Wings Of Honor: Heart of Ice

Chapter 5: Grace and Glory

Winter roared with a fury, struggling to break his grip. But the Nightwing had him immobilized completely, like he knew exactly what to do. This dragon was trained. I instinctively brought my pistol to bear.
"Stop it! Get off him!" Moon yelled. She, Grace, and Kinkajou rushed to try and push him off. I set up, trading my pistol for my MKB,when I realized it wouldn't be effective.
"He's on our side!" Kinkajou cried. "Or he was before you randomly attacked him for no reason. Now he'll never like us again!"
"I wasn't going to anyway!" Winter bellowed as best he could, seething with rage and humiliation. "I didn't like you before either! I don't like any of you! And I'm going to MURDER this NightWing!"
"I don't know, he sounds kind of murder-y, Kinkajou," said the assassin. "And we heard there's an extra-dangerous IceWing on the loose right now. So I'm going to keep sitting on him until I get further instructions."
"I'm instructing you!" Kinkajou yelped. "He's not the dangerous one! That's his sister!"
"It's true," Qibli chimed in. "This one is honorable. He's no sneak-in-the-night assassin."
"Hey, ouch," said the dragon on top of Winter. I raised an eyebrow; his suddenly, almost jokingly tone. "Nothing wrong with assassins. Who said there was anything dishonorable about assassins? They're just not allowed to kill my - my queen. It's my job to stop them and drop some violence on their heads, but I'm not judging them, sheesh."
I smirked, doubling over at his complete character change.
"He's not here to kill Glory," Moon said. "If he were, he would tell you, and he'd challenge her in open combat."
Yeah, Winter is definitely the 'honorable duel' type. Not a heartless bastard who killed at the drop of a dime like me. But I didn't get either vibes from this dragon, which was strange to say the least. He was trained, but he was still playful. Like a dark humor playful, but still; more like a line infantry man attitude than a trained, heartless killer. A real mix.
"DEATHBRINGER!" A definitely familiar voice thundered, loud enough to rattle the leaves overhead. I crowched down into a nearby bush, my breathing rapidly hastening and my heartbeat increasing. "What are you doing?"
"Saving you, protecting the forest, defending our new home, sitting on a very cold IceWing," said the now identified Deathbringer from his perch on Winter's back. "You know, the usual."
A murmur swept through the village as footsteps approached. I was way out of position to see who was approaching. Winter tried to see as well, but Deathbringer held his snout in the mud, as a potato bug started crawling up, causing me to make a nervous smile. Grace was closer to Winter, and could better see, her eyes widened.
"Stop arresting my guests," said the newcomer, pausing beside Winter. "It's not romantic or heroic, it's annoying. I've told you this before."
Is that?
Queen Glory. Don't fuck around Grace.
"I know," Deathbringer said, sounding aggrieved. "But look, it's an IceWing. Sunny specifically said an IceWing tried to kill all the prophecy dragonets. This is definitely a pinion-before-asking-questions kind of situation."
"All right, OFF," Glory said firmly. Winter took a deep breath as Deathbringer hopped off him. "I am going to replace you as my bodyguard if you seriously can't tell the difference between a male IceWing traveling with my friends Kinkajou and Moonwatcher, and a lone female IceWing out to kill me. Pay a little more attention to detail, Deathbringer. Also, by the way, you're one to talk about killing prophecy dragonets."
Winter scrambled upright, yeeting the beetle off his nose into oblivion and baring his teeth as he spun around.
He finally met Deathbringer. To be honest, he couldn't be much older than Winter was. The two were obviously assessing each other. The Nightwing assassin stood wiry and graceful, in perfect balance, and clearly trained to fight from the way he stood staggered and how he did not lock his legs, crouched down low to facilitate quick and strong movement.
Suddenly, Winter had the amazing idea of attempting to lunge at him, only to be interrupted by a rapidly approaching Glory. She blocked him with her wing. She wore her iconic dark green, with a few flares of orange around her ears and under her wings. She took one of Winter's talons, pressing it between hers and lowing her head in a small bow. A respectful greeting I guessed.
