It's been too long. Update: Each chapter is now going to have 4k word average instead of 3k for longer chapters for you to enjoy. This will imply after this chapter (school slowed me down on updating so I wasn't able to write more). Also going to spam chapter of this story fast in order to focus on other stories.
To be humble is also to be moral. The most humble beings do not put themselves first, but do the opposite. They become the one to server the person behind them.
The words shows meaning and even the nicest in the world can't hope to live up to it's exact expectations everyday. The humble one will fight, but not for their own benefit. They will fight for the benefit of everyone else, even their enemy. He/She knows that by fighting for moral reasons, for sacrificing themselves so another can live, they reached a kindness that no one could ever meet. In the eyes of the good, that word can change the tides of the world.
The blizzard was finally over, and everyone in the kingdom was overjoyed. Several days passed by when there was nothing but a ferocious mouth of snow and wind that terrorized the IceWings. Forced into their homes, it felt as if the entire kingdom was shut down for a short period of time. After almost a week of boredom and torture, the storm dispersed and eager faces of IceWings began to fill the streets once again. For Celsius, however, it just meant there were going to be more opportunities for the Princess to be assassinated.
Glacier and he were back in the classrooms, and they somehow became even more of an attraction than the last time. Many of their peers looked up at the two and stared for long periods of time. They especially stared at their tails, which were coiled tightly with the other. Some just stared in disbelief: the fact that the once the ice cold Princess became a soft and shy dragoness. Others glared at the two in jealously, and it went towards both partners, too.
"I feel like we've become too much of a hot topic," Celsius whispered to the Princess.
"I would agree with you on this," she responded as they moved into a less crowded hallway. Celsius could hear the murmurs from small groups about them and their relationship. "You know, I think Iceflow has already opened her mouth with new 'information' ever since our celebration."
Celsius nodded in understanding, "so never trust Iceflow to keep a secret."
"Pretty much."
Glacier made her way to the side of the hallway. Approaching one of the lockers, she began to fiddle with the lock. Spinning it left, then right, then left once again, she pushed up on the handle and opened the small compartment. There was almost nothing in the solid blue container besides a pencil and some notebooks. Celsius watched as she grabbed them. Glacier looked back at him before frowning. "You know they're just notebooks, right?"
"You can never be too careful," he said calmly. She just rolled his eyes in response, doing her best to hide a grin. Stuffing the notebooks into her satchel, she nodded to Celsius and began walking through the hall once again. Celsius finally felt the most relaxed he has ever been since arriving into the kingdom. In his mind, however, thoughts tracing back to his real home were still lingering. The building he lived in for several years before sent off to a mission with the highest risk of dying. Even though he felt accepted here, Celsius still felt uneasy about certain dragons: students and adults.
The bodyguard knew very well that a younger dragon could easily be manipulated into living a horrible life and doing the most horrific things. He felt his head beginning to dwindle from the present and into the past. He winced, thinking of what he saw in the room he and Jupiter stormed that night; it would be something that he would never be able to forget.
"You okay?" Glacier's voiced brought him back into the present. His head snapped directly to her gaze, making her jump a little bit. "It looks like you've seen a spirit or something."
"Oh! No, no just . . . recalling things from the past and all," He said truthfully, but didn't want to give in the details.
"I can see that they aren't good memories," Glacier spoke up, moving a bit closer to him. "You can talk to me about them after classes. I've got nothing better to do." Celsius didn't try to reject her offer: he knew it would make things worse for the two, especially for him. All he did was nod in agreement with her suggestion. "Good, let's get to class."
The rest of their trip to the classroom was silent between them. It wasn't the same for everyone else, though. Many of Glacier's friends, almost all of them female, were asking about her health and how she was putting up with her new bodyguard. Celsius couldn't help but feel uncomfortable for two reasons: each of them were getting close to the Princess, and they were asking too many personal questions about their so called "relationship". The bodyguard huffed; he was going to have a chat with Iceflow when he had the time. He was relieved when they finally entered the room, being able to have some peace and quiet. Taking out some homework, Celsius began to work on it.
"Watcha got there," a familiar voice erupted from the silence. Celsius looked to his right to see Ridge sitting next to him. The IceWing was working on homework as well, and it was even the same homework. "I honestly forgot about this until this morning, Cel. No way I'm getting credit for this." Celsius sighed and looked at the clock in the front of the room. He noted that there was still fifteen minutes left before class started.
"Give me two minutes," Celsius told him, "then you can look off mine."
"Really," Ridge said, "you'd do that for me?" Celsius gave him a light nod, not prepared for the slap on the shoulder Ridge gave him. "You are the dragon, Cel! Oh, sorry about that." Celsius gave him a cold stare as he felt the sting on his shoulder wear off. "My bad . . ." Ridge sat in silence until Celsius was ready to hand over his worksheet.
