I coincidentally started my reread of Winter turning at the start of December and couldn't help but make a story about Icicle. I really like her arc (Even with how short it is) and wanted to continue it in my own way.
Icicle wished she could smash the mirror that taunted her. Whenever she looked through her cell bars she would be faced with a dim colored, thin Icewing prisoner. The worst part about the mirror was the portrait that shined behind the Icewing trapped inside. Whenever she turned to face it, she saw nothing but dark blue ice that was keeping her trapped. The guards kept themselves outside of her cell so she was forced to look into the mirror for a glimpse of anyone else, even her own reflection, and she would catch the portrait glaring down at her.
On the top left was her now deceased father who's dark eyes were just as cold as they were when he was alive. While he spent most of his time bringing up how much of a disappointment Winter was, he would find time to praise her about her accomplishments. Now all he did was look into her heart and see that she failed to take the throne.
To the right of Narwhal was Icicle's mother, Tundra, and her disapproving head shaking. It was just like when Icicle completed another one of Tundra's stupid challenges. 'Not fast enough' or 'Hailstorm would have done it better' she hated it. When her mother returned, she'd refuse to speak with her just as Tundra would do to her.
Below Tundra was Hailstorm, the perfect child. Always the best of the best and put on a pedestal labeled 'Do this or you won't ever be Queen'. Her older brother spent so much of his free time telling Winter how he didn't need to worry about their parents. He could be something whether they thought he could or not. "Of course he never bothered to tell me that but who cares. Not me, obviously." He frowned sadly at Icicle, pitiful that his little sister couldn't free him from Scarlet. She didn't need his pity, she didn't need anything from him.
And then opposite of Hailstorm was her pathetic brother, Winter. His eyes were wide as if he saw a five legged lizard and he stood a bit away from the dragon in the center as if he was afraid of her. Winter sucked at just about everything he did yet somehow HE was judging HER? It wasn't fair or right. HE was the one that got banished for failing to die in the diamond trial. Who was he to judge her?
Then in the center of the portrait was Icicle. She was almost pure white, her claws shined and sharpened to a fierce angle. Her teeth were dazzling like pearls and her smile was as wide as her future. Icicle, the Icewing that saved her brother. Icicle, the future Queen of the Icewings at such a young age. They would write history scrolls about her and all of her accomplishments. Maybe she could even give Winter an easy job to justify putting him high up on the rankings. It would be perfect.
Not Icicle being stuck in her own kingdom's prison, labeled as the most dangerous Icewing of the current year. "Two years. I deserve SOME credit for that accomplishment." She thought darkly as the mirror image of herself kept staring at her. Her stomach growled and she hissed for it to be quiet. Actually, it was about time for food so what was keeping the guards? "Hey! Lazy ice foxes! Where's my lunch?" She growled but it didn't matter how much she yelled. The ice made sure that the guards would only hear a faint muffle.
Finally, someone opened the door to her cell, well the first door, not the door to her direct cell. She glared up at the door but before she could yell at the guard for taking so long, her mouth fell open at the dragon that was delivering her food. She was smaller than Icicle but definitely older. In one of her claws was a decently sized plate that carried the gray and brown mush the kingdom decided to call 'prison food' which was as tasty as it was pleasant to look at. "Not expecting to see me, were you?"
"What did I do to deserve seeing you, Lynx?" Icicle asked bitterly. Lynx might as well have been Snowfall's second tail for how close the two were. She was far too sure of herself despite her size and acted like she owned the castle despite not an ounce of royal blood inside of her. She also shared a 'secret' hatred of Icicle that the Icewing could not for the life of her figure out why. "I hate her too so who cares?"
Lynx didn't drop her smile but it twitched like a mouse that smelled a rotten corpse. "I was bored and needed a fun conversation. Snowfall is not in a good mood so I figured you would be a good bet."
Icicle lashed her tail into the wall and bit her tongue to stop herself from yelping out. (She hit it a little too hard) "I'm so pleased to know that after Snowfall, I'm number two on your list of dragons to annoy with your obnoxious presence."
Lynx set down the plate next to her (and out of reach of Icicle) then scraped a talon on the icey floor. "Don't flatter yourself. The other thirty dragons I could think of aren't in the mood or aren't here." She said. "So, how do you eat this stuff? It looks like mushy rocks and solid mushrooms." She asked, poking the food with a talon.
Icicle stared hungrily at the plate then shook her head. "Because it's either that or starving. Prison food reform isn't high on Snowfall's priority list."
