The day after Sickle's death was shocking and heartbreaking, to say the least. The town managed to set up a funeral for his father almost immediately. But his death left a cloud of sorrow hanging over the town. The streets took a darker tone. The town folk felt as though the sun had been blocked out. As if their source of happiness had been snuffed out. All the light in the town seemingly just died.

Frost had attended the funeral. He seemed a lot quieter after his father's tragedy. His aggressive nature had toned down, but he isolated himself. Then, without a word, he left and headed back to Warfang.

He still couldn't process the death of his father. He tried to feel angry or upset. But he just felt… empty. He couldn't tell the other candidates though. He needed to remain strong for them and himself. As Warfang came into view, the rest of the candidates were already waiting outside of the temple as he flew closer.

When he landed, Dawn was the first to speak, "Where were you, Frost? We've all been worried about you."

Frost scoffed, "Nowhere that concerns you. Now if you can excuse me, I'm going to go and continue training." Frost hoped they didn't hear the hint of sorrow in his voice.

"Are you sure? You seem kind of distracted by something. Did something happen?" Dawn was getting curious.

Instead of answering his question, Frost just walked past him. He knew if he kept talking to him, he would eventually break and reveal the truth. So he just ignored him.

As Frost walked, Dawn began feeling a little concerned about him. He didn't seem as aggressive as he usually is. "Frost is trying to hide something," he thought to himself. "He's acting a bit unusual. He's would have beaten me up by now."

"You feel like something is wrong too, right?" He stepped out of his thoughts as Amethyst starting speaking to him.

"Yeah, he's acting a bit weird."

"Well, I felt some kind of sorrow surrounding his heart. I don't know what it could be though." She contemplated the options and made a choice. "Maybe you could try to ask him again. I'll come with you."

"But you know how he feels about me. Also, I don't want him to hurt you."

"One, that didn't stop you last time. Two, I can take care of myself. You shouldn't worry so much" Dawn was going to respond, but he didn't have a good enough excuse.

He sighed, "Ok, fine. Let's go talk to him." They both walked both into the temple. As they walked into the arena, Frost was already training with his makeshift ice armor against some training dummies.

Frost heard them approaching and felt his frustration build. He muttered, "Why can't they just leave me alone?" He continued training but spoke to them. "What do you want?"

Dawn spoke first, "Frost, we're worried about you. We want to help, but we need to know what happened and where you went."

Amethyst followed up, "Yeah, you're grieving about something. I can feel the despair in your heart. Please, let us help you."

All this conversation was doing for Frost was frustrating him. "No! You don't deserve to know! It's my problem, not yours!"

That statement did nothing but solidify Dawn's determination. "No, we're not leaving this time." Frost stopped and turned towards the black dragon. Pure rage and disbelief were smoldering in his eyes. He walked up to Dawn.

His stare seemed to pierce his soul. "I'm not asking. Leave me be before you force me to kick your a** again."

Dawn wasn't backing down, "Try me!" Before he could, Amethyst stepped between the rivaling drakes.

She pushed Frost back, "No, I won't let you two fight!" She growled towards Frost. "Especially you! I've heard of what you do to those you fight. I've personally have had to help them with their injuries. You almost killed Dawn the first time you met him. You aren't going near him again." She stood steadfast against the light blue dragon.

"Move. This is between me and him. I don't care what kind of relationship you two share, but he needs to learn his place. Move, I don't want to hurt you!"

Dawn yelled out, "You're nothing but a bully! How do you expect to become a guardian if you continue to hurt the innocent? Your father would be disappointed in you!"

Frost snapped at the mention of his father, "That's it! No one lectures me on how to become a guardian!" He ran at Dawn, teeth bared and claws out. However, Amethyst grabbed him by his horns and held him back. He pushed more force into his charge, but she didn't budge.

"I won't let you past me!" She wasn't going to let anyone get hurt. Suddenly she felt something cold form against her legs. She looked down at her hind legs. They were frozen in ice. Then, Frost stopped in his charge and backed up. As she fell back on her front paws, he encased them in ice as well. She was rendered immobile.

Frost spoke, "I didn't want to do that. But you left me with no choice. This fight has nothing to do with you!" He started walking around her.

She wasn't out of tricks just yet. She used her free tail and struck him across the face. He only flinched slightly though. He felt something wet against his cheek. She had drawn blood. All the blood did was further enrage Frost.

"You shouldn't have done that!" As he spoke an ice ball formed on the end of his tail. He whipped around and bashed it against Amethyst's skull. It sent her flying and knocked her unconscious as she impacted the wall. He looked at her with a bit of regret. But he didn't have a chance to think before a crushing force struck him square in the chest. He skidded back.

