Heatstroke Happens

Chapter 6

On the way to the Kingdom of Sky to collect the last animus, my heart is soaring high above me, thumping with pleasure to the rhythm of my wingbeats. I think up a new song in my head, a song of joy, a song of freedom, a song of the wilderness. I conjure a small drum with straps, slip it over my head, and start beating in time to the rhythm of the song. Every four beats, there comes a new rhythm, and soon, hearing the hum, Everest asks Reef to conjure a flute, and he plays the tune in time with the hum in my head. The other animus dragons hear the tune and conjure up instruments of their own, except for Aquilon, who is scowling at all of us. As the song reaches its wild-sounding chorus, Aquilon gives up on trying to be serious and conjures up another drum. He is the beat while I am the rhythm. Paradise and Peacock change colors and do tricks in time to the music, and just as the song finishes, they spread their wings and shine. Everyone puts away their instruments magically and laughs heartily, everyone having a good time. I pat Aquilon on the shoulder and nod, but he looks fearfully down at my talons and shoves them off and yells, "NO!" I cock my head at him, then feel my talon getting colder and colder. I look down at it in fear, and I see ice spreading up my arm. I shake my now-numb arm, but the ice doesn't come off, it simply keeps spreading faster and faster, and I look at Everest to see what is happening. No answer except for a whimper, "Frostscales." I think, What the heck is a frostscales?! Everest explains, "A frostscales is basically the IceWing form of firescales, but with frost. Everyone, try to get the frost off with your animus magic!" Reef, Eclipse, Gator, and the RainWing twins make the same strange motion with their talons at once, and I feel nothing happen, except for me starting to plummet because the frost had reached my wings and tail, which makes me freak out because my tail barb feels like it isn't there, except for a faint buzzing. The world spins in and out of view, and I start to hyperventilate. My eyes frantically search for a still place to focus on, and I find Everest speeding towards me, his eyes narrowed and his wings tucked to himself. He catches me and pulls me to him as we spiral down and down, faster and faster, but as Everest looks into my eyes, time seems to freeze, as if Aquilon touched it. The other animus dragons dive after us, and they make the same strange motion again, accompanied with a shout in a foreign language, but I don't hear it because the frost has made it to my neck. Everest whispers, "If you go down, I'll go with you." He pulls me close to him and kisses me, then rests his snout against mine and waits for the inevitable to happen, he waits for the ice to spread over him, too, and take us both to the place where dragons' spirits go when they are released from their mortal bodies. Suddenly, the frost on my body crumbles to pieces, and I can feel everything again, and my eyes and wings snap open, and our fall stops. I land gracefully, and Aquilon looks guiltily down at his talons and grumbles, "Maybe I should've told you that I have frostscales." I nod, then feel my snout. My snoutband is unfortunately still there, but instead of me not being able to talk coherently, the band is now a steel cord loosely around my neck, but when I try to pull it off my head, it stays on my neck. I tell everyone, "Great. Now, instead of me not being able to talk and being a mime, you guys have to listen to my torturous non-stop talk. Ha-ha! Is this even torture to me now?" Aquilon rolls his eyes at me and growls, "C'mon, we've got to find that stupid SkyWing animus if we're gonna get that thing off of your neck." He stomps away, and Everest tells me, "You don't want to know what he was thinking. Trust me." We take off towards the Kingdom of Sky again, and we land in front of the gates. We walk inside (well, everyone but Aquilon walks, he stalks inside), and a few SkyWing guards glance our way, but they let us through. I ask a few questions to others passing by, and they each answer 'no' to my main question: Do you know where the tribe animus is? After a while of asking, I finally give up, slump to the ground, and sniffle quietly, "I'm going to die. I'm never going to find my mom." I sniffle again. Everest touches his snout to my cheek, then glares at Aquilon like, "You froze her, you pay the price." A female SkyWing with eerie blue eyes walks up to us and asks me, "I'm sorry, but were you guys looking for the tribe animus?" I nod and ask, "Do you know where they are?" She somberly replies, "Well, they - they went to the war to fight, and they were captured, never to be seen again. I'm sorry." I hang my head, and she tells us, "But if you're talking about the new animus, come with me." I bound to my feet and follow her, glad to finally find the last animus so that I won't die. I grin from ear to ear as she leads us into a dark alley, and I don't even suspect a thing. She stops. I ask, "What's wrong?" She turns around and chuckles, "Nothing, little dragon, nothing at all." I ask, "Wait, what do you - " Something sharp pierces my neck, and just before I black out, I hear Everest cry out distantly, "Heatstroke!"