A/N: Was I deeply moved by the third Wings of Fire arc? Not really, no. Does my Muse care? Also no. So, I give you a friendship story that was inspired by literally just three sentences in book 14. Why do you do this to me, Muse?!
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Wings of Fire.
The air had already begun to shift into the cool of night. Glacier stretched her wings as far as she could, allowing the breeze to fill them and lift her higher into the orange-streaked sky. She took a deep breath, the sea air filling her nostrils and leaving a salty taste in her mouth.
Glacier let her gaze fall to the landscape below. The snow-scattered terrain of the Ice Kingdom outskirts had long since been replaced with rocks and sand, signaling that she was nearing her destination.
Good, Glacier thought, smiling to herself. It's nearly been a month since I was last here.
Boa would be so excited to see her! She wondered what her best friend had been doing since the last time she visited. Too bad Boa can't come to the Ice Kingdom, Glacier thought as she shifted into a cooler draft of wind. Stupid cliff…Maybe I should do something about that once I'm queen.
Then again, even if Boa could get past the Great Ice Cliff that killed any non-IceWings, Glacier doubted her SandWing friend would like the mass amounts of snow and subzero temperatures.
The rocks below gradually sloped off to the west then dwindled into a sandy beach. Glacier squinted at the stretch of sand, and her eyes snagged on a small, wooden structure tucked between the dunes.
There! Excitement sizzled through her scales as she spotted her friend's hut. She tented her wings and dove, sending up a spray of sand as her talons hit the beach.
"Boa!" she called, turning in a circle. "Hey, Boa!"
"Glacier?"
Glacier turned toward the hut, and there was her friend, standing in the doorway and blinking sleepily. The SandWing rubbed her eyes, as if unsure whether or not she was still dreaming.
"Yes, it's me!" Glacier grinned, bounding across the sand. "I got off training early today, so I thought I'd fly down to visit."
Boa smiled back, stepping fully out of the hut. "That's great!" she said, wrapping her wings around Glacier in a hug.
Glacier hugged her back a bit tighter. Boa always had an odd way of hugging, as if she couldn't quite get a good grip on Glacier's scales. Then again, Glacier's scales were as cold as the ice where she lived, so maybe Boa simply wasn't used to it.
"How are you?" Glacier asked, taking a pace back to look at her friend.
Shadows from the setting sun flickered across Boa, accentuating the dips and lines on her face. Glacier suddenly noticed how tired her friend looked.
"Fine, just fine," Boa replied. She waved one talon dismissively, and Glacier noticed her eyeing her claw tips as she did so. "How's training going?"
Glacier frowned, digging her talons into the sand. The little grains worked between in her scales in an itchy manner, much different from the snow of the Ice Kingdom.
"It's going great," she said, fully aware that Boa was trying to change the subject. But why? We're best friends. What could she possibly think she has to hide from me? Aloud, she added, "I'm, uh, I'm second on the ranking wall now."
Boa's eyebrows arched a bit too high, as if she was trying hard to seize the new conversation topic and keep it alive. "Really?" she said. "You finally beat Tundra?"
Glacier nodded, unable to suppress a pleased toss of her head. "Well, I am the princess," she said. "I really should be at the top if anyone's going to take me seriously. Besides, Tundra is such a walrus. I honestly don't know what Narwhal sees in her."
Boa laughed softly, but her smile was distant. The waves seemed to pound harder against the sand, as if trying to fill the silence between the two friends.
"Hey, Boa?" Glacier asked. She waited for the SandWing to look at her before continuing. "You want to go for a walk?"
Boa glanced past her at the sky. The sun was nearly touching the ocean now, sending a tongue of fire across the water so bright that Glacier had to squint to look at it.
"Now?" Boa asked. "It'll be dark soon."
"Well, I'll have to fly back in the dark anyway," Glacier pointed out. "And we don't have beaches like this in the Ice Kingdom, so I'd like to soak it in for a while."
Boa's smile was back, a bit brighter this time. "It is pretty amazing here, isn't it?" she asked, glancing behind her at the hut.
Wind swished through the palm trees, and Glacier opened her wings to let the cool air wash over her. "We don't have to walk far," she said.
Boa hummed in response then nodded, slipping past her toward the water. Down by the ocean, the wind was stronger, and Glacier's spikes clattered as they walked. She dragged her claws through the sand for a moment, leaving scraping marks between the talon prints behind her. Boa remained silent.
What could be wrong? Glacier wondered, trying to study her friend's face without staring. "Look, Boa," she said at last, raising her voice to be heard over the crashing waves. "If this is a bad time, I can—"
"No!" Boa interrupted, stopping and raising her wings in alarm. "No, it's not a bad time, it's just, well…" She trailed off, coiling and uncoiling her tail.
Glacier waited, but Boa didn't add anything else. "Just what?" she prompted, tilting her head to catch her friend's downcast gaze.