"We are so honored to have Queen Glacier's nephew in our forest," she said. "I sincerely apologize for the outrageous behavior of my brain-dead bodyguard." Me and Grace snorted. "You should have been escorted at once to my royal pavilion, not attacked in such a disrespectful manner."
She glanced around at the gawking NightWings. "Everyone back to work, right now."
To Winter's surprise, they actually obeyed her, although there were a few muttered grumbles and two or three dragons who obviously moved deliberately slowly. She was still working on making them a cohesive unit.
Winter looked conflicted. One one hand, he probably wanted to tear Deathbringer to pieces for attacking him and humiliating him in front of the entire NightWing Tribe; but on the other hand, he looked as if he had never been treated this way before. But that went out the window when Glory beckoned him up beside her.
"Will he be punished?" Winter demanded.
"Oh, yes," Glory said, frowning at Deathbringer. "Creatively and firmly."
"Very well," Winter said. He shook as much dirt off his wings as he could and stepped up regally beside Glory. Like how the master sergent is when he's next to the Major General, smug and secure, ready to tear into any way-led officers or privates. "I don't have time to punish him myself anyway. We have urgent matters to discuss."
"Indeed," said the queen, turning to lead the way out of the village. Moon took a moment to say goodbye to her mother. They shared one, last, short, hug. I climbed back onto Grace, and the rest of us followed a ways behind. "Sunny told me some of the details, but I hope you can fill in the rest."
"I can!" Kinkajou offered, running past us and bouncing up on Glory's other side. "Winter's sister, Icicle, who is, like, wicked scary, by the way, was secretly conspiring with Queen Scarlet because it turns out Winter's brother is, like, actually alive, not dead like everyone thought, and Scarlet's totally got him locked up somewhere, so Icicle was going to kill Starflight to get him back, except then Moon and Grace and Qibli and Winter completely heroically stopped her and it was apparently amazing and I missed the whole thing! Can you believe it? And so then Icicle flew off and we figure she's coming here to kill you, so we're here to completely heroically stop her again and also find out what she knows so we can rescue Winter's brother ourselves. Also, hello, school is awesome, how are you?"
"You're in as much trouble as Deathbringer," Glory sternly said, looking down at the formerly happy dragonet. "What were you thinking, leaving school without permission? When everyone was already in such a state? Do you know how worried Sunny and Clay have been?"
Kinkajou stopped in her tracks with an expression of deep dismay and an explosion of dark blue splotches across her scales. "Oh, no!" she cried. "I'm sorry! Didn't Turtle tell them where we went?"
"Yes, and that certainly helped," Glory said with a sarcastic snort. "Good news: Four of your students have gone off to find a dragon who just tried to kill you, in order to find another dragon who has tried to kill you about ninety dozen times. Oh excellent, thanks, Turtle. Now we don't have to worry at all. I mean, we were hoping somebody would take care of the vengeful and deadly Queen Scarlet for us. Preferably a bunch of five-year-olds. Very reassuring indeed."
Moon ducked her head. "Sorry, Your Majesty," she said. "This felt ... urgent."
Grace and Moon met each other, then Moon glanced sideways towards Winter. Again, evreything in Winter decided to have a civil war. Mentally backfiring until he defaulted back to his smug warrior persona.
"It is urgent!" Kinkajou said. "We think Icicle is coming here next! To kill you!"
"That's what I said." offered Deathbringer, who was trailing behind us with an expression that looked closer to amused than repentant. "Ahem. AHEM." He cleared his throat, like I would point out the obvious. AHEM!
Glory considered Kinkajou thoughtfully. "Do you really think so?"
"Absolutely," Qibli interjected. "You're the only target she has left. It's the smart choice for her. I'd wager a month of lizards on it."
"Yeah." Grace started, then immediately forgot what she was going to say. She fell back a little.
