The Letters You Send Me

Chapter: 10 Solitude

"Love you." He said, his eyes still closed. When he opened them, he noticed he was in his room, on his leafy bed. He sighed "damn it." Winter stood up from his bed and sighed to himself before walking out of his room and down the hall, which lead to the kitchen. 

Winter stood still looking at the kitchen. He remembered so clearly the conversation he and Moon had in his dream. He smiled and slowly reached out his claw, as if she was still there and he could touch her.

He sighed and slowly inched away from the kitchen, grabbing a basket and exiting his house, walking to his vegetable garden. There were rows of carrots, potatoes, lettuce, peppers, and cucumbers.  He placed his basket on the ground and knelt down, as he began examining the plants, dragging his claw over the leaves, checking if they were ripe for picking. When he found the vegetables that he could pick, he took them from the ground and placed them in his basket neatly.

When the basket was halfway full, Winter packed up and went to the other garden with his fruits and he started to pick some fruits which he was going to use to make salad and soup later on.

Winter picked the fruits he wanted and went back into his small hut. He looked at his small house and sighed. The Icewing walked to the kitchen and put the basket with the fruits and vegetables on the center island, going to the cauldron and lighting the wood underneath it.

Winter turned around and grabbed a knife with his tail, before putting it in his talons and grabbing a cucumber, before chopping it up into smaller pieces. He repeated the process with another vegetable before going back outside, to the beach.

He walked along the stone path on the grass, that slowly transitioned to sand. He stopped for a moment, opening and closing his talons, feeling the grains of sand move between his claws. He dipped the tips of his wings into the sand, before raising them and flapping them, feeling the warm ocean breeze in his scales.

Winter continued to the beach, stopping on the wet sand, the waves slowly going to grab his claws, before retreating back only to repeat the process. Winter leaned down and extended his wings upward, before jumping up and flying to a nearby rock, perching over the water with his tail curved around his body and right next to his snout, the sharp spikes on his tail facing the water.

Winter watched as the different fish swam around the rock, bobbing up and down, unaware of the pale white dragon above them. Winter saw an opportunity. A decent seized salmon swimming in a circle. 

Winter took a deep breath and trusted his tail down, before swinging it up and seeing the fish stabbed through the middle. He smiled and the fish flopped back and forth for a second, before stopping and going limp.

Winter grabbed the dead fish from the spike on his tail and held it in his talons, examining it. "Not bad... Would have been better if it was a claw bigger." Winter leapt into the air and flew back to the beach, before going back into his house and making his way to the kitchen.

He grabbed the knife and cut open the fish, taking out the bones and the excess stuff before slicing it into smaller pieces before putting them into the cauldron and then mixing it with the wooden spoon. 

Winter heard wingbeats outside of his house, then some talon steps on the wood of his porch then the sound of the door opening and the talons making their way towards him.

"I see you're keeping busy, Winter."

The Icewing looked back and smiled. "Hey, Deathbringer. Aren't you supposed to be with your mate? Since she's... You know... With egg?"

The Nightwing laughed and shook his head, lifting his talons over his head and taking off the pouches around his neck, placing them on a counter. "It's alright, Glory is strong and besides, it's not like she has an army of invisible, venom-spitting dragons keeping her company."

Winter chuckled, before sighing "I know that look." Deathbringer said, walking to the young Prince, standing in front of him. Deathbringer was much taller than Winter, almost two full heads including the horns. "What happened?" Winter lowered his head "Moon visited me with a Dream Visitor last night." Deathbringer smirked "oh? And what happened?" Winter sighed "I gave her some of my Pyrrhian Soup and I promised her I'd write some letters. That's pretty much it." 

"You didn't tell her where you are?" Winter shook his head "of course not." Deathbringer sighed "Winter. You might be fine now but a life of solitude isn't a good life." Winter nodded and turned around, continuing cutting the vegetables "I know, but if it means the rest of the Winglet is safe then I'll do it."

"Why not return to the Ice Kingdom?"

Winter froze, and everything flashed in his mind like a giant snowstorm hitting him and suffocating him in memories. "I can't. I've committed treason and most of the Icewings think I'm dead." Deathbringer sighed, then placed a wing around Winter, causing him to freeze and look at the Nightwing "if you want, you could come live with Glory and I." Winter shook his head once more "thanks for the offer, but I'll pass."

Winter slowly pushed the Nightwing's wing off his back before going to the cauldron and stirring it a few times, adding some vegetables with his tail. "The offer is always open Winter." Winter smiled internally, "how did you find me anyways?" He asked, shooting occasional glances at Deathbringer "I'm an assassin, Winter. I know how to find people. It was quite easy to track you. Well-, Easy for an assassin."

Winter hummed in response and the whipped his head around, grabbing the fruits and cutting them up "are all your days like this?" Deathbringer asked, looking around before his gaze settled back on the Icewing. "They are. But I'm used to it." Deathbringer took a deep breath, before bringing his claws to his mouth and inserting two claws in his mouth and letting out a high pitched whistle.

A few seconds later, a hawk flew into the house and landed on the counter. It has red and brown feathers all across it's body with the underside of it's wings and belly having pale red feathers. The bird had big yellow eyes with black pupils and a yellow beak. There was a harness on the bird with a small cylinder container on it's back that was held close by a clasp that had a small black wing with a stary pattern on it.

"This is Newsbringer. He's my messenger falcon but I'll let you use him for now. He'll let you send some letters between here and Jade Mountain Academy. And no, he's not so easy to follow."

Newsbringer hopped onto Deathbringer's talon before jumping onto a spike on Winter's tail, as it was raised in front of his face "I bet you can figure out what he eats." Winter smiled.

"Thank you."