Young Writers Society

The swamp sped into the distance as Zoltar and the rest of the group headed over the Forest of Doom. The trees were dark ivy green and not a speck of gold or copper marked their broad leaves. The air was had a strange chill to it and every now and then a solitary white flake would float past Zoltar’s snout.

“Did you manage to get the plate?” Zoltar asked, after they were about a kilometre away from the swamp.

“Yes, but you never told us that the Highlangs had such big claws. I thought you said the male was the one we had to worry about,” Shiraku grouched, holding up a glittering black plate.

Zoltar swooped over and took the scale from her sliver talons and putting it in the brown sack around his neck, “Trust me, you guys had it easy compered to me. Did you have venom being sprayed at you or massive teeth lunging out of the swamp in front of you? No you didn’t,” Zoltar hissed, flapping away from Shiraku. He was feeling rather irritable about something or other. Maybe it was the growing cold or the fact that he had sprained his left shoulder trying to lift Shiraku into the air. Either way he didn’t need dragons moaning about things right now.

“Are you okay?” Emerald asked, dipping down to Zoltar’s level, “You seem... grouchy.”

“I’m fine! I just need some time alone,” Zoltar snapped, catching a stray air current, so that he rose above the group.

“Fine. If that’s how you feel,” Emerald growled, looking hurt. Her scales rippled from storm blue to fire red and back again as she flew away from Zoltar.

‘Touchy,’ Zoltar thought grumpily as a shiver ran through his glistening obsidian scales. His left wing and shoulder were starting to ach and the growing cold wasn’t helping.

Zoltar glanced down at Felistia. She hadn’t said a thing since they had left the swamp. She was just flying along like a ghost in the wind, her eyes as deep and unreadable as the vast ocean. Zoltar wondered what she was feeling having not been home in such a long time, ‘How was she going to react when they had to go into the palace? Would she try to stop him from stealing the queen’s ice diamond?’

Zoltar clutched the brown pouch hanging around his next closer, sneaking a quick glance at the slab of grey rock inside, ‘Would she leave him and decide to stay in the Ice Kingdom.’ A little voice spiked through his head, ‘Of course not. She is a wanted criminal there.’ But Zoltar wasn’t so sure.

The landscape below was changing rapidly. Trees and bushes were becoming scarce and the earth was covered in thin sheets of glittering white frost. The light was starting to fade, bright colours softening as evening approached. The air was getting colder by the second and the ice below Zoltar was starting to turn a baby blue as the warm sun dropped below the horizon, its last golden raze glittering off his onyx black scales, 'We're going to have to land soon,' he thought as the warmth of the suns light disappeared giving way to the cold of winter. 

He was about to suggest the notion when Felistia’s icy voice suddenly cut through the silence like a dragon’s claw slicing through a thick tree branch, “We have to land." She snapped her wings in closed as she dipped into a steep swoop towards earth. Caught off guard by the sudden change in plans, Zoltar slipped into a less than elegant dive after the rest of the group, who had followed Felistia.

The thin sheet of silver ice cracked under Zoltar’s claws as he landed a few meters away from where the group of dragons were huddling under a wisp of a tree. Felistia had her milky white snout stretched towards the newly born southern stars, their twinkling lights marking the way towards the Ice Kingdom.

Zoltar stared out over the desolate plains as the last of the suns red light disappeared, coating the land in crystal like darkness. A moaning creak of ice slashed through the silent night, making Zoltar jump. He whipped his head towards the direction of the sound. It was coming from a far off lake; The Lake of Whispers. The lake was freezing over, winter was here.

.......

Zoltar stared up into the sparkling heavens, studying the swirling cobalt galaxies and deep iris 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 to 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. Slowly, but surely sleep overcame his thoughts and consciousness faded into blackness as the world faded from Zoltar’s mind.