Although Storm didn't know it at the time, her destiny was about to be rewritten. She sat quietly in the middle of the huge crowd of IceWings that had gathered in the First Circle at the urgent request of Queen Glacier. Storm speculated that the entire tribe was present, but despite the mass of dragons there was hardly a sound as they sat in anticipation. It was a bitterly cold winter's night, with every breath looking like a puff of smoke as it left the body and the three moons in the sky reflecting off the freshly fallen snow creating so much light that the numerous moon globes that surrounded the crowd were hardly necessary.

While it had not been explicitly said, everyone knew the reason for the meeting. Yesterday had been the brightest night and their Queen had met with the Dragonets of Destiny. The war was over. At least that was what had been promised.

Finally, the elegant white figure of Queen Glacier emerged onto the central platform, followed closely by the former Princess Blaze, her pale gold scales covered by a cape of polar bear fur. From her position Storm had to squint and move her head around to see past the taller dragons sitting in front of her. From the platform Queen Glacier's commanding voice spoke to the throng of dragons.

Or at least it would be commanding if I could hear anything from here! She thought with an annoyed grimace and gave the dragon stepping on her tail an angry glare.

While she couldn't hear everything perfectly, the excited murmuring of dragons swept through the crowd so she was able to get the basic information: The good news: the war was over; the bad news: they didn't win; but also the good news: no one really won anyway so it didn't matter. None of the three sisters had won the throne, some other dragon had become Queen of the SandWings. Storm was confused about the whole situation, but she had a feeling she would know more later on once the stories of that fateful night began to circulate.

After some speeches by other members of the royal family and various high ranking military officials they were all dismissed. The crowd dispersed in an orderly fashion, with those in the front (which consisted on First Circle dragons) leaving first followed by those behind. Eventually Storm's row took to the sky. Many dragons didn't leave right away though and hovered in the sky waiting for their family or friends to catch up with them so that they could talk about what had just occurred. Storm tried to ignore the friendly greetings and excited chatter that filled the sky as she soared home alone. The moons were still high in the sky, and they would remain like that until the Spring Equinox when the sun would finally rise above the horizon. As such, Storm relied on mostly moonlight to find her way home. She soared over the Second Circle, then the Third and lingered as she passed the Fourth.

The Fourth Circle was humble to say the least. It was the circle of the middle class, so soldiers, merchants, various artisans and the odd jeweller could be found here. It was a wealthy enough district that the roads and trails were lighted with Moon Globes that had been strung onto poles all around the area, and the dragons here lived in relative comfort. It was modest, and as of a few months ago Storm had reached Fourth Circle ranking. But she didn't live here. She couldn't yet afford a house in this area. With a disappointed sigh Storm continued to fly in the direction of where she actually lived, which was her parents' house in the Seventh Circle.

In this district there were fewer Moon Globes strung around, and some were beginning to fade and needed to be replaced. The houses here were also fairly simple. To an outsider they would just look like banks of snow on a deserted tundra, but in reality each large bump on the terrain was a house. There were no windows and the doors were very tightly placed into the walls as to prevent the blizzard winds from wreaking havoc.

As she arrived so too did the other Seventh Circle dragons that had been attending the assembly. They gathered in the dimply lit streets in boisterous groups, shouting and jigging about at the news of the War's end. It was completely undignified in every way but Storm let out a small smile. The whole Kingdom seemed to have released a breath of tension now that the fighting was over. Even the auroras looked brighter as they flitted freely in the night.

Storm finally reached her own house and pushed the large ice block that served as the door out of the way, quickly closing it behind her as a gust of wind blew loose snow into the house. IceWings were not extravagant dragons when it came to decoration, and Storm's house reflected this. It was sparsely furnished, to the left was a kitchen table made of conifer trees that stood beside the wall of cooking knives and on the wall to the right was a portrait of her family.

In the middle was a tunnel leading to the bedrooms of her parents, sister and her own room.

Storm sat quietly for a moment, reflecting on what had just happened.

"Now what?" She whispered to herself.

On a small section of the wall in between the portrait and the bedroom tunnels where three pieces of paper mounted on the wall with seal teeth. They were letters to be specific, all from the general of the IceWing army. The first letter was dated four years back, and was informing her of the death of her mother in battle. The second letter from two years ago, in which her father was also killed. The third was from last week, in which her sister was now gone too.

Storm approached the letters and rested her head on the wall beside them, "Now what?" she asked again.

