Ice at Midnight: A Winterwatcher Fanfic

❄️Chapter 21❄️

Yeah I don't like how the Wattpad app does the pictures above stories. The site does it better, but I hope most of you have been tapping the images to see the whole thing, because I didn't start using the app until a week ago. Overall, I like it better than the site, but there are some things from the site I wish would be here, like the formatting.

Winter impatiently waited for nightfall, sitting on the bank of a river somewhere near the mountain chain that Jade Mountain was nestled in. What he would give to go back there right now...to forget that he was now a fugitive, that he had probably given his own father a serious concussion, that he could never go home again.
What have I done? All my life, I've abided by every rule and expectation thrown my way...for five years, I built up my reputation, having to start all over once already...and now I've gone and broken at least half of those rules in the span of a couple of days. I just need to make it to the rainforest. My tribe can't do anything to me there.
He'd been on the run for less than a day, and would've been there by now if he hadn't been moving only under the cover of darkness. He couldn't risk his flashy scales alerting any patrols. Winter could probably take on the usual three soldiers that grouped together, but that would only raise the stakes of what he'd already done.
The sun was less than an hour away from disappearing over the horizon, so he decided to make use of his time and look for something to eat. He hadn't eaten anything for over twelve hours, and felt like his stomach was trying to digest its own acids.
This small river he'd been camping out at ran directly through dense woods, so he was bound to find something edible if he looked hard enough. Hopefully deer. Or boar. Maybe even strawberries; he'd been craving those lately, heaven knows why.
Winter took a few last gulps of water, then entered the thick cover of trees in the hopes that he would find something to satiate his growing appetite.
It kind of sucks to be an IceWing going hunting anywhere that isn't covered in snow...as soon as something sees me, it's going to either run for the hills or try to kill me. The latter would actually be better, considering that I want them to come to me.
After a few minutes, he picked up on a trail of disturbed brush. It looks fairly recent, but none of it seemed destroyed enough for a predator to have done it. It was most likely some kind of herbivore. Winter followed the direction of the debris as best he could, not having dealt with forest hunting enough to be familiar with it. Someone like Moon would have probably caught something by now.
Stop thinking about her; you gotta focus if you want to find something to eat. There'll be time for thinking AFTER I'm done being relentlessly pursued by armed soldiers.
Winter heard a twig snap nearby, and immediately crouched down on all fours. There was the sound of rustling leaves, and he pricked his ears, trying to figure out where exactly it was coming from.
"Behind you, pea-brain," came a guttural snarl. He felt a sharp prod in the back, and knew from the cold touch that it was one of the ice spears that IceWing guards always carried.
Speaking of being pursued...
  Winter stood up slowly, his arms up and palms open to show he had no weapons. There were about six male IceWings staring him down, two of them armed with spears. Two others were clenching daggers in their fists, the remaining two holding bows and arrows.
  "Did you really think you could outsmart your own kind?" the one who seemed to be in charge growled, prodding him once more with his spear. "We know how you think, how you behave. You can't be a prince without having practically your every move tracked, so we know everything about you. And the best part: you're like every other IceWing on this continent. You're no different than any one of us apart from your title. Now listen, kid; the queen has ordered us to execute you as soon as we see you. She's not going to mess around with any formalities, and neither are we. So either let us finish the job quick," he said, leveling the point of the spear to his throat, "or you can resist, and we'll make things much more painful."
Those bows won't be very useful up close...better try and take them out first. Actually, it would be better to take care of those spears before that.
  Winter took a couple of steps backward. The soldiers all tensed, the two with the bows each aiming right at his chest.
  "No, you listen to me," he retorted. "I don't think you have any idea what you're messing with. So it would be in your best interests to leave right now, unless you want thing to become...unpleasant."
  "Is that a threat?" the lead IceWing snarled, jabbing him in the stomach with the flat end of his spear.
  "I don't know..." Winter said. He closed his eyes for a few moments, exhaled frostbreath, and opened them as the icy handle of a katana fell into his open palms. "Does this look threatening to you?" he asked, pointing the end of the blade at the lead IceWing.
  All of them looked equally stunned, their jaws hanging open in disbelief. Winter smirked, but he knew they wouldn't back down. It wasn't in an IceWing's blood to back down from a challenge.
  "Kill him!"
  The archers were the first to attack, their arrows zipping through the air. They would've embedded themselves in his chest had he not dashed away in time, and Winter flew over the heads of the four other soldiers as he hurried to take advantage of them reloading. He landed between the two of them, and he slammed the handle of his sword into one of their heads, sweeping the other's feet out from under them and slamming a fist into their face hard enough to knock them out. That left four.
