I paw the bottom of the iceberg and it cracks beneath me. Surprised, I yip and jump back. My mother looks bored. "Careful, Spritz. Wouldn't want you to fall in." From the bored look on her face, it's fairly obvious she doesn't care all that much. I know that's a lie, she has to care about me some, but I was not only one out of ten but also the runt of her third litter. Add that to the fact that we're the lowest family in the Frostberg Kingdom, and you have a whole load of reasons why I'm the single biggest nobody in existence. I was named Spritz because my mother, Ariel, couldn't think of a name and then the floor had a geyser coming out of it, spritzing water everywhere. So not the best name in Dreamland, either.

I walk around the room and decide to go up to my siblings to say hi. They don't notice me for a while, then Frost sees me, and slams me across the room with his tail. He looks back and notices it's me. "Oh, I thought it was... them."

"Who's them?" I ask.

"Recently the higher ranks have been coming down while you sleep and messing with the ice. It's like they want us killed."

"What did you do?"

"A little frost breath fixes everything." he says with a wicked grin, freezing his paw with a quick puff. The power to condense moisture in the air is, after all, especially useful when you live in a giant iceberg. I squeeze in between my siblings, enjoying the warmth of their semi-fluffy, semi-scaly backs. Maybe one out of ten isn't so bad after all.

"Hey Spritz! Ya wanna go on an adventure?!" asks my older sister Marie. She's the only one who makes me feel special.

"Sure!" I say. I wriggle out between one of my brothers' tails and land on the ice, skidding across.

Silently, we head out from our small piece of the world, our drippy, cold, and yet so comfy little abode. She walks slowly until we get up the stairs, then she giggles. "Look at us, breaking all the rules like this."

"I don't think it's that bad. If the higher-rankeds can do it, then why not us?" I say.

"Well, we're gonna go play with the higher-rankeds!"

"Frost said they were mean!"

I notice we're being too loud a minute too late. A fully grown Ocean Canira (our species) comes up and stares at us. "Oh look, it's Marie. Who's your friend?" She looks down at me with a smile.

"That's my brother." She says with a smile.

"Oh, Marie. Now we make an exception for you, but your brother... We can't have you lower-ranks running around any further than this, okay? We don't want higher-ranks, or (PPS forbid!) Nobles coming down here to bring us back our pups! They might cut our rations. As a whole, we may be the backbone of this tribe, but we are expendable." She walks away.

"Who was that?" I ask.

"Just a really annoying old mid-rank fisher. She's no good anymore, so all she really cares about is rations. Technically, she's supposed to be taking care of her daughter's pups, but her daughter is a higher-rank so she acts like she runs this place."

"How did her daughter become a higher-rank?"

"She married into it, of course."

My brow furrows as I try to make sense of it, but I give up and continue striding along the corridor. Daydreaming, I walk into one of the other rooms. There are a few other Ocean Canira in there, some reading scrolls. Marie hides scrolls in my room and reads them to me all the time. They're really rare, but the higher-ranks go to cities and bring them back sometimes. Marie taught me how to read. If I wasn't so scrawny, I would pass for a higher-rank because I'm literate.

"So, where are we going? Marie?" I look for her, but she's gone. Scampering out into the hallway, I see a familiar tail going up steps to the Great Hall section of the iceberg. I can tell it's her by the chink in her tail that she got when she got in a fight with the oldest of my sisters and she ended up losing.

"Marie!" I say, happy not to have lost her. Not caring about the consequences, I scramble up the next flight of ice stairs.

There are so many Canira on this floor. I didn't know our tribe was this big. I see Marie hiding in a crack between two caves hollowed out of ice. She gestures to me with her tail. "Oh gosh, I didn't know it was today!" she says, grinning.

"What?! What's today?!"

"The Celebration of the First Star." she says, as if it's completely obvious.

"What's that?" I ask, completely confused.

"Well, it's an ancient holiday that brings many species together to celebrate the First Star."

"What is the First Star?! Marie, I don't know what you're talking about!!!"

