Young Writers Society

Zoltar stared up into the sparkling heavens, studying the swirling cobalt galaxies and deep purple cosmoses. The night air was as sharp as steel and bitterly cold. Zoltar tucked his snout under his wing, hoping it would fight off the icy wind battering against his scales. It provided little comfort. Sighing, he tried to drift off to sleep, but his thoughts kept spinning around and around in his head.

Emerald’s soft snores vibrated through his body as he burrowed in closer for warmth. He was careful not to get too close to Shiraku, whose claws were twitching like mad. Her eyes trembled as she slept and every now and then she would let out an indignant snarl.

Zoltar forced himself to slow his thinking and forget the doubts and fears preventing him from resting. Felistia and the rest had been asleep for over three hours already and by now the two moons had rising high into the dark sky, their silver light glittering off the snowflakes drifting through the air.

But his thoughts refused to let him sleep. What was going on with Felistia? Why was she acting the way she was? It was like something she’d hidden on the island had snapped inside her. Like she’d been something else all along. Zoltar was starting to feel quite afraid of her. Why exactly had she been banished from the Ice Kingdom? Those shining scales of hers could just be disguising what the real her looked like. What if she wasn’t who she portrayed herself to be?

Slowly, but surely Zoltar’s thoughts turned into fitful dreams as consciousness faded into blackness as the world faded from Zoltar’s mind.

...

The blizzard howled, tugging at Zoltar’s wings like a pack of wild wolves as he fought to make his way towards the shadowy figure of the Ice Talon’s palace ahead. Digging his claws into the hard icy ground he slowly inched forward, squeezing his eyes shut to block out the jagged shards of snow spiking through the air.

Suddenly the shape of the palace disappeared in a burst of white snow, leaving swirling nothingness. Zoltar whirled in a panic, 'Where had it gone?' He needed to get there to save Emerald and Shiraku. They could die of hypothermia if they were trapped in the Ice Talon prison. He had to rescue them.

Out of nowhere a silver bullet slammed him to the ground, making his head spin as it hit the hard ice.

Growling, Zoltar rolled away from his attacker and jumped to his paws, extending his ebony wings to full height, so that they billowed in the wind like the sails of a ghost ship. He stopped in surprise. Felistia was standing in front of him, her dagger like teeth bared and her spiked tail lashing violently.

“What are you doing?” Zoltar asked bewildered, still poised to attack if Felistia tried anything.

“I will not let you steal the Thunder Opal. It belongs to my kind, not a scum sucking Shadow Talon like you,” Felistia snarled in a cold voice full of anguish.

“But you were banished … you hate the queen. Why are you doing this?” Zoltar pleaded, his head whirling.

“The queen will reward me well for bringing in a potential threat, maybe even allow me back my place in the Ice Talon tribe,” Felistia growled, baring her sharp, white teeth in an evil smile.

“I thought you were my friend,” Zoltar hissed angrily, raising his barbed tail, ready to strike her down. He glared at Felistia, pain burning in his amethyst eyes.

“They all think that,” Felistia smirked and with a fearsome roar she lunched towards Zoltar, her immense wings spread.

Zoltar leapt to the side and stabbed out violently with his barbed tail. The poisonous barb missed by a few centimetres as Felistia rolled to the left, jumped up and sent a burst of blue ice breath at him. Zoltar dropped to the ground, throwing his obsidian wings over his head as the stream of ice charged over his back spicks. Roaring in pain he lashed out blindly with his dagger like claws. He struck the Felistia on her long tail, leaving a bleeding gash. The Ice Talon snarled, springing back from Zoltar’s dagger like talons. She twisted her tail round to inspect the slash. Bright red blood streamed from the gash.

“I am going to make you pay for that Shadow Talon,” Felistia hissed, her voice loaded with toxic venom, “I don’t need you alive for me to claim my reward.”

“How could you Felistia? I trusted you and this is how you repay me? I could have left you on that island to be killed, but I didn’t,” Zoltar cried, ducking Felistia’s violent swipes.

“Things change. I told you Ice Talons weren't to be trusted and this is what you get for being so naïve. I mean seriously! Wisp talons and Shadow Talons living together? What world are you living in?” Felistia barked, tripping Zoltar with her tail.

“I want a better world than this one,” Zoltar roared as Felistia leapt on top of him, pinning him to the cold ground, “I battle my entire tribe the whole time to try and bring peace. Suffering serpent’s eggs I even came on this whole craze journey to try and stop a war with the Moon Talons, but if this is how you dragons outside of the Shadow Lands want it, then let there be war. All my life I thought the Shadow Talons were the brutal ones, but now I see differently. You are all the same!” Zoltar roared as he fought to keep back the tears, “You are all deceitful snakes with wings.”

“That’s what dragons are,” Felistia hissed as she drew back her head and with a roar of triumph sent a jet of ice breath crashing down on Zoltar’s head.

