~ CHAPTER 16 ~

Snow flew closely (but not too closely) behind Barb as they made their way to the forest for their hunting expedition. Countless thin trees jutted out of the ground like toothpicks, with dense foliage hanging over them.

Further and further they flew, with Barb wordlessly leading the way and Snow following her lead. The journey was silent and tense, so much so that Snow almost felt compelled to say something.

"We're going to land," Barb ordered suddenly, startling Snow and causing him to slightly lose his balance. "The forest is too thick here. Can't see anything from above. It'll be more effective if we're on the ground."

"O-okay," said Snow, though the SandWing didn't seem to wait for his approval and had already begun her descent into the thick foliage. He quickly followed.

Being inside the forest was an entirely new experience. Snow had never seen so much life and energy before. The mountains where he grew up were relatively scarce in their wildlife, but this forest had an abundance of it. Soothing bird chirps echoed throughout, mixed in with the sound of soft winds and gently swishing flora. Scattered sunbeams shone through the gaps in the canopy ceiling, landing comfortably on Snow's scales. The forest floor was covered in fallen leaves and twigs, crinkling softly as they kindly cushioned his talons.

Wow… Snow thought. This would be such a beautiful sight… if I wasn't so terrified right now.

Try as he might, Snow could not stop worrying. His anxiety had a tight grip on him, constantly reminding him of the potential for disaster. He looked to Barb as she took in her surroundings, eyeing the coiled barb that appended her tail.

"We're going to need to be as quiet as possible, so don't make any noise," Barb said with a sharp look. "We both want to get this done as quickly as we can, so just follow me and let me do all the work."

Snow nodded obediently, fearfully trailing his hunting partner as she made her way through the forest.

Several minutes passed as they quietly walked, before Barb held up a talon, indicating for Snow to stop. She pointed at a red fox that was drinking from a nearby creek, completely unaware of the two predators behind it.

Snow watched as Barb expertly uncoiled her tail, her body low to the ground as she stealthily approached the creature.

Snow moved forward behind his partner – SNAP!

The fox's head shot up at the sudden noise, noticing both the dragons before rapidly fleeing the scene.

Snow was confused as to what happened before realizing that he had stepped on a large stick by accident, as evidenced by the snapped components beneath his talon. It must've heard me…

Barb looked to him with an irritated expression. "Seriously? All you had to do was be quiet."

"I – I'm sorry," Snow said, shrinking beneath her gaze. "I didn't m-mean to, I swear, I didn't see the stick and I was focused on the fox and –"

"Shut up," she commanded. Snow clamped his mouth shut submissively, trembling as the large SandWing approached him. "If you're gonna keep scaring off prey, then you can just wait here where you can be useless instead of a hindrance," she hissed. "I'm going on ahead. Maybe I can actually catch something if I don't have an idiot stumbling around behind me and alerting everyone to my presence."

He watched her storm off into some nearby thickets, disappearing beyond his view.

Snow slumped to the ground, not bothering to hide his gloom like usual. She's right. I'm a useless screw-up.

"Are you just gonna let her walk all over you like that?" Green asked from within the bag.

"Yes," Snow responded glumly. "Everything she said is true. She's got a better shot at hunting something without me."

"Come on Snow, everyone makes mistakes. You can't give up on yourself cause you stepped on one twig," he tried.

"Well Barb sure gave up on me after that," Snow mumbled, rustling some fallen leaves around with his tail.

"Forget about Barb. She's a bully with a bad attitude. You can't take her words to heart," Green said. "And you don't have to be so scared of her, you know. You've been giving me the ride of my life with all the trembling you've been doing."

"Sorry."

"She's not as scary as you think. And if you do get into a fight with her, I'm right here with you to take her down."

"No offense Green, but I don't think your noodle arms are gonna be very helpful against a dragon," Snow pointed out.

"Then I'll charm her with my dazzling personality, and you get her from behind while she's distracted."

Snow rolled his eyes. "I almost hope she does start a fight now, just so I get to see that wonderful sight."

"Never underestimate the ingenuity of a desperate scavenger," Green said sagely. "I'm not afraid to really lean into the 'cute dumb animal' look if worst comes to worst."

Snow chuckled. "Now that is something I wouldn't mind seeing, even if it was the last thing I saw before I died a horrible death."

"Well if it comes down to it, I promise to make your last moments on this world as enjoyable as possible. Ah, I'm such a good friend," he said, half joking and half boasting.

"You really are," Snow agreed sincerely. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Green."

"That's what I'm here for."

The sound of rustling leaves and twigs came from the nearby bushes. Is Barb back already? Snow thought, as the volume of the rustling increased.

He prepared himself for the visage of Barb as the noise approached, step by step. Except what stepped out of the thickets wasn't Barb.

It was a massive grizzly bear, advancing steadily towards the IceWing.

Snow froze. He'd never seen a bear before. Its sharp claws glimmered menacingly, reflecting what little light managed to pierce through the canopy. The bear was slowly making its way towards him, baring its tainted teeth. …Is this how scavengers feel when they see us?

"Snow," whispered Green. "This is a bad time to freeze up. Move."

