FSE

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Sandstorm found herself flying north of the island in a hailstorm, a foggy horizon ahead of her. It made her struggle to know where she was going, feeling like she was about to hit something at any second. Her wings were growing more and more tired, struggling to fight through the chilling winter storm. She tried desperately to flap her wings harder, but eventually found herself starting to fall out of the sky and into the thick snow below her. The snow broke her fall, so luckily she wasn't too injured by the impact.

She was now beginning to shiver, her body getting covered by the snowflakes as the blizzard began to show its true power. She stood up and struggled to walk forward as her claws got stuck into the thick snow, making it harder for her to move through it. She eventually collapsed into the snow, her eyes struggling to stay open. She started to crawl forward, but only for mere moments as the numbness and fatigue caught up with her yet again. She didn't know where she was going, or why she decided to go north in the first place. Perhaps she thought it would be safer for herself to go somewhere nobody expected her to go. Hopefully none of the dragons here would recognize her.

The snowstorm began to increase in intensity, blinding Sandstorm as she struggled to move. Her body began tingling a little, her extremities going numb. Her wings began to hurt, and she was beginning to lose consciousness. The cold, the mind numbing pain, and worst of all there was nobody around to help her. This is it, isn't it? My punishment for all the dragons I've killed, she thought to herself in sadness and defeat.

I deserve this.

She laid her head on the snow and slowly closed her eyes, succumbing to the storm and the freezing cold.

Just before she closed her eyes, she could see a silhouette slowly approaching her through the thick fog ahead of her. This sparked the fight to come back into her as she struggled to stay conscious. She couldn't raise her head up to see who it was, but she could squint and try to see who it could be. When the silhouette got close enough, she could see it; a white scaled dragon with small, light blue markings around its neck and face. Its eyes were the color of a diamond, nearly glistering from the white snow. She couldn't fight any more as she closed her eyes and defeatedly lowered her head down, and sighed with relief.

After a few minutes of laying there, she felt herself being picked up by the dragon. Then, she felt them taking her somewhere that she couldn't see through the blizzard. She kept her eyes closed and rested on the back of the dragon, until she felt the dragon land and the coldness of outside faded. She slowly opened her eyes and noticed that they were inside of a cave. A yellow and orange glow coming from deeper inside the cave, giving the dragon and herself a shadow effect along the cave walls.

The dragon walked over and helped her down beside a campfire in the middle of the cave. She slowly tried to stand up, but the strange dragon beside her stopped her. "No no! Don't move, just lay down and rest. You're exhausted. You might also be frostbitten." The dragon sounded like a male, a deep yet attractive voice that comforted her a bit. She complied with his words and laid down in a more comfortable position by the campfire. Slowly opening her eyes again and looking up toward the dragon that rescued her. That's when she noticed that it was a Frigidian, a rare race of dragons that only remains in the cold, ice-laden peaks that no other dragon would dare go to.

She examined the dragon going over to some supplies off to the side. Sandstorm noticed that the cave was packed with things. Lots of it laid and sat on large wooden crates that weren't opened. She could even see a picture hanging off the cave walls, but was mostly covered by a shadow from the wooden crates. She remained laid there, looking out toward the Frigidian as he took out some food. He came back over beside Sandstorm and handed it over. Looking up to the Frigidian's claw, she could tell that it was a fish.

She raised a claw up and took it, plopping it into her mouth. She begins to eat it aggressively, still laying her head flat on the floor. "I'm sorry that I don't have anything else to eat. I wasn't expecting any visitors, so I'm mostly packed with my own food." The Friigidian said to her with a soft and comforting voice. She didn't reply, but she gave him a nod to show she understood him. "What's your name? My name is Snowfall." She looked at him, but couldn't give a smile or move her mouth at all. She still felt a little too cold to move any part of her body, though the campfire was slowly warming her up.

"S-Sandstorm," she finally managed to say to him as her body shivered violently.

"That's a pretty... uh..." Snowfall starts to think to himself, trying to find the right words. "Interesting name, actually..." He said to her with a slight smile. "Both of our names are based on storms, nearly opposites too. I don't know if that's a coincidence or not." Sandstorm didn't say anything still, but she nodded to him again as she listened to him. Snowfall went over and took out a blanket, before wrapping it around Sandstorm. She clenched the blanket around her body, still shivering violently.

Snowfall went over by the campfire, sitting down across from her. He started taking a couple fish from a small wooden plate. He stuck the fish onto a stick, stabbing it straight through them until there were five fish on it. He raised the stick over the fire and began roasting the fish, holding the stick tightly in his claw as he looked up to Sandstorm. "Why are you all the way out here?" He asked her, a hint of curiosity in his voice.

Sandstorm slowly sat up, holding the blanket around herself and staring down into the fire and the roasting fish. The shivering from the cold was all that she could think about, but she finally managed to say a couple words. "I-I... I'm running away."

Snowfall looked up to her and raised an eyebrow. "From what?"

"From home..." Sandstorm said, making Snowfall open his mouth momentarily before he closed it again. "I want to find somewhere else to go that isn't my family."

