Snowstorm finally saw the SkyWing palace come into view, at the edge of the horizon. Even with his super speed, it had taken him almost 2 full days to reach the palace from the Ice Kingdom. As he squinted, he could see two Skywing guards flying towards him.

Oh no, this will be messy soon, he thought. However, they quickly turned back towards the Sky Kingdom. Snowstorm continued flying closer to the palace.

He finally swooped down a reasonable distance from the palace. When he swooped down, he was met by a group of 5 firescale dragons.

"Hey, you! What's your name?" one of them asked. Snowstorm studied the dragon closely and saw that he was still a dragonet, about four years old. He had orange scales and under scales, maroon wings, and dark red eyes.

"Flare! Don't straight up say that!" said another. Snowstorm thought that this SkyWing was around six years old. She had carmine eyes, scarlet scales, and orange under scales and wings.

"Ya! He could help us," agreed a third dragon. Snowstorm thought that this one was also about four years old. He had blood red eyes and under scales, auburn wings, and flame red scales.

"Sorry for our rudeness. We should introduce ourselves," a fourth one said, glaring at the first dragon, who, from what Snowstorm had gathered, was named Flare. The fourth dragon looked like he was about seven or eight, probably just a few months younger than the eight year old Snowstorm. He had orange eyes, mahogany wings, flame red scales, and cardinal under scales.

"Sorry. My name is Flare," the first firescale SkyWing said.

"I'm Flare's older sister, Ciel," said the second.

"I'm Flare's best friend, Scorch," said the third dragon.

"I'm Scorch's older brother, Caelum," the fourth dragon said.

"That's my younger sister, Hearth," Flare said, gesturing to the fifth dragon who was still a small, shy little two year old dragonet. She had orange under scales, maroon wings, carmine eyes, and dark red scales.

"What's your name?" Scorch asked.

"I am the DeathWing," Snowstorm replied.

"Come on, tell us your real name," Flare said.

"Do you swear not to tell anyone without my permission?" Snowstorm pressed.

"YES!" they all said.

"Fine. My name is Snowstorm, or King Snowstorm as the IceWings call me," Snowstorm told them. The SkyWings all gasped at the name of the lost animus. They had heard about the young animus IceWing who had disappeared just 2 days before his gifting ceremony.

"Why are you here?" Ciel asked.

"To get the Sky Stone and the Firescale Stone, of course," Snowstorm said. The SkyWings exchanged glances, and then they turned back towards Snowstorm.

"We have an offer," Caelum said.

"And, what is the offer?" Snowstorm asked.

"Well, you see, the queen doesn't have the Firescale Stone, I do. And I ask you to free us from our queen, and in exchange, we will give you the stone and we will help you with your journey to collect the stones," Caelum told Snowstorm.

"Deal," Snowstorm quickly agreed, and they started heading towards the palace.

"What's the plan?" Scorch asked.

"Okay, so, first we have to act like Snow- I mean the DeathWing wants to meet with the queen and that we're just escorting him, not allying with him. Next, we wait for him to ask for the stones and the queen to ask us to kill him. Then, Snowstorm backs up so that he is a safe distance from the queen but his back is facing her. Finally, we dive and Snowstorm dodges it and we tumble into the queen. Then, the guards will come rushing in and we burn them and Snowstorm can also help us," Caelum whispered so that no one but the other five dragons could hear him.

"Okay. Also, if this plan is successful and we make it out alive, I can grant you all immortality," Snowstorm said. Snowstorm knew that would do the trick. He saw all of their eyes sparkle at the thought of being immortal.

You can only grant limited immortality, a voice in his head said. Snowstorm recognized the voice as his mentor's.

Why? I'm an animus! Snowstorm asked.

That is the curse that all DeathWings have. The firescale dragons could hurt you if you don't tell them the truth, his mentor told him. Snowstorm sighed.

"Apparently, as a DeathWing I can only grant you limited immortality, but when I have all of the stones, I can make you all immortal," Snowstorm told them.

"What can you do with limited immortality?" Caelum asked.

As his mentor told him about limited immortality, Snowstorm repeated the words out loud to the SkyWings.

"You can't die of sickness, disease, old age, animus spells, or from animus-cursed objects. It is also extremely hard for you to die in battle, and seeing that you guys have firescales, it basically eliminates all of the ways that you can die," Snowstorm told them.

"Cool. So, anyway, let's focus on the plan," Flare said, as the group of six dragons made their descent towards the SkyWing palace.


