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For the first time ever, Prism was watching snow fall outside of the Ice Kingdom. It had never snowed while she was in the army and it certainly hadn’t snowed in the rainforest, but now?
It was snowing at Jade Mountain.
Prism laughed, tugging on Qibli’s talon to pull him towards the doors of Jade Mountain and get him to go in the snow.
“Come on!” she cheered, flapping her pale yellow wings. “It’s snow!”
“That’s exactly the point!” Qibli argued, desperately trying to pull his arm out of Prism’s talons. “It’s snow.”
“Yes, and it’s amazing and we need to go play in it,” Prism said very seriously. “Now. Right now.”
Before Prism could convince Qibli to go outside—she was close, she knew it—Moon and Kinkajou padded into the main room, an inquisitive look on both of their faces. Kinkajou’s scales were a dappled gray and blue color meant to match the winter season, but occasionally, yellow would burst through like opening flowerbuds.
“What . . . is happening?” Moon asked, looking between Prism and Qibli.
“Prism is trying to convince the sand snorter to go out in the snow,” Winter explained. He’d entered at the same time as Prism and was sitting placidly on Prism’s other side, wings tucked in and tail draped over his front talons.
Prism had gone and gotten him and Qibli at the same time when she realized it was snowing, after she’d stumbled upon the entrance hall walking through Jade Mountain after a nightmare. Winter was more than ready to go out in the snow and had made several dry comments about the ‘insufferable heat’ of the caves.
Qibli, however, was not so eager.
“Nooooo,” he wailed, flapping his wings and finally pulling himself free of Prism. “Swimming in the river was one thing. I am not going to step outside in—in that.”
He pointed a horrified claw at the outdoors and Prism glanced over her shoulder. Outside, the wind was howling like a snow monster and snow was pouring down from the sky in a heavy drift. Prism couldn’t see three dragon-lengths past the entrance to the mountains.
“Are you kidding? It’s fantastic.”
She looked back at Qibli with a little grin on her face, which only grew bigger at the sight of his offended expression.
“It’s snowing?” Moon asked, walking past Qibli to peer outside. Her eyes went wide. “Woah.”
Prism blinked. “Have you never seen snow before?”
“It doesn’t really snow in the rainforest,” Kinkajou teased, striding forward and slinging a wing over Moon. “Woah is right. That looks . . .”
“Wonderful?” Prism prompted. “Comforting? Perfect for snowball fights?”
Kinkajou wrinkled her snout. “Cold.”
Prism snorted and flapped a wing at her. “Sure, but also all the other things.”
Off in the corner, Winter stood, spreading his wings and walking towards the other four.
“I’m going out in the snow,” he declared. “As any sane dragon would. The rest of you are welcome to follow.”
Moon cast an anxious glance back at the caves. “Should we tell the teachers?” she wondered. “They’ll probably want to know where we’re going.”
“I mean, it’s not like the other time we left the school,” Qibli pointed out. “Y’know, to find a murderer in the rainforest.”
Winter scowled at the SandWing, the tip of his tail flicking irritably. Prism rolled her eyes and poked him in the side with her wing.
“Moon has a point,” Prism agreed. “Why don’t you and Kinkajou find them while Winter and I get Sunshine to experience true joy?”
Moon giggled and covered her snout with a talon, but she turned away with Kinkajou at her side and disappeared into the tunnels heading towards the Dragonets of Destiny and their caves.
“True joy is sleeping in a sand dune,” Qibli said when they were gone. “A warm sand dune.”
“Overruled,” Winter said. “Your opinion is wrong.”
“Agreed,” Prism said, letting her scales flicker green with disgust. “That sounds awful.” She leaned over and poked Qibli’s chest with her claw. “It’ll be fun, playing in the snow. We can make snow fortresses and battle.”
Qibli frowned, his face twisting. “Battle?”
“When the snow is like this, you can pack it together and make shapes,” Winter explained, flicking his wing at the exit.
When Prism shot him a surprised look, he shrugged elegantly. “I used to do that in the courtyard with my siblings and cousins.”
“I did that in the village,” Prism said, smiling. She turned back to Qibli, a knowing look on her face. “You can’t do that with sand, now can you?”
“You can with wet sand,” said a new voice.
Prism blinked and looked past Qibli at one of the cave openings, where a green dragon stood, wings twitching.
“Turtle!” Qibli cried, flaring his wings. “Thank you! This is a dragon that will be on my side.”
Turtle blinked several times, opening and shutting his mouth before eventually shuffling forward.
“On your side about what?” he finally asked.
“About snow and how it’s the worst thing ever,” Qibli said matter-of-factly.
Turtle wrinkled his nose, tucking his wings in close to his body when he spotted the snow falling outside.
“It doesn’t really look all that great,” he said glumly.
“Ha!” Qibli said triumphantly. “Thank you, Turtle, I knew you were my favorite.”
Prism puffed out her wings indignantly. “Hey!”
Qibli beamed and stuck his tongue out at her—a gesture that Prism returned.
“Ice Cube, aren’t snowstorms like this dangerous?” Qibli said. “Snowdrifts, strong winds, freezing to death?”
“The desert isn’t much safer,” Prism pointed out. “Dragonbite vipers, sandstorms, dying of thirst?”
Qibli grunted and flapped his wings. “I guess that’s true. . . .”
Winter yawned, spreading his wings and turning towards the exit and the snow still falling.
“I’m going,” he drawled. “I won’t wait for you slow dragons to ask permission.”
With that, he beat his wings and soared out into the open air. His pale scales quickly disappeared in the thick snow and Prism looked back at Qibli hopefully, right as Moon and Kinkajou returned.
“What’d they say?” Qibli asked, a tinge of hope in his voice. He really did not want to go out in the snow.
Well, too bad. Prism was just as stubborn as him and she was going to make him play in the snow like the dragonets they were.
“Well, Tsunami said no school today,” Moon said. “She was the only one awake, though, so—”
“She’s the head of the school; it counts,” Prism decided, standing.
“She also gave us permission to make a fire afterwards,” Moon added. “To warm us and the other students up.”
“Tsunami told us to wake up the others, actually,” Kinkajou said, bouncing a little when she saw Turtle standing beside Qibli. “Turtle! What—what are you doing up?”
“I, uh, I got hungry,” he admitted sheepishly, twisting his talons. “And I heard the others talking.”
Kinkajou beamed, pink drifting across her scales unbidden as Moon cast a knowing look at Prism, who returned the look with a smile of her own.
“Who wants to come with us to wake up the other winglets?” Moon asked, nudging Kinkajou.
“I do!” Qibli said quickly, leaping away from Prism to hide behind Moon’s wing.
Prism laughed and grinned wickedly, glancing over her shoulder at the spot where Winter had left. “I’ll come too,” she decided.
Kinkajou bounced again, looking at Turtle. “Do you want to come, too?” she asked hopefully.
Turtle shifted on his feet, a blush covering his own cheeks. Prism smiled knowingly. The two of them were not subtle.
“Uhhhh,” the SeaWing said. “I was . . . going to eat?”
“Great!” Kinkajou beamed, flaring her wings. “I’ll go with you. We can watch everyone else freeze their scales off later, right?”
“R-right,” Turtle said, slowly following Kinkajou down the caves towards the prey center.
Moon blinked and looked back at Prism and Qibli, calmly tilting her head. “Are we ready to go?” she asked.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Qibli said, heading towards the caves of all the other winglets.
Prism nodded in agreement and together, the three of them set off down the caves of Jade Mountain.
By the time Prism and the others woke up every other dragon in the winglets, it had stopped snowing.
A few of the dragonets hadn’t wanted to go—SandWings and RainWings, mostly—while all the IceWings had leapt out of their beds the moment Prism said the word ‘snow,’ which Prism thought was the appropriate reaction.
Now, it was just Prism and Qibli in the entrance hall, where Qibli was still being the stubborn dragon that he was and refusing to go outside in the snow, despite the fact that the majority of the school was already outside, shrieking and laughing as they pelted each other with snowballs.
“Come on!” Prism insisted, flapping her wings. “Sunshine, stop being so stubborn. You’ll like it, really.”
