Young Writers Society

Soon the small group were on the outskirts of the ice kingdom where only the lowest ice talons lived. The deep ravine in which they’d been flying in had started to become shallower as they neared the kingdom’s borders. The once yawning black abyss below them was no longer there and the ground was visible only a few meters down. The gap was getting narrower by the second. They’d have to break cover soon.

Shriken was still leading them through the twisting fissures and Felistia was close behind him. They hadn’t spoken for a few hours now and the air was deathly quiet apart from the soft beating of their wings. Zoltar’s wings where starting to brush the frozen blue walls of the crevasse and he knew that any moment now they’d have fly out before it became too narrow for them.

Sure enough a few seconds later, Shriken made a sharp turn towards the sky, sprinting towards the swirling clouds overhead. Almost instantly Felistia made the vertical ascent, her moon silver wings beating in long arcs as she climbed. Tilting his wings, Zoltar followed as the arctic wind howled, snatching at his wings and tail.

The ground was soon dizzyingly far below them and Zoltar quickly scanned the landscape for any sign of soldiers. There was not a house for miles and only the pristine slopes of sparkling snow could be seen. Zoltar realized that he couldn’t see any more canyons for as far as the eye could see, apart from the one they’d just come out of. Shriken definitely knew what he was doing alright.

He took one last look around at the perfect white landscape before entering the boiling grey clouds alongside Felistia. That was it. They’d escaped. Zoltar breathed a huge sigh of relief and found that he’d been holding his breath for the last few minutes. He sucked in another lungful of air, enjoying the needle like sensation it gave him as it ran down his back. They were free. Free to swoop and soar through the air once more. Shriken had streaked ahead and was flying quite a way ahead of them, but Felistia had chosen to stay by his side.

Zoltar reached into his pouch and pulled out the glittering silver diamond. He turned it over in his paws, studying it from all angles. He couldn’t figure out where that strange milky glow was coming from. It seemed the whole diamond was pulsing with a star white light. It certainly was a beauty. The queen must have adored it and would want it back, but there was no way she’d be able to track them once they’d disappeared into the depths of Megalonia.

Zoltar gently put it back in his pouch. He wasn’t really worried about Shiler anymore. He was more worried about Emerald and Shiraku. What had they been getting up to while he and Felistia had been away? Had anything happened to them? What if something had attacked them while he’d been gone? Zoltar swallowed the lump building in his throat and picked up the pace. He wanted to get back as soon as possible.

After another hour or two of flying through the thick cloud cover, Felistia dropped back beside him. She had a guilt look of her face and was accidentally missing a wing beat every now and then. Finely she seemed to sum up the courage to talk to Zoltar.

“Look, I know what you’re probably thinking,” she sighed, “Why didn’t I tell you about the plan between me and my brother? Well the thing is, I thought you wouldn’t trust another ice talon…even if he was my brother.”

There was silence for a few moments as Felistia paused. Her paws were clinched and her eye’s kept darting from him to the swirling vapor around them.

Sighing, Zoltar whispered, “It’s okay.” He was feeling a bit hurt after what she’d said, but there was truth in what Felistia had told him. He had attacked her brother and even after she’d told him that Shriken wasn’t a guard, Zoltar still hadn’t really trusted him. It was only because of the urgency of their situation that he’d agreed to go along with Shriken.

“But it’s not,” Felistia cried, “Not telling you stuff was how we got into this whole mess in the first place.” She went silent again.

“Look Felistia, I’m not going to deny that what you did hurt me, but you had your reasons and look at how it turned out. Without you, we’d probably be dead right now,” Zoltar explained as he soared a little closer, so that his wings lightly brushed hers.

Felistia looked over at him and smiled shyly, “Thanks Zoltar. I’ll try to stop keeping secrets from you.”

“That’d be good,” Zoltar answered softly, then after a short pause he asked, “So why is your brother helping?” Then added jokingly, “I mean, I’m a little confused. We’re running from one of your siblings and being saved by another. I’m going to get mixed up.”

