The Sea And The Sky

Chapter Six- Setbacks and Inconvinienves

Hypothermia's ears perked up and he turned towards Crystal.

"Well, I suppose we have to cut our journey short. If I'm not there... Well, let's just say things could get ugly. I guess this is where I leave you..?" Crystal narrowed her eyes.

"Oh, no. I'm not going anywhere without you. Nice try, but you know the kingdom. I don't. I was told if I left my mountain, things could get me. Scary things with claws. So I stayed, and waited. But my father never came. And now...well, now he never will," she said, her eyes boring holes into his soul. He looked away.

"I hope you understand how sorry I am. I can't change fate, and my family's lives depend on it, like I said. But know this: A new dawn approaches. The current queen will no doubt cause a revolution with her strict and old school rules. We will someday live without fear," he said, smiling. Crystal bit her lip and dipped her head.

"Let's hope that day is at hand soon," she said coldly. He returned her nod.

"Let's. Now come on, we best go to the arena." The two flew the rest of the way in silence.

When they got to the arena, they were met by an ugly sight. A grey, white and pale brown speckled dragon stood at the ice platform, grinning wicked at the crowd. Beside her stood a majestic white dragon, probably the queen, frowning deeply while a sharp silver knife circled her head slowly, around and around. But worst of all was the silver dragon shaking in the middle of the circle. Torrid! Crystal was about to run forward, but Hypothermia held her back. He looked at her sharply and she glared right back. It became some of a staring contest, but Crystal was the first to break the gaze and look away from him and at the arena stage as the speckled dragon started to talk in a peculiar accent.

"Citizens of the IceWing kingdom, I, the honorable Princess Goose will be speaking today." The dragon was obviously quite cocky and stood up as straight as she could addressing the crowd. "The queen has come down with a... ailment of sorts, and she will be standing here with me, but not, however, addressing you." The princess pulled out a scroll, taking a pair of eyeglasses out and putting them on. "In these times we are in, it is important we stand against the impending revolution. Queen Snowbelle is our leader, and her rules are as kind as they need to be. We don't wanna end up as lazy RainWings, do we?" A bright white and blue dragon yelled from the back of the crowd,

"But King Borealis was part RainWing! He was the only great leader of the past hundred years in that jungle!" The princess looked with distaste at the dragon.

"Yes, and what happened to him? Ahh, yes, he was killed for being a hybrid, a traitor to his tribe. Hybrids are distasteful and we will have none of them in this kingdom. Any who falls in love with another tribe, especially a SkyWing," she spat out, "Is obviously not fit to rule. We do not mingle with any tribe weaker than us." A tiny white albino shouted with her claw on her mouth,

"So that means I can get romantic with a StormWing?" This induced a roar of laughter from the crowd and the princess yelled,

"QUIET!" Immediately all the dragons stood still. "No, Sugarcane. That does not mean you can... be with... a StormWing." The albino snickered. Princess Goose sighed and continued. "Yes, StormWings are currently in charge of the continent. They are powerful, large and have the biggest castle. But I heard a prophecy, and that prophecy entails that they will soon fall!" A murmur rippled through the crowd.

"Fall!"

"Leave us the most powerful?"

"We haven't been in charge in years..." The princess quieted everyone down once more.

"Anyways, I don't wish to distract from the real issue here. This dragon we see before us is either a hybrid, or a SkyWing assassin trying to steal our secrets and strip us of our dignity," The princess roared. Icicle-Torrid, who had finally managed to crawl a bit away, looked incredibly annoyed for once at being recognized. "We must expose her for what she truly is," said Goose. Torrid perked up.