Lynx looked about ready to throw up her own lunch after getting another look at the plate and turned back to Icicle. "First, QUEEN Snowfall. You seem to keep forgetting that. Second, it might be higher on her list if we didn't only have one prisoner. Nice work on getting prisoner of the year by the way. I was rooting for the dead rat that no one wants to clean up."
"Haha, just give me my food and leave." Icicle gripped. This was probably Snowfall's elaborate torture method. Make Icicle listen to Lynx for more than a few seconds and she would surely bow down to the shrimp of a Queen.
The food bringer slowly nudged the plate closer. Seeing that Icicle still couldn't reach it, she pushed it further in then sat back. "Not sure why you want it so bad. I could always go get something better from the kitchen."
Was she being serious? "Walrus, penguin, snow fox." She couldn't tell by Lynx's face whether she was being honest or not. She always had that look of 'I might do it or I might not. Take your chance.' face. "I don't need anything from you." Icicle said and began eating her mush with the same dignified style that her mother taught her. The portrait of Tundra in the mirror scoffed back at her. Icicle narrowed her eyes and turned back to her food.
Lynx looked back to the mirror then to Icicle with a raised eyebrow in confusion but didn't speak about it. "Fine. Well I'm still bored so do you want to say anything? When was the last time we talked? Like, three years ago? I think this would be a perfect time to catch up." She said sweetly.
Icicle chewed on the solid mushroom then swallowed, keeping the actual reaction from the taste inside so Lynx didn't have another thing to mock her for. "I'd rather get stabbed by a walrus tusk." The thought of dealing with Lynx made a strange fire burn deep inside of her scales. It wasn't big, just a small kindling but Lynx was pushing her luck. Who cared that Icicle hadn't had visitors in…way too long if she was being honest?
The Icewing outside of the cell dropped the smile and stuck out her tongue. "Oh please, what else are you going to do? Sulk for the next eight hours then go to sleep?"
"It's worked out for two years so far." Icicle retorted back. Two years of staring into that stupid mirror and facing the eyes that stared back. Two years of hearing the guards complain or applaud the new changes that Snowfall was doing. More than once she got the same joke told to her. 'Shouldn't you be happy? There aren't rankings anymore so you're no longer the worst!' it made her want to claw out their throats.
Lynx let out a loud, annoyed sigh. "You are just the most pleasant dragon to talk to." She then took the now empty plate that was outside of the cell. "Look, I just want to catch up with you. Is that so much to ask?"
Icicle narrowed her eyes at Lynx. In all of their years, she had NEVER wanted to talk to Icicle, especially not one on one. "She's still mocking me. She's just hiding it. She knows I can't do anything to her so she wants to gloat." The fire raged on, getting larger with each second that Icicle had to stare at Lynx's stupid face. "Why would I want to catch up with a frost smoker like you?" She challenged.
Lynx curled her wings inward as if she was a dragonet that got caught asking the wrong questions. "Because I'm just amazing to talk too? I mean, just listen to my voice. All smooth and thoughtful, who could resist?"
She really didn't have to deal with this right now. "Squeaky and forced is more like it." She sounded like Winter if he actually had confidence. "Quit looking at me like that winter portrait. It's not my fault you sucked at everything." She hissed in her mind as the mirror Winter looked deeper into her heart.
"How about we change subjects? Did you know that Queen Snowfall actually ended the whole ranking stuff? Totally my idea-"
Icicle leaped at the cell bars, feeling the cold blue cylinders crunch against her scales. She bared her fangs and felt satisfied at Lynx jumping back in surprise. "I've HEARD that." She hissed. "Got anything ELSE you want to tell me?" She didn't need to look back at the mirror to see Hailstorm attempting to reach out to her, to tell her to stop but she didn't want to hear it. Lynx was insufferable.
Said dragon collected herself and went back to her annoyed expression. "Let me add that to my list of 'words that make Icicle hate me even more'. Though I figured you would be interested in it. Well, Hailstorm came by the castle yesterday to babysit Mink. He is surprisingly good with dragonets. I figured because of how grouchy you always were he would have struggled."
"Hailstorm hung out with Winter. I didn't need a dragon looking out for me." She growled back. Winter was weaker than she was. He always needed Hailstorm to like him or Lynx to defend him because he couldn't do it himself. Icicle didn't need that. She was ALWAYS sure of herself.
