A War of Sand and Snow

Chapter 1: The War

 Winter scowled, trying to brush off the heat of the desert day for the millionth time that flight. What is it with the heat? Does it ever end in this moons-forsaken chunk of dirt? He snarled to himself, wondering, not for the first time, why they were doing this. Because we lost many good Icewings, some of them even ranked highly, in the last stupid war with the Sandwings, we decide to have another one and lose even more Icewings. WHY IS THIS THE LOGIC OF MY LIFE? Winter yelled internally. He sighed, sincerely glad that no one had heard that thought, he would be executed for that for sure. He knew he wasn't actually against the War, he thought it was as necessary as Glacier thought it was, like all—he hoped—the Icewings did. All true Icewings anyway. He sighed out loud and banked to circle the new border. The Sandwing's supposed "Queen", who was really a low-born commoner mongrel named Thorn, hadn't expected Glacier to attack immediately, but she did, taking a huge swath of the Kingdom of Sand under siege. Although that sounded good when he first heard it, he hadn't realized at the time that the military regiments would need to take turns doing patrol of the seized areas while the rest of the military fought the now-organized Sandwing army. Apparently, attacking a country gives dragons good motivation to stop fighting each other for power and fight together for once. Now they had a massive sand-coated absolutely useless cactus covered lizard licking swath of territory filled with angry Sandwings they had to keep an eye on, which Winter, along with his sister Icicle, and the regiment she commanded, were now required to do shiftwork watching over. I hate this. Immediately after he thought it, he saw Tundra's sneering face. "Maybe some time patrolling in the heat will toughen you up, you disappointing excuse for an Icewing. Who knows, maybe you'll even take to it, like those inferior, disgusting, sand-snorting lizards that live there. That would explain why you're such a failure, maybe your secretly a Sandwing." He shuddered slightly, pushing that thought out of his mind. Seeing his replacement flying towards him, he did a quick rollover in the air and glided upwards, flapping his wings to hover in place.

"Anything worth mentioning today, your Highness." Lynx said, a wide smirk on her face.

"Watch your tone! It's all clear." Winter snapped, scowling at Lynx's still-obviously smiling face.

How is it that some dragons are disrespectful even when they're being respectful? Winter thought exasperatedly.

"Good to know, although I should warn ya." She flew closer to whisper into his ear. "Be careful what you say to Icicle when you get back, she's....well, she's pissed."Winter pushed her away angrily.

"Watch what you say about my sister, you idiotic Icewing." He snarled, his perfect, sharp, gleaming teeth visible. Lynx just rolled her eyes.

"Because I've known you for long enough that I know you'll take my advice but never thank me for it, I'm gonna get to work now, m'kay?" She said playfully, smirking at him in a way she definitely should not be smirking at a Prince.

Winter growled, but settled his spikes back into place.

"Very well." He managed to say, his tone of voice mostly even, and began to fly away. He didn't get far, though, before he heard Lynx yelling after him.

"See you later Winty-boy! Let me know if you find any cute Sandwings on the way back!"

"WHAT!" He roared in her direction, snapping around to glare at her, only to see her rolling with laughter at his reaction.

"Maybe it'll even be true love!" She squealed, before bursting into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

He bristled internally, not even bothering to respond, but instead spinning around and flying back towards the compound.

Three moons Snowfall, why does your girlfriend have to be so annoying. He thought grumpily.

He could still hear her laughing. He scowled as he thought about what she said, and silently prayed she hadn't heard the whisp of longing in his voice.