Heart of Fire

Chapter 2:

Emberice opened the book to the first page, which had a message written on it. But before she could read it, Dominus took it out of her talons and said, "I-I want you to understand that this may change... a lot of things. Okay?" "Okay, Father." "You can read it now."  Emberice looked at the first page and the message.

'Dear Dominus, I hope you are doing well. No, I know you are. Miss you- a lot. Thanks for the adventure. Now, you can go have a new one! ~Sheer'. There was that name again. Now Emberice was really wondering who Sheer was. She turned the page. There was a drawing of a SkyWing, very detailed, down to the last scale, with a name below it in Dominus' talonwriting: 'Sheer'.  So Sheer was a SkyWing. Emberice wondered why her father had a picture of a SkyWing in his old book. Emberice flipped through the pages, realizing they were diary entries that Dominus had apparently put into this book. The entries weren't in Dominus' talonwriting, though, and were always signed '~Sheer'.

How her father had gotten his talons on a SkyWing's diary entries, Emberice didn't know. She kept reading. In later entries, there were hints that Sheer had developed a secret friendship with Dominus, that eventually turned into them loving each other. Sheer said that she had an egg in one of the entries, and said that it was Dominus'. "Father, you and Sheer had eggs together?" Dominus nodded. Emberice turned the page, and realized that this was a drawing of the cave that she had hatched in, with herself in it, as well as another weird SkyWing looking dragon with spikes on the end of his tail.

Off to the right, was a barely visible ghostly form, who looked like Sheer. No, it was Sheer. "Who is the dragonet in the middle?" Dominus sighed, and said, "That was your brother. He...didn't survive." "What was his name?" "Northstar. He... was born without enough fire inside of him. You on the other talon, had too much." "You mean I have..." "Yes, Emberice. You have firescales. I bought a necklace that protects me from your firescales, or at least makes me as fireproof as a MudWing born from a blood egg. You're half SkyWing, which may explain why you look different. If the other IceWings find out... I don't know what I'd do."

"I understand, Father. Where is Sheer? I would like to meet her." "Sheer is... Sheer is gone. Killed... by a SkyWing named Kite... her mother." "My grandmother killed my mother?!" "Yes. Kite is dead, too. It would be pointless for you to get mad at her, since she is no longer here." "Oh, yeah." Dominus gave her a small smile, but it didn't seem to hide the fact that talking about Sheer had made him sad. The bigger IceWing looked away from Emberice, and clenched his talons, glaring at the floor. "I'm sorry, Father. I'm sorry you lost Mother... and Northstar." "It's all right. At least I have you."

The two of them continued talking, until there was a sharp tapping sound on the door.