What was that look in Lynx's eyes? Was she looking down on her? "Didn't you two hunt together? I saw you take off with him a couple of time-"
Icicle finally released herself from the bars and sat down, the fire burning brighter than anything a Skywing could produce. "I told him to fly off so I could do it myself. He would just talk and talk and probably scare off my prey. Winter needed his help because he couldn't kill anything." She recalled how her soft brother let a perfectly good polar bear get away.
Lynx thankfully dropped that stupid look in her eyes. She picked up the plate and examined the walls of the cell. "Ok. So you always just told everyone to go away? It's not just a me thing?" She made it look as if she was disappointed but couldn't stop the small chuckle from leaving her mouth. "Guess I feel less special."
The bigger Icewing scowled. "There was nothing special about you to begin with. All you do is scamper after Snowfall, asking if she needed a know it all dragon that somehow can't remember which Queen proceeded Glacier." She said through gritted teeth.
"You need to work on your insults. They are way less creative than they used to be." Lynx said and traced her claws on the ground, drawing it up to her face to admire the ice glinting on it. "Well, I think I'm going to take my leave if you are going to be so hostile…" She turned to open the door, resting her claw on the handle until Icicle spoke up.
"You said Hailstorm was here?" She questioned and when Lynx nodded, her claw hovering over the handle. That didn't make sense. If Hailstorm was there, why hadn't she known? "Why didn't you guys let him come see me? I'm allowed visitors!" She growled at the dragon that was probably pulling the strings so Icicle couldn't talk with her brother.
Even this deep within the Icewing castle, the howling winds of the tornado season could be heard past the icy barricades. Icicle could feel the small vibrations of the ice palace and how it shook like raging fire. "If he didn't come down to see you then he didn't want to see you. No one was stopping him." Lynx's words flew past the cell bars and smacked Icicle like a Seawing tail.
For the most part, Icicle just stood dumbfounded. Though she wasn't hungry, she could still feel an emptiness in her stomach that threatened to eat her whole. "H-he would have seen me. Why wouldn't he? Hailstorm would always visit mother and father and even Winter."
Lynx rubbed the center of her neck, pondering from the looks of it. She was unwilling to meet Icicle's eyes but that could have just been because Lynx was toying with her as she often did. "I'm not sure. Could you possibly think of a reason for why Hailstorm would visit the dragon that saved him from Scarlet over the dragon that got herself thrown into last on the rankings?"
The portrait cast a dark shadow over Lynx as if telling her Icicle's darkest thoughts. It was the opposite of a beacon. Lynx was barely visible due to the portraits influence and Icicle needed to step back to get a better look. Hailstorm ignored her. He knew she was in the castle and he chose to ignore her. The orange and red flames danced happily from her heart to her legs. "Because he's still playing favorites." She said scathingly. "
The smaller Icewing moved her claw from her neck to her forehead, a torch lighting up her probably dark and dense brain. "Hailstorm doesn't do 'favorites'. If you're nice to him, he's nice to you. Besides, I thought you liked Hailstorm? Wasn't Winter the brother you treated like dirt?"
If Icicle could breathe fire she would have melted the bars and then some Icewings on her path to escape. To escape from that stupid portrait and those eyes that just wouldn't look away. "Why would you care?" She asked, ignoring the feeling of ants crawling up her legs and chest that the fire was causing. "You're just Snowfall's servant. How does knowing anything about me and Hailstorm help her? Don't tell me you finally got a mind of your own."
Lynx glared at Icicle. They might as well have been dragonets and Lynx caught Icicle making fun of Winter but this time her normally warm eyes had a fire inside of them that rivaled the one inside of Icicle. "Actually, I came down here because I thought you were lonely but if you don't want to talk then fine. I'll just leave you to contemplate why you of all dragons ended up last in the final rankings since you clearly aren't capable of figuring it out."
Icicle wished the pounding in her chest would stop but the whimpering look fo Winter seemed to fuel the dark hole in her stomach which forced her body to jump. "Fine! Then bring back Hailstorm or Winter so I can yell at them for being awful brothers!" She didn't care which one she saw. They both deserved to be hit over the head with a rock.
Icicle's visitor couldn't seem to decide whether to open the door or not. She was stuck in limbo, or she was waiting for Icicle to give her a reason to choose. "What part of 'they don't want to see you' do you not get?" She asked, narrowing her eyes down at Icicle despite their differences in height.
None of that mattered to Icicle. So what if her brothers didn't want to see her? "Then bring back Lupine or Pasque!" Those two were always hanging out with Icicle when she wasn't doing some stupid test for her mother. One of them would surely visit. "Tell them their friend has some choice words for them!"