"I-I don't know," the SandWing muttered. "It's…complicated?" She winced at the end of her sentence, as if there was an icicle poking her brain.
Reaching out with one wing, Glacier nudged her friend. "It's okay," she said. "We're friends, Boa. You can tell me."
Boa finally lifted her head to stare back, her black eyes glittering in the light of the dying sun. A small line appeared across her forehead. "You're sure you want to hear this?" she asked, so quietly Glacier had to lean forward to hear.
Glacier frowned, worry tingling in the pit of her stomach. Unsure of what to say aloud, she nodded. Boa shut her eyes and sighed shakily.
"I—I'm…I'm afraid I haven't been completely honest with you, Glacier," she said.
"About what?" Glacier asked; concern crept up the back of her neck and squeezed at her head.
"About…me," Boa replied. Her voice was soft, almost ashamed. "Who I really am."
Glacier frowned at her friend, puzzled. "What do you mean?" she asked. "You're still Boa the SandWing, aren't you?"
Boa gave a slight sniff, and for a moment, Glacier thought she was about to sneeze. But her friend's face was crumpling in a different sort of way.
"I don't really know what I am," she whispered.
What she is? Glacier's mind echoed. Didn't Boa mean who she is? "I don't understand," she said.
The SandWing raised her claws, looking at them as if she was expecting them to suddenly break off and skitter away. "It—it's so hard to explain," she said.
Glacier stood, shaking the sand off her tail before moving to sit beside her best friend. "Try," she said, resting a supportive wing on Boa's back. "I'm listening."
And she did listen. Glacier remained silent as Boa described her past, how her mother, Jerboa the first, had created her with animus magic. How, through the years, she had cast spells to change and manipulate Boa, to carve her into an obedient, agreeable doll that did whatever she wanted and forgot whatever she didn't want Boa to remember. But then Boa had found her mother's spells, and given herself animus magic as well, and finally brought an end to Jerboa the first's grip on her life.
But it came with a horrible price.
"I can't use my magic anymore," Boa whispered, a shiver rippling through her wings. "It-it…takes pieces of me when I do."
"Takes pieces of you?" Glacier murmured; her voice was hoarse. The beach had long ago blurred before her eyes, the colors of the sunset melding into a messy swirl.
Boa abruptly stood up and took a few stiff steps toward the water. When she turned around, her face was twisted with decades-old pain. "She cursed me," Boa spat, her voice steadily rising. "It was her final spell before she died. Whenever I cast a spell, I lose a piece of my body."
Rearing back, Boa seized the shell necklace she always wore. With a quick, wrenching motion, she yanked it over her head and cast it onto the sand at Glacier's talons.
Glacier instinctively reached for it, but stopped mid-motion. Boa's scales were rippling, as if she was standing underwater, then slowly they seemed to melt. At first, Glacier couldn't see much of a difference; Boa still looked like Boa. But then her eyes fell on her friend's outstretched talons.
Glacier's heart seized. Boa's perfectly-whole, black claws were shrinking, shrinking, and suddenly disappeared altogether, leaving nothing but misshapen stumps in their wake.
"Oh, Boa," she whispered. Tears spilled down her face, blurring the grotesque testament to how much Boa's mother had abused her, even in her final moments.
She reached for her friend, taking her misshapen talons in her own. Blinking through her tears, she looked up to find Boa watching her with a surprised expression.
"This is such a horrible thing to happen to you," Glacier said, her voice trembling with unshed tears. "Horrible and unfair."
Boa's eyebrows arched. "Unfair?" she echoed, looking down at her talons as well. "Is that what this is?"
At first, Glacier couldn't quite understand what Boa meant. All this time, has she been thinking she deserved this?
"Terribly unfair," she said, sniffing back her tears and giving Boa's talons a tight squeeze. "No one should be treated that way. You are a dragon, not a puppet to change or rip apart as your mother pleases."
Boa tilted her head, her black eyes flickering uncertainly. "I…never thought of it that way," she admitted. "But—but I guess maybe you're right. Mother was wrong."
Glacier nodded fervently, suddenly desperate for Boa to understand. "Very wrong," she said thickly, blinking in an attempt to keep Boa, the sky, and the beach from blurring into one swirling mass.
Boa finally dropped her gaze and exhaled shakily, but a different kind of shaky than earlier. It wasn't afraid; it wasn't ashamed. It was…relieved.
Glacier's wings rose, as if they could feel the weight being lifted off Boa and wanted to float into the sky.
"Thanks, Glacier," Boa said softly, squeezing Glacier's talons. "You're…you're really my best friend."
Glacier wiped at her eyes one last time. "You're my best friend, too," she said.
Boa smiled, the first genuinely happy, relaxed smile she had had since Glacier arrived. "Maybe other dragons will find out one day," she said. "But for now, can we keep this between just us?"
Glacier smiled back. "Just us," she said. "I promise."