*chapter is dedicated to mayaann05 for agreeing to be my editor! You're a lifesaver. Love ya ❤️❤️*

The egg shuddered, rocking from side to side. A thin crack spread down the middle, more cracks rapidly spreading across the egg like webbing. Finally, the blue and tan egg split, revealing a tiny dragonet.

He was sturdily built with large wings, he had a row of black scales running all the way down his body. His pale blue wings were mottled with black and brown, his IceWing-looking horns a black that faded into silver which faded into pale blue. He yawned, and a long black tongue unfurled from his tiny maw.

Polar's first thought was, 'He looks like Scorpion. Oh. Right. Scorpion.' The dragonet chirruped, taking his first look at the world, his two different colored eyes--one pale blue, the other a deep yellow, almost golden--taking in everything. His older sister, Avalanche, meandered over to take a look at him. "He's funny looking," she whined, wrinkling her nose as she peered at her new half brother.

"I know!" snapped Polar. 'Because he's half me, half Scorpion.' Ignoring her thoughts, she announced to her daughter bitterly, "I'm going to dump him in the ocean." Avalanche stared at her mother, head tilted, eyes widening in shock.

"Why?" she asked, tail swishing. She continued to gawk at the dragonet, brow wrinkled, walking around him in circles, examining him like he was an exotic exhibit.

"Because. It's the rule," sighed Polar, running out of patience, talons drumming the ice. "Although those so-called 'dragonets of destiny' ended the war, and the SandWing looking one is a hybrid, the hate for hybrids runs strong here."

'Also, he reminds me of Scorpion and he wasn't supposed to happen and he's a mistake and I can't look at him,' her mind gave an extra bunch of reasons why he had to be abandoned. Avalanche blinked.

"What rule?" she demanded, eyes flashing. She carefully reached out a claw to tickle her little brother, his happy cries echoing around the icy chamber. "Don't. Touch. Him." Her mother's voice was sharper than icicles, eyes blazing intensely as she stared down Avalanche. Avalanche stared back, defiance shining clearly in her eyes.

"He's my brother," she growled. "I'll protect him. Forever, if I have to." Polar threw back her head and laughed bitterly, a harsh sound, like talons scraping on the ice. "We'll see how long that promise lasts," she snarled. "You'll break it before he's two."

"You wanna bet?" challenged Avalanche, spines flared in anger. Polar smirked. "I don't have to," she replied simply. "I know you'll betray him someday." Her daughter glared angrily, curving a wing protectively around her hybrid half-brother. "I'll protect him."

Polar stepped forwards. "Will you?" Suddenly, she lunged, snatching up the dragonet in her talons, before spinning away. Avalanche dodged out of the way of her mother's deadly claws with a shriek, hesitating for only a moment before chasing her.

Polar galloped out of the chamber, and burst out into the cold, frozen, icy landscape. Snow poofed up between her toes when her feet hit the ground. Spreading her wings, she took off.

Avalanche launched herself after her mother, wings beating furiously as she chased her. Polar veered to the right, heading out to open sea where whitecaps smashed against icebergs and unknown dangers lurked beneath the dark surface.

"Give him back!" Avalanche shouted angrily, eyes narrowed against the wind which buffeted her wings, slowing her down. But Polar was having a hard time as well.

"You want him back? Catch me if you can," she sneered. Suddenly, Polar changed directions. Instead of flying forwards, she was flying up. She circled higher and higher, and yet, still Avalanche followed her.

Hovering in the clouds, they faced each other. One pale blue, the other a silvery-white. One with a dragonet in her talons, the other without. One with the intention of murdering, one with the intention of saving. Both glared at the other with the intensity to kill.

"Give. Me. Back. My. Brother." Avalanche hissed. Polar laughed, a cackle only an IceWing could manage. A laugh with all the coldness of the ice and snow and all the harshness of the wind combined.

"You really want your half-breed of a brother back?" she scoffed, eyes narrowed at her fool of a daughter. Without warning, she flipped backwards and rocketed downwards, towards the sea.

Avalanche chased her mother desperately. She knew that hybrids weren't accepted, but this was her half brother. She would protect him from danger. Starting with Polar.

Polar sped towards the water, eyes almost shut. She growled in her throat when she looked over her shoulder and her idiot daughter continued to follow her relentlessly. 'When push comes to shove.....time to take this into my own talons,' she thought.

She held the dragonet out in front of her snout. "Have a nice trip!" Polar drawled, a sadistic grin on her face as she pulled her arm back and hurled the dragonet into the icy waters below. The splash couldn't be heard above the whistling of the wind and the waves crashing agains ice.

Avalanche yelped in shock as her brother hit the surface of the water and began to sink. She sped past her mother who had pulled out of her dive and hovered, watching. "Let him die!" Polar snarled. "I'm sure an orca will find him delicious."

Avalanche paused briefly to growl back, "And I'm sure the taste of your blood on my tongue will be celebrated." before she plunged into the depths of the cold, murky waters.

Polar waited. And waited. And waited some more. Seeing nothing but the choppy waves on the surface, she wheeled around and headed back towards the mainland.

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Gasping, Avalanche's head broke the surface as she bobbed up and down in the middle of the ocean, her little brother clutched safely in her talons. She glanced up towards the sky, and not seeing the menacing shape of Polar swooping around, carefully started swimming back towards shore.

She grumbled under her breath, "I'm never calling Polar 'mother' again. She doesn't deserve to be one." Avalanche glanced down at her half-brother. "Isn't that right?" she asked him. He tilted his head at her, blinked, and chirped happily. She smiled. "That sounds like a 'yes' to me. I'm not going to let her hurt you ever again. Ever." He just chirped again, not realizing that he almost died. He didn't care that he was a hybrid. Not for now, at least.