Fire and Ice [NEEDS EDITING]

Chapter 14

Queen Polar sat on her throne, sharpening her claws every so often on the ice, while thinking about how she would torture some SkyWing prisoners later.

The silence was shattered by the clicking of many sets of talons down the hallway, moving fast.  An argument erupted as the guards quarreled with her subjects.

"Let us see Her Majesty! It's important!"

"No. Her Majesty doesn't want to be bothered."

"Let us in, you overprotective seals! She has to see this!"

"See what?"

".....this."

The throne room doors banged open, and IceWings which the Queen recognized as First Circle dragons barged in.

"Well? What is of such importance that you must burst in?" the Queen demanded, irritated.

"Queen Polar...I-your-" the dragon in front of her stuttered, lost for words. Queen Polar hissed, the threat of frostbreath lurking behind it as she lashed her tail.

"Spit it out, Crystal. You're wasting my time," she snarled. Crystal took a deep breath before speaking.

"Frostbite is dead." The Queen's eyes widened at the sight of her daughter's charred body.

"No," she whispered. "No..." Her Majesty simply stared at her daughter's corpse, mangled horribly and riddled with burns, blue-red blood caking her body.

Snapping her head up suddenly, the Queen bellowed, "WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS MURDER?! I WILL FIND THEM AND MAKE SURE THEY SUFFER!"

"Your Majesty..." Crystal began. As Queen Polar whipped her head around to glare at Crystal, Crystal snapped her jaw shut.

"Who. Did. This?" the Queen asked, malice in her low voice. "A-a-SkyWing, y-Your Majesty," stuttered a dragon.

"You let yourselves be beat by SkyWings?!" Polar snarled, eyes narrowed and tail lashing, gouging huge gashes in the ice. Crystal backed up as fast as her paws would take her, flapping her wings in alarm.

"There was nothing we could do, Your Majesty!" she protested. Queen Polar growled, baring her teeth at them.

"Nothing...?" She asked. Crystal and the others nodded frantically.

"Nothing," they assured.

Slowly, the Queen sat back down, and as she did, all the dragons visibly relaxed. Without warning, she lunged, pinning Crystal.

"You," Polar spat. "You are First Circle dragons. How DARE you be beaten by SkyWings. If Frostbite didn't give the order to retreat, you don't retreat. If my daughter died without ordering you to retreat, you avenge her death, fighting until you die or the enemy does. But what did you do? You FLED! Like the cowards you are!"

Queen Polar paused to glare at all of the squadron, Crystal still beneath her talons. She gave Crystal a shake, claws digging into her shoulder. The Queen didn't notice Crystal's protests, nor the blood coating he talons.

"If you did NOTHING, nothing at all, you're worse than RainWings," Polar hissed, voice low and eyes blazing as she stared all the dragons down. They all flinched from the intensity of the Queen's gaze.

"Were you not First Circle dragons, I would not hesitate to kill you," she continued, deadly calm in her voice. "However, because you are, you will all merely be demoted down to the Seventh Circle."