Snowflakes In Summer

Chapter Two

A few hours later, it was dark, and Snowflake was bored out of her mind. The toxin was already wearing off, so she could move very slowly. She had decided to look at her fellow prisoners. 'Wait a fucking second. That's Swordtail!' The dragon to the right of her looked exactly like her blue-orange-white friend.

A small noise made Snowflake return as fast as she could (which wasn't very fast) to her original state. "There! That's Swordtail!" A nondescript SilkWing dragonet in dark blues and browns with hints of dark red who apparently sounded exactly like Blue pointed at Swordtail, and a HiveWings hurried around the corner. "And, is that..." He trailed off, staring at Snowflake.

"What is it? Blue?" The HiveWing was already searching through a pouch around her neck.

"Citrus? What are you doing here?" Blue took a step toward Snowflake and her eyes trained on his concerned and worried face.

"She... She killed someone, knocked several others out, and stole food." The HiveWing read from the stone tablet under her stool.

"We still need to free her. It could have been an accident." Blue said stubbornly.

Snowflake watched them as they worked until Cricket pointed out that her head was moving to watch them, then it was creepy and she stopped moving.

Fourth Week

Finally, Cricket dropped a flamesilk thread in a vial and it started billowing tons and tons of smoke.

Snowflake watched curiously as Swordtail jerked and fell off the pedestal he was on, nearly crashing into her outstretched wings. "It worked!" Cricket cheered.

She moved the vial under Snowflake's snout, and Snowfall croaked as best she could, "Move. Out. Of. The way." Cricket tipped her head curiously but moved back obediently as Snowflake crashed off the pedestal in a cloud of treestuff. The paint had long been scrubbed off, so her true colors had been revealed, but the blood had been left. The cracks had been coming back slowly, and Cricket and Blue were covered in gold.

'So, they like each other.' Snowflake mused as Swordtail thanked Blue multiple times, and Cricket stared at her eye. "Can I help you?" She inquired.

"Why did you kill someone? Did you mean to? Why is your eye glowing? Where's your wrist cuff?" Cricket blurted.

"Self-defense, slightly, classified, and I don't have one." Snowflake said blankly. She got up and ran after Swordtail, despite his utter surprise that she could keep up. He started throwing stuff at the Hive wall.

"Take THAT!" Blue and Cricket ran up to us as Swordtail heaved a stone tablet at the wall, which promptly smashed through it. "YOU HAPPY NOW, GRASSHOPPER? (Grasshopper is Swordtail's construction instructor)

"Okay. And now we have an easy exit. Good job." Snowflake patted Swordtail's arm as he spun a harness around Blue with silk.

"Ow!" Swordtail whipped his head around and inspected where she touched him. "You burned me!"

"Is sh-Are you a flamesilk too?" Cricket asked excitedly, grabbing Blue's arm.

"What? No. Just... aftereffects. But we should go before I burn this place to the ground." Snowflake leaped out of the warm, still air inside the Hive to the cool, breezy night air.

"Aftereffects of what?" Cricket called, jumping out after Swordtail.

"Snowflakes," Snowflake shouted back, her mind going on autopilot, as she kept up easily with Blue and Swordtail without getting tired over the long hours as they flew through the night and into dawn.

"We should find a place to hide!" Blue called over the rushing wind. "The hunts are about to start."

Snowflake studied the map of Pantala in her head. "There's a sinkhole over to our left." She shouted back. "Cricket?"

"Yes. Here. Good rest." Cricket panted, still valiantly beating her wings although Snowflake could clearly see fatigue in Cricket's muscles. She soared in a wide circle, scanning the ground below for the dark shape of the sinkhole she had used to hide several times with her sharper-than-normal eyes.

Snowflake spotted it a minute later, summoning Cricket and Swordtail over with a flick of her tail. She landed on the dry soil, wobbling slightly while regaining the feeling in her legs as Cricket landed beside her.

"How did you find this and how do you remember where it was?" Cricket questioned, holding onto her glasses as she peered over the edge.

"And how do you have wings when you're my age?" Blue chimed in.

Snowflake chuckled. "I'm older than you think, Blue. I'm eight."

"Also, what do you me-" Snowflake cut Cricket's question off by snaring Blue with several strands of ice-cold silk and diving off the edge.

"AAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" Blue screamed as Snowflake banked sharply, narrowly avoiding a rock ledge. The bottom of the sinkhole was close now, and she pulled up sharply, flying in a small spiral before setting Blue down. Cricket landed shortly after, but Snowflake had already disappeared into the shadows.

A small light flared ahead of them. Snowflake pulled all of the huge shadows on the bottom of the lake into a small ball, which started glowing brightly. "I don't know how this works, so don't ask, just follow." Snowflake waited a second for Swordtail to catch up, and walked into the darkness.

A/N Sorry if the updates are a bit chunky. My school blocked Wattpad and I keep forgetting to copy and paste at home.