Chapter Twelve: The Argument

Crystal kept her ears pricked forward as Ember spoke. She’d signed a quick greeting to the other Ice Dragons in the pen, but her attention had since been strictly focused on the Crown Prince. He’d gone to the front of the room, if a circle could have a front, and had taken some papers from his sack.

The prince had mostly frowned at the papers, looking up and nodding to Fire Dragons as they came into the room. Crystal spent a few moments studying each new face, wondering if they knew Ember’s true thoughts about Ice Dragons. The other Ice Dragons in the pen weren’t familiar. They were older than she was, and one of them had a series of burn scars along his forelegs.  They also seemed more interested in taking a nap than paying attention to the council. 

Chapter Eleven: Preparing for Council

Lifting his head as claws rapped on the door, Ember shouted permission to enter and pricked his ears expectantly as the darkened wood swung open. Frowning as he saw Torch, Ember pulled off his desk and lifted his chin. The pale orange viper shouldered the door open further, revealing Crystal being all but choked by the taught chain.

Barely choking down a growl, Ember flicked his tail and watched as Torch dragged the ice vixen to the center of the room, connecting the chains with a rough snap.

Chapter Ten: Remembrance

Crystal stretched out her wings and flapped them a few times to loosen her muscles as paws sounded in the hall. It was early, the sun only beginning on rise on the far end of the island. Folding her wings gently against her side, Crystal stepped away from the door and waited for it to open. The steps grew louder, and then passed. Crystal sighed, small flecks of ice escaping with her breath. It had just been another servant, probably a Cleaner or a Cook. Turning away from the door, Crystal set her head in the window and looked down into the jungle. Some wild cats were bounding together, scaring several parrots who flew upwards in a small rainbow.

Crystal yawned, and then tilted her head downwards. There were four floors below her, each floor with twenty rooms, and the opposite wall of the castle was also dedicated to servant quarters. If Crystal was remembering correctly, about the time of the Cleansing there would be roughly two hundred and forty servants in the castle. 

Chapter Nine: Memories

Ember’s talons scraped stone as he slid off his bed. He’d been awake long enough to hear the soft clicking of the daily messenger, dropping off the letters addressed to him from the town and village, as well as in the castle. The pile was somewhat large, as it usually was, since all the dragons assigned to council were required to write a summary or their report for the daily meetings the night before. 

Making his way to his desk, Ember lifted a paw to shuffle through the papers. Reports from all the council dragons, in their varying styles of writing, were all there, as well as a few reports from Flame Village. At the bottom of the pile, a few papers up from the last, there was a shimmering white paper with thick, blocky writing like Crystal had used to write her name. Ember brushed the other papers aside, and carefully lifted it up, flipping it around to see the sender. Wynter’s Grove, Block forty-three, no name or dome number. 

Ice dragons lived in Domes, round houses made from their own ice and snow, and each Dome was crammed onto a Block with roughly fourteen other domes, depending on the size of the families in each dome. 

Chapter Eight: Settling In

Finally alone for the first time since she’d turned ten, Crystal sat down and enjoyed simply existing. No worries about her behavior, no worries about the other Ice Dragons, the only thing she had to worry about now was that someone might barge in and take this blessed quiet away from her. 

The ice-cold floor felt amazing under her paws, and if Crystal closed her eyes, she could almost imagine that she was back home in Wynter’s Grove. Back in the safety of her family’s dome.

Ice Dragons - The In-Depth Guide

In this post, we are going to take a good look at Ice Dragons. All scale and feather colors they can have, all mutations that can appear in their species and more.

This is a typical Ice Dragon

Ice Dragons have the ability to breathe ice and snow from their mouth. Their scales are extremely hard, and nearly impossible to break. They also radiate a natural coldness. Their wings are feathered, and these feathers also appear on the tip of their tails and behind their ears.

The Silencing and the Cleansing

Since living on Drake's Peak, the Fire Dragons have come up with some pretty nasty traditions regarding the Ice Dragons. The two worst ones however, are known as the Silencing and the Cleansing.

Chapter Seven: Explinations

Ember fought back a yawn as he finished writing down the last dragon’s name that Crystal would need to be hyper aware around. It was a long list, but it just might save her life. Ember yawned again, he’d been on his talons practically all day, and it was starting to get to him. Lifting one paw upwards, he scratched at his neck, just below his chin. Digging his claws in just a bit harder to try and stay awake Ember looked up at Crystal and said “Alright, that’s everyone.” 

Before she could fully read it though, Ember rolled the paper into a small scroll. “I image you’ve had a long day, so I’ll take you to your quarters on the floor below us. An escort will be sent in the morning, I’ll try to make sure that its someone you can trust, but no guarantees. I’ll leave this with you so you can read it, but I recommend you find someplace to keep it hidden during the day.”

Crystal nodded sharply, the feathers along her once carefully aligned wings rippling. “One last thing, nothing we’ve spoken about, and I mean nothing, leaves this room. Is that understood.”

