Wolf was pacing back and forth, lashing his tail, stirring up sand. Just as he was about half-climb half-fly up the Great Ice Cliff to sit with the other guard to wait for Queen Glacier, he saw her flying over. She glided down to where he stood and looked down at Wolf, silently taking in his appearance.

"Did everything go all right?"

"No, Your Majesty."

"Where's Shatter?"

Wolf looked down at his claws, refusing to meet the Queen's gaze. "She's dead, Your Majesty."

There was a beat of heavy silence. "I'm sorry for your loss." Glacier hesitated a bit, and Wolf looked up at her. Her face was expressionless, but something in her eyes gave way to some type of war going on her brain. "How did your mission go?"

Wolf glared at one of the Sandwing soldiers who was getting a bit too close for comfort. Sure, they were allies, but he didn't need Sandwings listening to a conversation between him and his Queen. Once the soldier saw his glare, she backed away, going off to do who knew what. "It went fine."

"Is the Commander dead?" Wolf nodded. Glacier nodded in approval and looked over Wolf again. He kept his wings closed tightly, and shifted under the Queen's scrutiny. Her gaze flicked over to his right wing and she narrowed her eyes. "Show me your wing."

Wolf slowly stretched out his wing and Glacier gently unwrapped the fabric that Scorpion had used to keep the wound from being infected. Glacier said nothing and made no sound to give away her thoughts. Wolf looked at the spot that she was staring at, his heart pounding. The tears Hydra had made weren't closing or getting smaller. Thank the moons that they weren't getting bigger either.

Glacier let go of his wing and motioned for one of her guards to come closer. "Fly to the palace and get my healer. Tell him that one of my best assassins is injured and can barely fly due to a tear in his wing."

The guard bowed deeply. "Right away, Your Majesty."

She turned back to Wolf and flicked her tail lazily, looking at the left side of his face next. "I'll get my healer to tend to you as best as she can, but I can't promise anything, especially where your wing is concerned."

Wolf nodded solemnly. "Thank you, Your Majesty. I'll take whatever I can get done."

Glacier nodded curtly in response before helping him fly over the Great Ice Cliff and into the setting sun. Their nearly pure white scales lit up gold in the fading light, fading to a dark grey-purple as Wolf landed on the other side, waiting for Glacier's healer to come to get him. He bowed to Glacier as she took one last look at his state before flying off to her palace.

Wolf threw his wings over his head to shield himself from the torrents of rain as he pushed against the wind and rogue branches. He scowled but kept on trudging through the rainforest, cursing the environment and questioning how the Rainwings survived here.

He'd stayed in the Ice Kingdom for a year, training new assassins and recovering from his injuries. One of his students was his niece, who'd wanted to follow Shatter's talon-steps. Looking back on her training, she was a fine student. All of Wolf's students were fine, and they all showed potential. He'd be lying to everyone, including himself if he said that he didn't feel pride when two of the three "graduated" and went off to perform their first real missions.

His heart seized up again as he remembered the feeling when only one of them returned alive. That night, he got no sleep and stared up at the two full moons. They stared back at him, cold and unfeeling, almost mockingly. It was almost ironic, considering his mother and father taught him to be cold and unfeeling. It was ironic because he was an assassin, and had to be like the moons. He stared back harder, daring the moons to fall or show some sort of emotion, and didn't move until dawn.

Wolf would have been fine to stay in the Ice Kingdom, training new dragonets when they came along. But no, he had to leave because his niece opened her mouth and got herself banished from the Ice Kingdom, causing the number of assassins to go from three to two overnight. And out of those two, Wolf was the elder and had the most experience. So now he was out in the Rainforest, by request of Shatter's husband, searching for his niece, making sure she was okay.

He whacked a low-hanging branch and began to walk further into the rainforest only for the branch to spring back at him and whack his snout in retaliation. He yelped loudly and violently yanked the branch off of the tree, snapping it in half and throwing it on the muddy ground.

This was quite possibly the worst day to leave his room in the palace. But things were starting to look up as he spotted what looked like a small shelter. It looked abandoned, but he couldn't be sure, so Wolf slowly made his way towards it, scanning the environment. Nothing seemed out of place so he quickly flung himself into the shack and looked around.

In the far right corner was a pile of food, mainly fruits of varying sorts. In another corner were types of medicine and tonics. Wolf hesitated a bit before poking around and sticking his snout in crevices that he probably shouldn't have been going near in the first place. As he sniffed a bright orange fruit, his stomach growled. Perfect, absolutely perfect. Hunger was the bane of Wolf's existence, and he wasn't tempted to let it win. But the fruit did look really good, and it didn't matter if he ate just one. Right? Of course right.

Wolf looked around him, making sure that the dragon who made this shelter wasn't near and swiftly ate the fruit. His eyes widened as its tangy, almost sour taste exploded in his mouth. Immediately, Wolf lashed his tail in a large arc, knocking things over, his wings flinging open slightly as he flicked his tongue out and attempted to get rid of the horrid taste by sticking his head back out into the rain through a window. Not the most regal way for an assassin to act, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

A throat cleared at the entrance of the hut and Wolf, with his tongue out, snapped his head towards the dragon who had suddenly appeared. In the dim lighting, he couldn't see her exact features, but he knew she was a Sandwing from the way she uncurled her barbed tail and curled it again.