“I would sooner let myself be bitten by a dragonbite viper,” Qibli said seriously.
“Really?” Turtle asked as he stepped into the room.
Prism lifted her eyes from Qibli and watched as Turtle and Kinkajou returned from their not-date eating breakfast together. Kinkajou’s blue scales were tinted with pink and a smile kept tugging at her snout.
“I’d take snow over snakes any day,” Turtle said. “I’d rather not have either, but snow is better.”
Prism fluffed her wings up. “Are you going out in the snow?”
“For a bit, at least,” Kinkajou said. “Is everyone else outside?”
“The majority are,” Prism replied. “Boto and Coconut stayed inside, as did Pronghorn, Arid, and . . . Thrush, I think. But everyone else is outside.”
“Great!” Kinkajou declared, flaring her wings. “I’ll get Moon, see if she can get this wet blanket to come outside, too. If you two can’t get him to, I don’t think anything can.”
She spread her wings and ran forward for a moment, propelling herself out of the mountain. Turtle blinked and then followed a little less gracefully. Prism looked back at Qibli, a triumphant smile on her face.
“Ha!” she said proudly. “You can’t resist me and Moon. We’ll get you out in the snow.”
Qibli’s cheeks turned pink and he let out a cough, flapping his wings several times. Moon suddenly soared in and landed beside Prism, shaking snow off her smooth ebony scales.
“Kinkajou sent me to convince Qibli?” she said, tilting her head quizzically.
“Exactly,” Prism said firmly.
“Are we sure we should force him to go out in the snow?” she wondered. “I don’t think SandWings are meant for the cold.”
“Oh, he’ll be fine,” Prism said dismissively.
Qibli squeaked indignantly and flared his wings, gaping at Prism. “Fine?” he repeated incredulously.
“Suffering is good for the soul,” Prism said easily. “Just do it, Qibli, you’ll have fun.”
Moon giggled and stretched her wing out, touching Qibli’s shoulder. “Do it for your friends, Qibli.”
Qibli hesitated for a moment before nodding his head reluctantly and sighing like the weight of the moons were on his shoulders.
“Fine,” said Qibli. “I’ll do it.” Under his breath, he muttered, “hate how you’re always dragging me into activities not meant for SandWings. First swimming, now this.”
“This is basically swimming,” Prism said, turning around to face the door. “But like . . . land-swimming.”
“That is not helpful,” Qibli grumbled, although he spread his wings anyway.
“Don’t knock it ‘til you try it!” Prism sang, flaring her wings and running to push off the ground and soar through the large open doors and out into the snow-filled mountains beyond.
A comforting cold sunk into her bones as she swooped in the air, laughing with exhilaration. The snow had stopped falling, but the chill still lingered even without the snow, picking her heart rate up with the excitement of fresh snow.
Dragons were dotted around the mountains, throwing snowballs, creating snow-scavengers, and digging mole tunnels and dens.
It took Prism a moment to spot the IceWings, but she eventually found the majority of them in a small hollow between the cliffs of Jade Mountain. It looked as though they were forming teams for a mock battle, but she didn’t recognize Winter in the group.
She banked to the left and spotted a sand-colored shape flying out of the mountain and smiled, soaring to Qibli’s side as Moon joined him.
“See?” Prism said, spreading a wing at the vast expanse of snow covering the mountain. “Isn’t it gorgeous?”
Qibli hesitated for a moment, and for just a moment, Prism had the strangest feeling that he was watching her instead of the crisp snow and the dragons enjoying it.
“Yeah,” he eventually said, his voice hoarse. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, it is.”
“Do you see Winter anywhere?” Moon asked, scanning the mountainside.
Prism blinked and shook her head a few times, looking around for the frosty prince.
He wasn’t building snow scavengers with the MudWings, or creating dens on the peak of the mountain with the NightWings, or torching through the snow to the grass with the SkyWings.
She was going to recommend searching on the other side of Jade Mountain when something flew into her from behind. She squawked and let herself drop, twisting around to fight with—
Air.
No, wait, not air.
Prism reached out to grasp at air and steadied herself, tail flicking a few times to help her regain her balance.
“Kinkajou!” Prism said, laughing to herself. “What was that for?”
“For fun!” Kinkajou chirped, reappearing in a shade of pink so bright it hurt Prism’s eyes. “Duh.”
Qibli and Moon, now accompanied by Turtle, flew to her side, a wicked smile on Qibli’s face.
“Look where you are now, oh glorious Queen of Snow,” Qibli snarked, bumping her side. “Brought down by a RainWing dragonet.”
“Hey!” Kinkajou exclaimed, hints of pale orange indignation creeping through her pink scales. “I can take you down, too, Qibli!”
Prism snorted as Kinkajou flew at Qibli, playfully pummelling his underbelly before darting away.
“At least I’m a queen,” she said proudly.
Her eyes drifted past Moon’s shoulder and landed on a moving pile of snow—no, not just snow. An IceWing burying themself in the snow as if to hide from the rest of the dragons on the mountain.
That could only be one dragon.
“Hey, I see Winter,” Prism said, swooping past Moon and flying for Winter, who was burrowing into the snow piling up on the mountainside.
She heard a set of four wingbeats behind her as she soared towards the mountainside and landed in front of Winter’s snow pile.
Two cerulean blue eyes opened and glowered at her from within the snow, but he said nothing. Prism laughed and jumped through the snow to reach him, nosing snow off the dragon.
“Don’t be a hermit today,” she said between laughs as she exposed the spikes along his neck, which shook when he snorted out a puff of frostbreath. “Today is a day for fun, not for hiding in snowbanks.”
“I’m not hiding,” Winter grumbled, flicking his tail out of the snow to lightly slap Prism’s head with it.
“Ow!” she said, hopping away as the other dragonets landed nearby, shaking snow off their wings. “You have spikes on that thing, you know.”
“Exactly,” Winter said smugly.
Despite his protests, Winter pulled himself out of the snow pile he’d created, tossing his head proudly. He surveyed the other dragons with a raised brow, curling his tail a few times.
“You all look miserable,” he declared without a hint of empathy in his voice.
“Obviously!” Kinkajou said, jumping up and down and thwacking herself with her wings. “You’re meant for this sort of weather!”
Prism tilted her head at Kinkajou and the other three dragons, settling into the snow. “Have you really never seen snow before?”
“I grew up in the desert,” Qibli said with a shrug. “So . . . no.”
“The rainforest doesn’t get a lot of snow either,” Moon said.
“It would sometimes snow in the Kingdom of the Sea,” Turtle offered. Then he frowned. “But . . . it melted when it hit the water. Or turned into ice. So also no.”
“Right,” Prism said. “You poor dragons don’t know the meaning of life.”
Moon laughed and flapped her wings a few times as if to warm herself up, but she didn’t look cold yet, which meant they might have time for a snow campaign.
They’d probably have to do it without Qibli, though, who was already shivering. Prism watched him, concern starting to build up in her chest. Was he really that intolerant to the cold? She didn’t do that bad in the desert, and neither did Winter. She’d thought that his internal heat from the fire would help with the cold, but maybe not.
“We should do something,” Prism said breathlessly, smacking her tail against the snow and sending a flurry of snowflakes over her friends. They did not look pleased.
“Freeze to death?” Qibli suggested.
Winter rolled his eyes. “If you start moving, you’ll warm up,” he said. “I learned that as a dragonet, sand-snorter.”
“Ooooh, does this mean Winter’s playing whatever ‘secret IceWing game’ we’re going to do?” Kinkajou teased, waving her tail in the air. “Awesome!”
“It’s not a secret IceWing game, it’s Capture the General,” Prism said with a laugh. Then she tilted her head, confused. “Wait, did you guys . . . not ever play tactical games?”
All as one, the three dragonets shook their heads. Right. That wasn’t ideal for any of them. Prism had never done a tactical playfight with a dragon that had never played before.
“Oh,” Prism said, blinking once. “OK.”