Storm had been very young when her mother had died. She had hardly got to know her, but she had known and loved her father dearly. When he had died it was just her and her sister, her only real friend in the world. But now even she was gone and Storm was torn apart all over again.

And perhaps the worst part of all this was that the war was over.

Her family was a military family, and even when she had been surrounded by the chaos of war Storm has known what was expected of her. Through all her loses Storm had focused on the one goal of becoming a top soldier. She had put her heart and soul in to training and studies, anything to distract her. Eventually it had paid off and she had begun to climb the ranks and catch the attention of higher ranking officers.

But now even the war was over but instead of feeling relieved she had never felt more lost.

Her vision suddenly became blurry as tears began to gather at her eyes. She slammed her eyes shut and let out a snarl, "I will not cry! I am stronger than my emotions!" she hissed at herself. After a few moments she was able to calm down, but suddenly felt exhausted. She looked down the bedroom tunnel. Her chamber was at the very end of the hallway, but she didn't have the strength to pass the from-now-on forever empty rooms of her family. She decided to curl up beneath the portrait of her family and let the exhaustion overwhelm her.

Now what? Were her last thoughts as she drifted to sleep.

Storm lazily opened a single eye as she was woken by a knocking on the ice block that was her door. She let out a massive yawn, and started to stretch her stiff back that was aching from sleeping on the floor.

Why didn't I just go and sleep in my bed? Why was I such a coward last night? She complained to herself, yet a warm shiver ran down her spine at the thought of the empty beds of her family. She shook the feeling away as the knocking became more aggressive.

"I'll be there in a moment!" She shouted, heading over to the door and pushing it out of the way only to be greeted by the annoyed and tired looking face of a young male IceWing. He had obviously been partaking in the celebrations last night and had not expected to be called into duty in the morning. However, he wore the stylish armor of the second circle, so Storm knew better than to show him disrespected.

He gave her a quick salute, to which she returned, and then pushed a scroll into her talons, "You've been summoned by General Shiver to meet in the training arena located in the first circle. He demands you come as soon as possible," the male said quickly. He then saluted once more and left.

Storm watched him fly away with a sour expression on her face. What a pompous puffin. She thought to herself.

She already knew what was on the scroll; it was just a formal written request of what the IceWing male had just told her. But since she was not First Circle she would have to present it to the guards in order to be permitted to enter.

The sudden appearance of such a request snapped Storm out of her pity party and she rushed to her room to get her armor. She had been polishing it yesterday before the assembly and it was still sitting on her bed of polar bear fur. It only consisted of a helmet, a chest plate and gauntlets which were all made of steel. It was very old armor, with many dents and scratch marks that required constant polishing in order to hide them. But it wasn't very bulky, which Storm liked. It was meant to provide protection to certain vulnerable areas, like the chest, but still remain lightweight and flexible.

She picked up the chest plate looked at her distorted reflection in the polished armor and touched the purple scales that were freckled on her face. Storm had always been proud of the fact that she came from a long line of warrior dragonesses that went back thousands of generations, and one of the key features of the lineage that each dragoness shared was the abnormal amounts of purple in their scales. It wasn't obvious at first, sometimes the light had to hit her scales at just the right angle for the deep violets and brighter amethyst colours to shine through.

There were also purple flecks in her pale blue eyes and small violet scales peppered all over her snout. Storm had always liked these features because they connected her with her mother and sister, who also had them. As for her father, as much as she loved him, she wished she had not gotten as much of his features. Her father had always been large for his age and parts of this largeness had been given to her. The first was her abnormally long tail, which was three feet longer than that of a typical IceWing her age. It looked bizarre to say the least, always sticking out and getting stepped on. Her wings, forefeet and hind-feet were also comically large as well and more than once had caused her to trip and fall flat on her snout. Her forefeet were also covered in little scars that had been her own fault. Several years ago, in order to afford new armor for her sister she had worked a year at the Queen's palace, cleaning up the bones and such from the court's meals and had more than once gotten little bone shards or shark teeth stuck in her feet.

Between the two of them, they had been able to afford the armor while Storm had received the ancient, battle scared armor that had been in her family for generations. The one she was putting on now.

She put on the chest plate, then the helmet which covered most of her forehead and snout and finally stuffed her bulky feet in the gauntlets and rushed out the door. Based on the position of the moons, it was probably early "morning", except today the usual bustle of dragons leaving to work was replaced by clusters of dragons that were still celebrating since yesterday at the news of the end of the war. There was laughter, feasting, dancing, and general fun times being had. They were even singing old IceWing songs, songs that dragons from the first circle would find ridiculous and disgraceful.