Snapping out of his fearful trance, Snow heeded Green's advice and began slowly moving backward, trying not to make any sudden movements.

Take it easy Snow, he thought, struggling to calm his uneven breathing. One step at a time.

He took a single step backward. Then another. Then another. And then he couldn't take any more steps back, as his hind leg got tangled up in some large, thick tree roots. Oh no.

He tugged at his leg, trying to pull it free. Come on come on come on, he thought with panic as his leg refused to comply.

The bear quickened its approach, seeing Snow's predicament. It was rapidly closing in, switching from a jog to a charge. It lunged at Snow with an ear-splitting ROAR, claws swinging in the air. In the last moment, Snow swerved his body so that Green was safe from harm behind him, and he prepared for the impending pain.

But the pain never came. Instead, Snow watched as the bear was tackled out of the way in midair by a charging Barb. She wrestled it to the ground, growling aggressively as she raised her barbed tail.

Before she could strike the bear, it reared up in a moment of adrenaline and bit her shoulder with all its might. Barb let out a furious hiss and shoved the bear off of her, leaving a large set of gashes where her claws met its skin.

The bear took advantage of Barb's momentary distraction to check her wound, and it quickly fled into the thickets and out of sight, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

Snow had a private moment of relief, now that the main source of danger was gone. But that relief was quickly changed back into terror as Barb stomped angrily towards the IceWing, blood dripping menacingly from her shoulder.

He struggled some more to get himself untangled from the thick roots, but it was hopeless in his current state of panic. "I – I'm sorr–"

Barb grabbed one of his front talons roughly, cutting off whatever ramblings Snow was about to spew. "I'm not sure if you've ever noticed," she began, her voice somehow more gruff than usual, "but you have these very useful things called 'claws.'"

She tugged at his talon and guided it to the roots that were wrapped around his hind leg, using his claws to cut them, like a knife through butter. "Great for cutting yourself out of roots when you're about to be mauled by a bear."

"I'm sorry, I was panicking and the bear was coming so fast and I didn't think –"

"And another thing," Barb continued, completely ignoring his blathering. "We dragons have these amazing appendages known as 'wings.' They make us more or less immune to the dangers of earthbound beasts. Unless you're too stupid to use them and decided to waddle backward on foot instead."

"I –"

"Oh, and one more thing," she interrupted. "Not sure if you've heard of it, but IceWings have a deadly ability known as 'frostbreath' that literally freezes their enemies to death."

Snow was speechless, as he felt hot shame and embarrassment overcome him. What is wrong with me?

Barb ungently pulled him up to his feet and asked, "Are you hurt?"

His head was still spinning, but he was unharmed. "N-no, I'm fine."

"Then stop looking so stunned and start moving. You'll have to stay close to me since you're clearly too incompetent to be by yourself."

Suddenly, something finally dawned on Snow. Barb… just saved my life, he realized. She could've easily left me to die, but she jumped in and fought off the bear.

"Hurry up and get a move on," Barb said, before looking back at Snow. "…Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You… saved me," Snow said, his eyes full of awe.

"Obviously I'd save you, idiot. Did you really think I'd just sit back and watch you get mangled by a wild bear?"

"…Maybe."

Barb snorted a short laugh. "As amusing as that would've been to see, it would be annoying to live with the guilt of knowing I let some defenseless chump die. I'm not evil, you know."

For the first time, Snow believed it. She isn't evil. A bit of a jerk, sure, but she's not a villain. She protected me, even though she got hurt.

"Th-thank you," Snow blurted out. "For saving me."

Barb looked at him with confusion. "…Let's just get moving already."

"You're hurt," Snow said, pointing to the bite mark across her shoulder.

"Oh gee, thanks for letting me know. I hadn't noticed yet," she said with an exaggerated eye roll.

"Here." Snow searched through his bag and pulled out the jar of leftover ointment from when Cliff was hurt. "Put this on the wound."

Barb eyed the jar in Snow's talon with skepticism, before ultimately taking it and dumping the contents onto her shoulder. She hissed in recoil as the gel made contact with her wound.

"Oh right, it stings a little," Snow added. "Sorry, should've mentioned that earlier."

Barb furrowed her brow at the IceWing, but started rubbing the gel in regardless. After a few moments, the bleeding had completely stopped and the wound was looking better already. This stuff is super handy, maybe I'll get an extra bottle of it from Doctor Minnow.

"All right," Barb started, "now that that's all done, let's go find that bear."

"You want to go after the bear?" Snow asked with alarm.

"Of course," Barb said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It even left us a trail of blood to follow. How nice of it."

"Maybe we could just leave it and find something… smaller?" Snow suggested.

"No way. That bear made an enemy of me, and it's about to find out the consequences."

Snow sighed as she started trekking after the bear. He followed after her, but with significantly less trembling this time.

She saved me, even though she didn't have to. She can't be all bad, right?

Maybe there's a dragon in there that even I could get along with.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Just wanted to let everyone know that I appreciate all the reviews you guys leave. I read each and every one, even if I don't reply to all of them (sometimes I really just have nothing to add).

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