Wings of Fire ~ A Special Snowflake

5 ~ What I Can Do

Yet another week had passed. The nightwing left after delivering his ominous prophecy, leaving Snowflake all by his lonesome.

He slept the night away despite the nightwing's words on his mind. Was he suddenly magic now? What did the medorite do to him?

When he thought of magic, the only instance that came to mind were nightwing abilities. Could he read minds and see the future now?

Aperrently not. The next morning when he met with his new circle for training, he started at each icewing's head, squinting his eyes and trying to read their mind. It didn't work.

Speaking of training, it was boring without Suka and his other friends. The only dragon that was remotely familiar to him was Shiver.

There had been an error in the rankings. Shiver was ment to be moved to the bottom of the fourth insead of the top of the fifth, which ment Snowflake had to deal with her sparse attitude. At least he was higher than her, it definatley would make everything easier.

The champion of the fourth dragonet circle was a brawny silver icewing named Pewter. He was decorated in sapphires and silver chains.

Snowflake always wanted chains of his own, but never could afford them. He also loved silk, imported from the sandwings. However, only third circle and above are even allowed to wear it, not that he could afford it anyway. Jewelry was always expensive in the Ice Kingdom.

"Snowflake, you're the dragonet that was moved up half a circle?" His instuctor for the day, a wrinkly white icewing grunted. Snowflake bowed his head as he was addressed.

"Yes, that would be me."

"I want to see exactly why the upper ranks moved you soo far up. I want you to spar with Pewter at the end of the session."

At the mentioned of his name, Pewter lifted his head, looking down his nose at Snowflake. His eyes were black and beady like a sandwing. He snorted and grinned confidently before turning back around.

The first exercise of the day was stance training, then flight courses. The course was more advanced that the previous circles, yet Snowflake bounded ahead of the other dragonets... but he couldn't reach Pewter. The sheer size of the silver dragon allowed him to simply flap his giant wings to stay ahead of the rest. Snowflake didn't have the stamina to reach him.

"Snowflake, I would like to tell you something." A chilling whisper itched his left ear. It was Shiver.

"What is it?"

"Pewter is my relative, a cousin of a cousin. Our families are pretty close, and I know better than anyone here that he will not hesitate to play dirty. His size allows him to corner his opponents and pin them down from there. And whatever you do, do not go behind him." Shiver growled.

"Why not? How else will I avoid him?"

"He fights with his tail and wings. He hardly uses his claws or frostbreath. You might be able to outsmart him somehow."

"Why are you telling me this? Wasn't I your rival?" Shiver was silent as Snowflake finished his sentence. She broke eye contact and looked ahead.

"I... j-just want you to win and continue to move up the rankings. I wish you well, is all. You definatley deserve the attention you get from the high ranks." Shiver paused. "But the instructor, Glaze, hates dragonets born in the lower ranks. Watch out, I think he's targeting you."

As Shiver regained her composure, Snowflake glanced sideways at his new instructor. The cranky icewing was turned in his direction. Three rings hung around his neck and flopped on his chest as he scanned the sky. Great, he's from the third circle.