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~~~~~

In every battle after that first one, Ember offered every dragon he fought a choice between becoming Scarlet's prisoner or dying on the spot. Dragons always chose instant death.

Like he had with Iceberg, he always offered to write their families letters. Again, dragons almost always said yes. He had written letters to SandWings, IceWings, and even a few SeaWings.

Sometimes he got a response back, and sometimes he didn't. At least one out of five were angry responses. But the rest were mostly grateful. They were happy to hear the last words of their beloved friend and family member, even if they weren't there for them in the end.

The letters also gave Ember a sense of closure. Obviously, he felt guilty for each dragon he killed on the battlefield. Writing letters to their family made him feel as if he was relieving himself of a huge burden from his chest. He always felt much better after writing about it.

He never told anyone about these letters. He wasn't ashamed of them, of course, but if he was caught writing and receiving letters from other tribes, he could be arrested for treason.

So he kept them carefully hidden, only writing and receiving letters after dark, when everyone else was asleep. No one ever knew what he was doing and if they noticed all the letters he wrote, no one asked about them.

He preferred to retrieve the letters himself, instead of relying on the other dragons to bring them to him. The others sometimes opened letters to see what was in there, and Ember didn't trust the others to not snoop in his business.

It all fell apart when Ember's wing finally became infected.

He had wrapped the wing for a week, and finally took off the bandage.

He had a few battles to fight in that week, but noticed his wing was becoming stiff. That night, he came home and collapsed in bed. And the next morning, he woke up in so much pain that it took all he had not to scream. He painstakingly cleaned up and tried to make his way down to breakfast.