Obviously, seeing as Prism and Winter were the only dragons who knew how to play properly, they’d need to teach the other dragons how. An itch started beneath Prism’s scales that she hadn’t felt in ages—the need to fight, to win something, prove her worth again. There had been nothing for Prism to compete in lately, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to fix that.
She glanced over at Winter, cocking her head at him. “There’s four of them, do you want to split them into two and be generals?”
Winter grinned sharply, his teeth flashing. “A competition?” he asked.
Prism grinned back, crouching low to the ground and spreading her wings, turning them purple with determination.
“You bet,” she said, watching as Winter’s eyes brightened. He’d probably been starved of this just as much as she’d been. “The loser has to catch the winner a dinner of their choice.”
Winter barked out a laugh in her face and flared his wings magnificently, letting the cold sunlight catch his glittering scales.
“Deal,” he said arrogantly, a smirk spreading across his face.
“Oh no,” Qibli whispered.
“What have we done?” Kinkajou whispered back.
“Is now the time to run? Turtle asked. “I think this is when we’re supposed to run. We should run.”
Winter faced the other four dragonets, drawing himself up and making himself look taller than he actually was. He was just barely taller than Prism that way, so she straightened as well, casting him a knowing grin.
“How do we pick teams?” Prism asked.
“I’ve already picked them,” Winter said smugly. “Kinkajou and Moon, you’re with me.”
Prism hissed, scowling at him. Kinkajou’s camouflage would be a game-changer for his team, and Moon . . . well, Moon’s scales would obviously stick out in the snow—an advantage for Prism—but if Winter wanted her, he had a reason for it.
That left Prism with Turtle, who couldn’t even walk through the snow—much less run through it—and Qibli, who looked about two seconds away from succumbing to hypothermia.
Already, this was not looking good for her.
She puffed out a breath of cold air and faced her two teammates, resisting the urge to snatch Kinkajou and run.
“So, I have Qibli and Turtle,” she said, nodding a few times to reassure herself that not all was lost just yet. “All right. We should explain rules as a group, just so we’re sure.”
“If you insist,” Winter said. “The goal of the game is to capture the general of the other team, which means capturing Prism if you’re on my team or capturing me if you’re on Prism’s team.”
“To capture someone, you have to put them in your base,” Prism went on for him. “Which you have to make yourself. Normal teammates can escape, so keep an eye on them. If you capture a general and get them in the base, the game is over.”
“Because in war, generals are too high-ranking to be kept alive,” Winter explained. “It’s a game that’s meant to prepare IceWing dragonets for time in the military.”
“Riiiight,” Qibli said, nodding and looking over Prism and Winter with a sharp eye. “That explains a lot of things, actually.”
Kinkajou snorted in amusement and flicked her tail, hopping over to Winter’s side and bumping him playfully with a wing.
“Let’s make the boundaries . . . anywhere on the mountain,” Winter said, scanning the mountaintop.
Prism blinked at him. That was a lot of ground to cover. Prism wasn’t sure she’d fought anywhere this big, but there must be a good spot to form their base.
“Let’s do it,” Prism said with a shrug, studying the mountains as well. There weren’t any spots that immediately jumped to mind, but there were certainly going to be good spots for their base to be built.
She walked over to Turtle and Qibli’s side, shooting Winter a challenging look.
“The game ends when one of us is caught,” she said. “Ready?”
“Ha!” Winter said with a laugh. “Born ready.”
Prism nodded, mirroring his grin as she spread her wings for a quick takeoff. “Game starts in three. . . .”
“Two. . . .”
“One!” Prism and Winter said at the same time.
Both of them swooped into the air, heading in opposite directions. Prism beat her wings hard and fast, ducking behind the second peak of Jade Mountain to hide her from Winter’s eyes.
Several moments later, Qibli and Turtle landed in front of her, both of them shivering slightly.
“Any ideas on where to make our headquarters?” Prism asked, peering around her side of the mountain. “We need something strategic, someplace high but not too visible. A key aspect of this game is making sure your base is hidden for as long as possible.”
“We could head into one of the caves,” Turtle suggested. “It’s still technically on the mountain.”
Prism shook her head, pacing. “We’d be too visible there. That would be one of the first places they’d check.”
“What about that?” Qibli asked, flicking his tail at something behind Prism.
She turned around to see a small ridge packed in by snow that was high enough to be a good vantage point. It wasn’t surrounded by other tall hills, which meant an ambush wouldn’t be easy, and it was in the opposite direction of where Winter’s team had gone, still hidden behind the second fanged peak of Jade Mountain.
Prism shot a grin at Qibli over her shoulder. “That is perfect, Sunshine.”
Qibli grinned back and fluffed up his wings. “Thanks, Ice Cube.”
Prism flapped her wings and pushed off the ground, swooping down towards the ridge and hiding on the other side of it. The moment she landed, she was already pushing snow into position, packing it into clumps on the top of the ridge to create a barrier. With the length of the ridge, Prism could potentially pack enough snow to make a base that would just look like the ridge from a distance.
“Help me start packing the snow,” Prism said, pushing another pile into place.
Qibli nodded and started pushing snow beside Prism’s pile, his talons occasionally brushing hers as he did so. Turtle hesitated for a moment before eventually doing the same.
“So, you played this game often?” Qibli asked, glancing over at her as he clumsily pushed more snow onto the ridge.
“All the time as a dragonet,” Prism said.
“Have you ever been general?” he wondered.
“Yeah, all the time,” she said. “It’s a big honor for dragonets, especially if your team wins.”
“How often did you win?” Qibli asked, a little more hesitantly.
Prism grinned breathlessly at him, shifting her scales to blend effortlessly into the snow. “Every time.”
“That’s promising for us,” Qibli laughed as he shoved snow higher.
Prism laughed and shook her head, putting a talon on Qibli’s arm to stop him. “Not like that. If you do it like that, the snow will just crumble and fall off. You need to press your talons down on it to pack it together, keep it solid.”
She reached over, squeezing the snow together in order for it to form something with a structure. Qibli pushed more snow on and mimicked Prism, casting her an inquisitive look.
“L-like this?” he asked.
Prism wrinkled her snout and put her talons over his, helping him pack it together properly.
“More like this,” she said. “On all sides.”
She thought she heard Qibli’s breath catch in his throat as she helped him, but she must’ve been imagining that and the red color on his snout. That was probably from the cold biting at him.
“The faster we build this, the faster you’ll be protected from the wind,” Prism pointed out, stepping away from Qibli to work on the other side of the base’s wall.
That seemed to be enough incentive for Qibli and Turtle, because both of them started working fast, pulling snow off the rocks to create a firm barrier. Occasionally, Prism would step in front, keeping her burned side to the wall just in case someone from Winter’s team was watching, and rough up the snow, making sure it blended into the rest of the ridge (it did).
As they worked, Prism covered the other dragons with her camouflaged scales as much as she could while she talked strategy with them.
“They’ll clearly use Kinkajou to sneak up on us, especially if they figure out where our base is,” she said.
“Wait, can they capture us in our base?” Turtle asked nervously.
“Technically, yes,” Prism said. “It’s hard to do, but it’s a stealth mission, just like in real war.”
“Then what’s the point of the base?” Turtle asked, flapping his wings.
“Armies have bases,” Prism said with a shrug. “Dragons can sneak into other bases, it’s just hard because it’s easier for us to get them if they’re right there. So, they’ll send Kinkajou, because she can use her scales and hide to grab one of us while the other two are distracted. I don’t know why Winter chose Moon. She’s never fought before.”
“No, but you didn’t say anything about not using mind-reading,” Qibli pointed out. “I mean, I don’t think she’d use it, but if they found a way to pull our skyfire off, she could figure out what our plans are.”
“True,” Prism admitted. Moon didn’t seem like the type of dragon to use her powers just to win a game, but it was something she’d need to look out for. “Keep an eye on your pouch.”
Qibli nodded firmly. “Got it. Winter wouldn’t stay behind and let other dragons fight his battles, so we can assume that he’ll be out on the mountain, searching. If Turtle and I find Kinkajou and Moon, we can distract them long enough for you to find Winter and hopefully overpower him to get him back to the ridge.”
Prism regarded him, suddenly feeling a spark of hope in her chest that they could actually win this.