"That would be irritating," Glory said. "If Deathbringer turns out to be right, I mean. It makes him really insufferable."
Me and Grace rolled out eyes, she giggled.
"I am here to search for my sister," Winter said to Queen Glory. "I just need your assurance that no one will interfere with me while I do that." He cast a dark glance over his shoulder at Deathbringer.
"I think we can do better than that," said the queen. She stopped and tilted her snout at one of the branches overhead. I looked as well, suddenly realizing the air there didn't quite look the same. "Banana?"
Winter frowned. "No, thank you."
But as he spoke, he also noticed a shimmering in the air around the branch. Then all at once, a dragon materialized, sitting there in a rather eye piercing shade of pink that Winter had clearly never seen before.
"Actually, it's Heliconia, Your Majesty," said the RainWing. "But good guess."
I paused.
Wait. Heliconia. That isn't-
No, it isn't Marvin. He probably hasn't even been born yet. Grace nodded subtly to me.
Okay, I don't think we went that far back in time, but okay.
Glory flicked her tail. "Heliconia, please tell my scout captains to meet me at the pavilion as soon as possible."
A few of the pink dragon's scales started fading into shades of blue. "But I shouldn't leave you unguarded, Majesty."
The RainWing queen waved her talons at the surrounding trees. "I think seven guards are quite sufficient. One might call it overkill, in fact. One might even infer that somebody doesn't think he can do his job properly on his own. Also that he must think I'm either blind and deaf or recently hit on the head, that I wouldn't notice the addition of five more dragons following me around."
"The whole point of a top secret invisible guard," Deathbringer said severely, "is for them to be invisible and secret. Therefore it is extremely unhelpful for certain queens to go pointing them out and discussing them loudly with the entire rainforest."
I was now scanning around, so was Grace. I found all seven after about eight seconds of focused searching. This was really an embarrassment. I had disabled my mindreading so I wouldn't get overwhelmed by the village, thinking I was alert enough to spot any hidden dangers. Apparently I'm not as good as I thought. Sliding the MKB scope out of my pouch pocket, I started scanning with that. Now nothing could approach me without me knowing... hopefully.
"Go now," Glory said to Heliconia, ignoring Deathbringer. The RainWing guard bowed immediately and vanished. You could barely hear her wingbeats flapping away over the buzzing, dripping sounds of the rainforest.
"The pavilion is a short flight this way," Glory explained to Winter. "I had it built halfway between the NightWings and the RainWings for anything official." She took to the air, and the rest of us followed her. Winter seemed to strain his ears to listen for the sound of the extra pairs of wings flying alongside us, but it was impossible to discern them from the others and natural ambiance. I wonder how Winter felt being deceived as well?
We eventually arrived at a strange structure made of a single large platform, partly shaded by similar nearly-translucent leaves that were at Jade Mountain. I also noticed it looked to be at a middle ground between the ground, and fully in the trees as I remembered the Rainwing Rainwing village was. Probably to facilitate the spirit of compromises; like our savior Henry Clay, the king of compromises. Anyways, it was really open, barely a platform and a roof to prevent leaves and rain and the like from disrupting governmental processes. Purple and blue, bell shaped, flowers hung from vines twisted around the supporting columns, while white and orangey-pink flowers burst forth from the crevices in the trees. Stunning. Absolutely stunning.
We landed one by one, with the flightplan as full as it could be. Tower must've been having a headache. They shook out their wings and sank their talons into the worn, claw marked wooden floor. Winter's gaze swept over the interior of the pavilion, which was almost empty. Two scroll racks stood on either side of a simple raised pavalon, only a few inches higher than the rest of the platform. Not much of a throne as it was to give speeches. We watched silently as Glory climbed onto it and settled herself with her tail around her claws.
