In the immediate aftermath of the challenge, having made sure that Icicle was rushed to the infirmary, Glacier rushed herself to the washroom. A clear look of horror on the queens face. She scrubbed for hours. Water, soaps, pumice stone, desperate to clean the blue from her teeth and talons. No matter how much she scrubbed, brushed, and polished, her eyes would only see her claws and maw soaked in the blue of her own kins blood. “I am a monster. A horrid monster. What is wrong with me? What is wrong with Glacier?”
Eventually, she realized all she was doing was damaging her scales. She passed through the halls of the palace, to her personal bedroom. She pulled an out-of-place looking bottle from the shelf. A bottle of heavily spiced spirits from the sand kingdom, it had been a gift from Blaze years back. She pulled the cork and took a swig, holding the spiced spirit in her mouth. The potent anise and kola nut flavours serving to strip away the taste of blood. She swallowed, then gasped for air, the heavy flavors shocking her back to reality. She recorked the bottle, placing it back on the shelf, and looked in the mirror. “Is this what we've really become? What every queen of the Icewings has been? Do I have to remain this way? Would Crystal, or Snowfall, or Mink be this way? Would Icicle have been this way?”
She sat there in silence for a good 10 minutes. “I don't want things to be this way anymore.” She got up, made her way to the infirmary to check on her defeated opponent.
Icicle lay on a bed within the palace infirmary. To her, today would have been better if she had just died. She had assumed the worst outcome to challenging her aunt would be her death. Icicle knew that at the end of this day, she would either sit upon the throne of the icewings, or be dead. She never considered this outcome.
Her rear right claw, what is left of it, lay bandaged, the blue blood staining the bandages. “What good is a daughter who fails at her only purpose!” The words of her mother rang in her head. This is the single worst day of her life, and the reason just walked through the doorway.
“Princess Icicle?” A shiver went down her spine as Icicle raised her head. Trying to get up to stand at attention. “No no, don’t get up. I don’t want you to pass out.” Icicle shifted in the bed.
“So, have you come to banish me to some far off island?” Glacier did her best to comfort her previous challenger. “Actually, I don’t want you to go anywhere.” Icicle looks rather surprised. “From this day forward. Your mother and father are relieved of authority over you. From now on. You answer to me and me alone.”
Icicle takes a minute to respond “why? Why are doing this?” Glacier lets out a sigh. “Because I never cared for how your parents have treated you. To Tundra, to Narwhal, they have ever only seen you has a tool to gain power. To kill me, and be the power behind the throne with you as queen. They manipulated you, never truly caring about the dragoness that they were supposed to protect and raise.” Glacier breathed in, then let out another sigh. “So no, you are not banished. In fact, I would prefer if you remained on palace grounds for the foreseeable future. So please, rest up, it will take time for you to heal. We'll talk about what comes next tomorrow.”...
As Glacier left the infirmary, she was confronted by her brother.
“I do not see why you insist on keeping her around…” Narwhals words were cut short as his sisters claws wrapped around his throat. “Listen and listen well. You forget your position in things, brother. You and your shrill bride were the ones who chose to toss Icicle aside for not being able to beat me. It is you and her who are at risk of banishment, not Icicle. You speak, you so much as breath a word against her, and you and tundra will never see the ice kingdom again. I will see to that. Do I make myself clear, brother?”
Narwhal, left utterly shocked, could only give a nod. “Good. Now go, and stay very far away from me. And tell your wife the same.”
That night, Glacier let an order be known. No one is to disturb her tonight, save for her daughters. Glacier fell into a fitful sleep. Her nightmares, soaked in the blood of her own daughters, and the laughing visages of queens past. Diamond, Gail, Cryo, Halcyon, her own mother.
“Just like us, a true bloodsoaked queen of the icewings. ONE OF US! ONE OF US!” Glacier couldn’t quit talking in her sleep. “No. no no no! Not one of you! No!” Glacier shot up from her bed, screaming. Only shocked out of her nightmare state when she saw her daughters around her bed. Mink quickly embraced Glacier “please stop screaming mommy. You were dreaming.” Glacier began to calm a bit.
“Girls, what are you all doing in here?” Crystal spoke up “We could hear you down the hall.” Snowfall answered “we were worried that something awful was happening.” Glacier composed herself a bit. “It was just a really awful dream. It was like you all were dead, and all the icewing queens from the past were there mocking me.”
