Ice at Midnight: A Winterwatcher Fanfic

❄️Chapter 1: Jade Mountain Academy❄️

  Winter felt like he'd been flying for hours, his ice blue wings aching from exhaustion. His sister Icicle flew ahead and to the left of him, not showing any signs of fatigue, if she was even feeling tired at all. He made sure to do the same; true IceWings never showed that they were in pain, no matter how much it hurt. At least, that's what his parents always told him.

  They had left the Ice Kingdom at dawn, Tundra and Narwhal - their two overbearing parents - insisting that they stay at the newly opened Jade Mountain Academy for a few years. When Winter had asked why, they had simply said it would build character, and that it was a good opportunity to invoke fear into other dragons as much as possible. He wasn't so sure about the first part, but the part about fear definitely sounded like them. Or maybe those were both just excuses they came up with and really only wanted their dragonets out of their lives for awhile. 

  Winter knew exactly why they were sending him in particular; he was the most disappointing and worthless out of their three dragonets, one of which having been captured by a SkyWing patrol years ago, while the War of SandWing Succession was still going strong. He had let his older brother Hailstorm get captured, flying away as they knocked him unconscious and dragged him off to wherever he was now, if he was even alive at all. He knew Hailstorm had only been trying to protect him, but his parents - and frankly, the entirety of his tribe - has never seen it that way. 

  However, it was strange that Icicle would be attending as well. Over the years, Winter had figured out why his parents seemed to value her almost as much as Hailstorm. She was destined to take over the throne of the IceWing queen someday; to challenge Queen Glacier, perhaps the most ruthless queen in Pyrrhia apart from Scarlet of the SkyWings, who had forced her prisoners to fight to the death in her sickening arena while she was still in power. Not only would Icicle becoming queen grant their parents access to the Ice Kingdom's vast fortune, but it would make their ranks skyrocket as well. Which made it strange that they were sending her off to the academy, instead of training her to fight for the position of queen when the time came.

  "How much longer do you think it'll be until we get there?" Winter asked, hoping she could hear him over the wind resistance. 

  "I dunno, maybe another half hour?" she called back. "The sun isn't too high over the horizon, and we're already halfway through the Kingdom of Sand."

  Yeah, and I'm already sweating my scales off, he thought miserably, wiping the slick substance from his forehead with the back of a talon, shielding his eyes from the beating sun the other. He looked at the white moon globe floating over his shoulder, the one thing to remind him of home right now. Then again, home wasn't always the greatest. Apart from constantly talking to him about the rankings, his parents weren't involved much in his life, and his father was abusive at times, especially if he was angry. That was the only thing good about this; he wouldn't have to worry about them for awhile. How can those sand-sniffing reptiles enjoy it here? It's just an endless ocean of sand. And a scorching hot one at that. I hope I don't get paired with one. The advertisement for this academy said we would be sharing a cave with at least one other dragon, and that most of the winglets or whatever they're called have one dragon from each tribe. SandWings are treasure-hoarding, no-good, law-breaking sidewinders; the only thing worse than getting paired with one would be getting paired with those black-hearted snakes that call themselves NightWings. More like LightWings; they're all so frail and unhealthy-looking from the years they spent living on that volcano. I could probably lift one over my head; that's how malnourished they are. They deserve it, for killing our last Animus. Our tribe could've been perfect, but of course they stole it all away from us!

  He had never actually seen a NightWing in person before, but from what he'd heard, he never wanted to, unless it was to slice their throat open. Their tribe was known for their history of lies, starting with Foeslayer. She had approached Queen Diamond, the current queen of the IceWings back then, offering peace between their tribes in exchange for Prince Arctic, his tribe's last Animus. The queen had agreed, however like they always did, the NightWings stabbed them in the back. Arctic had dragonets while he was staying with them, and then if that wasn't bad enough, what did they do? Murdered him in cold blood. Then there was Darkstalker, the dragon who had tried to take over his tribe and probably the rest of them after that. That was hundreds of years ago, though. However, their streak of betrayal didn't stop there. The rats had lied about having their "powers" of mind reading and seeing the future, and had also created a fake prophecy several years ago. Luckily, those powers had proved to be false; they were just excellent at pretending to read minds and making up fake fortunes.