Robin

Where am I?
Robin squinted, having just woken up and already been overwhelmed by the blinding whiteness of snow as far as her blurry eyes could see. It must have been noon, she thought, with how the pale blue sky above, sparsely brushed with grey clouds, almost matched the brightness of the snowy plains all around. Here and there, the skeletal remains of trees and shrubs littered the landscape. As Robin's vision cleared, ever so slowly, she came to notice a line of hazy green trees in the distance; a forest bordering between the sky and the snow. Further in the distance, the silhouette of craggy mountains stood, icy peaks like teeth in a behemoth's jaw. A light smattering of snow continued to fall around her as she worked up the resolve to move.
It's so cold...
She shivered, and clawed herself out of the snowy ditch, displacing the blanket of snow that had piled on top of her. Lacking the energy to shake the remainder of the snow off her back, she dragged it along with her towards the distant forest, where she might not be so exposed to the elements or potential predators. Being just a hatchling, Robin knew she could fall prey to even an owl, as her parents had oft warned her. "Stay hidden," her mother had said, "Blend in with the forest until you find your way home. We will come back for you soon."
Where are you?
She whispered questions to herself, warming up as she crawled, then walked, then fluttered her way to the edge of the frosty forest. I can't remember how I got here. Only Mother's goodbyes. How long ago was that? Simple instincts drove her frozen body onwards, no matter the lack of food in her belly, nor the cloudiness confusing her mind.
Icy snow yet still clung to her scales and mane, even as she tried to brush it off now, but she was soon distracted from the attempts by the vast pine forest, finally looming right before her. It seemed so dark now, compared to the endless snow now behind her. The branches blotted out the sun, and pine needles were bedded so thickly on the ground that new vegetation had trouble sprouting and reaching the light. This gave the forest an eerie monotonous feel that had Robin feeling cornered, despite having wide open land behind her.
I have to get home... Where's the waterfall? I think its east.
She turned her head slightly to the left, hoping that she had her bearings at least close after considering the suns position, and set off on her way.

It wasn't until she was at least an hour's travel deep into the forest that Robin started to hear a familiar sound. Wingbeats, of a dragon much larger than herself. Cautious, she clung to the trunk of a tall pine tree, scrabbling to keep her grip up in the taller boughs. She had to keep her wings quiet; the humming of her own wingbeats would surely be heard if they came much closer. Surely enough, clumsily, a dragon flew by some metres ahead of her, it's wingspan just too large to avoid beating at the trees and spraying pine needles all around.
She was a skydancer, her thin frame hosting dark feathery plumage against her white and blood-red scales. She was half-flying, half-trotting through the forest, never straying far from the floor and maintaining a quick pace. As she hopped and pranced, she muttered in a growling tone.
"-hate this damned cold. Can't go back home, so where? Shadow? Hmph! As if. And not water either."
Robin, curious now, followed the skydancer as quietly as she could. She leapt from branch to pointy branch, staying out of sight. Thankfully, she thought, the stranger seemed far too preoccupied with her monologue to notice a tiny little veilspun hatchling. Robin needed answers about this place, and damn if she was going to miss an opportunity like this. But she had to be wary; she was but the size of this dragoness' claw! Caution had to be taken.
"I can't believe they're gone. I was counting on finding them and their damned scrolls and now what do I do? Would Aria still take me after this? I would have access to the grove from there, wouldn't I?"
Robin wondered who Aria could be. Someone near the grove in the Tangled Woods, she supposed, unless she had meant a grove in the nature domain. That didn't even narrow it down much, with the shadow domain having so many neighbours.
The red skydancer slowed to an anxious walk, visibly shivering from tip to tail. The feathery undersides of her wings quivered in the cold before she tucked them in by her sides and hunched her shoulders. It was truly and bitterly cold, Robin noted, but somehow she herself wasn't bothered so much anymore. Perhaps due to her icy heritage, she assumed. A brisk wind rattled through the trees, ruffling Robin's long mane, but failing to dislodge any of the stubborn snow still entangled within the blue strands.
"It can't be that far to the shore, right? No, I left hours ago, I must be close. She said to go northeast. Definitely northeast, I saw the maps."
Robin frowned. This skydancer was headed southeast! If she was planning to fly over the sea in that direction, she would surely exhaust herself and drown in the icy depths before she had a chance to realise her mistake.
I have to tell her, Robin decided. She would never forgive herself if she left the skydancer to such a fate. She fluttered her wings, cringing at how loud the humming seemed now. The skydancer quickly noticed the sound, and whipped her head around.
"Who's- oh. A... fae?"
Robin alighted onto a larger pine branch, just a few wingspans from the stranger's face. The deep red gaze studied her, seeming particularly scrutinising.
"You're not quite a fae, are you? I've not seen your kind before, at least not in the flesh. What are you doing out in the cold?"
Robin bowed politely. "You're right, Miss, though I'm surprised you've not seen a veilspun before. It seems as if you were born nearby the Tangled Wood. That's where my family lives, all hundreds of them, yes."
The skydancer nodded. "I was born in the plague domain, indeed, but it's been a long while since I visited those damned rotting fools," she snorted haughtily. "It's a shame I can't stay here, really. It's so far from that literal cesspool and the revolting monsters it births. Anyway, no, the shadowborn dragons tend to keep to themselves these days, besides the circus, naturally."
Wow, Robin thought. She personally had a level of respect for the hardships that plague dragons endured, but understood that others may be squeamish. It all made her glad to be a quaint little ice dragon herself. As for the talk of shadow dragons, she had never heard of a circus. At least, not a 'The Circus.'
"If you don't mind me asking, miss, where are you headed?" Robin tried not to allude to her blatant spying. She could ask about a circus later.
"If only I really knew. Somewhere in the Lightweaver's domain, that's all I know for sure. This... friend of mine, she moves around, you see. One moment she has a cave up in the high society of the city, the next she's in the old slums down by the border. I do wish she would stay put, if only for a year or two, so I wouldn't have to track her down every jubilee."

(to be continued)