“You catch on quick,” she remarked. “Now, Winter says he’s a dragon that doesn’t need anyone else, but he’s a lot softer than he wants to admit. If he hears Moon or Kinkajou call out for backup, he’ll try to find them. I can camouflage and wait close by to take him down before he reaches you two, hopefully even before they see him. They won’t know he’s in trouble, and I can take him by surprise and get him as close to the base as possible. Then I can wrangle him the rest of the way there. I can’t hide the burns, but the rest of my scales can blend in with the snow. It’s pretty hard to fight against something you can’t see.”
“You’re assuming Winter won’t be with the rest of them,” Qibli pointed out.
“I’m assuming they won’t be together at all,” Prism said. “IceWings are taught to comb through areas as a split up troop and I bet that Winter will have Moon and Kinkajou do the same. They’ll cover more ground that way and Winter knows it.”
Qibli didn’t even blink. He simply respectfully dipped his head and laughed, shrugging his wings.
“All right,” he said. “I trust you.”
“Both of your brains are so scary,” Turtle muttered under his breath.
Prism lifted her head and scanned over the ridge, silently noting that there were a few SkyWings playing with each other in the air but no black scales or moving snow.
“I’d recommend heading down the mountain and circling around it,” Prism said. “So they can’t tell where our headquarters are set up.”
Turtle let out a long sigh but didn’t complain about it. He seemed to sense that he’d actually have to do work in order to prevent Prism from clawing his face off. Prism appreciated that in a dragon.
“S-sounds good,” Qibli said, flapping his wings several times to push off the ground.
Prism followed, trailed after by Turtle. The three of them soared low to the snow and flew down the side of the mountain. Prism’s eyes scanned over the dragons at the base of the mountain—mostly MudWings and SeaWings forming shapes out of snow. A few of them looked up as they flew over, but most didn’t.
Qibli spread his wings to catch the wind and slow down, moving to fly just beneath Prism’s wing.
“Where do we start looking?” he called up.
Prism narrowed her eyes, scanning over the snow mountains as she angled her wings to fly up the other side of the mountain. Where would Winter have made his base? Obviously someplace up high, since it gave you the best tactical advantage—that was basic information that even a dragonet would know. Prism couldn’t see any ridges on this side like the one they’d built their base on. There weren’t any cave openings, either, or visible talonprints in the snow. There was a flash of brown scales on an outcropping on the mountain, but Kinkajou would be camouflaged and Moon had black scales, not brown.
All in all, nothing that would be an immediate advantage to Winter’s team. Prism frowned and flared her wings out, slowing down enough to have a gentle landing on the mountain side. She slid down on the angled mountainside and nearly toppled into the snow, but Qibli flew in on her left, catching her before she slid too far.
“Gah, sorry,” Prism said with an awkward laugh, digging her claws deep into the snow to keep herself from falling again. “Didn’t expect that.”
“No problem, Ice Cube,” Qibli said, thwacking himself with his wings.
Turtle landed on Prism’s right as she shifted her scales to match the snow rather than the sky. Qibli bumped his wing against hers before pressing himself against her burns to hide her from view. He also curled his tail to drag over the snow behind Prism in order to hide her footsteps.
Prism shot him a grateful look before sobering up and watching the mountains for any movement.
“I don’t see any place for a base,” Prism admitted with a frown. “No tracks in the snow, no unusual snow piles, no snow that’s been scraped off to form a base . . . nothing.”
She huffed and sniffed the air, hoping to catch their scent in the air, but all she got was the smell of snow.
“What if we make noise?” Qibli said with a shiver. He tilted his head at Prism. “Have them come find us?”
Prism let out an approving hum and nudged his hip with her own. “I think that could work.”
“Uh, wait,” Turtle interrupted, his face paling. “We’re going to let ourselves get attacked?”
“It’s a friendly game,” Prism reassured him. “They’re not going to hurt you. I doubt you’ll even get scratched.”
Turtle looked away and swallowed hard before nodding and taking a deep breath as if steeling himself for what was to come.
“So what do we do?” Turtle asked. “How do we draw them out?”
Prism thought for a moment. “Complain loudly, stomp in the snow, maybe fall down the mountain a little?”
Turtle gaped at her. “Fall? Down a mountain?”
Prism shrugged. “A little, yeah. You won’t die. If you do it right.”
“That is very debatable,” Turtle pointed out.
“I—I have an idea,” Qibli said, pulling his talons out of the snow one by one and shaking them. “It’s a dirty trick, but I think it’ll work to draw them out.”
“What is it?” Prism asked, moving from his side to face him.
“I mean, everyone knows I’m not meant for this kind of cold,” Qibli said, rubbing his talons together. “So. . . .”
“Oh.” Realization hit Prism like a boulder and her eyes went wide. “Oh. You’re right, that is a dirty move. But I think that it could work. Actually, I take that back. That will work.”
“What?” Turtle asked, his eyes darting from Prism’s face to Qibli’s with worry and fear growing in his eyes. “What is it?”
Prism and Qibli exchanged another look and Turtle swallowed. “Are you—are you going to push me off a mountain?”
“No!” Prism yelped, gently smacking him with her wing. “We’re going to put Qibli in severe medical danger.”
“. . . what?”
“Qibli! Qibli, get up! C’mon, Qibli, you have to get up! Is there anyone that can help?”
From within her snow pile, Prism grinned. Turtle hadn’t been very willing to go along with their plan, but he was a convincing actor nonetheless.
She was also surprised to find that Turtle could be loud when he wanted to. She’d never have thought that the quietest dragon in the Jade Winglet could shout and flap his wings hard enough to bring the entire mountain down.
But there he was, standing over Qibli’s prone body, desperately shaking him and flapping his green wings wildly.
Prism scanned the sky and the surrounding mountainscape, searching for any flash of black scales. If Moon heard Turtle being that frantic, there was no doubt in Prism’s mind that she’d be rushing over as soon as possible to help.
Qibli was still laying limp on the ground, his eyes shut as Turtle continued to shout. Since he was the most unaccustomed to the cold, Prism had him pretend to collapse rather than Turtle.
Plus, Prism wasn’t blind. Moon cared for Qibli and if she saw him injured, she’d be at his side in seconds, regardless of the game. Prism also knew that if Qibli had actually collapsed, she’d be right there beside him, too.
“Qibli!” shouted a new voice.
There you are, Prism thought proudly, watching as Moon soared over the snow and skidded to a stop on Qibli’s other side, followed by Kinkajou as her scales un-camouflaged and turned pale green with fear. Both of their backs were to Prism, as they’d planned for.
Prism was just about to sneak out of the snowbank to find Winter when the other IceWing shot out of the sky and landed in a shower of snow beside Qibli, his wings flared.
What is he doing here? Prism thought, biting back a hiss. Had they all been together? Why? That didn’t make any sense in the game. They should’ve been searching the mountains alone, not as a group.
What was she supposed to do now? She couldn’t surprise Winter and drag him back to the base while he was with the rest of his team. Could Turtle draw the others away—maybe under the guise of finding the school teachers—and leave Winter alone with Qibli?
No, no, Turtle wouldn’t be able to think that fast. Qibli could, but he was pretending to be passed out. If he dropped the act, everything would fall apart and they would know what Prism was planning.
What do I do? How do I play this?
“Turtle, what happened?” Moon asked frantically, putting her palm on Qibli’s cheek. “When did he pass out?”
“J—just a few seconds ago,” Turtle stammered. His eyes flickered over to Prism’s hiding spot before going back to Qibli. “He didn’t say he was cold, but he kept shivering and then his eyes rolled up in his head and he just—he just collapsed.”
Winter pushed aside a fretting Kinkajou to poke Qibli’s cheek, his expression skeptical.
“Hey, sand-snorter,” he said. “Get up.”
“Winter, that won’t help!” Moon cried, flaring her wings and grabbing Qibli’s talon in her own, rubbing it between hers.
Winter’s expression shifted into something significantly more worried and he reached out to press his talon to Qibli’s chest.
“His heart rate is slow,” he muttered. “And he’s freezing. It could be hypothermia.”
