Chapter Eleven
Crystal
Crystal exhaled a puff of air, that quickly became visible in the cold temperature. She and her merry band of friends, who had thankfully voted her their official leader earlier that day, except for Flicker, who, being an obstinate Skywing, had voted for herself, were perched behind an unusually large column, waiting for the assassin to strike. Noon. That was the time that Darkmystic had determined, and Crystal had faith in her team. She was proud of herself for leading them this far successfully, and hoped that she could stop this assassin from dropping a dragonflame cactus on Queen Glacier. She was quite enthralled to be in her tribe's home, a land of comforting cold and ice and snow. But she had to focus. Noon. The plan they had decided on was simple enough. When the assassin dropped the dragonflame, they sent a burst of fire after it. For a few brief seconds, it would smolder. In that time, she, Crystal, the Icewing, was to project a stream of her freezing Icewing breath onto the burning plant. It required precision and focus, not shiny eyed visions of snow and ice. Then they would send Rhododendron, who was thrilled to have a part to play in this, up there to capture the assassin. Mostly she had been chosen for this duty due to her camouflage skills, but also in case the villain would not be apprehended peaceably. Crystal figured that Rhododendron could use her 'claws of dread' on the mysterious dragon, although she doubted that the bubbly dragon could actually manage to harm anyone. But they'd cross that bridge when they came to it.
It was almost noon. The sun shining through the window bounced it's light around the room. A set of double doors opened at the end of the room, and Queen Glacier entered her throne room. It hadn't been easy for Crystal and her friends to locate the throne room, but somehow they had ended up in the correct place. The queen, of course, hadn't had such troubles finding her own throne room, and the elegant but cold dragon took a seat in her throne. She had changed her adornments after the Sandwing War of Succession, choosing to drape herself in diamonds to symbolize that she was an Icewing, and no half witted Sandwing or anybody else would bribe her to join a war that was ultimately lost by all three parties. Crystal liked it. It was quite a statement. A shadow flickered on the archway above the queen's head. Just like they had seen in Brook's fire, something that Crystal was still trying to register. The shy Mudwing had prophetic powers, or at least her fire did. It was a little hard to process. Aargh! She yelled inside her brain. Focus! Stop getting distracted by every little thing! What are you, a Rainwing? She glanced guiltily at Rhododendron after she thought this. That was a little rude. And there she went again! Losing her focus to…
The shadowy figure atop the archway procured the spiky dragonflame cactus. It was time. Crystal breathed deeply, preparing herself. She felt the icy cold build up in her throat. It was refreshing. The plant fell, followed by the fire. It was a race. The fire won. It struck the cactus, setting it aflame. Now! Crystal exhaled a blast of freezing frost, keeping herself hidden for the most part behind her column, with only her snout poking out, sky blue. Across from her, at an identical column, another snout appeared, deep blue, but it didn't look like a Seawing's, and it didn't act like a Seawing's, ejected a cloud of frosty breath that only Icewings had. But Crystal couldn't see that. All she was focusing on was keeping her breath steady, and monitoring the dragonflame cactus, praying that this would work. It put out most of the flame in seconds, but not all. In the miniscule war raged between fire and ice, it seemed like the fire was going to triumph, when the second icy blast hit the cactus. In barely a second, frost from both Icewings crawled over the plant, eliminating all of the flame, and the risk. The frozen cactus fell harmlessly in front of the confused Queen Glacier.
"What is this mysterious plant?" She said. "Kind of...spiky." But Crystal didn't have time to listen to the queen's somewhat hilarious monotone musings. She waved a talon, signaling Rhododendron to fly up there and capture the assassin. It took the Rainwing a moment to catch on, but then she adapted her scales to match the icy castle walls and shot up towards the archway, unseen by all assembled.