Snowfall's expression showed sympathy as he stared at her before his eyes went back down at the sizzling fish on the stick. "Well, I gotta say... you're both lucky and brave for coming this way." He tells her, pulling the stick back over to him and pulling off the now roasted fishes from it. "It's not exactly safe out here, aside from the snowstorm."

She looked up to him and started to more closely examine the dragon. He appeared to be around her age, or at least she thought he was. She couldn't tell too well as her eyes struggled to remain open and her vision was blurry. "W-What do you mean?" Sandstorm asked him, growing curious about what he meant.

Snowfall placed the roasted fish onto a separate plate, before handing it over to Sandstorm. He didn't reply to her for a few minutes, like he was trying to distract himself from continuing. Eventually, he sighed as he looked into the fire. "Has anyone ever told you about the great icicle revolution?" Sandstorm shook her head, which prompted for Snowfall to continue. "It was a war that split Frigidia into two separate tribes, giving us two separate rulers." Sandstorm's eyes widened as she leaned closer to him, starting to listen more intently.

"It was disastrous, tons of dragons died from it. The original palace was blown up and dragons spread out everywhere across Frigidia. Queen Glacier and King Frost took control of the two new tribes. Even though they have their own tribes, they continue to fight against one another in hopes to obtain new land. Glacier usually tries finding sneaky ways through King Frost, but Frost always does messy work and destroys large amounts of Glacier's houses. It's a mess!" Sandstorm's eyes widened as she took in this information. "So, yeah... It's not exactly safe to go out there right now. I would recommend waiting until it settles down, especially with the storm."

"How long has it been going on for?" Sandstorm asked.

Snowfall raised his claw and started thinking to himself.

"From what I can recall, since before I was born. I think for the most part, we keep our rebellious war away from outsiders. We don't want them interfering because it's not usually part of their business." Sandstorm nodded in understanding about that.

"Wait, how old are you?" She asked him.

"I turned eleven about a month ago. What about you?"

Sandstorm cleared her throat for a second before she spoke. "Ten and a half." Still incapable of managing a smile or a grin.

"Ah, so I'm assuming your birthday is in..." He started to think to himself, calculating it in his head. "March of next year?" Sandstorm managed to chuckle before shaking her head.

"April..." She corrected him, slightly smiling.

"Ah! Well, I should remember that until that day comes so I could tell you happy birthday." Sandstorm finally grinned and felt a blush coming along into her cheeks. She hadn't felt this flattered by another dragon before, especially one she met as recently as this.

He's very nice, I wonder what he's doing out here all alone, she thought to herself.

"What tribe are you from?" She managed to ask him with a raised eyebrow.

"I grew up in Frost's tribe, but I ran away and moved here about a week ago." Sandstorm opened her mouth but didn't say anything. "His tribe is pretty okay to live in, but I ran away because of my parents. They were very mean to me. I guess I just kind of had enough last week, so..." He didn't finish the rest of the sentence, which Sandstorm knew what happened next.

Sandstorm stared into fire as her thoughts finally started flooding through her mind. "M-My parents were terrible too." Snowfall looked up to her. Sandstorm finally managed to reach over to the plate of roasted fishes, grabbing one and throwing it into her mouth. She begins eating it and then swallowing before speaking. "They forced me for two years to kill dragons. They thought that I would be some great military leader someday..."

Snowfall nods, "Sounds similar to my parents, they want me to work in the tunnels with them. I couldn't really opt out of it, no matter how hard I tried to convince them." He sadly sighed as he lowered his head into his claws. "I wish they could just listen to me about what I really want."

"And what do you want?" Sandstorm curiously.

"I-I..." He started, but stopped himself quickly before he could finish. "I want to be a librarian, I want to read books and learn about the amazing world outside Frigidia."

"You've never been out of Frigidia? Why not?" Snowfall shrugged his shoulders sadly.

"We uh... We don't like to interact with outsiders, usually." He seemed to be referencing this very interaction, which kind of made Sandstorm feel fuzzy inside. "When I found you out there, I felt like I needed to save you before the storm killed you. I don't like seeing dragons hurt each other, especially with the whole revolution between Frost and Glacier." Sandstorm felt a deep guilty feeling when she heard this. I've hurt dragons before, will he hate me if I admit that to him? Will he forgive me knowing that my parents forced me to kill them?

"T-Thank you..." Sandstorm finally said, beginning to reposition herself so that she was laying down. "I owe you my life..." Sandstorm told him with a half smile, lowering her head down to her claws. "If it's okay, I'd like to get some sleep now." She saw Snowfall grin and nod to her.

"Of course! Go ahead, I'll be right here when you wake up." He begins to lay down as well onto the cave floor. Sandstorm reached over to the plate of fishes and grabbed another one, popping it into her mouth and began eating it. Once she swallowed it, she yawned loudly which echoed through the cave. Snowfall didn't react from this, only perking his ears up. Eventually, Sandstorm let her eyes close and her body relaxed by the fire.

It wasn't long until she passed out and drifted off into dreamland.