Icicle's head was pounding. Three moons, why did she have to go and take an explosion to the face?
Her eyes opened groggily. She looked down at her chest from where she was lying and saw that she was wrapped up in bandages. She probably had a lot of cuts on her from the dragon flame cactus. She started to rise out of her hospital bed, "Ack-". Her ribs were definitely bruised. She fell back into the bed.
"Icicle! Oh, thank goodness you're awake," Crane said happily. She lightly hugged the IceWing.
Icicle was blushing slightly. Nobody had ever hugged her before, not even Winter or Hailstorm.
Crane gets off of her, "I am so sorry, I should have tried to make a wall to place between you and the explosion, it just happened before I could even react." Crane said guilty.
"No... it's fine, even I hardly had any time to react," Icicle said, trying to make Crane's guilt go away. A frown didn't fit her at all.
Out of the five years that Crane had been with the Dragonets, she had become probably the best fighter, right below the Dragonets themselves. Now that's not to say everybody else couldn't beat her. Especially Winter and Qibli when they pair up. They were practically unbeatable together.
Icicle sighed, "This is getting ridiculous..." Icicle said getting upset. "The fact that we haven't been able to catch Vulture is an insult."
Hope came into the room and had heard her. "Yeah... sorry about that, we had guards patrolling everywhere, we can't even find out how he made it into the kingdom," Hope said angrily.
Thorn was right behind her, coming into the room. "Icicle, I am glad to see you are awake, thanks for taking that hit."
Icicle nodded, "Just doing my job, Sunny and Qibli would be pissed if I just let you die,"
"Oh now, no stupid explosion is going to kill me," Thorn said grinning.
Hope was smiling at the cocky queen's attitude, "Anyways, while you were asleep, me and Thorn finished the rest of the documents,"
Icicle's eyes grew, "How long was I out?"
"Not that long, only a couple of hours," Crane answered.
"Anyways, we came here to tell you that and we are having a party tonight to celebrate," Hope said.
"Do we have to do anything?" Icicle asked, getting out of the bed. Wincing when she put weight onto her talons.
"Nope, your jobs are done, you can head home whenever you want," Hope answered.
Icicle and Crane nodded, "Thanks, we don't know when we are leaving yet," Crane said kindly.
Hope nodded and left the room with Thorn following her.
Icicle started walking out of the room, Crane following her.
Crane was just happy that her friend wasn't hurt too bad. It wouldn't matter a whole lot as long as Icicle didn't die, Sunny would have been able to heal it.
The only wound Sunny wasn't able to heal was Starflight's eyes. You can't heal something once it doesn't even exist anymore.
Icicle looked to Crane, who was walking beside her, "We heading home, or are we hanging out here?"
"I would rather not spend Christmas Eve flying all night long." Crane said frowning at the thought, "If you don't mind, I would like it if you stayed here with me for the night..."
Icicle gave a bit of a smile, "I will, I don't want you to be here alone." Where did that come from? Why do I feel this way?
They both walked into the castle, dragons of both Night and Sand were running around getting food to other dragons and making sure the party was going well.
Icicle and Crane sat together at one of the tables. "I'll message Starflight tomorrow on the dream visitor, I'll tell him about today's events," Icicle said after swallowing her food.
"I am getting tired of us not being able to capture Vulture, he is the only real thing that has been a thorn in our side since Darkstalker!" Crane said angrily and took a chunk out of her steak.
Icicle just shook her head. There was always something to cause trouble in this world.
Everybody in the hall quieted down. Icicle and Crane looked to where they were looking and saw that Hope and Thorn walked into the hall, clearly about to say something.
Hope cleared her throat, "I would like to introduce you all to our newest allies, Queen Thron has accepted the peace agreement!"
Everybody cheered and clapped their talons together.
Crane looked back to Icicle, "Doesn't that mean that every tribe is at peace with each other?"
Icicle nodded her head. She never thought as a dragonet, that this would ever happen in her lifetime. Sure, there had been times of peace, but it had never been bound in paper and document before in the history of Pyrrhia.
Everybody went back to eating and the hall started to fill with laughter and cheer. She could even hear some dragons singing some Christmas songs.
"So... did your mom get you anything for Christmas this year?" Crane said with a smirk. She started to laugh, and Icicle started to quietly join her.
"Did yours?" Icicle said right back after she was done chuckling. They both started to laugh even harder.
It was a small private joke they held together when it had to do anything with their mothers. Crane's mom didn't care about her dragonets. And Tundra treated her dragonets like dirt.
Icicle cleared her throat when her laughter died down, "But seriously though, we have never gotten a present as a dragonet. The old belief is that IceWings should always work for any personal items they want." Icicle explained.
"So... you have never gotten a present before?" Crane said with a sad frown on her face.
Icicle shook her head.
Crane started to smile again, "Then allow me to be the first dragon to get you a present!" Crane yelled out as she took a package that had been neatly wrapped from her bag she had at her side.
Icicle was shocked as the took the wrapped present. She was even more shocked when she opened it. It was a beautiful dark blue cape that would match the color of her scales nicely.
She was quiet as she immediately put the cape on. Nobody has ever gotten her something like this. Nobody had ever been so nice to her.
She started to remember a conversation she was having with Winter a while back about how he was talking about how he knew he was in love with his mate. How he felt when he realized he was in love.
And she realized something...
She had been feeling the same way with Crane.
The way that Crane's smile would make her day ten times better. How she would almost always seek out Crane when she was bored or wanted to do something. How she looked forward to her missions she had to do with Crane.
And now how she was really wishing she had got something for Crane for Christmas.
"Do you... do you like it?" Crane asked unsure of the silence that Icicle was giving off.
Icicle hugged her, "Thank you"
Crane was shocked, "Icicle never hugged anyone, not even her own brothers," Crane hugged back.
The party was starting to die down now, most people heading back home for the rest of the night.
Crane had gone to bed for the night.
Icicle was walking through the kingdom, the new cape on her back, fluttering in the wind from her walking.
Her mind though was a panicking mess. Why did she feel this way? What is she going to do about it? What would Crane like for Christmas? She never asked for anything, ever!
She was trying to think of physical objects that Crane likes until a sight crossed her view. It was a store.
It was obviously the same store that Crane had gotten her cape from. She could see the capes from the outside.
She walked into the store to see what they had. Crane usually never wore any type of accessories of any type, unless it was for very special occasions.
The last time she saw Crane wear anything was at Clay and Peril's wedding.
But she doesn't think that Crane had ever been offered a scarf before...
It was better than nothing at all...
She picked out a crème grey scarf that she thought matched Cranes scales pretty nicely. She walked up to the NightWing who was obviously the store owner.
"Are you ok, you seem a little... stressed," The NightWing asked worried.
Icicle grumbled, "None of your business,"
The elderly NightWing chuckled, "Let me guess, you forgot to get somebody you loved a gift?"
Icicle was a hair bit shocked, "How did you..."
"I have been there and done that, before me and my wife were married, I had forgotten to get her something for Christmas... your face reminded me of the same way I felt then,"
Icicle grumbled again but nodded.
"Let me also guess... you haven't told them how you feel?" the elder asked.
Icicle didn't say anything at all but nodded again.
"Then let me give you this one piece of advice, it may sound cheesy," The elder said, "Make sure you tell them before it is too late, you never know what could happen in this crazy world,"
Icicle's eyes grew at that, remembering what had almost happened to her earlier tonight. Still feeling her bruised chest.
She nodded one last time, paying the owner and leaving.
