I open my silver eyes and focus on all the noise blaring through the night. I look around the large cave I call home. It's filled with lots of furry bodies that I call my family. Quietly I creep around each of the wolves, making my way to the entrance. When I step outside into the chilly air, I stretch my wings and launch myself into the sky, stirring some of the snow lying quietly under my claws. Harshly, I flap my wings to look around from a higher altitude, The Kingdom of Izolsa. It's the frigid land of winged wolfs. Turning away from the mountain that holds the cave, I fly a few miles away before descending upon a lake in the icy Kingdom of Dudora. I break through the ice with my dragon fire before plunging under it. At first, it feels like a thousand needles poking me in every place imaginable, but I focus, and the water shifts and feels lukewarm.
I race into the depths, scoop the unsuspecting fish with my claws, and place their tails in my mouth. Once I have enough fish for the pack, I take a deep breath and blow bubbles. If bubbles didn't rise, I would have never gotten out the first time I went in, the second, or any time I went there. When you go under this water, everything drops away. Up is down, left is right, and reality is just a memory. I am down there for longer than I usually am, so there is a thin layer of ice over the melted spot where I broke through. It breaks easily when I bash my head against it, and as I drag myself out of the pond, water drips down my periwinkle scales. Launching myself into the sky, I head back to the cave. The sun dries me, warming my back as I fly. I'm a strange dragon. I live with a pack of winged wolves who adopted me. I also have more powers than most dragons, unexpected and partially dangerous powers. When I land on the ledge in front of the cave, I get tackled, as always, by the pups in the pack.
"Thunder!" I complain when I feel teeth on my wings. "I've told you to keep your teeth off my wings," A little gray face pops up, trying to look over my back. I snap at him feeling my temper bubble up. Thunder puts his pouting face on, and I have to fight back a smile. "But I'm funder, an when funder hit you, you get hurt," he says as I shake off the rest of the pups. "No, that's lightning; thunder is a sound, the really loud sound you hear when it's raining," I explain. "Oh. Ok," he agrees, "Boom! Boom, boom! Crash! Crash boom." he yells into the cave, making every wolf stand up, wondering what is happening. "Thunder, what are you doing now?" Kari, his mom, asks him, walking over and looking down at her son with a questioning stare. "I am funder. An funder is the loud sound when it rains," he explains, smiling up at his mom and bouncing on his toes. "Come on," she says, nudging him back inside the cave. "It's time for your bath." Thunder plops his furry butt on the ground and tucks his light grey wings against his back. "Nooooooo!! I don't want a bath," he howls. "If you don't take your bath, then you can't go out to play with Kaida and the other pups," his mother warns him. "Fine," he moans, standing up and dragging his feet on the ground towards one of the pools of water inside the cave. I follow her inside, and the rest of the moms in the pack follow us, their pups trailing after them. Six baths later, I'm soaked, and the pups are ready to go outside. We head towards the entrance, but halfway there, the pups are plucked away by their mothers and carried to the back of the cave. I look around, and it takes me about two seconds to notice something is wrong. The females are all making a wall to hide the pups, and the males have made a wall to shield the females. I'm standing ahead of the females but behind the males. Flapping a couple of times, I land in front of the males and see the problem. A dark red dragon is perched on the ledge of the cave. Dragons don't come this far north because of the snow, so I had never seen another one. He is much taller than me and has bright yellow eyes that are much fiercer than my soft silver ones. I stand there frozen in time, paralyzed, staring at his scales, spikes, and giant wings.
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