Chapter Text
Two dragons lay in a small straw-and-stick hut on the southernmost border of the ice kingdom, curled close enough to feel the respective cold and warmth radiating off the scales of the other. They lay in a peaceful quiet, one fast asleep, with eyes frozen shut and a near permanent scowl etched onto her sleeping face– the other, woken mere minutes ago by the warm talon of the sun leaving a spot of heat on her scales in the otherwise frigid environment of the ice kingdom’s freezing dunes.
Blaze watched in quiet content as Glacier, Queen Glacier, of the Icewings, grumbled and kicked at the ground, disturbing the thin layer of wool and straw which lay below the two of them. It was hardly comfortable for Blaze, who was used to the alpaca-down and exotic goose feather cushioning of the Sand Kingdom’s finest silk textiles, but she would make do. Besides, whatever sleep she lost from discomfort was made up for by the mere sight of Glacier giving those small, smug grins as she dreamed of defeating foes and conquering her enemies.
The slender Sandwing sat up as carefully as she could, so as to not disturb the Icewing royalty beside her, and quietly considered the cabin around her. The abode could hardly be considered ornate, especially when compared to the jewel-lined halls of the Sandwing palace in which Blaze had been raised. She touched a string of gold and rubies which adorned her neck, and glanced thoughtfully at Glacier.
She had this built for me, she thought, twirling the chain in one of her claws Between the borders of our kingdoms. A space where we could meet, discuss, without her getting too hot, or me getting too cold. A space where… where her Icewing loyalists wouldn’t, where they couldn’t… Blaze shook the thought from her head. She remembered the first time she had ventured into the Icewing kingdom to visit with Glacier. They had met in a small outskirt town of the Icewing kingdom, ‘Close enough for diplomacy, far enough for comfort’, as Glacier had put it, where a handful of Icewings were obviously unenthusiastic about Blaze being in their midst. They were obedient enough of Glacier to not harm or threaten Blaze, but just daring enough to mess with the posh Sandwing a bit. The first night she slept in a sheepskin tent in the village, she returned from a brief hunting session with Glacier to find the decapitated head of a desert lizard staining the surrounding linens with blood. It disturbed her greatly, but out of some hope that this was some Icewing hazing ritual, or a test of her loyalty, she remained quiet about it and never told Glacier. The following days were filled with more indirectly direct threats–rotting prey left around her tent, messages asserting Icewing superiority clawed into her blankets, even the occasional comment about how utterly stupid Blaze was, delivered right to her face, and how she was unfit to be an ally of Glacier, of the Icewings, and unfit to be alive overall.
Do all of Pyrrhia a favor once this whole war is done, and suffocate yourself under all those riches you got from sending innocent dragons out to die.
Blaze remembered that comment. And she remembered Glacier freezing the Icewing soldier’s talons to the ground in the center of the town, just before ripping his wings off in a painfully public display of punishment for all who questioned Blaze–and, by proxy, all who questioned Glacier.
After the whole first visit trip, Blaze had decided it was too dangerous, and too cold, to remain that far North whenever she wanted to visit Glacier. So instead they settled on this Tundra area, with low, swooping hills, dotted with tall, branchy trees. Still a far call from the vast, open desert which Blaze knew best, but it was a space they could share. Glacier had the hut built specifically for Blaze, and that had always been her favorite detail about the space. It may not be adorned with jewels, and it may not be particularly warm, but it was always nice to remember that on mornings like this, she could wake up to the warm caress of sunlight from the eastern windows and look softly into the eyes of her icy ally, who cared enough to make a home just for her–just for them.
The Sandwing gave a warm smile as she reached out a talon to wipe a bit of near-frozen drool from the corner of the Icewing’s mouth, but paused as the scene before her flickered. She remembered a foaming maw. She saw muscles tense and spasm in a horrifying display. She saw the slithering shape of a snake morph into a horrible jolt of light, surrounding the form of a familiar familial dragon.
Her breath hitched as she drew her talon away from Glacier’s face, but everything was going wrong now–she could feel the heat of the Sandwing Palace, she could feel that spiky jolt of electricity and she could feel the lung-collapsing power of snake venom invading her body all at once. Glacier was blinking awake at this point–and normally, she would reach her talon out to hold Blaze’s jaw, cupping her face in a soft gesture as if to say “it’s alright. I’m here. The nightmare is over”. But this time, that didn’t happen. Glacier wasn’t even there anymore. Her icy blue scales flickered to yellow and black as her dreamy jitters turned into violent convulsions. And then Blaze wasn’t looking at her ally, no–she was watching the writhing body of her battle-scarred sister, Burn. And then the scene flickered again, and now it was Blister, the eye of Onyx clenched tightly in her talon as that horrifying volt of electricity split her body into pieces. Blaze choked back and put her talons over her ears to muffle the sudden increase of noise, horrible, horrible noise, of her sister’s pain and suffering, their last-minute pleas for their sister to help them, do anything to help them–
And then Blaze sat up. Her scales were cold, cold as the air around her, and yet she still felt the sheen of a terrified sweat on her back. There was no warm caress of sunshine through the window, there was no more terrifying nightmare, and most disappointingly, there was no Glacier. No Glacier to tell her everything was alright, to tell her that she had company, and would never be alone to suffer the same fate her sisters had.
No. Blaze was laying in the straw-and-stick hut Glacier had built for her, on the southern border of the Ice kingdom, completely and utterly alone, with nothing but the empty divot of where her ally, her lover, had once lay to keep her company.