The forbidden fruit

Exposed secrests

They rested their heads on each others shoulders for a while. Iceberg could feel Hovers heartbeat slowing down, while his warm scales brushed against his.
He did it.
He had used his animus magic to cast a spell and nothing happened. As expected. It was all probably just an old story to scare dragons off.
Some time passed, them staying like that and just breathing and Iceberg realized, that he still had the healing feather in his talon.
He opened his eyes and let go of Hover.

,,Hey, uhm." he struggled to find the right words. ,,I actually made this feather heal every scar it touches and I think you should have it."

,,Whoa, really? Isn't that like, a very big deal, giving someone an animus touched object?" Hover stared at Iceberg in disbelief.

,,Well, mabye, but I care about you and I don't want you to be hurt." Iceberg said without thinking and immediately regretted it. Why did he say that? After all those years of living in a royal Icewing family and not a thing from his lessons about Icewing superiority stayed in his brain when talking to this skywing? Seriously?

,,Eeee, yeah so, here." he panicked and pushed the healing feather into Hovers talons. ,,I have to head off now."

Hover sat in the moss bed, too stunned to speak, while Iceberg said his hurried goodbyes and slowly walked backwards.
Why did he say that, why? He was so embarrassed, that he couldn't even walk straight and almost tripped on a tree root that stuck out of the ground. It occured to him, that every interaction with Hover from now on is going to be very awkward, but that skywing made him feel strangely good, so he didn't hesitate to call out:

,,I'll come visit you tomorrow!"

Then he took off, no looking back and straight to the Icewing palace. He just realized, how late it was. The sky was already dotted with some stars, dark as the night in the Icewing territory always was. He suddenly realized that Hover is probably laying in the dark night, all alone. He should bring him the Icewing light sphere.
Wait no. That was too much. It was the Icewing animus gift for moons sake! What was he thinking?! As he flew towards the Icewing palace, more frustrated thoughts filled his mind. He had to constantly remind himself what he was always taught. He shouldn't even trust any dragon from a different tribe and definitely not give them animus touched gifts right when he met them. He really messed up.

He landed on his window ledge, that was now shined on by two full moons. The ice walls and pillars glittered in the silver moonlight and Iceberg lied down on the cold floor. Despite everything, he had to admit one horrible truth.
He fell for Hover.
No matter how hard he tried to deny it, deep down he knew that it was impossible to hide it. As he found out just a few hours ago.
He exhaled in defeat and closed his eyes.

...

When he woke up, his sister Breeze was standing above him, a bitter and demanding expression all over her face. Iceberg almost jumped when he opened his eyes and saw her thin snout pushed into his personal space.

,,What are you doing?!" he barked at her, jumping to his feet.

,,I know you weren't here yesterday." she hissed in her ,,I see right through you" kinda way. ,,Would you mind telling me where in Pyrrhia you were last night?"

Iceberg didn't like the demanding tone that she always asked him things with and he definitely wasn't gonna tell her where he was yesterday.

,,I was just out hunting." he said and furrowed his brow at the princess. A good thing was, that he was actually telling the truth. He was out hunting. He just ran into a dragon on the way.

,,And possibly fell in love with him" a quiet voice murmured in the back of his mind.

His sister squinted at him and growled.

,,In the middle of the night?" she hissed.

,,I can go hunt whenever I want and it's none of your business anyway."

,,You know it will be soon. Just wait."

He knew what she meant by that. She was just six, but she already had her plans on how take the Icewing throne.
It wasn't like he really cared though. His mother was always cruel to him, so he didn't really mind if she died. He even wondered sometimes, what would happen if he killed her himself. Would he be the king? It never happened in any tribe, that the prince would kill the Queen, so nobody really knew the answer to that.

,,Well, now it isn't, so buzz off and stop sticking your snout in things you shouldn't." Iceberg said commandingly.

His sister stomped her foot and growled out small particles of frost breath out of her nostrils in defeat. Iceberg just lifted his chin a bit and stared into her eyes. After a moment of their bitter eye contact, she turned away and walked towards the tunnel enterance. Right before she disappeared behind the corner, she stopped and glared back at him.

,,You won't get away with this." she hissed under her breath quietly. She then left his room and followed to the icy hallways.

Iceberg didn't want to admit to it, but he was kind of scared what Breeze was about to do. She never had nice or innocent intentions as he knew. She was actually the reason why everyone found out about his powers.
They were around three years old, playing in snow and learning to hunt, when suddenly Iceberg noticed a snow rabbit in front of him. He crouched and slowly approached it, planning out how he would strike. His sister hissed out behind him and as he realized, she was about to snatch his evening snack. He growled and turned his gaze to her, just in time to see her jumping out of the snow and burying her claws into the animal.

,,HEY, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!" he barked furiously at her. ,,That was obviously mine! I saw it first!"

,,Well I was faster, so too bad." she put an arrogant expression on her face, as she took a bite out of the stolen prey.
Iceberg wanted to scratch that thin snout of hers.

,,Ugh, I wish that the rabbit was still alive, so it could bite you!" he stomped his foot and gritted his teeth in anger. To his surprise Breeze roared in pain and dropped the animal on the ground.
The rabbit stood back up on its feet and ran away from the dragons, back into the snow.

,,WHAT IN PYRRHIA?!" Breeze screamed.

After that, she immediately ran to their Mother, telling her every single detail about what happened. Queen North didn't believe her at first, but after making him say stuff to an object and testing out the theory, she found out what he was.
He would never forgive his sister for doing that.
He could've lived a normal life if it haven't been for that incident. He could've kept all this to himself and do anything he wanted with his magic.