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.
So it was extra baffling when he was met with extreme hostility in response, "The Hailstorm I remember didn't think that! He understood that IceWings were the greatest in Pyrrhia! He agreed with me, and he wouldn't stand for any of this, this... degredation of our traditions."
Hailstorm paused, was she right? Had he really changed that much to where things he used to believe now seemed extreme and cruel?
Hailstorm sighed, "I'm sorry Iceicle but I... I don't know how to be that brother anymore." He said, hanging his head, "I didn't mean to make you feel..."
"Don't you dare!" Iceicle roared, pacing across the ledge, "Don't you dare pity me! I don't need it! So what if I'm alone? I always was, ever since that winged-penguin Winter lost ny real brother!"
Pyrite giggled beside him, "Do you think she knows that penguins do have wings? I mean, I'm a SkyWing, and a pretty stupid one at that, and I knew it." She said.
Hailstorm gave her a sideways glance, only to have Iceicle follow his gaze to the empty air beside him, "What has happenned to you?" She asked.
Hailstorm sucked in a breath, "I... I'm not right Iceicle, I know it, I want to be, I want to be the dragon you remember, and I've tried so hard but." He pulled his wings in close, as if they'd offer him any warmth, "I can't get her out of my head, always whisperring things, telling jokes, talking about un-IceWing-like things. And then even when she does leave, I feel alone, and I want her back again." He confessed, he knew his sister was the last dragon in the kingdom who would offer him a shoulder to cry on, but she was all he had, the only one left in the kingdom who cared at all about him.
To his surprise, Iceicle actually paused to let him speak, and her face afterwards was... confusing, and not in the glassy, emotionless way it normally was. If anything, Iceicle's face was full of too many emotions to keep track of: anger, pity, grief, lonelyness and maybe even something else that no IceWing could easily recognise.
"Did you really like it?" Iceicle asked, "Being a SkyWing? Would you choose to go back if you could?"
Hailstorm froze, as if the arctic winds had sweapt by and fuzed his talons to the ice below them. This was it... the question he'd been too afraid to ask for five years.
"I..." Hailstorm started, with no idea how to finish, it felt as though fire and ice were battling in his throught, and both Iceicle's and Pyrite's eyes felt as though they were burning into him. Hailstorm looked back at the ice kingdom, stretching out in a vast expanse below him, then up at the endless sky, brilliant and blue and dazzling. "I would." He answerred honestly.
Iceicle went silent, she didn't get angry, or yell, or lunge at him, she only hung her head... and after a few moments, droplets of water fell to the icy floor below her.
Hailstorm curled his tail around himself, "I'm sorry Iceicle, but I needed to tell you the truth. In the sky kingdom, I wasn't always happy, but I always felt safe, felt like I belonged. But here, even before Pyrite, before everything, it felt like I was always in danger, like if I let my guard down, I'd lose everything, and it could never be my home because I always had to fight to earn the right to be here." He said sorrowfully, "And now... these aren't my scales anymore Iceicle, these aren't my talons, my wings, my eyes. I'm not an IceWing, I'm not male!" He cried, "And I tried, Iceicle, you must have seen how hard I've tried, I almost killed my own brother just to prove to you and everyone else that I was an IceWing. But no matter what, this doesn't feel like me, this steals like I'm trying to slot into somebody elses life." He said.
Iceicle was silent for a long while, only the wind howled through the towers around them, only seemingnto accentuate her silence, until finally... she spoke. "I know." She said softly.
Hailstorm blinked, "What?"
"I know." Iceicle repeated, "I've known for a long time, probably since the first time you came to visit me in that cell... you weren't Hailstorm, no matter how hard you were trying to be. You know... once you were taken by those SkyWings... all I wanted was my brother back, and when I thought you were killed by NightWings, I wanted to freeze a hole through Pyrrhia big enough to swallow up those arrogant prophets wherever they fled." She shook her head, "I never thought I'd have to mourn you again after that..."
Hailstorm stepped forward and took her talons in his, "Iceicle... I'm so sorry, I really tried, I wanted to be your brother, I didn't want to leave you alone." He said, feeling tears appear in his own eyes as he looked at her sorrowfully, he's never seen his sister look so vulnerable, so out of control.
Iceicle suddenly stepped forward and put her wings around him, he half expected to feel her talons plunge through his heart, but all he got was sobs. "I know... but you don't have to do that anymore." She said, looking over his shoulder at the tundra, "Come on." She said, walking to the edge of the balcony.
"Wh-where are we going?" He asked hesitantly.
"Sanctuary." She replied without looking back at him, "We're going to pry your necklace out of Winter's talons, whether he's alive or not." She said, some of the coldness returning to her voice, "To fulfil my brother's last request, you won't deny him that too, will you... Pyrite?" She looked back at the dragon she once knew as her brother, face stained with tears and the dishonour of emotion.
The IceWing behind her hesitated, but then slowly nodded, "Alright Iceicle." Pyrite said softly, her voice softenning into a more femanine tone, the one that Hailstorm unknowingly used when he was alone. "I really am sorry." She added.
Iceicle closed her eyes for a moment, then took off without a response.
Pyrite paused for a moment, it felt as though the whole world was shifting, as though the two halfs of her brain were begginning to merge again at last. Then she finally spread her wings and took off, following her sister into the open sky.
Pyrite... the traitor IceWing prince, winging her way to fight her own brother to reclaim her identity as a SkyWing. Breaking the heart of my sister, forcing her to endure my death twice, is that it?
Is this who I am?