Edit: I updated this chapter to fix a glaring error in one of the last few paragraphs. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire or any of its characters.


Chapter Three

Lynx paced back and forth in her room, searching for things she might need along her journey. She'd strapped a medium-sized leather pouch to her chest and put a few things inside, like a canister of water and a talonful of coins, but it still looked woefully empty. As she gazed down into all that unoccupied space, she was starting to realize just how unprepared she was for this mission. But I don't have a choice. I have to go. I have to save my tribe.

All this double and triple checking was doing nothing to help her nerves. I should just go, she thought. If I need something else, I'll find it outside the kingdom. It's not like I'm trying to make a trip to one of the moons. There's going to be stuff all around me. Though if I'm going to be buying a lot of things, maybe I should grab more money.

After only a moment of hesitation, Lynx emptied her entire savings into the bag. This quest is the most important thing I've ever done. If it's not worth spending my money on, I don't know what is.

Glancing one last time around her room, the young IceWing exited and headed down the stairs. She tried to walk as silently as possible, but her talons clicked on the ice no matter how carefully she stepped. She considered heading out a window and trying to fly down to the courtyard, where she'd arranged to meet up with the others, but then she'd have to soar over parts of the palace and she'd definitely be seen by what few guards remained.

So she continued down the stairs, wincing at every tap and scrape her claws made. Thankfully, no one poked their heads out of their rooms or came out to see what was going on, and she made it to the bottom unchallenged. She moved through the dark room at the base of the tower, guided toward the open air by the faint glimmer of light provided by the moon globe tree.

Snowfall and Hailstorm were both waiting for her, their faces cast into shadow by the light of the tree shining behind them. The darkness did nothing to hide their worry, which was evident in the tension in their wings and the bristling of the spikes on the backs of their necks.

"Ready, guys?" Lynx whispered.

The other two exchanged a glance. As their heads turned, Lynx caught sight of similar bags draped across their shoulders and chests. Good, they're both prepared, she thought. If I forgot anything, hopefully one of them will have it and be willing to share.

"I suppose so," Snowfall answered. Hailstorm only nodded.

Lynx eyed the prince with concern. Perhaps she was over-thinking things, but some part of her couldn't help but worry that his silence meant the pain in his throat was getting worse. Even more troubling was the fact that she knew he wouldn't say anything about how he felt if he could help it. A seasoned warrior and future commander like Hailstorm would never, ever complain while on a mission.

All the more reason we have to head out now, Lynx reminded herself. "All right," she said to the others in a low voice. "Which way should we go? Obviously we need to head south, but we have to get out of the palace unnoticed first."

"Hmm, that is going to be a problem," Snowfall mused. She looked up at the sky, which was well-lit by the three moons. "With one of the moons full and the other two almost halfway there, our scales are going to catch a lot of light and shine, making us stand out. The only thing I can think of would be to try to cover our scales somehow."

"But then we'll stand out against the snow because we aren't white anymore," Hailstorm pointed out hoarsely.

"True," Lynx acknowledged, flicking her tail back and forth as she thought. "Okay, stealth is probably not going to work. Maybe we could pretend we have a legitimate reason to go out. I mean, we do, because obviously we're saving lives here, but we can pretend it's authorized by someone in the tribe."

"We don't even know who's in charge now," Hailstorm argued. "No one's going to buy that."

"Okay," Lynx said, undaunted. "How about a distraction?"

"Like what? Throwing a few rocks out one of the windows and hoping all the guards come flocking over to investigate?" Snowfall asked snidely. "That's never going to work."

"No," the other dragonet said, an idea starting to form in her mind. "Maybe one of us can pretend we feel like having a midnight snack and check in with one of the guards on our way out to go hunting. While the guard's busy talking to that dragon, the other two can sneak by."

"Not bad, Lynx," Hailstorm admitted. "We'd have to be quick, but that should give us a bit of time."

Snowfall looked uncertain, but reluctantly agreed. "Who's going to be the distraction?" she asked.

"You are," Lynx offered. "You're the princess, probably the next queen. The guards will be much less likely to question your decisions or stop you than they would if it was me. And Hailstorm's sick, so they probably wouldn't let him go out alone."

"All right," Snowfall sighed.

"Wait," Lynx hissed as her friend opened her wings to fly away. As the princess paused, the speckled dragonet slipped Snowfall's pouch off and put it around her own neck. "I'll hold onto this for you," she said. "If any of the guards see this, it'll be obvious you're planning to be gone for quite a while."

"Good catch," Snowfall said, her eyebrows arching in surprise. "I wouldn't have thought of that."

"Good thing I did," Lynx said seriously.

"All right, I'm going now," the princess whispered, taking off and soaring toward the front gates. Hailstorm crept silently after her, keeping low to avoid casting too much of a shadow.

Lynx hesitated, looking back at the moon globe tree. When the three celestial bodies that orbited Pyrrhia were shining and reflecting off the ice, it was easy to see at night in her kingdom, but would it be darker in other places? She wasn't entirely sure, but… It's better to be safe than sorry. Reaching up, she plucked a moon globe off the tree and slipped it into her bag. Then she hurried after her friends.