Crystal’s head moved with her rolling eyes, and she gave him a brief nod, along with a roll of her left talon that he was fairly sure meant ‘of course.’

Leaning forwards, Embers talons quickly maneuvered the key he’d placed beside him into the lock on Crystal’s chain. There were three locks in total, one keeping it to the spike in the floor, one cutting the chain in two, and one attaching it to the brace around her neck. The middle one was the one he unlocked, and once they were separated, he set the key down, he had six of them now, and said “Come on, your new chambers are this way.”

Crystal followed him without hesitation and kept her head downwards as they left his room. There were no visible dragons in sight, but with his parents’ room just down the hall, Ember decided not to correct her. No telling who could walk out of there at any given second.

They made it to the stairwell without mishap, and Ember muttered a quick “Watch your step.” Before he began to descend. Keeping his wings pinned against his sides, Ember stayed silent during the trip downwards.

 As they reached the next floor down, Ember opened the door and led Crystal through the narrow hall. This floor was a lot tighter than the one just above, with a narrow passageway that led to about twenty doors. 

All the floors between here and the ground level were like this, filled with servants of the castle. Whenever they got full, roughly every thirty years if there weren’t any mass releasing of servants, which there hadn’t been in Ember’s lifetime, there was a purging to empty out the rooms by killing the unfit to serve. That was yet another one of the traditions that Ember hated. Probably even worse than the Silencing. 

The Cleansing, as the purging was called, killed any who were found being unfit to serve, and the reasons they gave for selecting the Ice Dragons to kill were sometimes downright unfair. They tended not to choose from those chosen in the past year, but if everyone else was behaving well, then they might not have a choice but pick someone who struggled at their job, simply because they weren’t used to it yet. 

Shaking his head out of his thoughts, Ember knew it would do no good to worry about the Cleansing yet. It was still quite a few years away, by the time it arrived, he'd hopefully have found a way to call it off.

Crystal had been assigned a room on the left side of this hall, seventeen doors down. Almost in the very back, which meant quite a bit of dusty walking. Flicking the tips of his wings to shake off the dirt on them, Ember sped up a bit to try and lessen his time in the darkness that seemed to be folding around him.

Behind him, he could hear Crystal speed up was well, to avoid being choked by her chain. Ember felt a brief stab of guilt, although he knew it would appear proper to anyone watching. Daring a brief glance around what he could see of the corridor, Ember realized that there were only a few Ice dragons in the hall, and all of them were too busy entering their chambers or leaving at a brisk pace to notice him.

The door to Crystal’s new chambers were in sight now, and the doorway behind him was now practically invisible through all the dust and whirling long-legged dragons. Reaching out with his free leg, Ember roughly thrust the door open and stepped inside swiftly. 

The room was much like the hallway they’d just left. Dark, gloomy, and covered in a fine layer of dust. A few beams of light pierced the shadow through a window on the far wall, and there was a small cot bolted to the floor. A thin mattress was on the cot, as well as a blanket that would do next to nothing to keep out the cold. Ember knew that Ice dragons were immune to cold weather, but that didn’t stop the shiver that ran along his own wings.

There was a post in the center of the room, just like the one back in Ember’s quarters. Quickly stepping up to it, Ember bit back a yelp as his claws touched the frozen floor. The floor directly below this one was for the servants who worked in the blacksmith, and since it was so hot there, Ember knew from a secret visit that they completely iced over their rooms, to give themselves relief in their off-hours. 

Gritting his teeth as he walked across the ice cold ground, Ember snapped the chain together and finally dropped the horrid metal snake and turned to Crystal. “These will be your quarters for the first two years. After that you’ll be moved to a room with a larger bed, since you should have reached your adult size by that time.” The ‘if you survive’ was left unsaid, but by Crystal’s stillness, Ember knew she had heard the message hidden in his words. Obey or Die. He didn’t like it, but it was the way of the island.

 “In the morning, someone will come to unchain you and take you back to my quarters, after a few days they’ll only unchain you, and in roughly seven or eight days you’ll be released from the chain in this room only.” Ember finished, catching the way Crystal was eying the post with disgust. “There’s nothing I can do to change that. It’s the way things have been done for countless seasons, and everything I’ve tried to make things easier on the Ice dragons in the castle has only resulted in bloodshed.”

Crystal shot him a look. A look that, were he any other dragon in the castle, or even any other Fire Dragon in general, would have resulted in her losing her head. Then her wings splayed out to their full extent, and her tail flicked from side to side, the feathers along the tip of the long white-scaled limb fully flared as well. The meaning of the signal? Well it was usually used by Ice dragon parents who were mad at their kids for doing something that was bad. It roughly translated to ‘What in the name of the First Dragons were you thinking, you absolute idiot?’

Ember snorted, a small puff of smoke escaping his muzzle. Crystal’s eyes widened, and her wings instantly dropped. Before she could signal an explanation, Ember lifted a paw and rolled it. “No worries,” he said, voicing the sign’s meaning “Like I said, I want to help you. Just…maybe don’t give that sign to anyone else, all right?”

