The Snowstorm Inside

Chapter One - A Restless Night

A blizzard roared outside the walls of Queen Diamond's Palace. Inside, in a large royal bedroom, the IceWing princess could not sleep.

Princess Snowfox tried to convince herself that it was the storm that was keeping her awake. She told herself that it was the shrieking of the wind and the sparkling of the enchanted walls that was making her like this, tossing and turning for hours on end. Snowfox tried to make herself forget that she had slept through worse snowstorms than this.

Another flash of the beautiful IceWing noble flashed through her head. No, she thought, slamming a wall of ice down over those thoughts. It worked for a few seconds, but soon the ice was melting, the noble's face was coming through, Snowfox was thinking about her again.

Why had she been thinking about Snowflake so much for the past few days? Was it the way she smiled when she looked at Fox, like there was no better dragon in the world? Or because she was so good at hiding her true emotions - so good even Fox couldn't tell what she was feeling? Or how she had been so eager to help her, when Fox didn't know that there was any other IceWing who had loathed her cousin Arctic as much as she did?

I just adore my friend, Fox told herself. Who wouldn't? She's smart, determined, talented, kind, beautiful- She tried to force another load of ice down inside her mind, but it just came out as a pile of snow. She had never felt the same way about any dragon before. Out of all of her friends, Fox had never cared for any the same way that she cared for Snowflake. She had never looked at any other dragon and felt like there were soft snowflakes fluttering in her stomach. She had never thought of any of her other friends for hours and hours, coming up with ways to please them. She had never felt this crumbling despair when any of her other friends had been injured.

Snowfox had never been in love before, but she thought that if she had been, it would feel like this. She couldn't be in love with Snowflake, though - she and Fox were both girls. That just didn't happen. But then why did she feel this way?

Fox thought of how her friend was currently in the hospital wing, her burnt wing being treated by nurses. Snowflake could never fly again, and it was all because of her insane, traitorous, stuck-up, evil, horrible cousin of an IceWing prince. Prince Arctic was now south, far away in a land of canyons and mountains, living with a tribe who slept by day and woke at night, with his untrustworthy NightWing lover Foeslayer. She hoped the NightWings had killed him already - no. She hoped they had kept him alive, living a miserable life. She hoped they would keep him alive until she flew down to their awful kingdom and killed him with her own claws.

How could he? How could he leave Snowflake for a NightWing? Any dragon would be lucky to have Snowflake as a wife. If I was male, I would marry her, Snowfox found herself thinking. She quickly abandoned this thought and pretended it had never gone through her mind. She thought about that wretched Foeslayer. Who could love her? She was too loud and scatterbrained. Snowfox would have thought that it was an animus spell that caused Arctic to fall in love with her, but she remembered that the NightWings didn't have animus dragons, or they wouldn't have needed to steal the IceWing prince anyway. She knew exactly what she would do to her cousin if she ever found him. She would freeze his wings, then snap them off, then taunt him about how it was the same thing his lover had done to Snowflake. Then snap his tail off. Then claw his eyes out, rip out his tongue, and reach into his stony heart and tear it out, then freeze his body and smash it into tiny pieces.

She had to see Snowflake. She had to see if she was okay. Who cared that it was the middle of the night when her very best friend was in danger? Snowfox leapt off the bead and bounded to the door. She kept her strides silent. No dragon was going to hear her. She wouldn't let anyone interfere with her private business.

Snowfox had just passed Queen Diamond's bedroom when she felt her tail brush against something and heard something smash on the floor. Drat, she thought. It's too crowded in this castle. But nobody will be up this late. And they're not going to stop me from seeing her.

Just as she thought this, the door opened and Queen Diamond stepped through. A moon globe was over her shoulder, lighting up her white diamond-coloured scales. Why was she up this late? Thinking about her son's betrayal, no doubt.

"Princess Snowfox, my niece," she hissed. "What are you doing up at this late hour?"

I could ask you the same thing, thought Fox, but instead she said, "I couldn't sleep. I was going to go to the kitchens to get a drink from the enchanted water warmer."

"Complaining, are you, niece?" Diamond said. "I would think that an IceWing princess would be above complaining. I order you to return to your bedroom and get some sleep like a proper First Circle IceWing." The way she looked down at Fox with such loathing made her want to claw that annoying royal face off. It was her stupid son who killed six IceWings and ran off with NightWings. It was her stupid idea to ask the NightWings for an alliance, too.

"Yes, your majesty," Fox replied, gritting her teeth. Hide your anger. Be like Snowflake. Don't let them see that they get to you. "I will return to my bedroom." And she strode off.

As she lay back in her ice bed, she wanted to smash something. She wanted to smash a million somethings. She'd bring down this castle if she had to, just to see it come down on her infuriating aunt. She felt like the blizzard outside - she felt like screaming, like roaring, like killing. She wanted to send an avalanche of snow right on Diamond and Arctic for doing this to her - for inviting the NightWings, killing those IceWings, starting a war, but most of all, for injuring poor Snowflake, who could never fly again.