Wings of Fire One Shot Book

When Sleet Meets Leaf: Part 3

1168 words

~~~~~

Sleet had no idea what had possessed her to tell this virtual stranger who wasn't royalty about Iceberg. Maybe a momentary madness?

In any case, it was unexpected, for both herself and her companion.

"Sorry. Too deep?"

"No," Leaf replied. "Nothing is a topic too deep in this setting."

"Which setting?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's the middle of the night," he said, raising the same eyebrow.

He was right. It was the middle of the night, but it was much more.

They were sitting on the riverbanks with nothing but the light of the half-moons with which to see each other. The navy blue sky blanketed them and the dark forest surrounded them until it felt as if they were the only two dragons in the world. The cool night breeze gently blew against her scales, easily giving her goosebumps, even though she was used to temperatures far colder than this.

No, this was a romantic setting.

Sleet swallowed hard. "I- I have to go. Good night."

Once safely shut inside of her hut, she calmed her pounding heart.

It's nothing, she insisted to herself, over and over again. Don't make a big deal out of it, Sleet.

Then, a traitorous part of her mind asked, Then why doesn't it feel like nothing?

~~~~~

Leaf had stayed awake the entire night. He was not just determined to keep his job, but he was troubled by what had happened the night before.

Why did she leave in a hurry? Was his response to her question not good? Did he offend her in some way?

And he had other questions too. Why was she awake? Why did she come outside? Why did she seem so angry? Most importantly, why did she tell him about her past?

Not knowing the answers to his questions and not able to ask her, he hid his thoughts behind a mask of cheerfulness.

"Good morning! How did you-" he almost said "sleep," but he caught himself. "How did you find your hut?" he improvised. "I couldn't ask you yesterday because I woke up late."

"It was fine," Sleet said.

"I'll take you to the pavilion and I'll watch Icecap and Hailstone today."

"You can call me Hail," a voice piped up. The dragonet crawled between his mother's front talons and was looking up at Leaf.

"That's his name because he breaks everything," his brother said. Icecap wriggled into the space right next to Hailstone- Hail. "Just like real hail."

"That's not true," Sleet said indignantly. "I would never name my dragonets anything so undignified. Both of you are-"

"Named after big scary solider-y dragons," Hail said. "We know!"

"Well, Hail still breaks everything," Icecap insisted.

Leaf couldn't help it. He grinned. "I'll make sure you don't break anything today. Let's go!"

~~~~~

An anxious Sleet asked him for the hundredth time, "Are you sure you want to watch my dragonets today?"