Wings of Fire: The Extremely Awesome Amazing Epic Legend Of Kinkajou

Chapter 5

 Mountains covered with ice and snow glitter far below. No trees dot the landscape. No sounds penetrate the air. The only scenery is ice. Ice from horizon to horizon. Ice. Ice. Ice. She is all one for admiring the other tribes' kingdoms, but Winter is wrong, the rainforest is infinitely more awesome, and it's a better temperature too, the ice kingdom is a cold and barren wasteland.

Kinkajou can feel the power from the Gift of Diplomacy's bracelets shimmering over her scales in a warm and comforting way. Constantly fighting to keep her warm as the temperature begins to plummet. First to freezing, then far below. To the point where it could freeze a dragon in minutes.

As they fly, she begins to wish for sound, any sound, to break this unnatural silence that has settled over them. So why not make one? She thinks.

"Where is this cool ancient palace again? Are there going to be ancient monsters? Or ancient treasures. Ooh, I wonder if we are going to find a giant trove of sapphires, or bananas. At this point, bananas would be just as much a treasure to me as gold.

Moon startles, her wings nearly missing a beat at the sudden noise, to which Kinkajou bursts into giggles. Gold and pink bubbles up onto her scales, which have unconsciously turned a pristine white and ice blue, in a splattering of blotches. Moon joins in on the giggling, to which Tsunami grumbles something under her breath that sounds suspiciously like "Dragonets."

"According to Starflight, the old icewing palace should be somewhere in these mountains. That's all we know." Moon says, gesturing vaguely to their north, where the endless icy plain breaks up into an immense range of mountains made of, guess what, more ice!

The silence broken, the three dragonets drift into an idle stream of conversation. Such an epicly better state to be in from Kinkajou's point of view. They talk about various things, skillfully avoiding any mention of Darkstalker and his return.

As they reach the mountains, the temperature plunges again. Colder, I didn't think that was even possible. She thinks. Gradually they begin to climb higher to avoid crashing into the mountain peaks. Beneath them, mountains pass endlessly by.

"We better start looking." says Tsunami, "Keep your eye out for anything that could be an ancient palace." With these helpful instructions in mind, they spread out slightly, eyes scanning the mountains for any break from the ordinary.

But even as they search, Kinkajou sees nothing but ice and snow. Ice and snow. Ice and Snow.

They are almost to the end of the mountain range, still with nothing to report when a faint shift comes over her. Something is different. She just can't entirely place what. Something. A feeling... Wait, the ever-present hum from the Gift of Diplomacy has changed.

It's as if the steady hum has changed to a slight pulling sensation, as if it is inviting her to go in a certain direction. Downwards and slightly to the right. Following its gentle pull, she soars downwards towards a mountain. Wait there is something slightly different about this mountain. Something about the way the ice looks...

"There!" Kinkajou says.

Beneath her, buried under thousands of years of snow and ice, almost unrecognizable is an immense door carved into an icy cliff on one of the mountains.

Moon and Tsunami swoop up beside her, and together they spiral down, landing on the frozen ledge below the door. Below their talons, snow, untouched for decades crunches loudly.

"Whew," Moon says, "For a while there I was worried we weren't going to find it."

"Did you feel that?" Kinkajou says, "it was like my bracelet was pulling towards the door. It was so cool. Such an epic awesome animus touched object."

"Yeah, I felt it too, but I hadn't narrowed the feeling down to the Gift of Diplomacy yet." Moon looks up at the immense door, "Now the only question is 'How do we get inside?'" To this, neither the door, nor the Gift of Diplomacy gives any answer.

"Throw a mango at it?" Kinkajou suggests, "Oh, wait we don't have a mango. A pineapple then, no wait we don't have that either." She looks around, "I know, let's throw a snowball at it, we have plenty of those."

To this, they all smile again.

Tsunami takes charge, "Search around the edge of this mountain, if there's one door, there might be more. Maybe some that are actually doors, and not walls pretending to be doors. Meet back here in one hour."

They all spread out once again, examining the mountain from every side and angle. Now that she looks at it, the sides are unnaturally smooth, like the skin of a peach, almost as if someone had molded it to look like a mountain, and it wasn't actually a mountain at all. But still, no other entrance, and the mountain still sat there looking as peaceful and serene as ever. You won't hide from me, mountain, the Epic Amazing Awesome Kinkajou is going to find a way inside you, to find what awesome epic secrets await.

They all continue to search and eventually make their way back to the immense front entrance, none of them having found anything other than more mountain.

"Well, what do we do now? Moon asks. "We can't just leave, we need a way into that mountain..." She trails off, examining something on the edge of the door, in a place that was previously invisible from where they had sat before.

"Wait, it says something," Moon says, brushing off a thick layer of snow, revealing letters carved into the ice. "ONLY ICEWINGS OR THERE ALLIES MAY ENTER." She reads aloud.

"We ARE the icewings allies, if we don't do something the entire tribe is going to be destroyed!" Tsunami yells at the door, to which it offers no response.

From behind them, the sun's last rays flitter over the hills, slowly dipping behind the frozen mountain peaks.

"Ok," Kinkajou wonders "If I were an ancient and possible animus touched icewing palace, how would I know who my epic allies were, and who my terrible enemies are," She pauses, "Unless..." The Gift of Diplomacy already showed that it has a connection to the palace. She soars over to the message and places the Gift of Diplomacy on its cold frozen surface. Nothing happens. "Good idea anyway," Moon says, "I really thought that would wor..." She starts, and then stops. "Oh."

Shedding thousands of years worth of ice in a giant avalanche, causing all the dragons to leap into the air to avoid getting crushed, the giant door swings open, leaving Darkness in its wake.

Slowly they begin to creep into the icy bowels of the mountain. A giant cavern of ice greets them. The giant walls show a perfect view of the outside, the sunset fading to night visible perfectly through the ice. All along the edge of the wall alcoves are carved, each one a perfect distance from the next, creating spots for thousands of dragons to sit. Tunnels disappear into every wall from various points in the room, and lines of balconies sit at orderly distances along the walls. Dominating the middle of the room is an ancient fountain, somehow still emitting a fresh stream of water that glows with an unearthly light. An immense throne, ornately carved out of ice, rests at the back of the room, looking cold and uncomfortable.

"Wait, there's something on the throne." Moon creeps to its base, looking closer. "It's a dragon. Wait, no. It's a statue of ice carved to look like a dragon." Now that they noticed one, they began to notice others. The statues are scattered all throughout the room, especially closer to the door, carved as perfectly as if they were frozen dragons. Each scale perfectly detailed. And each of their faces twisted into a look of horrified fear. Many look as if they were scrambling backward, trying to get away from something.

Creepy, and slightly foreboding. Kinkajou thinks I think maybe we should be worried. It's been 4,000 years. Nothing should still exist from that ancient time, She thinks as she tries to calm herself. But a layer of worry still flows across her scales. Turning them a greenish color.

Almost as if in answer to her thoughts, a voice cold and grating as the sharpest icicles echoes across the room. "Welcome, it has been such a long time since I've had visitors."

Behind them the giant door slams shut with a boom that Kinkajou can feel in her bones, trapping them inside an icy tome.