(Okay folks, this is my second "ice family" story that I've got in progress. I was working on another "ice family story, but sadly, it's on hold due to difficulty about figuring out the plot. This story, unlike the others, will be separated into chapters, or parts, rather. Due to that, this isn't exactly going to very long, in both chapter length and number of chapters. Although reading A haunting of the ice family may be needed, you can still read this without doing so. Well, enjoy the first part.)

A Darkness and the Ice Family – part one

It was a normal day at the cabin home of Ganter, Careena, and Nuevo. The three ice dragon siblings looked relatively normal, and they felt that way too. All three of them had ice-blue scales, ice-white bellies, blue eyes, silver horns and crests (give or take for Careena, who lacked the crest), but it was their tail tips that helped differentiate them. Careena's tip looked like an icicle, Nuevo's was similar to that of Spyro, and Ganter's tail tip resembled three fan-like horizontal blades with a blue 'orb' in the center.

The trio was now walking back home after a successful hunt; it was nearing sunset, and a cool wind blew through the green meadow where they were.

"So Gant," Careena said, using Ganter's unprefered nickname, "What do you think we should do tonight?"

Out of the three of them, Careena was the eldest, several years older than Ganter, whom was eight. Nuevo was just above four years old, but that was relatively mature enough for him. That was due to the fact that their parents had died before Nuevo was hatched, meaning Ganter had to take care of him until they could go visit Careena, whom was in Warfang during the whole time.

Ganter scowled, "You know I hate that name. Well, anyway, I'm just about ready to drop, that deer sure ran fast."

Nuevo still had energy to spare, "Well, I'm ready to continue doing stuff." Nuevo ran ahead, stopping next to the cabin that was made by cheetahs. They never knew how their parents had gotten the cheetah tribe to build them a home, and might never get to know.

Careena sighed, "That's because me and Ganter did most of the hunting, you're bound to be still full of energy."

Ganter chuckled, "That's to be expected, we've yet to teach him the finer points of hunting, then maybe we can all be exhausted sometime." Careena grinned at him and then looked at Nuevo with a devious smile

Nuevo dipped his head down in defeat as he noticed that his older siblings were planning to give him a hard time in the next few days, and gripped the latch to open the door with a paw, and went inside.

Ganter and Careena looked at each, giving a look of victory, "Well, let's get going." Careena waved her tail as she entered the cabin. Their cabin was made out the spare lumber of the cheetahs; that much was known, and they didn't have many objects inside. Instead, they preferred to stay outside as often as possible.

Ganter followed, and soon came to a stop as he reached his bed. Abruptly, and purposely, he dropped onto the bedding, not want to keep his aching legs waiting any longer. Careena, seeing this, gasped, "Ganter, are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, just so exhausted." Ganter mumbled, curling up as he started to fall asleep.

Careena sighed and turned to Nuevo, whom had his head rested on his paws, looking at Ganter, "He sure knows how to give us a scare, doesn't he?"

"I guess so, so now what?" Nuevo replied, reluctantly starting to nod off.

"Right now, we rest." Careena yawned, and sat down. Little did either three of them know that their life was about to change. A cold wind blew through the home and circled around Ganter, he didn't know it was happening, but a portal was opening.

The next morning, Ganter awoke on soft grass. Blinking his eyes, slowly, he realized he wasn't at home anymore. Jumping onto his paws, he looked around, panicking; he was in a meadow, much like the one back home, but some bushes were nearby in a tree line; presumably hiding a rabbit burrow. The sun was out, but for some reason, it didn't seem to give him a sort of warmth, instead, it seemed like it to make Ganter feel uneasy.

Turning around, Ganter saw a strange sight; a dark dragoness was staring at him curiously. Her black scales were complete with a dark red underbelly and wing membranes. Her eyes were also red, and her horns reminded him of the famous dragoness Cynder. The tail tip of this dragoness looked like a gold ring, but it didn't connect, instead the two ends pointed out like spears; and there was a dark red gem at the end of her tail.

All in all, Ganter thought this dragoness was rather attractive, and he almost didn't notice that she was running towards him. And before Ganter could say or do anything, he was pushed into the cover of a nearby bush, "Hey!"

His protest wasn't noticed, as the dark dragoness then said harshly while she stood over him, "I don't know who you are, or even what kind of dragon you are, but you can't just stand around looking like an idiot."

Before Ganter could open his snout to respond, she then said something else, "Idle gets you killed."

Ganter kept his snout closed, assuming he'd be cut off again, and the dark dragoness lifted her head up and looked around them. Ganter guessed that she had used some kind of magic to make them invisible, for that a thin cloud for shadows surrounded them.

Once again, this dragoness spoke, "Quickly, my cave isn't far off. If we run, we'll get there without any problems." She waved her double-pointed tail tip as she started to move out back into the meadow, and the gem that was with it glimmered in the sunlight. Confused, Ganter silently followed this strange dragoness; he hoped that she could help him figure out what had just happened to him. And the entire time, he wondered what his brother and sister were thinking about his disappearance.

(Okay, any questions, comments, or such?)