Mink clung tighter to Glacier. “But it was just a dream, you girls didn’t need to worry about me.” Crystal could see through her mothers facade. “Mother, you haven’t quite been yourself since the duel with Icicle today.” This jogged Glaciers mind. “Right, Icicle, how is she right now?” “She’s fine, the healers say she’s handling things about as well as a dragon who lost a claw could be. They should have a prosthetic ready in a few days.” Snowfall delivered the verbal report to her mother.
“Okay, good. Good.” Glacier steeled herself for her next words “Girls, I want you all to get used to spending more time with her.” This shocked none of the princesses. Crystal replied “alright, any particular reason why we will be hanging out with cousin Icicle more?” Glacier was plain with her words “because your aunt and uncle are not particularly caring dragons. She failed to kill me. They wanted her for access to power, and now that it is clear that she will not grant them that, they intend to abandon her. I will not let them make her an outcast just because she failed a near-impossible task.”
A visible determination was on minks face “We’ll make sure to be the bestest friends Icicle could want, I promise momma!” Glacier smiled a bit hearing this. “You know, I can’t remember the last time I took you two hunting as a family. It had to have been before Mink here hatched. So you know what, in a week or so, let’s all make a point to go hunting as a family. All five of us, including Icicle.” Snowfall smiled “yeah, that sounds nice. We’ll plan on it.” “Good, now, I’m gonna try to get some more sleep, hopefully without the nightmares this time.” Glacier lay back down, a bit less conflicted.
Seven days later, Glacier sat upon her throne, listening to reports and petitioners, so far in her life, her reign had been defined by the sandwing war of succession, 20 years of this tribe being at war, and not a damn thing changed. Still the same sniveling advisors, same nobles trying to set their sons up with her daughters, no doubt setting up their own schemes to remove her and gain status and power.
Status, it always came back to status, always angling and scheming to climb another circle on the Gift of Order. Some gift that damn sign is. Ever since her nightmare a week ago, she had been chafing at the idea of being like every other queen before her, of just being another driving cog in an unyielding and cold machine that is Icewing society.
How long would this rigidity of her tribe last, would they be left behind in this new era? Still stuck doing the same song and dance as they had done for the last 5000 years? Would they be as glass, fragile and rigid?
And the gears began to turn in her head, her actions would get her called mad or a radical at the least, to change the order so thoroughly, and her actions could not be taken back, but tomorrow, tomorrow would be the dawn of a new era for her tribe.
To Glacier, the biggest flaws of Icewing society was its focus on rank and status, and its utter isolation. The gifts of Order and Defense respectively. She will begin her plan before dawn. “I hope you're ready, Tundra. I'm gonna shatter your world.”
Glacier retired early to her bedroom, she will need all the energy she can get for tomorrow. As she drifted off to sleep, a faint smile was clear on her snout.
Unlike the week before, Glaciers dream was wonderful, the Gift of Defense was shattered and gone, and everyone she loved was around her. Heron to her left and Blaze to her right, all her daughters and kin before her, Crystal, Snowfall, Mink, Icicle, Winter, and even the long disappeared Hailstorm, and little baby Baja too! Joy and peace between dragons was in the air as songs of happiness and merriment echoed throughout the capital. The nobility and the commoner side by side drink and food flowing freely.
Glacier awoke before dawn, but was drawn to step out of her bedchambers by the sound of claw steps, she stuck her head out, and it was Winter, walking sleeplessly. “Poor dear, he just hasn't been the same since Hailstorm disappeared. I got just the task to take his mind off of him.”
Glacier spoke in a loud whisper. “psst, Winter, come here.” Winter turned around, surprised to see another dragon awake at this hour, let alone the queen, but he followed her request. “Yes Queen Glacier?” Glacier quietly closed her bedchambers door.
“Aunt Glacier will be more than sufficient, dear. At ease.” The young prince, and captain of Glaciers own honor guard, relaxed a bit. “Winter, ever since the Sandwing War of Succession ended, I have been doing a lot of thinking, especially after…” Glacier was clearly uncomfortable thinking about the challenge she had fought against Icicle. “. . . The unpleasantness.”
“About what?” Winter questioned. “About the future of our tribe, and what is holding us all back. Tell me, Winter, what would you say our tribes greatest flaw is?”
Winter never thought he would hear these words out of the mouth of any Icewing noble, let alone his Aunt Glacier. Winter took a deep slow breath. “I think we all worry too much about what circle we are in, and climbing those circles.”
