Young Writers Society

Zoltar's head was whirling as the guards lead them through the winding corridors of the palace. He knew that he should have been taking note of layout, but he was just to distracted by what he'd just heard.  Shiler was Felistia's sister. How could she not had told him this? These thoughts kept spinning around and around his head, so much that he hardly noticed the guards stopping in front of a dark iron door and unchaining his and Felistia's muzzles. But when the door was unlocked and opened with a screech like thousands of dragons being tortured, Zoltar snapped into attention. The prison was as bare apart from a few hoops buried in the stone floor. Claw marks covered the walls and in on far corner Zoltar was sure he could see a claw hooked into the stone.

"Enjoy your stay," the guards cackled, as they pushed Felistia and Zoltar into the cell. They quickly chained them to the hoops in the floor and left the room, slamming the door behind them.

Felistia hunched over in the corner and started to softly crying.

His heart aching for her, Zoltar hobbled over to Felistia, straining on his chains till he was able to he reached over and gently stroked her head. Felistia turned her head and looked at him with swollen eyes. She smiled sadly and edged closer so that Zoltar could comfort her. After a few minutes of silence, Zoltar whispered, "I'm sorry about your sister."

Felistia sniffed and replied, "It's okay. It happened two years ago. It's just seeing Shiler again brought back all the pain."

Zoltar nuzzled her closely and remained silent. He had many burning questions, but he didn't want to ask Felistia now. For now he'd comfort her and wait until she'd calmed down. He knew how she felt. His brothers and sisters acted like he didn't exist, but it must be much worse for Felistia. To have your own sister kill your other sister and then threaten to kill your after having sent you to prison must feel crushing. Zoltar was surprised as to how Felistia had kept it a secret for so long. At the moment the best thing for her was to know that she could trust him to look after her.

On the other paw though, they were in quite a predicament. With death hanging over both their heads and only a few days to escape, Zoltar had a lot of thinking to do. He looked around the cell. It was small and consisted of bare rock floors and a single barred window far to small for a dragon to fit through even if there hadn't been bars. For now, while he waited for Felistia to relax he'd have to start thinking of escape plans.

...

A few hours later Felistia had stop crying and was just staring blankly at the far wall, rubbing the herbs Zoltar had hidden under his wing on her gash. Zoltar was on the other side of the room staring out of the barred window at the swirling snows outside. He looked back at Felistia. He couldn't wait any longer. He needed to know the answers to all his questions now. He slowly padded over to Felistia, his chains clinking on the bumping floor.

"Felistia?" He sat down next to her and rested his tail over hers, "What happened back before you were sent to prison?"

Felistia sighed and lifted her head from her paws, "I suppose I owe you an explanation."

Zoltar nodded, excited to have his question answered.

"Well, Kori my older sister was the queen of the ice talons. She ruled with firm, but kind paw. The ice talons were doing well under her rule, but my other sister, Shiler wanted the power. She didn't like the way me sister ran the tribe and challenged her to a fight to the death. This was a tradition with the ice talons, but hadn't been used for years. Being the queen, Kori had to accept, but Shiler had been training and beat Kori, " Felistia explained, her voice threatening to crack, but she kept it steady, "She could have just defeated Kori, but that wasn't enough for Shiler. She killed Kori to insure that Kori wouldn't challenger her for the throne. And to make sure that she kept the throne, she sent me away to prison."

"I'm sorry," Zoltar said sympathetically and tried to wrap on of his wings around her, but his chains wouldn't let him, so instead he nuzzled her in the hopes of comforting her.

"So ever since I got off that stupid island, I've been planning my revenge. That's why I was having nightmares and acting so strange. I didn't tell you because I didn't want to get you involved. I tried to sneak off during the blizzard, but the guards managed to find us. I'm sorry for dragging you into this. I guess I'm a pretty lousy friend."

"No. No. Your not a bad friend," Zoltar took her paws in his as she started to cry again, "We all make mistakes Felistia and I don't blame you at all for what happened."

Felistia smiled squeezed his paws, "Thanks for being so understanding."

"That's okay. Our biggest problem at the moment is escaping this place," Zoltar said, worry fill his stomach like sour acid. They had less than a week to get out of here before he died of cold and escaping wasn't going to be easy.