Nix

Though he had lost all feeling in his hands and feet long ago, he still pressed on through the blizzard.

"Damn the Icewarden," he snarled through frozen lips. "And damn his jailers."

He knew they were behind him, close and getting closer. He could hear their chains rattling, hear their footfalls even in the deep snow. He would not go back, would not be imprisoned again. His own chains dragged behind him, hindering his process.

"Halt, criminal." The keepers had caught up to him.

He turned around and looked up at the Icewarden's elemental acolytes.

"Three of you? My goodness, I feel so important." His frigid pursuers did not laugh.

"You are to return to the Fortress of Ends."

"I refuse."

"You have no choice."

The Pearlcatcher's lip curled up in a snarl. "There is always a choice. Well, perhaps not for you, you brainless security ice cubes. You obey the Icewarden, do his every bidding. Must be nice, not having to think for yourselves."

The Pearlcatcher laughed as two of the keepers roared and attacked. He had never felt so free. "You'll just have to kill me! I'm not going back to being a sentient ice sculpture." He dodged both of the keeper's blows, leaping back and forth as though he was simply a hatchling playing in the snow.

It was then that the third keeper grabbed him by one of the broken chains around his wrists and pulled him down.

"No," the Pearlcatcher shrieked. "No! Let me go! Let me go!"

"You are to return to the Fortress of Ends," the keeper intoned as it pulled the struggling dragon towards itself. One of the other keepers approched and slipped its steel collar around the dragon's neck and fastened it tight.

He felt ice creeping down his neck, freezing him solid. He was so cold. He made a feeble attempt to break free of the keepers that held him but succeeded only in snapping the weak shackle on his wrist. He was still held tight by the collar and chain around his neck. He lay in the snow in front of his captor, exhausted.

The keeper picked him up by the collar and studied him. "An interesting sample for preservation," it said. It nodded to its fellows and they began their trek back to the Fortress.

Night fell as the walked, the Pearlcatcher drifting in and out of consciousness. Once he awake to the sound of cracking ice and saw that one of the keepers had lost an arm. No ice is perfect, he thought before slipping back into unconsciousness. When he next awoke the dancing lights were in the sky. As a hatchling, he had heard that those shimmering lights were a sign of friendship between the Lightweaver and the Icewarden. An ancient alliance that still held.

He watched them now, the iridescent rainbow of colors swirling across the heavens. He could recall ever having seen them so bright. He wanted to fly up and wrap himself in the soft yellow or glowing orange lights. Or perhaps red, he thought. But not blue. I have had enough blue. The other colors looked so bright, so welcoming, so...warm.

Warm. He wanted to feel warm more than anything else in the world.

But cold, he thought, flexing his stiff claws, has some advantages at the moment. He lifted his hands to the frozen collar around his neck. His scales felt like smooth ice. From deep within, he summoned his last bit of strength and magic. His eyes glowed a cold blue.

"Hey idiots," he rasped, each word expelling icy magic. The keepers spun around and saw their captive, covered in ice and eyes alight with rage. "Metal breaks when it gets cold enough."

With a resounding snap the brittle metal collar shattered into pieces.

He shot into the air, wings cracking and tearing as they stretched. One of the keepers grabbed at the chain around his ankles and got half its hand broken off for its trouble. Another keeper snatched at his tail and he slammed his pearl into its head. Shards of enchanted ice flew through the stormy air as the keeper collapsed into the snow.

He let the powerful winds of the blizzard carry him up and away from the enraged keepers and smiled as he soared higher and higher. He only had to stay awake long enough to fly over the Icefield and the strip of ocean that separated it from the Ashfall Waste. It would be so warm there. As he flew, he looked at the glorious lights above him. They would be the only thing he missed about this place.





Along the shores of the Waste, a band of Coatls scurried about. Some hunted for seafood, while others gathered shells and various pieces of flotsam. A few of the older hatchlings splashed in the shallows. Suddenly, a little orange hatchling screamed.

"What is that thing?"

The Coatls gathered around the frightened hatchling and stared in wonder.