“I knew this was a horrible idea,” Kinkajou said, flapping her wings frantically and drawing every dragon’s eyes to her.
As if Qibli could feel their gazes leave him, one obsidian eye slid open to meet Prism’s. She tensed, every muscle in her body suddenly coiled and ready for a fight.
Qibli blinked once, twice, three times before his eye slid up to Winter as he tried to calm Kinkajou down, before returning to her and shutting again. Prism grinned again, slowly pushing herself out of the snowbank.
A silent countdown.
Three, two . . . one!
Prism surged out of the snowbank and dove for Winter, wrapping her arms around his middle and tackling him. At the same time, Qibli darted up as fast as a snake before grabbing Moon and rolling down the slope with her. Prism barely heard her yelp before the two of them disappeared.
“Woah, hey, what—” Kinkajou exclaimed, flaring her emerald colored wings.
“I’m sorry!” Turtle cried before jumping on her. The two of them went down with a squawk and thrashing green tails.
“Ha-ha!” Prism shouted triumphantly, latching onto Winter’s wing and yanking him into the air.
Winter roared and swung a claw at her face, but the surprise tug on his wing gave Prism enough time to try and swoop around the mountain peaks. She didn’t make it far before Winter twisted out of her grip and grabbed her tail, stopping her in flight.
“Did you seriously set that up?” Winter said as Prism yelped and then swung back around, hitting Winter with the full weight of her body.
“It was Qibli’s idea!” Prism protested, her claws scrabbling for a grip on his shoulders. “And it worked, so—”
“Not yet,” Winter growled.
He shoved Prism away with his back talons and flipped, diving back towards the snow. Prism recovered as quickly as she could before darting after him, noting that Turtle and Kinkajou were squabbling on the mountain and Qibli and Moon were yet to be seen again.
Winter flew sharply to the left, down and away from the twin peaks of Jade Mountain. Prism frowned, beating her wings faster to catch up to him. How far down the mountain was his headquarters? There was no way he’d created it this low on the slope; any dragon on Prism’s team would’ve spotted it from anywhere on the mountain.
Winter shot a look over his shoulder and caught sight of Prism, frowning. Had he been hoping that she wasn’t following him?
He flung out his wings, creating drag, and came to a halt too fast for Prism to slow herself down. For the second time, Prism ran into Winter just as he twisted, catching her in his arms before snapping his wings in and letting the two of them fall.
Wind tore past Prism’s ears and they spun as they fell together. Prism’s vision flickered, alternating between the blue sky and white ground as they spiraled uncontrollably, making Prism dizzy and disoriented. She let herself shriek and flared her own wings, trying to stop their spiral—or, at the very least, control it. The ground was coming closer and closer, and Winter was still holding onto her and dragging her down.
“Are you trying to kill me?” Prism shouted, lifting her back legs in order to prep for escape.
“I’m trying to win!” Winter shouted back with a freeing grin that Prism had rarely—if ever—seen on his face.
Prism found a similarly freeing laugh escaping her throat before she wrenched Winter’s claws off her and pushed him off her with her back talons the same way he’d shoved her before.
Prism spun herself right-side up and twisted just in time to avoid becoming a flat pile of scales on the snow. She burst through a wall of snow and coughed, shaking it from her horns.
Winter had barely saved himself as well and when Prism glanced over her shoulder, she spotted him skimming over the snow, banking back in her direction.
“Catch me if you can, Frosty!” she shouted.
Even at this distance, Prism could see Winter’s eyes narrow as he pushed himself to fly faster, talons outstretched as if to grab her again.
Prism hid a smile and flew up at the steepest angle she could. Wingbeats behind her told Prism that Winter was following, so he’d taken the bait.
The game wasn’t meant to be played with dragons primarily flying, and the two of them knew it, so Prism took a sharp turn, flying through the gap between the two peaks. She might be able to keep Winter from guessing where their base was until he was inside it.
She swooped to the left, now past the second peak, and cast a glance behind her. None of her teammates nor Winter’s were in sight—Prism could only hope that Turtle and Qibli were keeping them distracted—but Winter was hot on her tail.
Prism could spot her headquarters now, although it was still a distance away. With a triumphant grin, she tucked in her wings and dove for the snow-ridden mountainside, as close to her base as she could get without Winter getting suspicious.
Prism hit the ground running, leaping forward several paces before sliding around to face Winter with a snarl already twisting her snout. Winter took the silent hint and landed a few paces away, flicking snow off his tail.
“Wanna play this game the right way?” Prism asked, spreading her wings and turning them a violent shade of pink.
“Of course I do,” Winter said. “You know I’m going to win if we do it this way.”
Prism bared her fangs, frostbreath seeping from her mouth. “We’ll see,” she promised, crouching and getting ready to spring.
Prism and Winter collided with a playful growl from both of them as they pummeled each other, twisting and rolling in the snow. Winter managed to pin Prism down for just a moment before Prism flared her wings again, turning all of her scales a vivid golden color, reflecting the sunlight off her metallic scales and into Winter’s eyes.
That had been a common move for IceWings in battle, but Winter was clearly surprised by it. He let out a sharp hiss and jerked away, bringing an arm up to his eyes. Prism took the opportunity to slide out from underneath him and pretended to slip a little down the slope, guiding Winter closer and closer to the ridge hiding their base.
Winter barreled into her again and Prism yelped, swinging her tail up on instinct to hit Winter’s temple. Her spikes barely avoided hitting Winter in the head, but he flinched and loosened her grip enough for Prism to twist out of his grip.
Within a second, he was leaping for her again, claws outstretched. Prism dove beneath him as he tried to jump on her and narrowly escaped his pounce. Once she was clear, she spun around and faced Winter again.
Prism was so close to winning. All she had to do was pull Winter a few feet to his left, over the wall, and then he’d be in Prism’s headquarters, captured. She’d have to do it, though. He couldn’t just walk in of his own accord, otherwise it would be Winter sneaking into their base. A very loose form of sneaking, that was.
Winter slapped his tail against the snow with frustration as he turned around, spreading his wings again. Prism smirked and took a step back and to her left, hoping to angle Winter between her and the wall of her base.
A sudden flash of black scales appeared in the corner of Prism’s eye and she took precious time to glance over at it, eyes widening when she recognized Moon soaring towards Winter.
“Winter, wait!” Moon was shouting. “That’s their—”
Prism roared to cover up her words, unhinging her jaw the same way she would do if she were about to spray venom as she leapt for Winter. She was hoping Winter would automatically falter when he saw her preparing to release venom, and the feint worked.
Winter spread his wings and kicked off the ground—a moment too late. Prism rammed into his stomach and the two of them crashed through the wall of snow, rolling right into the middle of Prism’s base. Prism laughed triumphantly, ready to jump off Winter and declare her victory over the IceWing prince.
Winter, however, had other ideas.
He roared back—still not angry, though, and Prism took note of that—and dug his claws into Prism’s shoulders. His tail swung up and bashed Prism in the temple as he rolled her onto her back.
Stars danced in her vision for a few moments where she thought she heard Winter take in a startled gasp. Prism felt Winter’s grip on her shoulders loosen and briefly registered in the back of her mind that she should probably use that to her advantage.
Blinking hard to get rid of the darkness in her vision, Prism reached up to grab Winter’s shoulders and then flipped the two of them around so Prism was pinning Winter down.
Prism panted, staring down at Winter’s wide blue eyes, a smile starting to form on her face.
“Prism, I’m so—”
“I win,” Prism breathed.
Winter’s face twisted, confusion warring with worry and guilt. “I–what? No. No, why are you grinning? I don’t like that smile. Stop that.”
Prism laughed breathlessly and spread her wings, motioning to the snow around her.
“This is our base,” she explained, jumping off him. “I’ve captured the general. I won.”
Moon landed just outside the wall, laughing and shaking snow off her wings as Qibli flew in beside her.
“Guess we lost,” Moon said with an easy shrug.
“Wh—wha—” Winter twisted his head, taking in the snow stripped off the nearby rocks, little clumps of grass poking through the surface. He twisted himself around and stood, staring in wonderment at the snow wall, which blended into the rest of the ridge far less on the inside than the outside.
