Northwind Blowing ~ A Wings of Fire Fanfiction

Chapter 2

A/N: Just a heads-up, this book takes place before the plague that Darkstalker sends so late Queen Glacier is still alive. Also, they are currently 4 years old.

Snowdrift's POV

"Line up! Stand straight! Be vigilant! When the queen speaks to you, look her in the eye and be polite. Otherwise, you will NOT, in absolutely no other situation, speak to her without permission," Mistral's sharp and cold voice rang out in the cold morning air. Her eyes as stony as if she was an ice sculpture, betrayed no emotion. No pride for her students or fear for them either, just chilly nothingness.

Snowdrift stood straighter and lifted her head a bit more. It wasn't that she was afraid of the queen, no it wasn't that. Even though the queen was sharp, elegant, cold, yet beautiful all at the same time, it wasn't her that Snowdrift was afraid of.

It was her teacher, Mistral, who scared Snowdrift the most.

Mistral was a very strict no-nonsense teacher that can rip out your throat if you didn't watch your tongue. She's a retired war general, but she was still as striking, dangerous, and well... grumpy as before. Yet, there's still worse news, Mistral didn't like any of her students, at all, but her least favorite students you ask? Well, one of the very unlucky dragonets was Snowdrift.

Snowdrift didn't know why her teacher disliked her so much, she had no idea. Mistral was sometimes kind to her best students, dragonets like Miss Perfect Aurora, or Prissy-Pants Borealis, those two siblings were so annoying, they literally paraded around the training center singing how they were the best.

"Your majesty," Mistral's sharp voice broke through her thoughts.

Queen Glacier glided through the door and landed gracefully next to Mistral.

"Mistral," Queen Glacier said, "As punctual as ever. How is training going?"

"It's going perfectly your majesty, all the dragonets should be trained and ready to go to the war in less than a year," Mistral replied in a fake honey-toned voice that nearly made Snowdrift gag.

"Wonderful! Who will be taking their assessments first?" Queen Glacier replied.

"Hmmm..." Mistral said as she glanced, or shall we say glared across the room, "How about Aurora, Borealis, Penguin, and... Iceberg."

Snowdrift sighed in relief, she didn't have to impress the queen first. The other dragonets, including Snowdrift, quickly hurried away to train even more.

About an hour or so later, the first four dragonets came back.

"Next will be North, Sleet, Snowdrift, and Snowhare," Mistral announced.

***✫***

North's POV

"I'm next, I'm next, I hope I get some decent prey, and then they'll see how good of a hunter I am," North thought as he lined up along with the other three dragonets.

He knew all of them, but none of them very well. Nobody wanted to speak to the 5th circle ranked dragonet who came from a cursed family.

For a 4-year-old, Sleet was well-built and sturdy, he was in the 2nd circle and lived in the palace along with his family. Snowdrift... well, North had always admired her from afar, she was in the 1st circle but she wasn't a snobby royal like the others. She was kindhearted and went out of her way to make sure others were treated well, she was also talented and a great huntress. Snowhare was the complete opposite of Snowdrift, though she was in the 1st circle as well. Instead of being kindhearted and helpful, Snowhare went out of her way to make others' lives miserable, and she was and had always been mean to North.

North took off, out of the training facility. As he flew above a frozen river, he spotted a walrus under the ice.

He slowly landed on the ice and waited for the walrus to swim under the hole that he had punctured in the ice. He was about to grab the walrus when he heard a pained cry coming from not so far away.

Without thinking, he left the walrus and flew towards the cry.

There he saw Snowdrift, and it looked like she had twisted her foreleg.

"Are you ok?" he asked as he landed, "What happened?"

She sniffed and looked up, "I dislocated my right foreleg when I was chasing a polar bear."

"Oh," was his simple answer.

After a few tries North was able to pop her leg back into the socket, "How is it feeling now?" he asked.

"It's much better, thank you. I don't think I've talked to you before, you're North, right?"

"Yeah."

She smiled, "Well, North, thank you for helping me. You're a very good friend."

North tilted his head, trying to see if she was joking or not.

"Friend?"

"Yeah," she replied, "um, is it okay if I consider you as a friend now?"

North nodded carefully. He wasn't used to this type of communication. The conversations between him and other dragonets, mostly included shouting, insults, and stuff that related to 'let's all be mean to North'.

"Great! I'll see later!" she said, all cheerful like.

This time, he grins back at her. "Seems like I've made a new friend!" he thinks, as he watches her fly away.