Chapter Two

Blizzard

Blizzard sat at the edge of a stream with his eyes closed.

"Ten…nine…eight…" Counting backwards from ten. He felt ridiculous. It was acceptable for the gaurdians to leave for a mysterious meeting without a word, but to leave the Rainwing in charge? Glitz had always been the least reasonable of the gaurdians, and giving her free rein over the prophecy dragons did not make her any more responsible. Less so, in fact. Now she was forcing them to engage in this childish game of hide and seek, claiming that it taught valuable skills. "Five…four…three…" Almost at the end of the count. Then all he had to do was find his friends, and he would be done with this foolish activity. "...one! Alright, I'm coming!" He shouted, eyes still closed.

"No, no, you have to say the proper words!" A voice cried next to him. Glitz. Emitting a long and suffering sigh, Blizzard opened his mouth again.

"Ready or not...ugh...here I come."

"Say it like you mean it!" Glitz yelped again. Gritting his teeth, again Blizzard uttered the hated words.

"Ready or not, here...grr...I come!" Before opening his eyes, he inclined his deep blue head questioningly.

"Yes, good enough, I suppose. Now get out there and find your friends!" Was the cheerful response from Glitz. Finally, Blizzard peeled back his eyelids, revealing his black eyes, and immediately scanned the landscape. Stream, Glitz, mud, tree, stream, more mud, tree cluster, rock. A boundary was drawn in the dirt, signaling the point that they could not hide past. Dropping on all fours, Blizzard began his search, starting at the rock. Walking around it, he noticed that it was pockmarked with huge indentions, just big enough for a dragon to hide in. Peering in each one in turn, he saw the glint of silver scales in the shadows of one particularly large crevice.

"AHA!" He cried. A pile of shadows jumped, startled, then morphed into a dragon, and a Nightwing slunk out of the hole.

You got me! A voice sounded in his mind. Have you found anyone else? Blizzard shook his head.

"You're the first." The Nightwing grimaced.

Aw, shucks!

"Sorry, Destiny. Why don't you wait by Glitz while I find the others? This shouldn't take too long."

Fine… The Nightwing tossed her head in shammed anger and stalked off towards the watching Rainwing.

Blizzard didn't waste time watching her leave. He still had five more dragons to find. He turned towards the cluster of trees. Hmmm, seems as good a place to hide as any. He thought. Besides, it looks like just the kind of place a Rainwing would go. Trees, sunny spots, the works. So Macadamia, here I come! Blizzard entered the cluster and immediately felt the trees closing in on him. He hated tight places. They reminded him of... no. He wasn't even going to think about it. He shivered and breathed deeply. Icy walls...closing…In, out. In, out. That's it. You can do this, Blizzard. Still inhaling and exhaling at an exaggerated rate, he began combing through the plant life carefully. If I were a Rainwing… well, they have prehensile tails… so… in the trees! Not on the ground, most likely. Here we go, then… Blizzard cocked his head upwards so that he had a good view of the trees' branches. Up ahead, he saw an unnatural bend in a branch. "Found you!" He exclaimed.

"How do I know that? Where am I?" Came a voice from the branch. Blizzard stared at the source of the voice skeptically. "Oh, shoot!" It cried. A Rainwing shimmered into view, perched precariously on the branch. "Am I the last one?" Blizzard smirked.

"Hardly. You're the second."

"Alright...I assume that I'm supposed to go wait by Glitz?" Blizzard nodded affirmative. "Okay, then...good luck!" And with that, Macadamia the Rainwing disappeared from view. Blizzard was relieved. The sooner he was out of the constricting branches, the better. Nearly running, he scrambled out of the tree cluster and back to the starting point. Two dragons found, four to go.

Next, Blizzard decided to find his Mudwing friend. Obviously the best hiding place for him would be in one of the many patches of mud along the stream banks. He glanced ruefully at his glittering blue scales. They were so clean. But a dragon's got to do what a dragon's got to do. Lowering his snout, he began rifling through the mud. He could have searched for a long time, if he hadn't seen a bubble pop on the surface of a particularly deep puddle. Bubble? That doesn't make any sense, Mudwings can hold their breath for up to an hour, unless… Blizzard smiled, setting his talon down near the site of the bubble. "Another one down! Or should I say two more? Monsoon, Cactusflower?" Rising from the mud came first one dragon, then another.

"How did you find us?" Were the words from the second, a rather muddy Sandwing.

"I saw a bubble." Blizzard said proudly, retaining as much dignity as possible when speaking such a ridiculous statement.

"It was Cactusflower's idea for me to hide her under my wings." Said the first dragon, a huge hazel Mudwing. "And of course I agreed, because it was a smart idea." He continued. Blizzard rolled his eyes internally.

"Well, good job, both of you, but you never had a chance against me." Blizzard boasted, flexing his wings proudly.

"Please." Cactusflower said in exasperated tones. "Spare me your bragging. Come on, Monsoon. We're going to wait next to Glitz." The Mudwing willingly followed, leaving Blizzard with only two dragons left to find.

Who next? Blizzard wondered. Ah, the Seawing. He eyed the streams slyly. Look out, Kraken. Sweeping around elegantly, he scanned the miniscule waterways, searching for glow-in-the-dark stripes showing through the water. No? Too smart for that? Well, there are other ways… Blizzard switched his search from glow-in-the-dark to green. His friend was a murky green color, which would show up quite nicely on the gray and brown ground. Luckily, it was a fine day, and the water was clear. It was only a matter of time before he spotted a flash of green amongst the pebbles and mud. Jumping into the stream violently, Blizzard roared.

"Found you, Kraken!" The startled Seawing shot out of the water like a bolt of lightning and landed on the bank. He smiled graciously.

"Looks like you've found everybody else. But you'll never find Tempest." Blizzard grinned.

"Don't try to use your magical voice on me. He's bright red, how hard can it be to locate that?" Kraken shook his head.

"Go ahead and try. I'll join the others and observe." He strolled away, moving gracefully despite the fact that he had no wings. Blizzard smiled. I have a pretty good idea of where Tempest might be…

For his final find, Blizzard turned toward a tree. It was a tall cedar, flanked by two smaller oaks. Circling around the tree, he revealed a gaping hole in the trunk. The tree was hollow. Or it was, before a crimson Skywing decided to take up residence there.

"Tada!" Blizzard exclaimed. "Now you weren't at all difficult to find, were you?" Without a word, Tempest slunk out and back towards the stream, where everyone was now gathered. Kraken gasped.

"You said that you were going to hide somewhere that no one would ever find you!" Tempest shrugged moodily.

"Dragons say alot of things, but that doesn't mean they're all true." Glitz stared at him.

"Wow. Grumpy. Great job everyone! That was fun!" She began giggling uncontrollably, rolling around until even Macadamia stared at her oddly. "Hahaha... okay, sorry." She wiped tears from her eyes and sighed. "Ah. Good times. So, um, I guess that we're heading back to the grove. Yup. Follow me!" And she turned and bubbled away, colors brightly swirling across her scales.

"As if we didn't know where the grove was." Muttered Tempest, stalking after her. Blizzard had never understood why they lived in a grove, exposed to all the elements. Sure, the trees stretched high overhead, forming an ample canopy and roof, but he felt exposed and vulnerable. Still, he knew that no matter how grumpy Tempest was, or how silly Macadamia was, he would always have his friends to help him out.