"Now," she said, "I know who you all are - almost all of you - but let's officially meet anyway. I'm Glory, queen of the RainWings and the NightWings. My overenthusiastic bodyguard there is Deathbringer." She lifted one talon into the air and a cute, sleek, gray sloth clambered down from the roof beams to curl up on her shoulder. "And this is Silver."
"Royal pet, not royal lunch," Qibli whispered to Winter, nudging his wing. "So try not to eat it, if you can restrain yourself. I'm Qibli, Your Majesty. One of Queen Thorn's advisors." Speaking louder and more dignified to Glory.
As much advisor as gang member.
Grace smirked.
"Welcome. And then we have Moonwatcher, Kinkajou... and of course, Prince Winter," said Glory.
"M-my name's Grace. Ms..." Grace bowed, I felt her warm embarrassment flooding through our link. She held her eyes wide open, staring nervously blankly at the ground until I gave her the taps all clear.
That could've been better.
Yeah, don't tell me about it.
"Very well. My friends will be very relieved that you're all safe. Jade Mountain is a bit of a mess right now, and it didn't help to have one entire winglet disappear."
"Sorry." Kinkajou squeaked.
"Sorry." Moon and Grace agreed at the same time, staring down at their talons.
There was a pause. The queen gazed sternly down her nose at the other dragons.
"All right, I'm sorry for making them worry," Qibli said. "But Winter can't go searching for Icicle and Hailstorm all by himself."
"Yes, I can," Winter said sharply back. "That's the entire plan. That's what I'm going to do." Then he stopped, realizing something. Then he had that look in his eye when he was thinking about Moon, not necessarily Grace. Probably thinking of his sister, and our possible interactions. Then he actually glanced over at Moon, she met his eyes. Both she and Grace shared the same look. They were determined to help him whether with his permission or not.
"Well, let's see," Glory said, sitting up alertly. "Here come my watchers."
Scouts, more like it. Dragons started appearing out of the leaves and branches, materializing like sun coming out from behind a cloud. In startlingly bright shades of yellows, blues, and pinks. They swooped into the pavilion and landed in a row in front of Queen Glory, until there were a total of six dragons lined up. Although a "line" was hardly the right word to describe their haphazard attempt at standing, some of them with their wings akimbo or their tails flopping all over the place.
Absolutely no discipline. My inner drill sergeant came out. I wanted to tear into this disgraceful bundle of soldiers so badly. Taking a breath, letting it out. I waved away the building stress with my breath and my hands, letting it all exhale in my hot air. But still. Fresh boots had more discipline than... whatever this was.
I remember practicing before I was even shipped off. Feet together, arms against your sides perpendicular, stand up straight, always look completely parallel, DON'T REACT. That man will bring down more pain than you ever thought possible, so suck it up and listen to him. Don't so much as breath his way, because he will-
I was startled out of my mental rant when Winter decided to resettle his tail, causing his spikes to rattle.
"I called you in to ask if any of you have seen any sign of an IceWing today," Queen Glory said. "For those of you who don't remember the lessons, those are the white or blue dragons with spiked tails and cold scales."
One of the RainWings leaned toward her. In a loud whisper that anyone could hear from the other side of the pavilion, he hissed, "Your Majesty, I think there's one of them right behind me."
I facepalmed so hard, so did Grace. Holding my voice, then letting go with a softer sigh. The dragon next to the whisperer looked around in alarm, spotted Winter, and leaped backward, nearly knocking one of her other companions off the platform.
"Oh my gosh, is that what they look like?" she cried. "Why's it pointy all over?"
"Look at its tail!" yelped another. "It really is all spiky!"
"And can you feel how cold it is? Whoa, that's so weird," said a fourth, reaching for Winter's wing. Winter twitched back and growled at her.
Here we go. I grumbled. The whole loopapalooza again.
Glory exhaled slowly through her nose, like she wanted to slap them as hard as I wanted to. "This is our guest, Prince Winter of the IceWings. Have you seen any dragons today that look like him?"
"No." they all answered, almost in unison. At least they could volley fire.