"Sir?" Caelum asked a SkyWing in the palace. Snowstorm recognized him as Prince Mahogany, Queen Cuprite's nephew, who was also a top SkyWing general.

"Yes?" Snowstorm saw Prince Mahogany look up as he answered Caelum. He had dark red scales with red-orange under scales, as well as crimson eyes.

"We've got him," Caelum told Prince Mahogany.

"I shall take you to my mother," Prince Mahogany said as he led the six dragons to the SkyWing throne room.


The dragons were in Queen Cuprite's throne room in a matter of seconds.

"Caelum, Ciel, Flare, Scorch, Hearth, is this the DeathWing?" the queen asked the firescaled SkyWings.

"Yes, your majesty," Caelum answered, as he bowed his head.

"Good. I see that you have done your job. Now, stay here and wait for my orders," Queen Cuprite told Caelum, Ciel, Flare, Scorch, and Hearth as they obeyed her and bowed their heads.

The queen turned towards Snowstorm, her dark red eyes in such an icy glare that it seemed to pierce through his heart.

"What do you want, DeathWing?" Queen Cuprite asked him coldly.

"Your most prized possession," Snowstorm told her.

"And what would that be?" Queen Cuprite asked, in an even colder tone.

"Let's just say it's a stone that has something to do with your tribe," Snowstorm said smugly. Queen Cuprite caught on to his tone.

"First of all, no! NEVER! And secondly, don't ever ask me that again. Also, what a way to speak to a queen! Acting all smug and everything, with that I'm-so-amazing look on your disgraceful face! When you ask for something, be more respectful! Oh yes, and lastly, firescale dragons! Make sure this dragon never shows his face in my kingdom again! No, I take that back. Make sure he never shows his face on this planet again! Kill him!" Queen Cuprite ordered.

Snowstorm turned around and looked at the firescale dragons. Scorch subtly winked at him, so that the queen wouldn't see. They had been waiting for this.

The firescale dragons came at him as one, although their pace wasn't that fast. Snowstorm knew that it was intentional. He ran until he was between the firescale dragons and the queen. Then he pretended to be tired and started fake-wheezing.

Flare rolled over once, this was their signal.

The firescale dragons dived straight for his head, but they probably would have leaped over his head even if Snowstorm didn't roll out of the way like he did. However, he dodged anyway just to make sure that it didn't look intentional.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Snowstorm heard a scream of pain and rage from behind him.

Snowstorm turned around and saw the firescale dragons burning the queen by touching her.

"GET OFF NOW!" he heard Queen Cuprite yell as guards rushed in towards the firescale dragons. Soon enough, Snowstorm found himself activating his firescales and venom stingers, stabbing and burning SkyWing guards left and right. After knocking out his 26th guard, Snowstorm ran towards the firescale dragons who were cornered.

Caelum punched a guard in the face, burning him. The firescale dragons fought their way all the way to the queen. Snowstorm was already there. He stabbed the queen in the back with a stinger as she tried to run away.

"There's no running from me now," Snowstorm smirked as he dug his firescaled claws deep into Queen Cuprite's throat.

"W-why did you a-ally with this maniac, dragons?" she asked the firescales, gasping and clawing at her neck.

"He's not a maniac," Hearth replied calmly.

"You deserve this, you treated us like scum," said Scorch.

"Yeah, you think you're the greatest, trying to invent ways of torturing us," Flare said, glaring at the queen of the SkyWings.

"H-how did you know about-... I-I mean, stop l-lying, I nev-never did such a thing!" Queen Cuprite said through more gasps.

"Yeah right, you admitted it just now, and we saw the plans lying in our doorway, in your talonwriting. It also had your name on it. So give up. Give us the stones," Caelum said.

"Nev-"

"He said, give us the stones!" Snowstorm yelled, digging the stinger deep into her back. The queen let out a chorus of screams.

"No," she said.

"Yes," Snowstorm replied, as he activated the Leafspeak Stone.

Take the Sky Stone from Queen Cuprite, he told the stone.

Yes sir, it replied, as vines emerged out of the floor.

The vines moved quickly and tore the necklace out of Queen Cuprite's talons. It then proceeded to chain her talons to the floor and covered her snout, immobilizing her.

Snowstorm grabbed the necklace from a vine. He pulled out the stone, placed it in his gauntlet, and flew out of the room, followed by the firescale dragons.

"So, what about the deal?" Flare asked.

"Of course I didn't forget," Snowstorm said, "I enchant these five dragons to have limited immortality."

The dragons all smiled as they flew off into the sky.

Thank you, Leafspeak Stone, Snowstorm thought, as he followed them towards the horizon.