"It's SO thrilling to meet you all," smiled a ruby red dragon with a slightly tilted crown that glittered in the dim light. "I am the one and only Queen Scarlet!" She then motioned to the brutal-looking guard who snapped heavy chains onto Frost's arms. He then, with a quick motion shot a pointed spear through both his wings and looped a thick gold ring between them so she couldn't fly. Frost shrieked in pain and Queen Scarlet smiled gleefully. He tried to wiggle away, slamming his tail at them but instead ended up hitting a pointed spike on the floor. Queen Scarlet flashed a wicked grin. "Only THE BEST treatment for our lovely little friend here! You do know what fate will befall you, of course, right?" she added sweetly. Frost could only imagine. He had no idea.

"Good then. I doubt you do know. No one ever lives to tell the tale!" she then happily skipped out of the way and off to who knows where. Two more guards swooped down and attached a sharp clamp around Frost's mouth so that his frostbreath wouldn't work and then hit him on the head with a powerful swipe of his tail.

There was a second of pain. Then, darkness.

When Frost awoke, he had a huge headache. The first thing he realized was that he was WAY up in the air on a high platform. He looked down, glad to see that most of his chains were off except for his wrists, which were looped to the platform and his wings, which were bound by tight wires. He let out a gust of frostbreath onto them, but the chains wouldn't budge.

Glancing next to him, he noticed a sleeping Sandwing, another Icewing who looked like she'd given up already, and a Seawing who was furiously smashing herself against the chains, trying to break them off.

"Don't waste your time on that. You'll never get them off until the queen comes with the key," Frost informed her.

"Oh, how precious!" Frost whipped his head around to Scarlet flashing a menacing grin at them. "This will just be sooo THRILLING!"

"What will?" The sleeping Seawing had awoken.

"Here are the rules of our lovely little game," Scarlet began "Somebody gets randomly picked to fight against another prisoner. You will fight till death. If you win five times, you will go on to fighting Peril, our champion with scales of fire. Which you will definitely lose. So there is no hope of you miraculously getting set free. And remember, Escaping is impossible. So have fun!"

"Yeah, real fun," grumbled the Seawing after she had left. "I'm Ripple. And I WILL fight to the end!"

"I'm Frost," Frost told the others.

The Sandwing growled. "Cactus. And this is pointless because we're going to all die anyways."

"Wow, some friendly dragon you are!" Ripple said sarcastically. She flicked her turquoise tail, flashing the little cerulean stripes that lined her underbelly. This spunky little Seawing was starting to grow on Frost.

Later that day, back in his cell, after watching a bloody battle between the other Icewing and a Mudwing whom Frost didn't know, he noticed something in the corner of his prison. Cautiously, Frost walked over and picked up a shiny green glass bottle. He opened it up and tightly rolled up slip of paper fell out. Frost caught it in his talon. It was handwritten in a slightly crooked script that read:

Hi Dragon!

I don't know you, but I hope I will soon. My name is Aglais. I am a shiny dark reddish-purple and indigo Silkwing from the continent of Pantala. It is across the great sea, and I've always wondered about your continent. We do know some, from ancient scrolls, since Clearsight flew here a thousand years ago and told us all about you. I've always found it fascinating! What's it like in Pyrria? Fun? Scenic? Ugly? Dark? It's described it in the scrolls as beautiful and full of life, but if it's so great why did Clearsight leave? She wrote a whole book with predictions and probably all the answers to my endless questions, but we're not allowed to read it. You may not know the answer to my questions either. Silkwings are one of the two tribes we have here. There was a third, but they got wiped out during the Tree Wars. That was a big war that happened here fifty years ago. Long story. We Silkwings are born without wings and go through a month-long phase called our Chrysalis. I have already had mine. When you come out, you have wings and silk! The silk spins out of your wrists and can be used to create all kinds of things! My friend Navi gave me this bottle and said it was enchanted to be able to travel to your continent because that is apparently where it came from. I have no idea how it works, but I thought I'd give it a try. If it works, PLEASE write back!

Bye!

Aglais

What was is this? Frost thought to himself. First I get captured and I'm going to die, now a mysterious dragon from ANOTHER CONTINENT? Frost had never even known there was one, and he doubted anybody else did either. The only paper that he had was the one pinned to a harness around his neck that read FROST. He tore it off with his teeth and decided he would hide the bottle and paper in the back of his cell until he found a pen...