Glacier heard her own thoughts coming out of the young princes mouth. “Yes, exactly nephew! All the one-upsmanship, and backstabbing, all for status and rank, using each other for our own gain, failing to even see each other as fellow Icewings, only as competitors. And to that point, would you say the ice kingdom is a bit, oh, isolated?” Winter was taken slightly off-balance by that question. “I, uh, I suppose so, the Gift of Defense does mean that basically no non-icewing dragons could enter the kingdom, and that means we have been quite separated from greater dragon society.” Glacier beamed with excitement, struggling to keep her voice down. “Yes, Winter, exactly! I'm glad we are on the same page. One last question. Have you ever heard rumors of a forbidden treasury within the palace?” Winter started to worry about what Glacier might be implying. “I mean, everyone has heard the rumors, but I always just assumed they were just that. Rumors.”
Glacier initiated the ancient mechanism, her bed beginning to shift, revealing the entrance to a dark passageway. “That's where you are wrong, my dear nephew, it is very much real. Come along, today is a very momentous day for our tribe.” Glacier started down the tunnel, Winter following along cautiously behind her.
Darkness wrapped around the two Icewings as they glided down the passage, a stillness held Winter as he touched down on the platform behind Glacier.
“This, my dear nephew, is the forbidden treasury. Within this spiral lay the greatest Animus treasures of the Ice Kingdom. Each one bears a specific purpose.
"But why are you showing me this if only the queen and princesses are allowed to know it actually exists?" Winter is grateful, if not perplexed. Queen Glacier dawned the gift of strength "Because, dear nephew, I need a witness who is not someone in line for the throne to know this day from its beginning, today will be a very important day in the history of our tribe, Winter." Winter followed Glacier as they made their way into the spiral. “Quite a sight isn't it? You are the first male to set claw into this vault since its creation. 5000 years of Icewings queens and princesses have seen this place, each gift a tool to help the Icewings, not just here, but throughout the kingdom.
Winter can understand that much. "Okay, but why me in particular?" A chuckle escaped Glacier's mouth "because you're the only dragon I could trust with this room, and who isn't actually allowed to know about it, and wouldn't even think about using this stuff against me. Winter, you are the closest thing I have to a son. my girls already know about this room, and I don't trust my brothers, and especially your mother, to know about this, or bare a true witness. ya know, it's a miracle you and your siblings exist. your uncles have zero charisma, Winter. I swear, none of them could fetch a ladies attention even if they had a barrel of water in a desert filled with seawings." Winter was shocked to hear Glacier speak so candidly about his uncles, her own brothers! "They all fell for the trap that dragonesses would all line up to marry them just because they are Icewing princes, and I guess it worked, but none of them besides your father ever had any dragonets, most of your aunts just want a comfy life, your mom wanted power. they made your sister fight me, hoping to be the power behind the throne at the end of the day. That's why your parents are the next and final dragons I'm moving to the very bottom of the Gift of Order, 7th circle, three moons, I just might go and add an 8th circle just to be petty, but that won't matter much." Glacier turned around and trotted back to the entrance.
Winter interrupted "You mean you can't trust your daughters?" Glacier paused "oh no, I do, it's just Crystal has been a bit avoidant of me lately, Snowfall has enough stress on her mind right now, and Mink is a 1 year old. Now come along Winter, I'm gonna show you just what I mean about 'next and last'."
(Gap in story to be filled)
"I hope you're happy, your majesty. Your actions have almost assuredly doomed the entire tribe."
an alien chill ran down Tundras spine
"I have dealt with you for long enough! You are everything I hate about my kingdom all in one dragon! The backstabbing! The unyielding rigidity! The elitist snobbery! The cruelty to those you view as beneath you! I HAAAAATE YOUUUUUUUU!"
Tundra was utterly lost for words, this was not the pointed calm displeasure she had seen earlier. This is the unbridled rage and emotion that Icewing society fought to suppress for so long, and coming from the queen. Glaciers face was flushed with the dark blue of a raging Icewing dragonet, years of pent up emotion pouring in snarls and tears.
A hard right claw caught Tundra across the snout, blue blood beginning to pour out of her nose. Glacier had stuck her.
"GET UP! GET OUT OF MY HOME! GET OUT OF MY LIFE!!!!!"
A second strike barely missed Tundra, her instincts took over, fleeing down the hall of the palace to the nearest exit, Glacier following close behind. Tundra barely avoided her grasp as she took flight. she did not know where she would go, but it was clear, the palace of the ice kingdom was forbidden to her now.
As Glacier saw Tundra disappear into the distance, she let out a primal roar of rage. Screams of years of suppressed pain echoing through the palace.
Then tears. Tears of a dragoness overwrought with her emotions.
