she grumbled finally in an unconvincing voice. She stalked off a few feet away, still muttering under her breath about how unfair life was.

Wrapping her wings around Zoltar and lightly nuzzling the side of his head, Emerald whispered, “I just want to wish you good luck and to be careful, okay,” she gazed deeply into his swirling amethyst eyes while gently murmuring. “I’ll miss you.” She kissed him lightly on his snout for a few fleeting seconds before walking off to sit next to Shiraku, her scales a whirling cosmos of deep blues and galaxy purples.

Zoltar blinked in surprise. He hadn’t known that Emerald cared for him so much, after all they had only met a week or so ago. Maybe tribes outside of the shadow lands really cared about their friends or maybe her feelings ran deeper than he’d thought.

Zoltar cautiously stepped towards Felistia, the pain in his leg still burning like red hot flames. “Felistia?” he started, still a good few feet away from her encase she decided the lash out.

The ice talon glanced over her shoulder at him for a second before slowly getting to her paws and facing him, her face now heavy with guilt, "Look Zoltar. I'm sorry I lashed out at you back there. It's just that I'm going through a difficult time right now and would prefer to be left alone. I understand your concern, but I just feel it would be better if you didn't ask me questions right now. Please?"

Zoltar sighed, "I'm sorry too. I should have respected your privacy. Can we just be friends again?"

Felistia smiled warmly and wrapped a wing around Zoltar, whispering, "sure."

"Thank you Now I just wanted to ask you if you were coming to the ice kingdom and if you wanted to come with me? It would be a great help to have you with me."

Felistia studied the ground for a minute before say, "Okay, but once we get there, we part ways okay?" 

"Okay," Zoltar agreed, thrilled that Felistia was coming with him. Flying through thick blizzards wasn't exactly fun on your own.

Stepping away from him, Felistia leapt into the frigid morning air, her shining owl like wings catching the sunlight.

With a thundering roar, Zoltar joined her in the sky, beating his wings to catch up with her waving tail, but like talons cutting through ice was the fiery hot pain slicing through his leg and the seed of doubt still embedded in his mind, never allowing him to forget what had happened. And now a new fear was starting to eat at his stomach. What was Felistia going to do in the ice kingdom and why the secrecy?