Felistia gave a small giggle and replied, “Well, it’s a bit of a long story. My brother doesn’t like Shiler for the same reason I don’t. Before my sister took the throne, my family was close. Mother was the queen and Father was the leading general in the army. My siblings and I all got on really well. It was what you’d call a perfect family,” Felistia smiled at the thought, but then her face fell as she carried on, “But nothing lasts forever. One day my Father didn’t come back after a battle with the Wind talons. My Mother was heartbroken. For months she steadily got sicker until finally she passed away. According to law the eldest sister had to become queen or the kingdom would fall into chaos. Kori reluctantly took the throne, but Shiler wanted the throne for herself. She didn’t agree with how Kori decided to run the kingdom. So she challenged Kori to a fight to the death… and won. Immediately she started changing things. It was like the power had gone to her head. She sent me to prison and my brother, she forced to join the army and this is why Shriken and I hate my sister. She took what little family we had left and ripped apart.” Felistia’s voice broke and she looked away, her eye’s glazed with tears.

Zoltar longed to wrap her in his wings and comfort her. His family had also fallen to ruin, but then again, it had never really been whole.

“I understand what you’re going through, Felistia,” Zoltar finally said, hoping to cheer her up, “You need to look on the bright side of things. At least your family loved you and you know, you still have Shriken,” Zoltar gestured towards the arctic white ice talon flying in front of them, “You could be worse off. Take me for example. My parents abandoned me when I was a dragonet, I have no brothers or sisters and was raised by an adopting father, who died a few weeks ago,” Zoltar suddenly felt a small pain in his chest. He’d gotten used to the feeling of Scorpus no longer being there, but talking about him seemed to bring back all the sadness and guilt.

“I guess you’re right,” Felistia sighed, “I could look on the bright side. I mean I have a loving brother and a great friend,” she gazed at him with her warm golden eyes and smiled, “and then I guess I have Shiraku as a friend, even though she annoys the living day lights out of me. The wisp talon is also kind of growing on me, I must admit. Yah I guess I do have good things in my life.”

They travelled in silence for a few minutes, the sound of their wings beats echoing in their ears.

Zoltar kept play their escape over and over again in his head. Things just didn’t seem to add up. Why had there not been any guards around the palace? The only guard they’d seen had been the one posted outside their door and he’d been asleep.

Finely after mulling over it for a little while, Zoltar broke the silence, “Felistia?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t you think our escape from Shiler’s palace was a bit easy? I mean, we didn’t run into a single guard other than the one outside our prison and he was asleep. We only heard guards after I set off the alarm,” Zoltar said, still feeling guilty for his rash decision.

“Well, that was kind of the whole plan. Shriken laced the guards’ supper with sleep herbs,” Felistia explained in a matter-a-fact voice, "We planned it on that night when you where asleep, you know after you'd told me your plan."

“Ohhh. Okay that makes sense,” Zoltar muttered to himself. He now realized how much Shriken had actually helped them. If it wasn’t for him, they probably wouldn’t have made it five meters from their cell.

Suddenly Shriken called to them from ahead and gave out a small roar of joy in the process, “Felistia! We made it! We’re out of the ice kingdom. We’re home free!” He did a sweeping loop the loop, causing the diminishing clouds to swirl over his silver wings.

Felistia also gave a whoop of happiness and joined her brother in his aerial acrobatics, spinning and diving in and out of cloud patches, her scales glinting in the morning sunlight.

His heart leaping with delight, Zoltar too did a joyful back flip, feeling the icy wind on his wing tips. They were free. Never again would they have to venture into the ice wastes of the ice kingdom. Soon his fire would spark up and he’d be able to breathe orange flame again. His heart raced with anticipation at the thought. And what off Emerald and Shiraku? Where they okay and how would they react to Shriken’s arrival?