…

Zoltar woke with a yell, his whole scaly body trembling in fright. He looked around with wild eyes, expecting to see the frozen walls of an Ice Talon prison, but instead he saw Emerald and Shiraku curled up like cats, their sides steadily rising and falling with each breath. Felistia was a few steps away from them, looking towards the far off snows whirling in the south as her scales gleamed porcelain white in the shimmering light of the two moons.

Zoltar took a few deep breaths, trying to calm his shaken nerves. It had all been a dream; a really vivid dream. But were had it all come from? Why had Felistia betrayed him like that? He knew that it had just been a nightmare, but it still had to have come from somewhere. Sure Felistia had been acting strangely, but that still didn't mean she was going to hand him over to the Ice Talons. Was she? Zoltar swallowed hard. Maybe his fears were real and she was hiding something from him. It wasn't impossible. He glanced back at Felistia, she was staring at him with her golden orb like eyes. As if sensing something was wrong, she got up and started to pad silently towards him like panther would a deer.

Zoltar felt his heart rate starting to accelerate and cold sweat start to break out from between his scales. ‘It was just a dream,’ he assured himself as Felistia walked over, but he still couldn’t stop shaking.

“Another bad dream?” Felistia asked in a honey sweet voice as her dark shadow fell over Zoltar’s face.

“Y-y-yes,” Zoltar stammered, hastily getting up, so that her snake like shadow no longer loomed over him. Was it just him or did she seem larger in the pale moonlight?

“What was it about this time?” Felistia asked, leaning her snout in closer so that her golden eyes stared straight into Zoltar’s amethyst ones.

“N-n-nothing,” Zoltar stammered, jerking his head away from her hypnotic stare. His head was swimming and he had to close his eyes for a second to stop the ground from spinning. Every nerve in his body was pumping with adrenalin and his mind was screaming at him to run.

“What’s wrong Zoltar? Why are you being short with me?” Felistia said in an innocent voice as she sat down and proceeded to try and wrap her silver wing around his back.

“Nothing’s wrong. I-I-I just need some alone time!” Zoltar burst out, finely giving into his urge to bolt as he extended his wings and lifted into the frigid night air. He quickly left Felistia behind as he climbed towards the star light.

‘What was that?’ Zoltar yelled to himself after he was a good few miles away from Felistia. ‘She was just trying to help you and you bolt off like that. What sort of an impression do you thing that’s going to make? There’s nothing to be afraid of.’ He kept trying to convince himself this and that he should stop putting her on edge, but he just couldn't do it. The image of her shining blood hungry eyes still haunted him. The pain of her claws slicing against his scales and the screaming wind in his face. It just seemed too real to shake it off. But then she still hadn't really done anything wrong.

Zoltar rubbed his snout, exasperated. This was a classic case of him over reacting and scaring away his friends. He'd done this in the Shadow Lands and now he was doing it again. ‘Honestly, you would have thought I’d have learned that by now.’ He scolded. ‘She’s probably just stressed because she’s so close to home.’

Dipping in a large arc, Zoltar dived towards the glittering lake below. Maybe staring out into nothingness would help calm his nerves, after all he had done this many an hour in the Shadow Lands when he was feeling scared, gazing up at the never ending ash clouds spewing from the volcano.

Zoltar gently landed, the frost covered grass surrounding the lake cracking under his paws like glass. He sat down on the edge of the bank, his tail wrapped around his legs as he stared out over the frozen water. The star light shimmered over the imperfect sheet of ice and freezing cold winds howled over its surface.

The howling wind reminded Zoltar of the Howler Dragons wailing cries back in the Forbidden Hills. A tingle of fear ran down Zoltar's spine, causing him to shiver uncontrollably for a few seconds. He had to succeed in this mission. His life and the Shadow Talons lives depended upon it. Who knew what would happen if he didn't get the Ruby of Fire for the Howler Dragons. He was sure they wouldn't just give him a friendly pat on the back and leave it.

Doubt slowly seeped into his mind like rats searching for food. He had less than three seasons to go and he wasn't even halfway there. He still had to get all four things for the Riconra before he could even start thinking about getting the Ruby. He hadn’t even plucked up the courage to ask Emerald for a scale, let alone steal the Ice Talon queen's diamond. It would have been difficult with the four dragons, but to make it even worse Emerald and Shiraku weren't going to be able to come. They couldn't breathe fire and therefor would freeze within hours of reaching the Ice Talon kingdom. The only one that could go with him was...Zoltar shivered at the thought; Felistia.

A ripple of fear coursed through Zoltar's veins, setting all his senses on a blades edge, but he shrugged it off stubbornly. Whether he liked it or not, Felistia was going to want to come with him to the Ice Talon kingdom. It was her home after all. He couldn’t just bail on her just because of some dream and little bit of strange behaviour. She was near her home for crying out loud. Of course she was going to act a bit off. He'd better go and make up with her for all his strange behaviour. It wouldn't help if she was freaked out by him on the way to the Ice Talon Kingdom. Sighing, Zoltar leapt into the air and sped back towards where the others were sleeping.