One of the dagger-wielding dragons rushed at him, the blade of his knife glinting in the dim light as it flashed toward Winter's face. He ducked, then smacked their weapon away with his own, hearing it tumble away into the foliage. Winter heard footsteps behind him and whirled around to see the second IceWing with a dagger preparing to literally stab him in the back. He clubbed the first soldier in the head with his tail as he dealt with this one by punching him in the stomach, then slamming the handle of his katana down on their head when they doubled over in pain.
"Only the two of you now, huh?" Winter asked as he turned around to face the last soldiers. "If I were you, I'd spare myself the pain and leave right now."
One of them shot a glare at him. "And if I were you, I wouldn't be talking to two armed soldiers with weapons that outmatch yours in reach that way. Face it, kid. You're not leaving this place alive."
"That's where you're wrong. I'm leaving, whether you like it or not."
Winter dropped his sword and wrenched the spear from the soldier's grasp, slamming the blunt end against their head, leaving them a collapsed heap on the forest floor. He wasn't able to react quickly enough as the second dragon jumped on top of him, pinning him down with his spear pressed against Winter's throat. Winter felt his lungs struggling, trying to suck every molecule of oxygen in as they could, but he was quickly suffocating under the immense pressure on his throat.
"Game over, pal," they hissed.
But Winter refused to go down this way, to some grunt at the bottom of the chain in the Ice Kingdom. He got enough leverage to flip himself over so that he was now on top of the soldier, and he pushed their spear down hard on their throat. Their face quickly took on a shade of light blue as the oxygen drained from their body.
"Nice try," Winter said amid the struggle. "Better luck next time. Oh, wait; there won't be a next time, because you're never going to find me. And even if you do, I'll be ready."
Once the soldier had passed out, Winter disposed of all the dropped weapons in the area by tossing them off into the woods. That would delay them further, giving him more time to get where he needed to be.
Dinner can wait. If one search party found me, there's bound to be more around here. Besides, if I leave now, I can make it by morning for sure.
With the sun gone over the horizon, and the night sky slowly engulfing Pyrrhia, Winter flapped his icy wings and took off once again.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Normally, it only would've taken Winter an hour to fly to the rainforest, but since he had to be extra careful and also had to lose a couple groups of soldiers at different points during the night, it ended up taking two and a half hours. Aside from the bruises on his neck and a cut or two on his chest, he hadn't sustained any concerning injuries from the first search party. Of course, his jaw was still swollen considerably from the other night, and a couple of his ribs were surely cracked.
I bet they're gonna have a grand old time admitting to Queen Glacier that they were bested by someone less than half their age, AND that they lost their weapons. Oh, it feels good to know that I never have to go back there again. No more worrying about stupid, meaningless ranks, or countless more dinners filled with arguments...
Winter held the silver necklace hanging from his neck between two claws. It wasn't the one with the two silver circles on it to represent his former rank back home. He'd gotten rid of that long ago. Rather, it held the left half of the charm, that when combined with Moon's nearly identical right half, would form the small silver heart that he'd grown to love. It was a miracle the thing hadn't broken or fallen off during the scuffle in the forest.
It was probably around midnight or so that he found the little hut that Moon and her mother lived in. It was fairly small compared to some of the other similar structures here, but like the rest, it had been constructed closer to the canopy of the rainforest. He had no clue how anybody could survive here, with the constant swarms of mosquitoes - he'd been bitten by those nasty little things at least fifteen times in the last half hour - and the humidity, not to mention all the noise. It seemed like this place was always alive; there was the occasional howl of a monkey, frogs croaking, insects buzzing, the screams of some far-off animal probably being mauled by a panther. How could anyone get to sleep around here?
Winter knew he probably shouldn't go knocking on the front door at this hour, if at all. He hadn't meant Moon's mom yet, but from what he'd heard, she wasn't too fond of his tribe. He remembered though, that Moon usually had trouble sleeping at night. Something to do with being a NightWing, or maybe because of her powers, but neither of them were certain. Maybe she was still awake.
He hoped he was being covert as he flew around the back to see where her room was, but it wasn't exactly easy to not stand out in the rainforest as an IceWing. As he went around, he counted three windows in the entire hut: two in the main living area, and one in Moon's room. They were all made with translucent leaves instead of glass, which was to be expected. Clearly, Queen Glory wanted to use what resources they had here.
Winter took a look inside, and saw Moon in what had to be her bedroom. The only thing that wasn't a shelf for storing scrolls was her bed, which was basically what she had at the academy, except with a wooden frame and a mattress and blanket made out of leaves and moss.
Guess they've got more leaves than they know what to do with here.
He couldn't exactly knock on a leaf window, so he sort of just rustled the leaves around until it got her attention. Although it hurt to do so, he still smiled when he saw her bewildered face as she did a double take. The small NightWing got up from where she was reading a scroll in bed and walked over to the window, motioning for him to back up a little so she could open it. He did just that, waiting as she slowly and quietly opened it.