Crystal nodded quickly, although she was refusing to meet his gaze. Ember sighed, and then took a step towards the door. Reflexively, Crystal shied away, causing Ember to frown. But he had dropped a lot on her, more than would be easily comprehensible in only an hour. Not to mention she’d likely grown up learning that Fire Dragons were always to be respected. 

“I’ll see you in the morning.” Ember said, nodding to her. Crystal lowered her head and splayed her wings. Submission. Ember bit back another sigh and stepped back into the hallway. 

As he left, closing the door behind him, Ember thought he heard skittering paws. But when he turned to look, the only Ice Dragons still in the hallway were entering their rooms. Ember shook his head, flattening his ears against his skull and then flicking them out again. He needed to get some sleep, after all, now he was getting to the point of imagining things.

Chapter Six: A Change In Plans

Crystal’s tail-feathers rippled as the Crown Prince finally finished answering her list of questions. She remembered hearing that he only had a level seven in understanding, so it wasn’t surprising that he hadn’t understood some of her more complicated symbols. But he’d spoken aggravatingly slowly, it had been all she could do to hold back from growling. But, kind-hearted or not, growling at the Crown Prince would do Crystal no favors.

Obey, be patient. By pretending to become whatever it was that he wanted, she’d get back home a lot sooner than if she continued to act up. Rippling her ruff slightly to shake it out and lift it from the side of her head, Crystal began to sign again, this time slowly to be sure he would understand. 

Going through the movements for her final question, Crystal made sure to avoid any overly advanced signs. She didn’t know them all herself, but she had managed to make her way up to a level eight in speaking and nine in understanding, whereas most servants were only able to get to a level six or seven in both speaking and understanding by the time they were taken to the castle. Usually though, they were allowed to continue their lessons, so long as they behaved.

From what Crystal had picked up by eavesdropping, most Fire dragons were unable to get beyond a level seven in speaking, simply because their ears were only able to bend so far, whereas Ice dragons had their feathery ruff. Though it was nestled closely behind the ear, the ruff wasn't connected. Instead, the ruff was able to be moved separately and had a wider range of movement. 

Finally finishing her signs, having asked him in a rather long and slow manner how exactly he planned for this to work, Crystal settled back on all fours, folding her wings gently against her side as she waited for a response.

The Fire dragon thought about it for a few minutes, and Crystal once again resisted the urge to growl at him. Honestly, it was like he was trying to annoy her. Rippling her tail with annoyance, Crystal began to study her surroundings for the first time. She was in the back corner of the room, but her chain was long enough that it should let her reach through the whole room. She doubted it would let her leave though, servants were supposed to stay in their master’s quarters until they had been dismissed, and then they would be locked in a smaller room with a much shorter chain. 

“My current plan is for you to act as though you have surrendered when in public. When they begin to trust you, then I shall reveal more. I do not wish to say too much, since servants are interrogated before they are killed. It would not do me well for my father to learn of my plans.” Ember finally replied. 

Crystal forced her wings to remain still, although her ruff flicked backwards in annoyance. What he’d just told her was a heavily simplified version of her own plans. Act proper, stay alive, and then when the time comes stage an accident for someone in a higher rank, fix it, get a higher rank, and be relieved of duty, all before her twentieth-fifth year, which would fall on the year that the Fire dragons of the castle purged the servants ranks of any who were unfit to serve.  She couldn’t risk being caught up in that. 

Crystal turned her head away, pretending to think about his words. She had an inkling of a plan, but it would be quite risky. If she played along with the prince’s plan, she would be able to rise quite quickly. Then, if she could find a way to reveal all to the king, pretending to him to be a meek servant who felt, like some Ice Dragons did, that she deserved to be a servant, she just might be able to go home as a reward. 

Refocusing on the prince, Crystal spread her wings and lowered her neck and head. The sign for submitting, or in this case, acknowledging. Resettling her feathers with a quick shake, Crystal pricked her ruff upwards and looked at the Fire dragon across from her expectantly. 

The crown prince nodded at her, and said “Alright, in order to show them that you are obedient, or so they shall think, you are going to have to do a few things.” Crystal barely managed to keep her eyes from rolling. Typical Fire dragon, he may want to help her, but only if she first helped him. Whatever, she only had to put up with it for a little while, long enough to use him to get out of here. 

Nodding briskly, Crystal lowered her ruff and waited for him to get on with it. She was racing a deadly clock after all. Ember’s tail twitched slightly and then he said, “Alright then, so first things first, how much do you know about the duties you’ll be expected to preform?”

This time, Crystal couldn’t stop her eyes from rolling. What kind of Selected would she be if she didn’t know her duties? Instead of saying all that though, she just nodded. Ember nodded back, and then said, “Alright then, so let me grab a new scroll and I’ll show you some names and places you’ll need to be extra careful in, and some places you can be more relaxed at.”

As Crystal nodded, Ember turned towards his desk. As he selected a blank scroll Crystal took a deep breath as best she could through the muzzle. Working for the prince was going to be infuriating, but she would have to manage best she could.