“You—you lured me here,” Winter said accusingly.
“You tried to kill us!” Prism pointed out, blood starting to drip into her eye from Winter’s tail. “Besides, there’s no rule about baiting other dragons. Maybe you should—”
“You’re bleeding,” Winter said, reaching a talon out to brush against Prism’s face. He pulled it back at the last second, as if he was scared of hurting her again.
“I didn’t mean to do that,” he said quickly, holding his talon up to his chest. “I got caught up in the fight, I didn’t want to hurt you.”
Prism blinked blue blood out of her eye and rubbed it away with a hum and a shrug.
“It’s all right,” she said. “It was actually kind of fun to play it like that. It’s not as serious as war, but it’s more fun because we have actual fighting skills now and aren’t just jumping around and snapping our teeth at each other. I don’t mind. I almost took your head off with my tail, earlier. It’s just me not being fast enough. Besides, I won.”
Winter huffed and rolled his eyes, looking away from her. “You’ll never stop teasing me about this, will you?” he said.
“Not a chance,” Prism said proudly, sitting back and flaring her wings out. “I defeated the great Prince Winter.”
“Yes, yes, and we all bow to you, Queen of the Snow,” Qibli said with an exaggerated bow.
“Hm,” Prism said, tilting her head thoughtfully. “Queen of the Snow. I like that. Think it’ll catch on?”
“I’ve been wanting people to call me the Venom Queen for a while,” Kinkajou said, flapping down beside Prism, “and it hasn’t caught on, so . . . probably not.”
“Drat,” Prism said, deflating slightly as Turtle landed on the snow-packed wall. “Hey, did any of you ever get caught?”
“I did,” Qibli said, raising a wing. “Their base was at the bottom of the mountain. It was a long walk. Too long.”
“Really?” Prism said, shooting an appraising look at Turtle. She hadn’t expected Turtle to escape.
Turtle laughed and shrugged. “Hey, I have thirty-one brothers. We played games like this all the time and I had to get pretty good at escaping them.”
Prism shifted her gaze onto Qibli as he hopped up and down several times, smacking his wings against his side.
“We should head inside before I actually collapse,” he suggested, teeth chattering.
“That was so mean, by the way,” Moon told him as she poked him in the side with her tail. “Don’t do that again or I might not believe you.”
“Aw, you’ll always save me,” Qibli said with a lopsided grin.
Moon blinked and looked away, clearly flustered. “I . . . yeah, I will,” she admitted.
“I, for one, would like to sit in front of a fire and unthaw,” Turtle said, raising a wing.
Prism laughed, wiping blood off her eye again and nodded as she stood. “OK, all right, I get it. You’re all miserable out here.”
“Not miserable,” Qibli protested. “Just . . . considering setting ourselves on fire to get warm?”
Prism scoffed and jumped over the collapsed snow wall in one graceful movement, tossing her head.
“Sunshine, that is not an improvement,” she assured him, jumping into the air beside Moon.
The other three dragons joined them in the air as Prism swooped down to the entrance of Jade Mountain, where she spotted a melted pile of snow and a dragon with iridescent copper scales sitting neatly right in the middle.
“Peril!” Turtle greeted, flipping in the air and swooping down to meet the SkyWing.
Peril lifted her head when she heard him speak, hesitantly raising a wing to greet him back.
Moon tilted her head at the others, silently flying to the head of the group and angling all of them down to land outside of Peril’s danger circle.
“Thinking about joining everyone else in the snow?” Turtle asked while he clumsily jumped over the snow to get closer to her.
“Not really,” Peril said, ruefully staring down at her steaming talons. She clenched them shut and then set them on the ground again. “I was just wondering if—”
“If you could touch the snow,” Moon finished for her.
Peril cast her a wary look before her face softened and she nodded, staring at the patch of burnt grass beneath her.
“I can’t,” she said, though that was obvious. “It melts before I can even touch it.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Peril,” Turtle said sadly.
Peril shrugged, but something in her shoulders was tighter than it normally was.
“It’s all right,” she said. “I was just curious. With all the SkyWings in the mountains, snow doesn’t stay for very long in the Sky Kingdom.” Her ear twitched once before she looked up at Prism, something oddly similar to hope flickering in her eyes.
“What does it feel like?” Peril asked. “Snow.”
“Amazing,” Prism breathed.
“Like death,” Qibli supplied at the same time.
Prism shot him an exasperated look and flicked his tail with her own, curling her tail around his for a moment.
“Don’t torture yourself sitting out here,” Prism told Peril. “Come inside with us. We’re going to sit by a fire so everyone else can warm up.”
Peril blinked, looking between all of their faces as if she was looking for confirmation. Everyone nodded at her, except for Winter, who scowled until Prism leaned over Moon to slap him with her wing. Then he grumbled and nodded reluctantly.
“Oh,” Peril said, standing. “All right. That sounds . . . fun? I think it’s fun. Are fires usually fun?”
“It depends on who you asked,” Prism said, turning away.
She skirted behind Qibli and stepped back into Jade Mountain, which was eerily silent for this time of day. The entrance was colder than usual, but Prism’s scales already missed the cool chill of the snow outside.
“We could probably make a fire here,” Qibli said, brushing past Prism to circle in the middle of the large hall, tapping his scorpion tail against the stone.
The other dragonets filed in and Peril sat across from all the others, her wings and tail tucked in close to her body.
“I can probably start the fire,” she volunteered, and Prism couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not.
“What do we use for firewood?” Moon wondered, wrinkling her snout.
“Ooh, I’ll go get my scrolls!” Qibli offered instantly.
“NO!” Prism said loudly, grabbing his arm to stop him before he could bounce down the halls. “You, stay. The teachers have firewood outside their rooms that they’ll let us borrow.”
“I’ll come with you!” Kinkajou declared, jumping to Prism’s side with a vibrant burst of purple bursting across her yellow scales.
“Kinkajou will come with me,” Prism repeated, pleasantly surprised by the RainWing dragonet. Prism felt as if she hadn’t talked to Kinkajou in weeks.
Kinkajou beamed at her and the two of them walked down the hallway in the direction of the professor’s rooms.
“That trick you and Qibli pulled was so mean,” Kinkajou said. “But he’s a really good actor. I totally thought he had really passed out! And then you came out of nowhere and WHAM, BAM suddenly Turtle is tackling me and Moon and Qibli are disappearing and you’re chasing after Winter. That game was awesome! I hope we get to play again, but maybe not in the show. Brr, that was cold. I can’t believe you actually used to live in that all the time.”
“Well, I did,” Prism said, passing Kinkajou a few stacks of wood.
Kinkajou blinked as if she hadn’t even realized that they’d gotten that far while she was talking, but she took it in stride and grabbed the wood. She waited for Prism to grab wood as well before going on to talk about Winter’s plan for the game.
Apparently, he’d been predicting Prism’s moves, too. He knew what she would think he’d do, so he decided to do the opposite of that: put his base down low and searched the mountain with the rest of his team. As Prism had thought, he’d wanted Moon to use her mind-reading powers to figure out what her team’s plan was—which, Prism thought proudly, she’d never managed to do.
Winter had actually been expecting Prism to split up from the group to search for their base, which was why he’d flown to Qibli’s side when he collapsed: because he thought Prism was somewhere else on the mountain.
The wall of snow that Prism had crashed through had been the wall of his base. If Winter had still been holding onto her when they crashed, he’d have captured the general and won. She’d been seconds away from losing the game and hadn’t even known it. She’d only escaped because of lucky timing.
All in all, Winter’s team had had a solid strategy, and it was likely only because of Prism’s well-hidden base that they’d won. That, and Qibli’s excellent acting skills.
“I was disguised as a MudWing at the top of the mountain,” Kinkajou said. “Moon and Winter were nearby, searching on the other peak.”
Prism let out a surprised noise and looked over at Kinkajou proudly. “I saw the brown scales, but I thought it was just a MudWing,” she admitted. “You did well, Kinkajou. I can only guess how much more fun the game would be with RainWings.”