It took a couple of minutes, but Celsius held out his paper towards his classmate. "Here," he said, "make sure that it doesn't look like you copied it." Ridge nodded, grabbing the paper from the air. He began working on the homework, but this time he had help from his friend.
"Thanks," Ridge murmured as he worked. This time, Celsius slapped him on the shoulder. He was his friend wince before looking up at him with a scowl formed on his face. "Was that really neccessary?"
Celsius grinned at him, shrugging. "Seemed fair to me."
"Ha. Ha."
Celsius felt a talon poke him in the side. He swung his head to the opposite side of the room. Glacier was looking at him, and she had a frown on her face. "You do know you can get demoted down to the 4th circle for cheating, right?" Celsius snorted at her rhetoric question. His eyes met hers for a moment, and he frowned back at her.
"Really?"
Glacier gave him a nod, "Yeah, it was some rule that was implemented about two decades back. They say that it was to keep the future of the tribe knowledgeable of the past and present. It's the worse at the graduating year. Everyone who passed it said that they test the cadets of everything they ever learned."
"How far back?"
"Dragonets."
Celsius eyes her suspiciously, but she just shook her head. "I wouldn't believe everything they say," Galcier added. "Upper class IceWings tend to be pranksters on the younger cadets."
Before he knew it, the loud ring of the bell erupted through the hallways and classrooms. The professor, who was at his desk, approached the front of the classroom. He frowned at the cadets running into the room and quickly filling the vacant desks. Celsius grabbed his notebook and flipped it to a random blank page.
"I wouldn't expect half of my class to be late on the first day back," the professor said in disappointment. "The only ones to be here early were Orca, Princess Glacier, Celsius, and Ridge. Moons, almost none of my class was on time." A low murmur of voices went through the crowd. Most of the eyes in the room were directed at Celsius and Glacier, and he wasn't surprised. "Speaking of which, how are you doing, Glacier."
"I'm doing fine Professor Walrus," Glacier said quickly, avoiding eye contact with her teacher and the rest of the room.
"What have you two been doing," Ridge whispered to Celsius, who just gave him a stern look. "I mean, I haven't seen you and Glacier get this much attention."
"Don't ask me; go ask the person who has been trying to kill her for the past few weeks," Celsius whispered back. Ridge went silent, but still kept asking questions through his face. "Not now." He then growled at his classmate, who finally stopped his barrage of weird expressions.
"Ah! Celsius," The professor exclaimed. "I want to give you my thanks for volunteering for being the Princess's personal guard." Celsius gave a small smile. "For you are protecting the future of this kingdom."
(* * *)
They were now sitting on the roof of the academic building. Despite Celsius protesting her safety, her decision to go into the open still stayed the same. Their tails were twined and Celsius had a wing around the Princess, giving the impression that she was safe under his wing.
"Why am I so embarrassed." Glacier suddenly shouted, breaking the thoughtful silence of their lunch break. Celsius looked to her confused. I thought she didn't care about opinions towards her.
"What do you mean by that?" Celsius asked her. She gave a sigh and leaned her head on his shoulder. "I never you knew you could get embarrassed, just . . . uncomfortable."
"What we did during the blizzard needs to stay a secret," Glacier informed him. "Anyways, it feels as if I'm being judged by everyone, as if trying to pick out any flaws I have. It also doesn't help that they are starting to see me differently, considering my life before you was pretty straightfoward-and cold."
Celsius took a bite out of the dead polar bear. He was silent as he thought about her words. His eyes scanning for any threats, both conspicuous and blatant. "Well, we don't have to act this way. If it's easier on you, we can just go back to being very, very serious."
Glacier shook his head. "That's the problem, I feel-well-afraid of going back to my old life. Now that I've had a little bit of fun the past few weeks, I can't seem to just being boring and scary all the time. Besides, it is fun having a friend around I can chat to." Celsius saw her warm smile appear, but then turned into a scared looked almost as fast. A second later, her face was back to smiling, but Celsius could tell she was trying to force it. He decided to play along, not wanting to ruin this peaceful moment.
"Well, I could say the same," Celsius informed her, and she looked up, her face having a hint of surprise. "I used to be-um, what do call it again? Oh! Socially awkward." There was a pause, but Celsius decided to keep talking. "My life used to be simple and boring, too. Just focused on one thing after another, not having much of a social life." He looked away momentarily. Celsius could feel his cheeks beginning to warm. Strange. "Then, I met you-after we got through that bitter part in the beginning."
"You know," Galcier started, brushing her wing over his, "I think that's the first time you've told me something like that."