"No! You shouldn't have done that!" Dawn was steaming. For the first time, Frost was kind of afraid of Dawn. The black drake's eyes were nothing but slits lined with killing intent. He charged again, but Frost was ready. He jumped into the air and an ice spike came up where he was standing. He thought Dawn would ram himself in the spike, knocking himself out. Instead, Dawn jumped and ran up the spike. Dawn grabbed Frost by his tail as they were still in the air. They scratched and clawed at each other, both trying to gain the upper hand. The weight of two dragons was too much for Frost and he fell out of the sky. He landed with a loud thud. He tried to get up but Dawn's weight came crashing down on him. The impact stunned him for a bit but Dawn was stunned as well. He recovered before Dawn did and saw his chance to incapacitate him. He got on top of the young dragon. The black dragon struggled as Frost bit down on his neck. But, a quick and sharp pain shot up his neck and he was almost instantly knocked unconscious.

Frost got up off of the unconscious dragon. Ratha came running into the arena, "What is happening in here?" She was shocked at the scene in front of her. Frost was getting up off of an unconscious Dawn. Amethyst lay against a wall as some of it had broken off and fallen over her. She looked at Frost with anger in her eyes, "What did you do?"

"They… They left me no choice." Frost couldn't believe what had happened. He had lost his temper with Amethyst and knocked her aside. He was defending himself against Dawn. He used a nerve point in his neck to temporarily incapacitate and render him unconscious. Despite his hatred towards the black dragon, he regretted hurting Amethyst.

"I don't believe you." He looked up at Ratha. Her words seemed like nothing but a silenced whisper to him. He couldn't stare her in the eye. "What does she think about the situation? What would my father say?" A tear rolled down his cheek as he was once again reminded of his late father. He couldn't let any of the candidates see him like this. He quickly got to his feet and took to the sky.

Ratha gasped in surprise but quickly took after him. He was excellent at flying. She nearly lost him about three times, but she wasn't going to let him leave. She fired a stream of fire breath to boost her speed. She quickly caught up with the ice dragon. "Stop running!"

Frost looked over his shoulder. She was above him. "Leave me alone!" He dove towards the ground, trying to gain more speed to increase the distance between him from Ratha. His efforts proved futile as she easily tackled him mid-dive. Both hit the ground but Ratha remained on top of him.

He struggled to free himself, "Let me go!" She slammed her paw against his face. The force sent stars through his head but kept him conscious. She looked Frost in the eye as he shook the stars out of his head, "Why are you running from me?"

Frost looked away as he felt tears in his eyes. "Because I was worried of what you or the guardians would think if they saw me there." He couldn't help but think of his father. "Why me?"

"What do you mean 'why me'?" She looked skeptical of his explanation.

"It just feels like my whole life is going wrong! I feel like I'm falling apart at the seams! I can't handle it anymore!" The tears were flowing uncontrollably. He needed a release. "First, my mother, then my father, when will people around me stop dying?!"

When he said that, she realized why he was acting so weird and why he had left. "That's why you left the other day. Your father was killed." She got off him and let him sit up.

"I left because I heard him call out to me. When I got there, I was too late." He finally turned to look at her. The tears streaming down his face looked like mini waterfalls. "The worst thing is… I could have been there! I could have saved him! I always blamed my father down for letting my mom die. But I'm no better!"

Anger was building in his voice, "I'm nothing but a hypocrite! I'm weak! I can't even keep those that I love safe!" He slowly calmed down as he looked back at Ratha. "I don't deserve to be a guardian."

"Don't say that!" He was shocked at Ratha's sudden response. "You can't just throw away everything you worked so hard towards! Your father wouldn't want you to give up! You think your emotions would make you weaker as a guardian. You're wrong. I admire the fact that you opened up to me. I think you are stronger because of it." Frost felt a little happier from Ratha's compliment but still couldn't get over the pain he caused Amethyst and Dawn.

"Well, we need to get back to the temple. You need to apologize to Dawn and Amethyst too." She pulled him back onto his feet. "Once we clean yourself up, we'll head back." Frost nodded and walked away to the nearby river to clean his scales. As dipped into the river, his mind went back to what happened at the temple. He couldn't stand the fact that he had hurt Amethyst. He didn't want to but when she hit him, he just couldn't let it stand. Either way, he needed to pay for his actions, whether he wanted to or not. Once he finished, he headed back to Ratha. She was leaning against the trunk of a tree. She noticed him walking towards her.

"Are you ready to go?"

He nodded, "Yeah, let's go." They both flapped their wings and flew into the sky.