It was a cool fall day, the perfect kind to spend outside with friends. Sitting in the courtyard of the grand imperial palace three dragonets, one the colour of sand, one not quite pure white, and one bright red, were doing just that. They were playing a game called Scales and Squares, a basic board game played throughout the empire.

"It's still your move, Qibli." Carnelian teased dryly.

Carnelian had watched Qibli stare at the board for almost a minute at this point, which given his natural aptitude for strategy games she took his momentary indecision as a major accomplishment. They had spent many nights around this very board for Carnelian and Winter to hone their strategic prowess in preparation for the elite guard's aptitude test. She rarely seemed to win after the sandy coloured SandWing joined them on a whim seven seasons ago, though, so this was a welcome change of pace.

Qibli was still a bit of an enigma to Carnelian. He was witty and clever, sure, but he didn't seem to have any ambitions in particular. Perhaps it had something to do with his contentment working as an assistant to Senator Thorn of the SandWings or perhaps it was just that the majority of his blood relatives were imprisoned in the palace dungeons. Part of Carnelian wondered if she would have had the guts to turn her family in if they had been criminals. No, I probably couldn't she admitted but then again Qibli's mother wasn't as caring with her dragonets as my mother was. That probably factored in. Whatever the cause, he just seemed happy to be living most days.

The light jeering had been enough to snap Qibli into action, and he swiftly moved a green scale token to take one of Winter's ever dwindling black squares.

Even Carnelian could tell that the ice blue dragon was trying but failing to keep frustration from wrinkling his snout. "Qibli, if you keep trying to take me out like that she's going to win."

In many ways Winter seemed to be a dragon after her own heart. He had a haughty presence, but never to the annoying degree of some other IceWings and well compensated by his dry wit and loyalty. The major difference between him and Carnelian was that the royal guard seemed to be a fall back he was thrust into rather than his dream job.

"Perhaps I've seen how much fun you've had losing the past couple days and decided to join you." The offending SandWing quipped.

Winter snorted at that. "I would not count on my defeat yet." He leaned over to pick up one of his pieces, flaring his wings out slightly to keep his balance. The motion exposed a small scattering of black scales denoting some distant NightWing heritage. Before his move's completion, however, it was interrupted by the shrill (and in Carnelian's opinion all too annoying) voice of his sister. She was as pure white as an IceWing could be and shining as if she bathed multiple times a day.

"I thought I would find you here. Wasting your time playing games with SandWings and SkyWings again, Winter?" Icicle said as she approached.

"Will you give it a rest?" Carnelian said in an exasperated tone. This wasn't her first meeting with the irritable IceWing, and she'd frankly had enough of the bigotry. "Don't you have anything better to do than insult Qibli and I?"

"As a matter of fact, both Winter and I do." She then addressed Winter directly. "Follow me." And without another word, she turned to leave the courtyard. With a brief apology for his sudden departure, Winter leapt to his talons to follow his sister.

Carnelian waited for them both to be out of earshot before she turned to her remaining friend, surprised that the normally talkative SandWing hadn't given a witty riposte to either of the parting IceWings. "Everything alright?"

"I wish I could ask Winter that." Qibli admitted. "He has been acting off all week."

"I would also be acting 'off' if that talon treader was my sister." She grumbled.

Qibli sighed as he leaned forward to reset the board. "Maybe you're right. I'm probably just overreacting."

It was possible, but Qibli was as adept at reading dragons as he was at strategy. Something probably is wrong, more than just a grumpy sister, she thought. Carnelian tried to distract herself with another game. "Same ruleset as last time?"

Qibli wasn't resetting his side of the board, however. He was putting the pieces back into their wooden box. "Actually, we should probably get ready for that party tonight."

Carnelian sighed. She didn't like parties, much less the kind with stuffy politicians, but this one was supposed to be for the prospective recruits. Now it was sounding like Winter may not make it either, so Qibli may have to rely on her plus one as well. Why exactly he wanted to go was beyond her, something about how policies were formed and alliances forged in the ballrooms instead of the halls of the senate, but that didn't make much sense. Neither was it clear what he would actually do there. I guess I'll have to wait and see.