She sighs. "Long ago, there was nothing, you see? Then there was this flash of light that woke our ancestors, the Terreskians. They followed it and came to the ring of all of the worlds waaaaay below them. Every single dimension was laid out there before them, way far down. So they jumped and landed in this beautiful castle thing, created the first Canira and our world, Dreamland, yada yada yada. Point being, everyone comes together to honor the flash of light, which most believe to be a shooting star."

"Do you mean every Canira on Dreamland is here?"

"No, just a few of the polar species. It's celebrated everywhere though."

"So..."

Marie puts her paw over my mouth. "SHHHH! Look, the Borealis Canira leader is speaking."

"We would like to thank the Ocean Canira for their hospitality!" she says, and the whole giant cavern erupts in blessings to our species and expressions of gratitude. "This is a very, very special Celebration of the First Star."

"Nothing quite as special as the cider. It's imported and so old that it makes Verhamera look like a newborn." snickers a Polar Canira near the back. He looks slightly disconcerted and very drunk. A Ocean Canira next to him snickers and clinks his glass made of ice against the Polar Canira's.

"We have gifts for the royals as well!" says a Polar Canira named Gaeron. His teeth are sharper then ice spears and battle scars run up and down his forelegs. From what Marie has told me, it's surprising that he's there. Ocean Canira and Polar Canira are on shaky ground with each other. "This is our own special cider. It took us months to find this stuff, but it's good."

The royal family of Ocean Canira, Queen Misty, King Equinox, and Princess Snow Hare smile and look out at the crowd, waving.

"Oh mommy, can I have it? Please?" Snow Hare pleads to Misty.

"Isn't eight season cycles a bit young for drinking?" Misty chuckles.

"I'm eleven..." mutters Snow Hare.

"Will you drink with us, Gaeron?" Equinox asks.

"If I have any more, I'm going to chuck myself off the iceberg." The assembled Canira laugh.

"Well then. To The First Star!" He raises his ice glass high.

"To The First Star!" His wife smiles and raises her glass. Snow Hare stands to the side, annoyed. The two rulers drink the red liquid together, and I find myself drooling at the mouth.

"Mmm." says Equinox, nodding to Gaeron, "What's the secret ingredient in this one?"

Gaeron pauses a bit, as if he's stopping to think, and a wry smile crosses to his face. Suddenly, Equinox falls to the ground, eyes glassy and white. Blood mixed with the cider, almost indistinguishable from each other, seep out of his open mouth. "Poisonberry." says Gaeron with a grin.

"But that's a-" Snow Hare begins to say.

Someone screams "MURDER!" At the top of their lungs.

The crowd gasps and begins to scatter.

The stage where the proud leaders stood together a minute ago is almost blocked from view, but I can see Misty spit out the liquid, but Gaeron pounces on her, and tosses her scarred, ragged, and limp body across the room, dead.

Marie tugs my paw into the fray. "WHAT ARE WE DOING?!" I scream over the terror and racket.

"We're rescuing the princess, of course." Marie says, in the same tone she would use if we were going to go get some fish.

That's when I realize my sister is completely insane. Dodging bodies to near the front of the room, I see the blue body of a scared young female Ocean Canira. Her fur is almost whitish, like a snow hare.

"That's her." Marie says. Marie wraps her tail around the terrified princess and runs.

"WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" Snow Hare screams.

"We're saving your sorry tail." Marie says, plunging left and right through the crowd. It looks like we're safe, but then I see Gaeron, who's noticed his prey slipping away. I hear a mighty roar behind me and run faster.

Gaeron swipes at my sister and she swings her tail out of the way. She looks back at me, a sad smile on her face, and pushes Snow Hare and I out of the way into the fray. Propelled by her push, I take Snow Hare's tail in mine and we run down the stairs all the way to my tiny house, the lowest part of the iceberg.

Snow Hare and I stand there for a second, panting and looking down at our paws. Then we fall on each others shoulders and cry.