Wings of Power: The Rising Tribe [SERIES CLOSED]

Chapter 8

The first thing to hit Vein was the temperature.

Well, it wasn't that bad, but it was too cold for Vein's comfort. He wasn't used to this, what after living most of his life so far in the dark, steamy BloodWing camps.

Marble, though, acted as if it was her first time coming back here---in a long time. She jumped around the snow, frolicking and rolling around as if she was a very young dragonet. Vein stared at Marble with envy. If only he was able to roll around as a young dragonet. He might've even been actually happy if he jumped around during his days. But no. Since BloodWings were constantly fighting, they had to train. The history of the BloodWings was simple: Declare war over some little thing, nearly wipe out the tribe, and then win. A BloodWing queen's main goal was to have the other tribes fear BloodWings. But now, looking at Marble as she stabbed the snow with her spike, Vein had the feeling the fear power was weakening. Marble wasn't really even that scared of Vein. 

That thought didn't help him keep warm, though. Actually, that thought made him feel extra cold. He breathed a plume of fire to keep warm, but it didn't work. He tried setting himself on fire since he had fireproof scales. But either BloodWings don't have that power, or Vein was undertrained.

At last, he managed to set his arm on fire. But when he put it to the snow, it melted the snow and turned it to water. A sharp pain hit his talons, and he jumped back with a yelp of pain. Water was dangerous for a BloodWing---it washes his or her fireproof scales off in a very painful way. Queen Magma had once use it on a traitorous BloodWing. Vein was too young to understand, so he didn't know if it was male or female. But he could hear its cries from the wall.

He didn't realize Marble was looking at him. "So, I suppose you're cold?" 

Vein nodded. 

"Well, set this alight and keep it close to you," she said, snapping off a twig from the nearest coniferous tree, and handed it to Vein.

Vein did as he was told, and soon he was warm again. "Um . . ."

Marble grinned. "Aw, you can't even say thank you! Oh, well. We are enemies."

Vein inhaled the smoke and nearly choked in surprise. "What? Oh, no---I mean---" he stammered, moving away a bit. But he didn't notice the big building in his way. He slammed into it and dropped his stick. The fire made yet another puddle, which Vein tried to avoid as Marble burst out laughing. She snorted and giggled just like on the boat. It honestly took half of Vein's will power to not shoot a jet of flame at Marble's face. 

He snapped a stick, set it aflame, and held it quite close to Marble. She managed to kill her laughing, but a wide grin still stuck to her face. Vein figured it was as close as he'd get, so he withdrew his burning stick.

"Well, anyways. We're at our Grand Hall." Marble said.

"Our hall? Why would I want to be in a grand hall?"

Marble stared blankly. Vein groaned. "I mean why is it a 'grand hall'?"

Suddenly Marble perked up, as if out of a trance. "Oh, what---oh---its name is Grand Hall, capital 'G' and 'H'. A name."

"Amazing," Vein mumbled.

"You should put your fire away. With luck, they won't attack you at the spot. But if you're holding the very thing we fear, there's gonna be no exceptions."

"Fantastic," Vein said sleepily. He suddenly noticed that it was still nighttime. Was the hall going to be empty?

Vein obediently threw the stick into the snow. It steamed and hissed as if it wanted to keep the heat until there was a puddle around it.

"Vein," Marble said. "I hereby announce that you're entering the---"

"Yeah, yeah," Vein said impatiently. "We don't need to have it fancy."

Marble scowled. "This is the way we enter un-TimeWings."

"UN-TIMEWINGS?" Vein spat.

Marble ignored him and swung open the door.