"I thought I already did something like this," Celsius countered, noticing his cheeks warming up even further.
"Not like this," Glacier spoke up, "You felt more sincere in your voice than the other times. By the way, thanks for listening to my little rant." Celsius hesitated before speaking again.
"No problem."
"Also," she leaned in so her snout was only centimeters from his ear. "You look cute when you blush like that." At that remark, Celsius immediately turned his head away from the princess. She laughed in response to his embarrassment before untwining their tails. "Come on, I bet the bell is going to ring soon." Suddenly, Glacier sprinted off the roof the building and flared her wings open before pushing to help her launch. She was in the sky once again, but now gliding down to the continent. Celsius followed her eagerly, hoping to catch up with the ambitious princess.
Celsius couldn't help but scowl at himself for having his feelings exposed that easily. You're supposed to look like a rock, Cel. If you told her about you're feelings that easily, then think of what enemies will get when they torture you. Celsius had to admit that was extreme for him to think. Relax, Cel, you're protecting a high profile figure that has an elite task force at her disposal. It's alright.
As Glacier entered the buildings, with him in close pursuit, the bell rang. The loud ring signified the end of a good part of a day. A part that let school friends reconnect with each other after embracing a week of freezing hell. The hallways started to become more like a gathering space as groups of cadets had discussions while walking.
Celsius soon met the pace that Glacier was going and they walked together, with him watching out for her safety. The Princess smirked at him. "What?" He asked.
"Nothing," she responded, but her smirk turned into a wide grin. "Just thinking of something."
"I bet you are," he agreed, but his response was pure sarcasm. With his remark, Celsius earned slap in the face that was executed with her tail. "Ow!" Glacier sniggered at him, before composing herself.
"Do not backsass your superior," Glacier informed. She fixed her posture to look professional while she flew past a group of male cadets staring at her. Celsius took a brief glance at the group and continued to follow the princess.
"You know that's an abuse of power, right?" Glacier snorted, then swatted him with her tail once more. Celsius scowled at her briefly, then wrapped a wing around.
"What are you doing!" Glacier whispered harshly at him. Her face transfomed into surprise, and all Celsius wanted to do was take a picture of it. Unfortunately, he didn't have such devices around.
"Payback," he smirked, before kissing her on the cheek. This is what caught Glacier offguard. Many of the other students went silent in surprise. All Glacier did was try to hide her face in her claws, but it didn't at all.
She brought her face up to her bodyguard. "You are not going to have a pleasant night." She hissed, her expression turning murderous. Celsius just grinned in response. "And you will not want to wear that smile again."
"I'll keep that in note."
"Ahem." Their attention went straight as a guard came up to the pair. Celsius noted that he was a Palace Guard, with the crown on his uniform signifying the role. "Queen Aurora has requested for Princess Glacier and her bodyguard back to the palace. Immediately." He also took note of the tone when the guard said the word. To Celsius, he knew whatever news the Queen received was not good.
Somehow, Glacier did not get the hint. "On what reasoning?"
"The orders of the Queen, Princess Glacier. If she said you rejected the request, then the Queen is now ordering you to come back to the palace." The chatter of the hallway went down, followed by the bell; signifying that classes had start once again. Glacier looked over to him, and Celsius nodded to her silent question.
"Very well," she grumbled, and the guard turned around to begin walking out of the building. Glacier sauntered after the guard, and Celsius felt himself spiral into confusion. What has the queen learned about the radical terrorists? A hurricane of questions began pummeling his head, but he ended up forcing them out: there were more important matters to give attention to.
As they walked, Glacier twined her tail with her bodyguard. Celsius went still momentarily, before forcing a calm physique and expression almost immediately. "I got ask you something, Cel. Can I call you, Cel?" Celsius debated internally for a moment.
"Of course, Princess Glacier," he said in a formal manner. She rolled her eyes in response.
"Anyways, I was wondering if you knew anything about this?" Celsius eyed her after she made the statement. "Do you?"
Celsius spoke up, but was interrupted to the guard they met a few minutes ago. "No one knows, your Majesty. She had requested your presence, but never stated a reason." The IceWing bodyguard frowned at the palace guard's explanation. This is getting scary, definitely going to have to contact Frigid as soon as possible. It seemed like hours, but they finally found the right exit. As soon as Celsius and Glacier looked to see what was meeting, Celsius felt his heart drop.
Armored vehicles were waiting for them.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I sincerely apologize for being a month behind. Anyways, before I make a schedule, I want to make things clear.
1. I have come to see that High School is extremely unexpecting and dumb.
2. Don't expect a regular publish schedule.
Anyways, I hope you were entertained and I will see you in the next chapter.