She walked into the hut and stared at him like he'd grown an extra head. Wolf looked closer at her and recognized the brown speckle-rimmed eyes looking at him. "Thcopion!" he cried.

Scorpion raised an eyebrow delicately and sat down by her vials of medicine. "Wolf? What are you doing here? And more importantly, why are you destroying my things?"

Wolf closed his wings carefully and brought his tongue back in, sitting down across from Scorpion, attempting to regain some dignity. "I'm not destroying your things on purpose, I just ate something weird." Scorpion looked at her food stash and scowled before motioning for Wolf to continue. "I'm also searching for my niece."

"Your niece? Did she run away?"

"No, she got banished."

Scorpion gave him a dry stare in response. He stared back at her. No, banishment wasn't the best thing for a dragon, especially if they were an Icewing. But was it so surprising? "Should I even ask why?"

Wolf shook his head and Scorpion hummed in response. The two looked out at the rain, watching as the violent wind started to fall. "Why are you here?"

Scorpion looked briefly at Wolf before looking away and fixing her attention on cleaning up the papers and vials that Wolf had knocked over. "I need some of the flora here for my medicine." Yeah, that made sense.

"Sorry for the destruction of your stuff by the way."

"It's fine, I've been wanting to do what you did for a while."

Wolf's head snapped in her direction and met her gaze. She shrugged and shoved the objects into a bag, and began cleaning up the rest of her stuff around the shelter while Wolf looked out into the storm again and shook his wings out, earning a sharp yelp from Scorpion. "What in the three moons? Wolf!"

He looked at her again and raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

Scorpion narrowed her eyes and slunk over to Wolf, smirking. He backed up against one of the walls as she began herding him closer to the opening of the shelter. "You're getting in my way." Scorpion gently shoved Wolf out of the shelter and back into the rain, closing the make-shift door on him.

"There's a door?" He shouted over the noise. Scorpion didn't respond so Wolf just trudged to the side and sat down beside the entrance, flipping his tail over his talons. He immediately regretted that decision as he felt the heavy, sticky mud drop onto his mostly-clean scales. He scowled and looked straight ahead, glaring murderously at a large tree.

Of course, his niece had to lead Wolf into the rainforest. Why she chose it was beyond him. Everything was just so humid, dirty, and hot. Even in a storm, the air was wet and suffocating. Why Shatter's daughter chose this of all places to flee was beyond him. As the rain pelted Wolf with no signs of stopping, he could hear Shatter in his head. "No dragonet of mine gets banished and lives! Let alone in the rainforest of all places. How could you let this happen, Wolf? She was yours to watch."

Yes, well, about that, brain-Wolf chuckled nervously as his beyond-the-grave sister stared him down. It's not my fault. Nysnö refused to kill a prisoner and insulted every member of the royal family while ranting about how wrong it was.

Beyond-the-grave-Shatter just gave him a blank stare. "Then why did you agree to take her on as a student. You should have seen this coming and stopped it."

I'm trying my best with her, but she showed so much promise!

"I know, but this is disgraceful."

You don't think I know that? Don't get mad at me, get mad at your husband.

"I would, but I exist in your head seal-brain!"

Wolf snarled as he realized that Beyond-the-grave-Shatter was correct. Or was it that his brain was right? He was about to silently argue with her again when Scorpion walked out of the shelter. She looked at him and raised an eyebrow in question. "I was just— Nevermind about what I was just doing."

"All right then, be weird and keep your secrets." Scorpion flicked her tail and Wolf began to follow her. The rain was beginning to subside, and he felt his scales start to slowly heat up. He was about to go deep in thought when Scorpion spoke again. "I take it you'll continue your search for your niece?"

"I'll try. I have no idea where she went, and her tracks will be gone by now."

Scorpion held out a wing, stopping Wolf in his tracks, causing him to almost trip over her. She turned her head to fully face him, expression serious and intent. "If you want I can keep an eye out for her. There aren't many places an exiled Icewing can go without harm, and the Scorpion Den is one of the few safe-havens. What's her name?"

"Nysnö. She's a pale grey-purple with grey flecks across her wings and snout." Scorpion nodded and repeated the name under her breath a couple of times.

"Good to see you again Wolf. And good luck."

"Thank you." Scorpion winked at him and spread her wings, preparing to fly off when Wolf clapped his talons down upon her tail, careful to not dig his hooked claws in. She looked at him with something between outrage and curiosity. "What are you going to do?"

Scorpion rolled her eyes and pointed to her bag. "I'm getting these supplies and medicines to Possibility. I have a cousin who works there and needs to stock up again."

Wolf released her and nodded. "Good luck."

"I don't need it."

Wolf opened his mouth to refute it but one look from Scorpion shut him up. Instead, he just nodded and looked eastwards, dread settling in his chest. So much ground to cover for one dragon… Great Ice Spirits, give me strength.

Scorpion touched her wing to his gently and smiled before taking off, soon disappearing into the horizon, leaving Wolf to brave the rainforest alone. Even though she'd left long ago, he still stared at the spot she disappeared into and walked right into a large leaf. He firmly decided that if Nysnö wasn't dead yet, he'd kill her himself for doing this to him, and by extension, her father.