An adult wrapped her wing around the hatchling. "Shh, kid, it's okay. It can't hurt you. It's just a little iceberg. But how did it get all the way over here without melting...?"

"There's something in it," said another hatchling.

"C'mon, let's pull it ashore," said the Coatl with her wing around the apprehensive hatchling.

Two adults flew over to the block of ice and floated it gently to the sandy shore. "Uh...everyone, you might want to have a look at this," said one.

Carefully, the Coatls approached the ice. The cold radiated off of it in a steady wave, and the younger Coatls shivered for the first time in their lives.

"Oh Gods," said a colorful Coatl. "It's a corpse." A murmur of unease swept through the small crowd. What were they to do with a body? What clan was the dragon even from? How and why had they ended up encased in ice?

As the group of adults whispered to each other, some of the hatchlings crept towards the motionless body.

"It's so cold," exclaimed the little orange girl.

"Ooh, and look how shiny that rock is," said another. She gestured to a good-sized opalescent sphere frozen near the dragon's frosty tail.

The little Coatls gasped at such a gem and tiptoed forwards until they were close enough to reach out to the shimmering orb. A fluffy red hatchling extended a clawtip to touch the beautiful treasure.

With a shocking wave of frigid air, the dead dragon's eyes snapped open to reveal glowing blue ice.

"Do not touch that," hissed the dragon.

The hatchlings screamed and leaped backwards. They had no idea what the talking corpse had said, but the very fact that it had spoken was enough to frighten them into a retreat. As the hatchlings ran away to a safer distance, the adults ran forwards with their teeth bared.

"What in the name of the Gods are you," said the colorful male to the frozen Pearlcatcher. The Coatl frowned as the other dragon responded in a language he did not know. Perhaps it was asking for help?

"I don't speak Coatl, you multicolored moron." The Pearlcatcher rolled his eyes as the Coatl continued trying to speak to him, this time flapping his feathered wings for emphasis. "Alright, that's enough of this nonsense."

He wrenched his head and upper neck out of the ice and yelped as a patch of scales was torn off on the ice. "Oh, fantastic. Who needs skin, anyways?" He continued to break his limbs free from the ice as the Coatls stared at him and hummed among themselves. "Thanks for the help, everyone," muttered the Pearlcatcher as he clawed at the ice imprisoning his feet.

Finally, he managed to extract his entire body from the slowly melting iceberg. Well, almost his entire body. His tail was still buried deep beneath the surface and, try as he might, he could not wiggle it free.

He looked up to see a light yellow Coatl with orange eyes standing near his stubborn prison. They said something in a quiet hum that he did not understand. It seemed to be a question, judging by the Coatl's facial expression. He sighed and decided to risk a nod, not knowing to what he agreed.

The yellow Coatl's hands lit up with a striking orange glow and they placed their delicate hands upon the ice above the Pearlcatcher's tail. He watched in amazement as the ice began melting faster and faster. He thought it odd that the fire magic wasn't at all hot. It certainly looked hot, but he didn't feel any warmth.

He went to place his hands near the Coatl's and they rapidly yanked their hands away. Now it sounded like the yellow dragon was scolding him, but he had no idea why. "It's not as though I'm going to burn myself," he said. "It's not even warm--which is a pretty neat trick, by the way. How do you do it?"

The Coatl stared at him.

"Right. You don't understand me either. On the bright side, seems to me that you've melted enough of the ice for me to pull my tail free. I'd tell you thank you, but you wouldn't know anyway."

With that, he seized the small bit of his tail that was exposed and began loosening it from the ice. It was after a particularly intense pull that he heard a strange cracking noise from the vicinity of his tail. He peered through the ice at it, but saw nothing amiss.

Then he looked closer and saw the blood.

And after that, he saw only darkness.




When he next awoke, he was on his side near a cozy bonfire. He blinked and tried to take in his new surroundings. It was a bit difficult to see, but he appeared to be in a cave of some sort. Looking up, he could see a hole in the distant ceiling where the smoke of the bonfire drifted out of.



W.I.P.