"Would've noticed if I did!" one of them offered that came off more snarky than helpful. "Look at how sparkly he is, like raindrops on a cobweb or something."
"I'll say," agreed another. "Plus brrrr, I think I'd have woken up if something that cold went by me."
"Me too!" said a third.
Oh my God.
The queen closed her eyes eloquently.
Deathbringer cleared his throat, as he so often did. "Permission to check with the backup NightWing guards?" he asked.
"Yes, yes," Glory said, waving him away. "But make sure you tell them if they do see an IceWing, they are to follow her, not attack her, especially if they're on their own."
Deathbringer bowed and spread his wings.
"That includes you!" Glory yelled after him as he flew away. "Keep your claws to yourself!"
"Can't hear you!" he called back cheerfully. Lifting a smile even from me. I realized they weren't necessarily working together because they had to, but because they wanted to.
Which was the better fighting unit? The one that can maintain discipline and fight by the books; or the one that trusts each other completely, and Can fully utilize everything they can bring to the table.
Winter glanced sideways towards Moon and found her staring intently at one of the RainWing watchers/scouts. Something about him as well.
"Um," Moon said. "Your Majesty, can I ask -"
"Yes?" Glory said, waving her talons. "Speak up."
"Just - even if they didn't see an IceWing," Moon blurted in a hurry, "anything suspicious - like something frozen or colder than usual ..." She trailed off.
Even I could guess Moon realized that Rainwing saw something, he was just too incompetent to realize even indirect intel is still intel.
Like you with the birds.
"Well ... there was this weird spot near the oldest giant banyan tree," the RainWing scout mused, almost to himself. "I did notice something funny there."
"What do you mean?" Glory asked him. We all leaned in.
"There was a spot on the ground that was all shriveled up, kind of," the RainWing answered. His scales were royal blue, dotted with little swirls of dark pink. Like he was trying to act out the situation, and he was doing a pretty good job of it. "It looked like something had killed all the plants in a circle there, and they were kind of crusty and white-ish and the berries were as hard as rocks. Oh, and kind of cold, too. Do you think that's important?"
I mentally snapped my fingers and pointed at him. Winter flared his wings. "Where was this?" he demanded. "How far away?" Grace stood up from peacefully laying down.
"I know where the banyan tree is," Glory said, already rising. She untangled Silver from her neck and deposited the sloth on a nearby branch. "We can be there in a few minutes. The rest of you, stay here."
"But- um..."
"Can't I come, too?" Moon asked. "I can be useful- we can be useful. I -" She stopped, struggling for words. Grace stepped up and wrapped her wing around her once more, nodding towards Glory and Winter. He must have realized that she was hoping our mind reading could help.
"Me too!" Kinkajou cried. "I want to come!"
"No," Queen Glory said firmly. "I am your queen, both of you, and I'm ordering you to stay here."
Grace inched back slightly, but still stood tall. I didn't realize how tall she actually was, just under Glory's eye level by a few inches, even on her raised platform.
Winter thought things through, analyzing the situation, and probably figured that a couple mindreaders could at least provide early warning, because then he said:
"Moon can come, and Grace," he said with what he hoped was an offhanded shrug, but I saw right through it. "That's fine. Not her, though; she's far too loud." He jerked his chin at Kinkajou.
"I AM NOT," Kinkajou protested. "That's so unfair!"
"Hey." Grace lowered herself to her. "We're keeping you safe, 'cause you know she'll go for you first." And I don't know what I'd do if anything happens to you. My little, bubbly, RainWing friend.
I tried not to tear up at the sight. I felt the same way.
"Kinkajou, you wanted me to be queen, and now you have to listen to me," Glory said. "Stay here, because if you get killed by an IceWing, I'm going to be extremely mad at you." She glanced from Winter to Moon, a wrinkle of puzzlement on her forehead. "But all right, Moon, Grace, come along."