Storm tried to ignore it all as she took to the sky, wobbling slightly as she compensated for the additional weight of the armor. There was a light snow fall that morning, and Storm blinked rapidly as the tiny snowflakes began to sting her face.

As she flew she passed the time trying to figure out why she had been summoned.

Well, I am going to the training area so maybe more training? But that doesn't make any sense, the wars over, why would I need more training? She was now out of the fourth circle and heading over the third. The houses here were taller and looked more like upside down icicles.

Maybe it's a patrol duty. That would make sense. The war just ended a few days ago; there are probably still troops and armies on the move. It will take a few weeks to call back all the soldiers from the field, she reasoned as she weaved in between the buildings.

Or maybe you're getting promoted! An excited voice shouted in her head, and Storm hushed it like a mother silencing an overactive dragonet.

Eventually she reached the first circle. It was surrounded by a miniature version of the Great Ice Cliff that encircled the Ice Kingdom, except that it didn't shoot deadly projectiles. There were a couple of guards with spears chatting on the wall, and she flew towards then, saluted and handed them the scroll she had been given.

While the first guard read the scroll, the second one was looking at her with great confusion. Since he was above her rank she repressed the urge to swat him on the nose, but eventually his expression changed to that of someone who had finally remembered what they had forgotten.

"You're Violet's daughter, aren't you!? I would recognize those scales anywhere," he finally said with great satisfaction.

Storm fumbled for her words, she had not been expecting to have to talk to anyone for at least another twenty minutes. "Erm, yes, that's right," she replied, hoping she would be able to leave soon. Unfortunately the guard seemed to be in a chatty mood.

"Yeah, we trained together in the first circle. She was always ahead of us all," he said with admiration. "Her mother, being your grandmother that is, had been the general at that time, in fact, at least one member of your lineage seemed to hold a high ranking position in the military for as long as the Ice Kingdom existed." He seemed to be lost in memories, and Storm nodded politely the whole time but was secretly hoping to be dismissed soon.

"Wait, did you say the first circle?" The guard holding the scroll spoke up now. "How can that be? This dragon's family..." he flicked his tail in her direction, "is from the seventh circle."

Storm's face suddenly turned blue with embarrassment as she knew what was coming next. The older guard leaned his head in towards the younger male and said in a hushed voiced. "Oh it was quite the scandal, you see, her mother fell in love with..."

"OK THANK YOU BUT I HAVE TO LEAVE NOW," Storm said a little too loudly, and then grabbed the scroll from the guard's talons and flew off, not caring if she had offended them.

Her face was still blue as she flew away, part embarrassment and part anger. What was their problem? She fumed to herself. That was completely unprofessional; I should make a formal complaint. Guards are not supposed to stand around gossiping about the dragon that is RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM.

She finally arrived at the training area, which actually consisted of several buildings. One was for general fitness and strength building, another for weapons training and a third was like a large arena for battle practice. Since only the arena was lit from within with Moon Globes Storm reasoned that was the location of the meeting. Her reasoning was correct as the huge iron gates that blocked the large entrance tunnel to the building were unlocked and she could hear the voice of General Shiver within. She entered and shut the doors behind her. As she walked through the entrance tunnel the floor changed from fluffy snow to a softer, dirt like substance that was better for training. Storm didn't know where they found the material, perhaps in the wasteland that was between here and the Sand Kingdom. She entered the humongous domed arena, which was large enough to provide ample room for entire battalions to do air battle simulations and was filled with various obstacles and training dummies that had been pushed aside along the walls.

What was in the center of the arena was actually living dragons. To the left was a precise and organized line of fifteen IceWings, the majority she didn't recognize, but all of them were first circle as shown by their necklaces. Prince Frazil, the Queen's own son, was even present. There were also about twenty or so SandWings walking around too, obviously the rest of Blaze's supporters that hadn't ran to the desert as soon as they heard the war was over. Despite being indoors they wore layers and layers of fur cloaks and other various garments. Storm sympathized with them, this war was bad for everyone but being forced to live in a climate that was the opposite of what one was evolved for must have been brutal. There was also General Shiver who was facing away from her and speaking with Blaze and Queen Glacier.

Storm did a double take, OH MOONS, QUEEN GLACIER IS HERE. She stopped in her tracks, hoping they hadn't noticed her enter. They seemed to be deep in conversation so she quickly scuttled over to the line of IceWings and mimicked the customary pose with her tail curled behind her (its extra length making it difficult) and her head pointed upward at a 60° angle. A SandWing noticed her sneaky antics and gave out a small laugh which made her face blush blue.