"You really aren't catching on, are you?" Lynx asked, the anger completely gone from her face. She had that stupid look that the picture of Hailstorm had. Looking at Icicle like she was a weak dragonet that couldn't kill a fox. "If someone wanted to see you they would have shown up by now. It's not like we tell them that you aren't here."
The hole in her chest sucked in all of the fire that was fueling Icicle. The last ember burned out and she was left staring at Lynx in disbelief. "Someone…someone wants to see me. Y-you just haven't told everyone." She muttered as the hole grew larger. When she looked at the mirror, Narwhal, Tundra, Winter and Hailstorm had all turned their gazes to the rest of the cell. Anything to look away from her. The only one looking back at her was the perfect version of Icicle, smiling in triumph.
Lynx didn't have a funny retort or sarcastic remark. In fact, she didn't even look all that amused by the situation. "I could ask Tundra if she felt up to it. Queen Snowfall hasn't given her any important tasks so…" Her voice was small like an ice shard.
"She won't want to see me. She made THAT clear already." Lynx turned her body away from the door and back to Icicle. The shadow looming over her slowly faded when Icicle looked away from the mirror to fully face her visitor. "What? Are you surprised that my mother doesn't want to see her daughter that didn't challenge Queen Glacier in time?"
The vibrations from the howling wind outside made Icicle shiver. "She doesn't really talk about her children at all. I just…didn't know she visited before."
"Yeah, she came by. It wasn't for long." Did it matter if Lynx knew? It wasn't like she couldn't order the answer out of Icicle's mother and knowing her, she would be glad to state all of Icicle's past failures. It wasn't like Lynx knowing would make the hole in her chest grow any deeper than it already was. "She told me Snowfall was doing away with rankings. That I would be the final dragon to be ranked last, forever. That not even Winter had brought so much shame to our family. 'What would your father think?' Well I figured she could have just asked him but no, he had to go and d-" She stopped herself, feeling waves crashing against her brain as the portrait of Narwhal gazed at her with disgust. "It doesn't matter." She finished with more bitterness than those dark and orange berries. "She was the last-the only dragon to visit."
The blue and white cell's air grew colder than usual, at least for Icicle. Chills weren't things Icewings were supposed to get but for some reason she could feel a mouse running along her spine, its tail rubbing against her bones. Lynx opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. After a long silence, her tongue found what it was looking for. "If I can find someone that would be willing to chaperone you, maybe…" Her eyes flashed with desperation? Hope? Or a mixture of both? Icicle couldn't tell. "Maybe we could go see something? Outside of the castle, of course and within the kingdom."
"I don-why do I need a chaperone? I can take care of myself." She hissed but didn't reject Lynx's offer. To finally leave her cell, the thought alone was enough to make Icicle hold her tongue. Yet the non judgemental stare that Lynx was giving her made the dark abyss in Icicle's chest shrink just a small bit.
Lynx pointed at Icicle, well the scars that lined Icicle's claws, and curled her mouth with disgust. "It's mostly to protect the people around you. I still don't trust you, sorry."
Icicle wanted to argue that she was perfectly capable of not lashing out but Lynx's words were laced with soft spoken silk that trapped Icicle and prevented her from getting angry. The fire in her scales hadn't restarted so she was left unsure. "Fine. Whatever. Take me to the colosseum. If Snowfall hasn't messed that place up either."
Lynx ducked her head and dawned a crooked smile, wishing to tell a joke but knowing better. "I can probably do that." She would then put her serious face back on and frown at Icicle. "As long as when I show up you don't act all hateful and rude. Deal?"
The Icicle in the portrait challenged the real Icicle to accept. Why would she ever take a deal from a low ranked noble when she was a princess? "But I could finally leave this cell. If only for a day. Great Ice dragon I hate Lynx so much." Icicle nodded her head as slow as a growing tree.
"Good! It will probably take a day or two to get some members of the council to agree to it but I'm very agreeable. I'll leave you to growl at the mirror for a while. Thanks for the chat." She mumbled something about ice cream and opened the door, the shadow leaving with her as light from the outside hallway leaked inside. Lynx shut the door on the outside with a loud bang, shaking the cell bars before they steadied themselves to keep Icicle trapped inside.
Icicle curled up and rested her head on the very thin polar bear fur she got as a pillow. Lynx took with her the plate with the prison food and the small light that Icicle didn't realize was hiding within the dark abyss. The portraits narrowed their eyes at her, looking within Icicle keeping herself awake at the lava's edge.