Page 12 of Dragons & Dumplings
We played a few rounds of tag, until our breath was short and our wings were weary. I didn’t even mind the thin layer of ice coating my wings—it soothed my inner fire like a cool rain on a hot summer’s day.
But before turning in for the night, we circled above Willowmere, enjoying one last look at the town before the snowflakes blocked it from view. And for the first time in ages, as we soared side-by-side, wingtips nearly touching, I finally felt free.
Chapter five
Wingtips & Wonder
Yuri
Icouldn’trememberthelasttime I had gone flying with someone just for the joy of it. Free of judgment, free of fears and expectations. It had been ages since all my worries melted away like that, too.
I had been told all my life that fire drakes were short-tempered, uncompromising, and battle-crazed. But Mei wasn’t like that at all.
Was Mei just an outlier? One as rare as the legendary icefire, the flame that burned cold?
She was certainly feisty, but she was also incredibly caring, and had a playful side to her that took me completely by surprise. She was nothing like the monstrous fire drakes I had been taught to abhor on principle.
The way she had stood up for that cat-shifter had been impressive. Well, at least until she lowered her guard and allowed the tiger shifter to sneak up behind her.
Kiki would have been left to her fate had she been among ice dragons. After all, the weak had no right to oppose the strong.
Mei’s kindness seemed like her own kind of strength. I had even been surprised when she was happy the tiger shifter was still alive, instead of calling me a weakling for not finishing him off, as my brother would have done. Though she really needed to remember to keep her scales on—it was important to be prepared for underhanded blows and sneak attacks at any time.
And despite our opposing natures, we had more in common than I was prepared to admit. I had never encountered another dragon who suffered from panic attacks—I thoughtIwas the only one. And my own fleet made sure I never forgot it.
Did Mei bear the same scars I did? Did her parents punish her when she became overwhelmed as well? Or did they try to help her?
I rubbed at the hand I had burned a week ago, remembering the pain of the heat clashing with my icy magic.
It had been reckless of me to get so close to an overheating fire drake on purpose like that. Despite what I had told Mei, the heat had singed me a little. And why had I kissed her to calm her down?! Sure, it was the quickest way to distract her and deliver a blast of ice magic to cool her fire… But if a single thing had gone wrong, I would have melted!
Even if Ihadbeen repaying my debt to her, it was still a foolish thing to do. And if someone from my fleet had seen me… I grimaced, shying away from that thought. Better not to think about it.
I looked back down at the open book in my hands, attempting to muster enough focus to concentrate on the extremely dry writing. I was here to research, to redeem myself and bring honor to my family and my fleet. I needed to remember that, and stop letting a ruby-colored fire drake distract me from my mission.
A nagging voice in the back of my head whispered that finding and reporting a fire drake fleet hiding right under the nose of my own fleet would redeem me in my father’s eyes. I silenced it. Once, I might have considered it. But now…
Instead of taking the easy way out, I would stick to my original plan. Besides, I had nearly finished writing my book. I just needed to fill in the last gap in Glacius’ illustrious history to complete the timeline.
My pupils contracted into slits as renewed determination filled me. Once I found the information I was seeking in Willowmere, I would move on to a town that had fewer…distractions.
Then, I would finally be able to finish my book, secure a contract with a publishing company, and return to my fleet as a victor…instead of as a failure.
I breathed out an icy breath, frosting the page. My room at the inn was always too warm for my liking. Diving back into the somewhat archaic text, I resumed taking notes of important dates and landmarks.
According to this book, our Great Patriarch Glacius had accomplished many amazing feats throughout his journey to the north. It was specifically mentioned how he had bested a number of sea serpents and krakens while travelling along the western coastline of what would become the United States, and even went into great detail about how the locals worshipped him as their savior afterwards.
But after his most grueling battle yet with a massive sea serpent in Oregon, the text skipped to about a year afterwards, when he discovered modern-day Alaska, which was then occupied by Russians—human and otherwise. I frowned, flipping the page back and forth, thinking I had somehow missed a couple of pages, or at least a few paragraphs. But no; the tale continued on as if that year of time never happened.
I snapped the book closed in frustration. Every single text skipped that particular year, when he would have traveled through Washington. If my calculations were correct, and I was certain they were, Glacius must have passed through Willowmere on his way to Alaska.
So what had he been doing here all that time?
Since I had arrived in this small town, I had seen neither scale nor talon of any ice dragons. At first I thought Mei’s ancestors could have fought him off, but then I learned the fire drakes had only moved here a few years ago, so that was impossible.
I had tried asking a few discreet questions, but the answers I got were brief and unhelpful—if the person bothered to answer at all, instead of hurrying away while throwing worried glances over their shoulder at me.
How was I supposed to find the truth if I couldn’t get anyone to talk to me?