I really need to get my act together. I'm an embarrassment to the tribe! She scolded herself. Luckily Storm didn't get to dwell on her embarrassment for very long.

"Alright warriors, listen up!" General Shiver suddenly ordered, his deep voice echoing in the giant arena. He was an enormous dragon with deep blue scales zig-zagging over his back and wings.

"You have each been selected for a special mission based on recommendations from your teachers and superiors who have noticed your skills and loyalty," he explained and Storm puffed out her chest with pride. She would have to remember to thank her instructor Wolf later on.

"Your mission," he continued, "is to escort Blaze and her troops safely back to the Sand Kingdom. Despite the war being over our reports indicate that there are still hostile enemy battalions stationed on Skywing territory in-between the Ice Kingdom and Sand Kingdom, as well as along the delta river that leads into the mountains. Therefore we will avoid this area and fly along the Westcoast. It will take four days to get to Queen Thorn's palace, and a four day return flight. I will provide you with your canteens of water before we leave and we will hunt for food as needed. The only equipment you will need is your armor and blankets. Meet again here in three hours for departure. Dismissed!"

The line of IceWings saluted in unison and in an orderly fashion made their way towards the exit.

"Private Storm, please come speak to me before you leave," General Shiver called out and for a moment Storm almost froze in place, but quickly stepped aside and let the line of IceWings pass by.

Orca dung! She cursed. Did he see me enter late?

The large male approached her, but his expression was unreadable. She saluted him as he stood before her and watched as he took out a scroll from a pouch that was fastened across his chest.

"Here, you'll need this to get back into the First Circle," he said, handing it to her.

"Oh, thank you, Sir," Storm replied, she had almost forgotten about the whole situation with guards. Maybe some other guards will be on duty by the time I return. She hoped.

"Now that the war and your training are over, perhaps you should now focus your efforts into reaching the first circle. You've only just turned six, you still have a year until your adult placement is determined and based on what I've seen and heard about you, I think you will easily climb the ranks," the General said.

Storm was stunned at the compliment, but then again, her sister had reached first circle status shortly before turning seven. Indeed, so had her mother as well as every female in her lineage that came before her. There were high expectations for her.

"Yes, I intend to devote myself to reaching the first circle as soon as I return from this mission," she replied dutifully and the large male nodded his approval. Storm was expecting to be dismissed, but suddenly his hard gaze became softer.

"Also...I am sorry to hear about the death of your sister," he said solemnly and Storm tried to remain collected as she felt a lump appear in her throat.

"She was an excellent warrior and leader and I had hoped to make her my replacement when I retired," he confided.

Storm didn't trust herself to speak without choking up so she simply dipped her head in gratitude and was then dismissed.

As she turned to leave she saw the SandWing from earlier, the one that had laughed at her, was now staring at her. Storm noticed now that it was a male, and a young one at that, perhaps four? It was hard to tell with all those cloaks covering him. He had a sympathetic look on his face as their eyes met and Storm quickly looked away. Had he been listening to her conversation with the General?

Nosy sand-muncher. The sooner they are out of the arctic the better. She seethed, her rage stemming more from her anger at herself for almost crying in front of the General than from the SandWing. If she were honest with herself, Storm didn't really believe that IceWings were better than SandWings. All IceWings were taught in school that their tribe was the best and most superior tribe in Pyrrhia, but if this war had taught her anything, it was that IceWings live and die just the same as any other dragon.

She eventually exited the arena and welcomed the cooling gust of wind as it swirled around her, causing the freshly fallen snow to dance about for only an instant before resettling. The light snow fall from earlier had turned into a respectable flurry as large, soft snowflakes gently accumulated on the ground like a bed of feathers.

On any other night it would have been completely silent, with the only sound being the crunching of the snow beneath one's feet. However, tonight the first circle was alive with balls and banquets. Ballroom music could be heard from multiple palaces, with the loudest coming from the Queen's own castle.

The Northern Lights were also streaming across the sky, the green and red ribbons of light illuminating the snow to match their colours. Storm let out a sigh, her breath creating a puff of vapour that quickly disappeared. According to IceWing legend, the souls of the deceased were among those lights. She wondered if her family was there tonight, flying above her, watching over their home. Storm looked around her to make sure no one was nearby. After she confirmed this, she looked back up at the lights, "I promise I will make you proud, I won't disappoint you," she whispered. She then took to the sky to return to home. It was time to prepare for her journey.