“Hm,” Kinkajou said, tilting her head thoughtfully. “It would be a fun game to teach the dragonets in the hatchery! Like hide-and-seek, but with strategy. I bet Glory would really like that, since she’s trying to get the RainWings better at fighting.”
“I think she would,” Prism agreed. “Maybe you can send her a letter about that.”
“Ooh!” Kinkajou said, hopping once. “I should totally send her a letter. She and I haven’t talked in forever, not since we were tracking Icicle through the rainforest like a bunch of intrepid adventurers from the scrolls Moon reads me and—ooh, I guess I would need Moon’s help to write the letter but I’m doing really well copying the scrolls she’s giving me so maybe I could even do it myself!”
“I could help, if Moon is busy,” Prism said, brushing her wing along Kinkajou’s.
Kinkajou’s eyes lit up and bright yellow swept across her scales. “Wow, really? I could learn so much from a smartyscales IceWing like you.”
“I’m not sure I count as a smartyscales,” Prism said with a laugh as they stepped back into the main room.
The two of them dropped their armfuls of firewood in the middle of the room, shoving it into a pile. Qibli stepped forward with scraps of paper in his talons that he pressed into the gaps between the wood and Prism raised a brow at him.
“Qibli, is that your history homework?” she asked with a tilted head.
“. . . no,” Qibli said unconvincingly.
Prism snorted and stepped away from the pile of firewood, nodding at Peril. The other dragons immediately backed up as Peril drew in a deep breath and then blasted fire over the wood, igniting it with a loud whoosh.
Prism wrinkled her nose as the heat buffeted over her face and stayed at a distance as the other dragons—excluding Winter—moved closer, spreading their wings out in front of the fire to dry them off.
“You all are so strange,” Prism said, gaping at them. “Why stand in front of an open flame instead of basking in the cold?”
“Because we aren’t crazy,” Qibli said matter-of-factly.
“That’s debatable,” Winter muttered.
“I’m sorry, which of you tried to turn me into a pancake just to win a game?” Prism asked, looking between Winter and Qibli.
“Didn’t you tell Qibli to pretend to have hypothermia at the risk of actually getting hypothermia?” Winter said back with a tilt of his head.
“He volunteered!” Prism said defensively.
“That’s true, I did do that,” Qibli said, shaking his head and tilting it back to let the fire warm his neck. “Kind of regretting it now.”
“After all of you ‘warm up,’” Prism said, “why don’t we head to the prey center?”
She grinned over at Winter, who had moved to her side when the other dragonets flocked to the fire. She bumped his side once, coiling her tail around his.
“Plus, I seem to recall that you owe me a dinner of my choice, Frosty,” Prism said pointedly.
Winter huffed and looked away from her, though he didn’t pull his tail away from hers.
“Fine,” he eventually grumbled. “What do you want?”
Prism fluffed up her wings with self-importance and lifted her chin. “I would like pike.”
Winter gaped at her before scoffing with derision. “No,” he said. “Absolutely not. How am I even supposed to find pike in the mountains?”
“That’s for you to figure out,” Prism said smugly. “Loser.”
“I will get back at you for this,” Winter swore, his voice low.
“And while you plan revenge, I will be eating my pike,” Prism said, poking him in the chest. “Pike that you will be catching me. So. . . .”
She faced the rest of the group and looked around at them, noticing that they all looked significantly farther from the edge of death than they had a few minutes ago.
“Lunch?”
Prism managed to wrangle all of her friends away from the fire after about half an hour of asking and together, and the six of them headed down to the prey center. Winter disappeared before the rest of the dragons were ready to leave the fire and get food, but Prism let him. He was probably fuming over his loss.
It was entirely empty, which was surprising for that time of day. More dragons must’ve gone outside than she thought.
There were a few chickens clucking around that Qibli caught for everyone else, and Kinkajou dragged over several fruits for herself and Prism to eat, since she preferred fish over chicken.
All of them sat along the wall of the prey center, except for Peril, who jumped into one of the cloves to keep herself from burning anyone.
Qibli passed out dead chickens to everyone while Prism peeled a banana for herself and munched on it.
Snow and fruit, she thought to herself as she ate. All the best parts of my parentage.
“Oh, here’s your skyfire back,” Kinkajou said, pulling the armband off her arm and passing it to Turtle.
Prism raised a brow and looked past Moon at Turtle. “Kinkajou managed to snatch your skyfire?”
“Yeah,” Turtle said, clamping it back onto his arm. “She camouflaged and stole it while I was fighting her. That’s how Moon knew where your base was, so she threw Qibli into me and flew off.”
“I was too late,” Moon said guilty.
Prism blinked at Moon. “Three moons, you threw Qibli at Turtle?”
Moon let out an awkward laugh. “He’s making it sound a lot more dramatic. I just pushed him in that direction.”
“Pushed me,” Qibli said. “Hard enough for Turtle and I to fall down the mountains? No, that was a throw.”
“I’m sorry!” Moon cried. “I just . . . got really into the game.”
“Don’t be,” Qibli promised, brushing his wing against hers.
“See, I told you it was a good game,” Prism said with a laugh. “IceWings get really into it. It was nice to play it again.”
“Well, it was worth it,” Qibli said. “Despite the fact that I almost froze to death.”
“OK, I get it,” Prism said. “No more snow for Qibli.”
“On the plus side, if we ever stay in the desert, I get to introduce you to scavenger hunts,” Qibli said.
“Ha!” Prism barked. “I will destroy you at scavenger hunts.”
Qibli frowned, disgruntled. He thought for a moment, then resettled his wings on his wing and lifted his chin.
“Fine,” he said. “Then we’ll do bury the dragon!”
Prism frowned, a bolt of horror shooting down her spine. “No,” she said instantly. “No, what is that?”
“You dig a hole in the sand and then bury a dragon in it!” Qibli chirped. “They keep their head out of the sand, obviously, so they can breathe, but it’s to see how long you can stay trapped and how well you can bury a dragon.”
“Right,” Prism said slowly. “So IceWings teach their dragonets how to strategize and SandWings teach their dragonets how to bury bodies. That sounds about right.”
Qibli snorted and flicked his tail close to her head. “I will have you know that I have never buried a body.”
“But you’ve buried living dragons?” Moon clarified.
“That’s . . . yes,” Qibli muttered.
“Who here votes to never go to the Kingdom of Sand?” Prism asked, lifting a wing.
As one, Moon, Turtle, and Kinkajou all raised their wings. Prism glanced behind her to see Peril also raising a wing.
“There,” Prism said proudly.
Qibli huffed and glared down at the pile of feathers at his talons. “I thought it was a good idea,” he muttered.
“Don’t feel bad,” Moon whispered, nudging him with a wing.
“Hey, how long do you think the snow will stay?” Kinkajou asked Prism.
“Probably a few days,” Prism replied after a moment of thinking. “It’s still cold outside and since we’re in the cold season, it’ll stay that way for awhile.”
“So . . . we could play Capture the General again?” Kinkajou prompted.
Prism laughed and slung a wing over Kinkajou’s back. “If we find dragons more suited to the cold who are willing to play, then yes, we could.”
“I’d like to play again,” Moon said quietly. “I never really got to play games with other dragonets and you were right. That was fun.”
“I could play, too,” Turtle offered. “My brothers would love to have a new game to play. If I get more used to it, I could teach it to them the next time I visit.”
“What game?” Peril asked from above.
Prism craned her head back to look at her. “It’s an IceWing game,” Prism said. “We split into teams and have to capture one dragon on the other team. I played it all the time as a dragonet.”
“Oh,” Peril said, deflating.
Right, Peril couldn’t touch other dragons. There was no way she’d be able to play a game that involved capturing other dragons.
“You know,” Turtle said hesitantly, “I could maybe come up with a spell to let you temporarily turn off your firescales.”
Peril paused, wrinkling her snout. “I’m not sure about that,” she said. “I’ve had a bad experience with spells lately. I . . .” She shifted on the rock, pulling her wings tight against her body as if to comfort herself.
“I trust you, Turtle,” she forced out. “If any animus out there were to help me with my firescales, it would be you.”
