Shattered Souls.

Chapter 5: Stormy skies

The frozen wind bit at Hailstorms snout as he once again sat upon his balcony, looking up at the sky. The clouds above glittered with their gilded rimms as the sun struggled to shine through the veil.

"Thinking of another metaphor?" Came the nervous voice of Pyrite, tingling through his head as always, Hailstorm did not look around, not that there was anyone really there.

"It's not as though I have anything better to do." He replied coldly, digging his serrated talons into the ice slightly.

"Be careful, you might make somebody mad." She said, sounding genuinely worried.

He grimaced, "You're... annoyingly kind hearted."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." She replied calmly, settling her transluscent form on the ice and shudderring, "Is it possible that you're just trying to find something to hate about me?" She asked.

"Shut up." He snapped, still not looking around.

"My my, was that an emotion? I didn't think that was legal here." She teased.

"Aren't you supposed to be all nervous and scared?" He asked bitterly.

"Eh." She said with a shrug, causing Hailstorm to look around at her for the first time, she made a sound like: "Eep" when he did, but then just smiled. "I don't have to be scared of you, you're me after all."

He only responded by huffing and looking back up at the sky.

Pyrite rolled her golden eyes, "You know, if you want to go flying just do it, it doesn't prove you're a SkyWing."

Again, no response...

Pyrite sighed softly, "Fine, don't talk to me, you just go ahead and be alone with those generic, sad thoughts of yours, but when you want to be happy, just let me know."

He growled and turned to snarl at her, but do his surprise, she was gone, Hailstorm sighed and rested his head on the ice.

There was silence for a long, long while, only the sound of the wind rushing and the sounds from the city below kept him company.

Hailstorm waa begginning to finally drift into sleep when he heared talons behind him and span around.

Be strong, be vigilant, strike fi-

He could picture Pyrite rollong her eyes and he mentally hissed, Those are my father's words, and they're true! He thought defiantly.

Pyrite settled beside him, "Hailstorm, I'm a figmant of your imagination, if you really believed that, I wouldn't be here." She pointed out.

The clearing of a throught reminded Hailstorm that there had in fact been a reason for his thoughts in the first place. Hailstorm looked up to see who was approaching him.

It took him far longer than it should have to recognize the shining white dragon in front of him, with her sparkling blue eyes, looking at him with a cold, calculating gaze.

"To be fair to you, that does describe most IceWings." Pyrite chimed in, Hailstorm ignored her.

"Iceicle." Hailstorm said with a dip of his head, "It is good to see you, where have you been?" He asked, he hadn't seen his younger sister for months and was begginning to worry that something had happenned to her, or that she'd been locked up again already.

"Out." Iceicle replied in her usual cold sneer, "I couldn't bare to hear one more speach from Snowfall about inter-tribal relations." She hissed bitterly.

Hailstorm sighed, "You know, just because a MudWing tried to kill you twice doesn't mean that forming relationships with other tribes is a waste of time." He said in what he thought was a perfectly reasonable tone.