However, on his way downstairs, he saw black spots and collapsed on the staircase. The last thing he saw before he passed out was a red dragon shouting to those beside her and running towards him.

~~~~~

Ember's first coherent thought was that he was hot. Seconds later, he was shivering. But there was a calming presence beside his bed. He tried to open his eyes but his eyelids were too heavy.

Ember growled in frustration and tried to sit up.

"No!" said the presence.

He recognized that voice. It was a bossy voice he'd been hearing ever since he was a dragonet.

"Crim?"

"That's my name, Em."

"Crim!" he cried. Ember hadn't really seen Crimson since he joined the army, and he missed her, no matter how annoying she was.

"Crim, what are you doing here?"

"Um, I work here. Which you would have known had you bothered to see me. Or send a letter to me. Or talk to me at all."

"Crim, you know I've been busy. I'm in the army now."

"You couldn't spare a few minutes to see your favorite sister at all the past few months?"

"You're only my twin sister. That doesn't automatically mean that you're my favorite. And actually, I couldn't spare any time. Just ask Ruby and how hard she made us work."

"What's this about hard work?" His eyes flew open. It was Ruby. He silently cursed himself for talking that loudly.

"Nothing," he lied.

"Come on Em, I think your boss wants to know what you said."

He jabbed his elbow into Crim's side, and was rewarded with scales, and Crim's silent wince.

"Crim, shut up," he said to his sister. Then he turned to Ruby. "What brings you here, General?"

"I came to check on the soldiers. After the last battle, we had quite a few injuries."

"Last battle? What do you mean? Crim, HOW LONG WAS I OUT?"

"Calm down Ember. It was only about a week."

"A WEEK?" he roared. "WHY DID YOU NOT THINK THIS WOULD BE SOMETHING I WANTED TO KNOW?"

"You needed to rest," Crim and Ruby said in unison. They looked at each other in surprised and giggled a bit.

Wow. She can laugh. I didn't know she could. This is the first time I've seen her laugh after Tourmaline disappeared.

"Oh, I'm so glad that my plight is amusing to the two of you," Ember said icily.

That just provoked them into more laughter. Ruby actually doubled over in her amusement. Ember was momentarily concerned but decided it wasn't worth it when he saw her tears of laughter in her eyes. Her pretty amber eyes.

Woah. Where did that thought come from?

Ruby stood up and composed herself, and then she looked at Ember.

"You have an infection in your wing. You should have come to have it checked out by your girlfriend much earlier."

"Wait, who's my girlfriend?" Ember asked at the same time Crim said, "Ew! Ember's not my boyfriend!"

Ruby tilted her head, looking confused. "Then what's your relationship?"

"She's my sister! We were in the same hatching. Crim and I were always hanging around with Tourmaline. We were her best friends. Didn't she say anything about us?"

Ruby's face became shadowed. "No, I don't remember her saying anything about you two. And even if she did, I wouldn't know about it since I was so young. She's the only dragon who cared what happened to me. She is the one dragon who took care of me when I was young."

Ember raised his eyebrow. "That's not true. I remember quite a few times after you hatched when I was asked to look after you and entertain you. Tourmaline had nothing to do with you until you were maybe two years old."

"What? No that can't be right. I don't remember you at all. Who were you before joining the army?"

"A servant. I was the servant in the room when the queen ordered you to join the war, don't you remember me?"

"You were there? I- I didn't see you."

"I was pretty disruptive," he said sardonically. "I dropped all the plates and made quite a few surprised noises, Ruby." He immediately winced and internally berated himself for referring to her so informally.

If Ruby noticed his slip-up, she didn't remark on it. She absently chewed on her claw as she tried to remember him. She shook her head as if to clear it.

"Whatever. We can figure out our previous relationship later. But right now, we have to talk about your wound. You put off visiting the infirmary so long that it's infected now. The more sweat and dirt that entered the wound, the worse it became, and the longer it will take to heal."

She gestured to Crim. "Please tell your brother everything else..."

"Crimson. You can call me Crim."

Ember was mildly surprised. His sister didn't let many dragons call her Crim. She reserved the nickname for those she really liked. But he supposed royalty had special treatment.

"-a few more days, and then you can-"

"Wait, what was that? I wasn't listening."

Crim smacked his head with her wing.

"OW!"

"That's what you get for being such an absent-minded slug!"

"You're used to this, idiot," he muttered, as he rubbed his head.

"Yes, I'm used to it. But Princess- sorry, General Ruby isn't."

Crim gestured apologetically towards Ruby. Ruby dismissed it.

"Lies!" he exclaimed. "You just did it to whack my head!"

"That was definitely part of it," she said with a mischievous grin."You're a terrible sister. Does anyone have a sister I can swap her with?"

"At least you have a sister," Ruby muttered sadly.

The siblings went quiet at that.

Crim spoke first. "Sorry, General. I wasn't thinking."

She jabbed her elbow in Ember's side. He glared back at her. As if he didn't know to apologize, when she was the uncultured sibling.

"I'm sorry too. Tourmaline was a great sister. I'm sure you miss her still."

"No, don't apologize. I shouldn't have brought it up."

"You shouldn't apologize for mourning your sister, Princess."

Ember watched as Crim hesitated for a moment and then put her wings around Ruby. To his surprise, Ruby didn't pull away. She put her wings around Crim and accepted her comfort.

In hindsight, it shouldn't have been so surprising. Ember had gone to Crim several times himself when he needed comfort. She had a very maternal air about her, despite all of her banter with him.

A few tears leaked out of Ruby's eyes. Ember quickly looked around and found a handkerchief on his bedside. He handed the cloth to Crim who wiped Ruby's face.

Ember contemplated silently. This dragon was a mystery. Sometimes she gave orders without thinking of how they would impact others. But she fought alongside her soldiers in battle. But she was a stoic dragon who almost never showed any emotion. But she cared about her soldiers enough to check up on them after they were injured.

And suddenly Ember understood.

She was hiding her heart, sheltering it so that it never felt anything. She already had it broken once when her sister disappeared. So she decided she wouldn't feel anything for anyone again. Except that's not true. She checked on her soldiers. She cared about her subjects. She had a heart but was too afraid to let it go. But he would be the one to capture it forever. He knew for sure, because somewhere deep in his mind, he knew Ruby had stolen his heart. And he would not stop until he had hers.