Isle of Feathers - Wings of Fire OC Fanfic

Chapter 3

**I apologize for a short chapter!***

Halo returned to the castle the next morning, having gotten permission to be excused from classes due to her meetings with the monarchs. As she was led into the throne room once again by the guards she was greeted with the sight of Princess Quetzal lounging on her mother's throne, her head tilted back and her tail draped over one arm. She raised her head at the sound of the closing doors as the guards left.

"Ah, Mother's new pet," Quetzal sighed as she spotted Halo and sat up. Shaking out her wings. "They just stepped out for a moment, they'll be back."

"Oh, uh... thanks," Halo said, unsure of what else to do.

Quetzal slid off the throne and approached her, looking her up and down scrutinizingly. It made Halo nervous, but she dared not move. "You really don't look like any of the Pyrrhian tribes are described do you?" The princess muttered as she circled, even going as far as poking her scales with a talon. "Wow! You're not warm either! That's odd."

That statement had Halo pause, realizing something she never put too much thought into. Piper, Blue, her parents, all of them always felt so warm to her almost as if they had a slight fever or were sick. None of them ever remarked about her being colder than they were.

"Really? I didn't know that," Halo said, swallowing nervously.

"How could you not know? Your body temperature definitely isn't normal! So.... Maybe you're part IceWing?" Quetzal circled some more, and Halo could feel her pull on the tall spines at the top of her neck. Then moved her talons to the frills behind her ears.

"Hmm.... But I've only seen these frills described on the depictions of RainWings. Could you be half IceWing and half RainWing? Is that a thing? They come from very different climates, and are on separate sides of the continent from each other. I wonder how that would have happened...."

It seemed that Princess Quetzal had gotten lost in her thoughts so Halo cleared her throat.

"I'm sorry, but uh.... What?" She mumbled sheepishly.

"Oh!" Princess Quetzal snapped back to the throne room. "I'm sorry! You see, since the royal family is the only one who knows anything about the records regarding Pyrrhia I have been studying what I can about the seven tribes there. After I overheard you and my parents talking in the library yesterday I decided to look a little more into how each tribe is described as my parents seemed at a loss."

The memory of Quetzal sitting at a table in the library, silhouetted by the light coming through the stained glass windows jumped into Halo's mind. Then the full reality of what she had been saying hit.

"So, you think you know what tribe I belong to?" Halo asked.

A huge grin crossed the Princess's face, and Halo had to admit she was rather cute, "Oh! I think so! But I want to test something first!" She sauntered over to the side of the throne room where a ceramic planter stood with a large plant inside, Halo didn't know much about their names, but Quetzal plucked a decent sized piece off of a leaf and brought it back to Halo and held it up in front of her.

"Bite this!" She said excitedly.

"Wait what?" Halo said shocked, taking a step back, "Why would I bite it?"

Quetzal rolled her eyes, annoyed, "Because! RainWings can shoot venom out of their fangs! And since I don't know how they do it, I can tell you, so I figured biting this leaf is as good as anything to try! Think of it as aiding my study?"

The idea sounded crazy to Halo, but then again so did the idea of traveling to another continent to find biological parents that may or may not be alive. Apprehensively, Halo leaned forward and sank her teeth into the leaf, the feeling was bizarre and she withdrew quickly, shaking the taste of the leaf off her tongue.

"Blegh!" She grumbled.

Quetzal stared at the leaf, her eyes wide. "Ahah! I was right! Look!"

She held out the leaf to Halo once more, but this time, the leaf had two puncture marks where she had bit it, and the two marks were growing bigger, turning black and almost burning away with a small hint of smoke.

"It's definitely not the intensity I've read about with the ability to melt a dragon's face off, but if it's doing that then I am right!" Quetzal was almost bouncing with how giddy and excited she was.

"Your features, coupled with the cooler scales and the acid bite proves it! You have to be half RainWing and half IceWing!"

It seemed to mean more to the princess than it did to Halo, so she didn't interrupt, but it was at least a start. She wouldn't go to this new continent totally blind, which helped. Quetzal was rambling again, walking away from Halo and just as she was about to go after her, to see if maybe she could get more information, the doors to the throne room opened again and the King and Queen stepped inside.

"Ah, Halo, I hope you weren't waiting long!" Said Queen Toucan who strode up to her and patted her shoulder.

"Uh, no not really," Halo replied.

"Good, so not to delay, we've found it," said King Peacock, following behind his wife.

"Found what?"

The monarchs looked at each other and then nodded, turning to Halo.

"We found the Passage Stone."