Soon the four (five) of us were soaring through the trees. Well, trying to soar - Winter kept getting his wings tangled in unexpected vines or spiderwebs or branches or brambles, once, snagged on the nest of a large-beaked indignant red bird. Who, after a few moments of screeching (I couldn't tell if it was the bird or Winter) he caught back up with us with a snort.
After a few more minutes of flying, Queen Glory stopped abruptly and swung around. I couldn't help but grin. I knew who was just behind us. Great minds think alike.
"That is a level of noisy that makes me think you aren't even trying to be stealthy," she said. "Come on out."
Qibli emerged sheepishly from behind a tree with an ample amount of leaves. "I was trying to be stealthy," he protested. "But there's too many things to crash into. I'm a wide-open-desert kind of dragon."
Winter shook off a tangle of moss and branches. He looked irked to find that they have something in common.
"What did I say about staying put?" Glory asked.
"You're a great queen, I hear, but with all due respect, you're not my queen," Qibli said, setting his jaw. "I go where they go. Besides, Winter wants me along, he just can't admit it."
"I don't," Winter said. "You can send him back to the Kingdom of Sand for all I care."
Grace and I smirked, shaking our heads.
"He adores me," Qibli said.
Glory rolled her eyes. There's nothing I can do now. "Fine, enough arguing. Let's go."
Qibli shot Winter a delighted grin and flapped over to fly beside Moon and Grace, but mainly Moon
Grace was surprisingly dexterous at moving between the trees and dodging stray branches, especially for her size and wingspan. Even Glory still ran into things occasionally, but Moon and Grace slipped easily through the forest, like a fighter plane, dancing around a string of bombers.
Soon we descended towards an absolutely humongously fat (thick) tree with bulging branches and roots strewn about and sticking out of the undergrowth. From the air, I already spotted the circle the RainWing had mentioned. The frozen berries had melted into mushy puddles of purple, while the leaves and undergrowth were all black and damp. Like how I saw almost every village when a flash freeze decided to make our lives hell for the next couple days. At least we got to walk on hard snow, but eventually back to mud.
It wasn't a perfectly neat circle - there were a few patches of green still left within its circumference. Which meant something had been blocking Icicle's frost breath in those spots. Then I looked to Winter, studying at as hard as I was.
Something... or someone.
Glory and Moon circled around the tree and us, while Grace, Winter, Qibli, and I landed and took a better look at the rainforest floor. I could tell a headache was working its way through his head. I really hoped it wasn't that easy to take someone hostage. Although, the Rainwings were a prime candidate as any. Icicle would likely kill any Nightwings she captured, to be honest, Rainwings might fare a better chance.
Taking a closer look. The layers of leaves and dirt were disturbed here, like something had been dragged away. Qibli noticed it, too; his snout wrinkled with concern. Winter and I followed the trail, trying to guess what we would have done in this situation.
Bodies in the open are just welcoming attention and alertness. Anybody worth his salt would not leave their kills in the open and be detected by consequence. Although, these drag marks, a few deep, some shallower, reminiscent of spikes or claw marks dragging in the dirt, indicative of dragons. Although, to give her the benefit of the doubt, it could've been a boar or something. Only she dragged it upside down and the head first so it's tusks would purposely catch the dirt. Why would she do that? Hell, why would she do any of this? Although I wouldn't pass the boar possibility, everything's much larger here.
Winter paced over to a wall of bushes where the ground began to slope up. The banyan tree's roots extended out this far, (this is a really old tree) some of them nearly as thick here as a dragon.
Me and Winter noticed. Between one of the roots and the bushes was a mound of leaves, dirt, moss, and mulch that looked way too big to be natural. I recognized the chamoflaged job.
Both our hearts sinking, Winter started to clear away the debris. Moon and Qibli joined him, helping silently.
The corpse of a NightWing guard lay beneath the dirt in a hastily dug hollow, his face contorted in frozen rage, his throat slashed, and his scales turned a frosty white, ravaged by frostbreath.
I was right, morbidly so. Icicle was definitely here.