Hailstorm was crouching beside the short outer wall that surrounded the palace when Lynx caught up to him. She pressed her belly to the snow and watched with him as Snowfall swooped confidently down to stand beside the guard positioned directly in front of the castle. They were too far away for Lynx to hear what they were saying, but the princess's posture was distinctly unruffled, indicating that she was playing her part well.

Lynx poked Hailstorm in the ribs to get his attention. When should we go? she mouthed when he looked at her.

The older dragon craned his neck slightly to look at the princess. Following his gaze, Lynx saw that Snowfall had successfully engaged the guard in a conversation, but it was unclear how long it would last.

"Now," Hailstorm hissed in her ear.

Lynx glanced back at the guard anxiously as her friend climbed over the wall. Thankfully, he wasn't looking their way. She heard Hailstorm's talons thump lightly down on the snow on the other side.

"Come on," he whispered through the ice, the rasp in his voice evident even when he spoke at a low volume. "Hurry up! It doesn't take that long to tell someone you're going hunting."

Lynx compulsively glanced back again. Snowfall was moving past the guard, leaving him and their conversation behind. He was watching her go, but clearly Lynx was running out of time. Taking a deep breath, she jumped, landing on top of the wall. She fought for balance, afraid to open her wings in case the movement was enough to catch the guard's attention. Hailstorm hissed at her to come down and she clumsily pushed herself off the ice.

"Did he see you?" Hailstorm asked tightly.

Lynx shook her head. "I don't think so," she whispered, but she couldn't keep the hint of anxiety out of her tone. What if he did see me? she worried. What if I just messed this up and we can't get away?

"Come on," Hailstorm said, bracing himself as he fought back a cough. "We have to meet up with Snowfall."

"Talons and teeth," Lynx cursed quietly. "We didn't arrange a meeting place."

"That's all right," Hailstorm replied. "She'll probably fly someplace out of view and wait for us there. If we hurry, we should be able to catch up to her pretty quickly."

Although they traveled as fast as they could, moving on the ground was painfully slow compared to flying. However, they were unwilling to travel by air for fear that their wings would catch the light and attract too much attention. Lynx itched to look back at the guard to see if he was watching, but she forced herself not to. Freaking out over it won't help at all.

Once they crossed a rocky ridge, they figured it was safe to fly. They stayed low, but the cold night breeze helped calm Lynx's nerves, and by the time they spotted Snowfall in the distance, her optimism was starting to return. That wasn't too bad, she thought. It could have gone a lot worse.

Snowfall waited for them to catch up. "How did it go?" she asked by way of greeting.

"I think we were all right," Hailstorm said, glancing at Lynx.

"Yeah," Lynx said, deciding not to worry the others with the what-ifs that had been spiraling around in her brain for the past hour. "I'm pretty sure he didn't see us." She slipped the extra pouch off her neck and handed it back to the princess.

"Well, even if he did, it's too late to stop us now," Snowfall said, taking the bag and strapping it around her own neck. Her expression was fierce. "We're already on our way. For better or worse, there's no turning back."

That sounds… ominous, Lynx thought. Hopeful? I'm not sure which.

The three of them headed south, away from the palace they called home and toward the edge of their kingdom. Lynx was gripped with a strange mixture of fear and excitement. She'd never been outside the Ice Kingdom before, and although she had read stories set in other lands, she knew nothing could prepare her for truly being away from the cold and the snow she had known all her life. And she would be meeting dragons from other tribes! She'd get to see what they looked like in person and talk to them and experience for herself how different their lives were from hers.

She glanced at Hailstorm and Snowfall, who were flying on her right side. She couldn't help but wonder how they would deal with the journey. Like her, Snowfall had spent her entire life surrounded by ice walls and snow-colored dragons. The princess would also have the added difficulty of dealing with different reactions to her status than she was used to. Hailstorm had been outside the kingdom before, but he didn't exactly have good memories of his time away.

It'll be hard, but we'll manage, Lynx assured herself. We've all experienced years of harsh training and punishments and expectations. We can handle anything if we have a little determination.

The Ice Kingdom blurred by beneath them as they traveled. The moons gradually made their arcs across the sky, looking almost as if they were traveling with the three young dragons. The constellations changed position above them as the hours wore on, like the night sky was a dark net that was being shifted to let the light through in different places.

As the milky light of predawn began to appear on the horizon, the Great Ice Cliff came into view ahead of them. The moonlight shining through the clouds gave it a hazy glow, and it stretched before them like a vast, ghostly snake. Lynx half-expected it to shoot icicle spears at them, recognizing that they were leaving without orders, but it allowed them to pass.

This is it, she thought, shivering. We're really leaving.

Hailstorm stared down at the wall with the oddest expression on his face; Lynx couldn't even begin to fathom what he was thinking. Snowfall refused to look at the Cliff at all, staring straight ahead with a look of angry determination on her pale face.

Lynx glanced over her shoulder, feeling a thrill in her chest as she saw the Great Ice Cliff receding behind her. She'd spent so long in her kingdom that it had almost become its own world in her mind; leaving it now was like leaving Pyrrhia entirely, setting off to some new land where completely new dragons and experiences awaited her.

Snowfall was right, she thought. There really is no turning back.


A/N: Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review. Feedback and support are always greatly appreciated. :)