"What are you doing here?!" Moon whispered, a mixed look of happiness and surprise on her face. "How did you even - wait, what happened to you?"
"Long story," he replied, keeping his voice low. "Can I come in?"
She nodded, stepping aside so he could squeeze through. "Careful. I'm already being risky by reading while I'm grounded; if my mom finds out I let you sneak in..."
It took a few moments, but he was able to crawl in and touch down gently on the wooden floor. Moon shut the window, and then wrapped him in a fierce hug.
"I'm really glad to see you," she said. "After you said you wouldn't be able to write anymore, I knew something must've happened...so what happened?"
"My father found out I was writing to you. I guess he assumed you were a NightWing based on your name, and he flipped out. Not surprising, but anyway, he punched me and that's why my jaw looks like someone stuck a kiwi under my scales."
"That's horrible," Moon said, her green eyes filled with sadness.
"And then a couple nights ago, after I told you I wasn't able to write anymore, he found the letter you sent back and tried to kill me," Winter explained. "He had a knife, and kept talking about how he and my mother should've abandoned me when I was little. I know he would've done it, even after I threw the knife out the window. I...I beat up my own father. I probably shouldn't, but I feel bad about it. I thought I killed him for a minute, but he still had a pulse. I think I gave him a concussion though, and now I can never go back unless I have a death wish."
  Moon squeezed him tighter. "That might be for the best. Were things always like that there?"
  "You mean the beatings?"
  She nodded.
  "Not always, but often enough," Winter said. "After that happened, I knew I would probably be safe here. My tribe can't do anything to me - at least not legally - as long as I'm not in the Ice Kingdom. I did run into a few search parties on my way here, but I only had to fight one of them."
  "Still..." Moon said softly, tucking her head under his chin. "You don't deserve any of this, Winter."
  "You wouldn't say that if you knew about all the things I've had to see and do..."
  She looked at him curiously. "Like what?"
  "I probably shouldn't talk about it," he said, his words coming out with an edge to them that he hadn't intended to be there. "There's still...what, ten days left of break? What am I going to do until then, is my main question."
  Moon grinned. "We both know the answer to that. You'll just have to stay here with us," she said, jokingly making it sound like it would be a huge burden.
  "But what about your mom?"
  Moon appeared to ponder that for a few moments. "How about tomorrow morning, you knock on the front door and act like you weren't here tonight? I'll get it, and from there I guess you can tell her what happened. Maybe if she knows why you're here, she'll be a little more inclined to let you stay. And I also won't end up double-grounded as long as she doesn't think I snuck you in tonight."
  Winter smiled. "That sounds pretty foolproof. Even if she answers the door, it'll probably work out."
  "I know; I'm a genius, aren't I?" Moon boasted. He never saw this side of her at school, but to be honest, he liked it. "Alright, I don't think my mom will be up this late, but just in case she is and decides to come check on me, you'll have to find a spot to hide."
  Winter looked around in the darkness for a couple of minutes, but there was almost nowhere he could hide without being immediately spotted because of his flashy scales. He couldn't cram himself under her bed, and the rest of the room was open, apart from the scroll shelves at the perimeter.
  "There's only one thing that might work," he said. "What if I try and hide under your leaf blanket? If you're asleep, it'll look like you're the only one under there."
  "That should do," Moon said. "You're not just using it as an excuse to sleep in the same bed as me, right?"
  "No, and even if I was, we slept on my ledge that one night at the academy," Winter replied.
  "Touché. Let's try to get some sleep. You don't want to have bloodshot eyes tomorrow when you meet my mom; she might think you're...on something."
  He chuckled slightly, making sure to muffle the sound with his talon. He got in her surprisingly comfortable leaf bed, squeezing himself against the wall as much as he could before pulling the covers over himself, while still allowing his snout to poke out so he wouldn't suffocate. Moon got in after him, hunkering under the blanket with him.
"Just so you know," she whispered, "it's okay if you just...need to have a good cry. Everyone does once in awhile, and I feel like...I just think that maybe you bottle up your emotions too much."
"I know I do," Winter said blatantly. "But I guess at this point, it's pretty instinctual. It's kind of hard for me to just...force myself to cry or something, after all these years of being taught to hide my emotions."
He felt her slide a star-speckled wing over him. "That's really awful, Winter. You don't need to worry about that anymore, though. You don't always have to be the tough guy." After a moment, she added, "even tough guys cry sometimes. And the only one who would know about it is me. I won't tell anybody if you do."
Neither of them spoke for the rest of the night, but at some point, Winter did feel a few tears leak from his eyes. And he didn't feel one ounce of shame crying, for the first time in his life.