Wings of Fire; Creature / ✅

CHAPTER FIVE

 Edited ✅ as of April

"Wh-what?" Gleam gasped, shock slicing through her scales like a dagger. "No, I won't believe it. I'm a SkyWing, through and through!"

"But you aren't," Scarlet said, smirking. "You're a SkyWing-IceWing hybrid, whether you like it or not."

"Then who's my mother, and why aren't I with her?" Gleam growled, glaring at Scarlet.

Scarlet's eyes widened with shock. Then they narrowed into tiny, furious slits. "Excuse me? How dare you say that! I could've left you to die, but I didn't," she snarled.

Even death would've been better than this treatment, Gleam thought angrily. Then she repeated, "who is my mother?"

"I think her name was Snow Leopard," Scarlet growled. "I don't know, though. Why would I waste my time trying to figure out a useless peasant IceWing's name, when I have better things to do?"

"How do you know her name, then?" Gleam challenged.

Scarlet thrusted her snout close to Gleam. "I don't know what's gotten into you today, but you need chill a little and tone your attitude down, not a little, but a lot," she hissed in her face.

Gleam wanted to flick her tongue back, but thought better of it. Knowing Scarlet, the SkyWing queen would probably rip her tongue out of her mouth for 'showing attitude'.

"Who's my dad, then?" Gleam asked instead. 

Scarlet stopped. "That I do not know," she admitted. "Snow Leopard wouldn't tell me before her dea- I mean, disappearance."

Gleam noticed the stammer, and she stared at her suspiciously. "What do you mean, 'disappearance'?" she demanded.

Scarlet shrugged. "I don't know. She left you as a dragonet, so I took you home."

That, Gleam knew, was a lie. She still had small flashbacks the day of her mother's 'disappearance' - not a lot, but enough to know Snow Leopard would've died to protect her. The cold talons wrapped around her waist, and the flash of pain as she fell from her grip and hit the ground below. But the memory which was more vivid was staring into Snow Leopard's caring, deep, mysterious blue eyes. She knew that Snow Leopard would've never abandoned her if she could help it.

Lie to me all you want, Gleam thought, staring into Scarlet's unfriendly amber eyes. But I know the truth. She didn't reply - instead, she began to examine her claws which she noticed for the first time were curled and sharp. With these, she could inflict serious damage - if she couldn't with her 'power' already.

She folded and unfolded her wings, then gasped. The underneath of her wings had some very faint white swirls. It would've been easy to miss at first glance, but they were definitely there. The swirls branched and spiralled outwards and expanded as they got to the middle of the membrane. It looked like a mini starburst.

Along her body, her tail started out as thick as any SkyWing's, then thinned down until it was whip-thin, which was, again, like an IceWings. 

Gleam wondered whether she had fire, or the icy-death breath which only IceWings had. She hissed slightly to test it out.

Nothing. 

Not even a puff of smoke, or the steam of cold ice to let her know she had ice-breath.

"Hah! You'll have to practise to breathe fire," Scarlet laughed. "And then you can do this," she took a deep breath, then shot a fireball right at Gleam. Horror engulfed Gleam like a huge, tidal wave as she watched the hungry flames reaching towards her with fiery talons.