Wings of Fire: Reborn

Chapter 13

Blossom's head was throbbing, even with everything around her being freezing cold. She didn't want to open her eyes, everything in her head hurt to much. The only thing she could remember was a cold tenderness waltzing through her veins, moments before the impact to her head. 

"You might as well get up..." a soft, creamy voice said from behind her. 

"Why should I?" she groaned in response, her eyes still closed. When was the rainforest ever this cold?

"Because Tundra might be getting annoyed, that her other animus pet isn't awake and working." the voice said in reply.

Blossom was stunned and jumped to her feet, immediately slipping and returning to her spot on the ground. Why was the ground so slippery?

"Hey slow down! We don't want our animus's clonking their heads on a ice shelf!" Ice shelf?

Blossom's eyes flew open, shock and fear filled her lungs. Ice, everywhere she looked, freezing cold and glittering. She got up again more carefully now, the ground beneath her was ice as well. 

"Its funny, you and I are the only animus's to be here in centuries... well I was here first, but two animus's in the Ice kingdom... We surely are powerful." the creamy voice said in a sing song voice. 

Blossom turned to face where the voice was coming from, discovering she was looking at a mirror. No, not a mirror, a dragon. Who looks exactly like me?

The dragon had a long neck and elegant body, her sharp claws and horns looking polished her big green eyes gleamed as she looked up at Blossom, her small, snout identical to Blossom's. The only thing off that Blossom could see, was the dragon had light cream main scales instead of pearly white, and instead of shades of pink changeable scales, they were different shades of yellow.

"You look..." Blossom started, but she stopped when the dragon changed her scale colours to pink.

"Like you? Yeah I can tell" she smiled, turning her scales back to yellow. "My name is Taro, what's yours?" 

"Blossom..."

"Wow, that's such a pretty name! I wish my name was pretty like that... Tundra named me Taro, because she is always complaining that I'm a root in her side." Taro cooed, her eyes grew and Blossom could have sworn she saw stars in her eyes. 

"Thank you." Blossom said, her wings stiffened. It was to cold here, she needed to warm up. She shook out her wings and tried to step forward.

 a long sickening moment of pain gripped onto her talons, forcing her to step back. She tried again, this time the sickening pain reached her stomach.

"What is happening?!" she yelled as she clutched her underbelly gingerly. 

Taro bowed her head. "I-I'm sorry, Tundra made me. I didn't want to, she just...scares me."

Blossom watched the small dragon, as she sat down and wrapped a long white cape, with a golden chain attached around the collar. 

"How did you do that?" Blossom asked warily.

"I'm an Animus...I'd thought you would have figured it out by now. Tundra certainly loves me because of it." she said solemnly, as if her power was a burden.

"Wait... Tundra... That's my aunt. I send her letters every week." she said in confusion, she turned away from Taro, looking around her prison. A large window was planted on the side of the back wall, making it easy to see the never ending tundra of white. A small ledge was on the side of the room, Blossom guessed that was her sleeping spot. The room was small and bland, the animus touched ground only gave her half the space, so doubly small. 

Blossom crouched down next to the window, the few minutes that she was awake felt like hours.

"Your aunt?" Taro repeated slowly. Blossom turned towards Taro,  she looked like the world was crashing down. "That-That can't be right... Wait, are you from the rainforest?" Taro asked quizzically, her eyes sparkling again.

"Yes... I was born in the rainforest." Blossom said, remembering the sunshine, the warmth, the mangoes... wow she was hungry for mangoes. 

Taro fiddled with a small ring on her finger,  a gorgeous diamond shone in the ring. "Who, um, are your parents?" Taro asked, looking up into Blossom's eyes. 

What's this dragon pulling at?

"Aurora and Herb... Why-" Blossom was interrupted by loud stomping coming towards her room. 

A huge white Icewing, with large broad shoulders and a long elegant snout, stormed into the room, a necklace was banging across her neck, and when Blossom got a closer look, she realized dragon teeth were strung from the string. 

"Aaaaaaah, I see my little toooool has woken." she hissed softly, stopping two steps inside the room. 

"Hello Aunt Tundra." Taro stood up straight in a regal position giving her- wait did she just say Aunt?

Blossom stared at Taro, then at her aunt, then back to Taro, then at her aunt. Tundra cocked her head aggressively, and Taro scampered out of the room, glancing back to look at Blossom one last time. 

Blossom stood there, stunned. "I see you've met my pet, Taro." Tundra said, her voice low and dangerous. "She came from your region originally, as an egg she was strange, looked different. When she hatched even more so. Her mother gave me a name, I ignored it completely, but gave her a name that still followed her wishes." She smirked, reaching for small rock in the far corner of the room and tapped it. It glowed for a moment and bright spider webs appeared in the air across the room, the netting for her prison. 

"She may be a pain in my tail, but she is useful." she grinned, her long sparkly grin, forcing shivers down her spine. 

She tapped it again, thee webs disappearing. "Your going to be useful as well, if not you'll never leave my sight."

Tundra left cackling to herself, leaving Blossom with a pit in her stomach. She was never going to see her family again.