Wings of Fire- A Glorybringer Legacy (fanfiction)

Chapter 7: A Dragon of Ice (Firefly's POV)

As Firefly bounded down the tunnel, she saw many different tribes of dragons walking or emerging from their sleeping caves.  She felt a torrent of excitement sweep through her, as if she couldn't stop her claws from taking her along the tunnel, lit by countless globes filled with colored fire.  As her cave was not far from the entrance, she barely had to walk before arriving at her sleeping cave.  Here there was an open scroll pinned just above the entrance to the cave, which had two names on it - Firefly's own name, and one she didn't recognize.  Crystal, she thought, must be an IceWing name.  Again, she felt as ecstatic as she had before.  IceWings, in her opinion, were the most interesting tribe in Pyrrhia.  She had spent at least two months studying their exact characteristics, tribe customs, and history.  Firefly turned to go into her cave, but before she could, she saw a dragon with familiar shifting blue scales and glasses turning nervously into the cave across from hers, muttering under his breath.  "Cyan!" she yelled happily, and barreled into him.  "AAH!" Cyan shouted, his scales immediately shifting to a startled green color.  After looking at her, though, Cyan relievedly said, "Oh, Firefly, it's you.  I was wondering where you were.  I was afraid we were on opposite sides of the school."  "Cyan, guess what?" Firely asked him breathlessly, finally letting go of him, "My clawmate is an IceWing!  I can't wait to meet her!" "Wow!" Cyan said excitedly, "Lucky you!"  Firefly grinned, if anyone could understand her interest in learning, it was her best friend Cyan.  Cyan smiled back at her shyly.  After a while of grinning, they both snapped back to reality.  "Let's meet in your cave after I meet the IceWing, Crystal, okay?" Firefly said, hugging him again.  "OK," Cyan said, and he went into his cave.  Firefly turned back to her cave and went in.  She could tell her clawmate was not there yet, so she excitedly began surveying the space.  There was a tall rack of scrolls in the corner by the door.  The entrance took up one side of the cave, and two sleeping areas took up two other sides. There was also a shallow river that ran around the border of the cave, disappearing through a hole that went through the wall just short of the entrance.  The whole thing made the center of the cave look like an island.  One of the sleeping spots was a tightly woven hammock with comfy looking moss and leaves heaped inside.  The other sleeping area was a platform with a few snow-white polar bear fur rugs piled neatly on top. There was actually a chill emanating from it, as if it was calling to the IceWing that would surely sleep there.  Upon closer investigation, Firefly saw that under the platform, there was what looked like a thin slab of metal covered in cold, glittering frost.  Wow, she thought, impressed, what a cool mechanism.  Firefly gathered that it was just breathed on by another IceWing, maybe one in the Talons of Peace.  She supposed that the IceWing who was supposed to sleep here could just breathe frostbreath on the metal whenever she wanted it to be colder.  As she started peeking under the rugs, a cold, haughty female voice interrupted her, "Hey, what do you think you're doing?"  Firefly whirled around and saw a dragon with bluish-silver scales so bright and shiny that they gave her an instant headache standing in the doorway.  "Um, hello," Firefly said breathlessly, "I was just looking at how they made this sleeping area stay cold.  You must be Crystal, right?"  The IceWing narrowed her eyes and asked suspiciously, "How did you know my name?"  "There was a sign outside our cave," Firefly answered patiently.  "Hmm," Crystal said, and abruptly strode to her bed, lifted the rug, breathed frost on the thin metal sheet, and laid down on the rugs without another word.  So THAT conversation didn't exactly go as expected, Firefly mused to herself.  She tried again, "So, Crystal, want to go to the library with me?"  Crystal sighed and lifted her head to glare at Firefly.  "No, thank you," she said in a haughty, brittle voice.  Firefly thought okaaaayy then, and slowly sidled out the door, intending to talk to Cyan. 

                      So, what did you guys think?  I know I uploaded this chapter much earlier than expected, but the next chapter might take a while.  I have a whole funny situation for Anaconda to go through while meeting her clawmate, but I just have to figure out how to make it all fit together.  So sorry about that and please tell me what you thought about this chapter in the comments!