Turtle beamed up at her. “Thanks, Peril.”
“I could help you come up with the wording,” Qibli suggested, standing. “I’m full anyways, so if you’re serious about this, you can come find me in my cave.”
He stepped over the bones of his chicken and headed for the exit. Prism watched as Peril and Turtle exchanged a look. A silent conversation seemed to pass between them, and then the two of them were following after Qibli. Prism ducked as Peril soared over their heads, although the SkyWing hadn’t been that close.
That left Prism, Moon, and Kinkajou together, sharing fruits like they were back in the rainforest.
“This is nice,” Kinkajou said. “No classes, no work, just sitting and eating fruit.”
“And snow,” Prism added. “Snow is also nice.”
“That’s debatable,” Kinkajou said. “The game is fun. The snow? Not so much.”
“You have missed out on so much fun,” Prism sighed as she reached for a blueberry. “Do NightWings have dragonet games like that?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Moon said with a shake of her head. “I haven’t seen the NightWing dragonets in the rainforest much either.”
“They enjoy doing hide and seek with the RainWings,” Kinkajou told her. “I mean, they always lose, but they still like playing a lot more than the history lessons Glory is trying to get them to learn.”
“Speaking of history,” Moon said, and Kinkajou let out a long sigh. “We still have to do the homework Webs assigned us.”
Kinkajou looked down, flicking her tail irritably. “I’ll need your help,” she admitted.
“No problem,” Moon assured her gently. “I’m happy to help.”
“If you need me, I’m here to help,” Prism reminded her. “I’ve already done it, so I’m just going to sit around here and keep eating. Maybe take a nap while it’s so quiet.”
Moon and Kinkajou both laughed as they stood and walked towards the exit, waving goodbye at Prism.
Prism smiled as they left and continued eating the various fruits that Kinkajou had brought over, mainly focusing on the mangos and blueberries that she preferred over the others.
There wasn’t any sunlight streaming in through the opening to the outside of the mountain, so Prism decided the best place to sleep was there in the prey center.
Since Boto was probably still snoring in his hammock, seeing as no one had woken him up since there were no classes, Prism finished the fruits and then jumped into the alcove Peril had left. It was still pleasantly warm from her scales and Prism curled into a small ball, resting her tail over her nose and shutting her eyes.
There, she fell asleep surrounded by warmth and the memory of her friends’ laughter still in the air.
Prism only woke up from her delightfully peaceful nap because of the fish smacking into her face.
She jerked herself out of sleep and lifted her head, blinking blearily down at the fish that hadn’t been there when she went to sleep. A ripple of confusion went through her when she realized it was a pike. Prism frowned and lifted her head, searching for whoever had dropped it on her.
Winter had squeezed into the alcove behind Prism and was panting slightly, staring down at Prism and the fish.
“There,” he said. “Your pike.”
“Uhm,” Prism said intelligently, looking between Winter and the dead fish standing in front of her. “How did you . . . get this?”
“I have my ways,” he said cryptically. “It doesn’t matter. You won, here’s your reward.”
“Huh,” Prism murmured as she poked the fish experimentally, half-wondering if it was going to blow up in her face.
“What?” Winter asked.
“Nothing. I just never thought that Prince Winter of the IceWings would ever admit loss.”
“I didn’t lose,” Winter growled defensively. “I was just . . . practicing. For next time.”
“Right, but if I won, that means that you lost,” Prism pointed out.
Winter huffed and rolled his eyes. “You are absolutely insufferable.”
He twisted around in the small space and crouched, clearly preparing to jump off. Prism was reaching out before she knew it, grabbing Winter’s wing to hold him in place.
“Winter, wait,” she said, watching as he looked back at her. “Kinkajou told me what your plan was. It was good, really good. You should stay. Eat pike with me.”
Winter snorted. “I don’t need your pity pike.”
“It is not a pity pike!” Prism argued. “Seriously, Winter. Think of it as a . . . a well-played pike? Besides, I doubt you’ve eaten recently and while I know it’s probably not your favorite, but it is food. So stay. Eat.”
Winter blinked, swallowed, frowned, smiled, and looked absolutely terrified all within the span of a second. Prism would’ve found it funny if his emotional confusion hadn’t been so erratic.
Eventually, Winter sat down beside her, keeping his wings and tail tucked in as Prism slit her claw clean through the middle of the fish to cut in half. She kept one half for herself and passed the other over to Winter.
“Kinkajou really told you what my plan was?” Winter said, pulling the fish head closer to him.
“Only after the game was over,” Prism promised him. “You knew exactly what I thought you were going to do and used that to your advantage. Plus, using Moon’s powers was brilliant. We can’t do that with just IceWings. Can’t camouflage either.”
“That’s why I chose them,” Winter said, swallowing his fish. “Kinkajou was more than willing to use her camouflage to win and Moon was all right with us using her mind-reading after we told her you’d be all right with it if it were to help us win the game. It didn’t, but . . .”
“I was all right with it,” Prism said. She flicked her tail over his. “If I’d had Moon on my team, I’d be asking her to use her mind-reading, too. Speaking of Kinkajou, she asked if we could do it again tomorrow. I was thinking of having a—”
“Rematch?” Winter said, his head snapping up. “Yes. First thing tomorrow, we’re making new teams and doing it again. I’ll beat you this time.”
“We’ll see,” Prism hummed, eating the last of her fish.
Winter barked out a laugh and stood, his eyes glinting pridefully as he shot Prism a sharp grin.
“Just you watch me win,” he said.
“I’ll be watching,” Prism said, returning his grin with a smirk of her own. “Unless I’m the one winning.”
“We’ll see,” Winter repeated. “I’m already planning the next game.”
With that, Winter spread his wings over Prism’s head and leapt down the wall, lifting his head and casting Prism one last challenging look that infuriated her and made her heart flutter in her chest at the same time.
“You are an impossibly stubborn IceWing,” Prism muttered to herself, holding back a smile.
She quickly snatched up the rest of her pike, crunching down on the leftover bones as she jumped down to the cave floor, shaking out her wings. As she did so, dragons started entering the prey center in droves, shivering, snow-covered, and pink-snouted. Ostrich waved to Prism as she passed by, their wings brushing against each other as Prism ducked around dragons and forced her way through the crowd and to the exit, following in the footsteps of the rest of her friends.
The halls were louder now—Prism suspected that the other dragons had all gotten sick of the cold and gone inside. She couldn’t see any other IceWings, though, so they’d likely all stayed out in the snow for as long as they could. Prism passed a few members of her winglet as she walked down the tunnel: Thrush, Boto, and Sepia all waved back, while Fearless and Anemone acted as if they didn’t even see Prism’s friendly wave, which wasn’t surprising in the least.
Tomorrow, Prism, Winter, Kinkajou, Turtle, Moon, and whoever else from Prism’s winglet that she could wrangle in would head outside to play Capture the General again. That had been Prism’s dream as a dragonet; playing that game with more than four or five dragonets. Even better now, because every dragon had different skills and abilities they could use.
Prism turned into her cave, yawning and shaking her wings several times. It was unlikely that she’d been asleep for long when Winter woke her up with the fish. Since the teachers had canceled classes, Prism might as well just take a nap until dinner. Maybe after, she could head up to the music cave with Qibli and some of the other RainWings. Or maybe she’d just sit out in the snow with the other IceWings and try to remember the place she’d once called home.
Prism went straight for her leaf bed, opening her mouth and freezing the leaves over with her frostbreath. She coiled up on it, turning away from the cave door and closing her eyes. She settled her tail tip on her nose, taking in a deep breath as she relaxed into the bed of frozen leaves.
Today had been the best day that Prism had had in a while. Maybe even ever. Playing with her friends in the snow, eating lunch together, napping—even though it wasn’t in sunlight—all of it was perfect.
The next day might bring lightning or floods or another war, but Prism had today. One perfect day with her friends, separate from the rest of the chaos happening in the world.
With that pleasant thought in mind, Prism smiled into her tail and drifted into sleep.
That night, Prism dreamt about laughter, games, and the strangest sensation of falling and flying at the same time.