You can't bring her dinner now, you idiot.

Solstice scolded himself as he flew away, scroll tucked neatly under his arm. Shame welled up and blue flushed his face. He had not really just told a prisoner of war that he thought she was pretty.

Stupid. Stupid. Big stupid mouth always yapping.

He said nothing to the guards posted outside the palace entrance. His greeting to his superiors were little more than a nod of recognition. He almost brushed right past Seal as he tried to get his attention.

"Uncle. Where are you going?"

Solstice snapped out of his shameful trance and shook his head, he was surprised when Seal bowed to him.

"I'm going to my quarters. To, review my... notes. Why are you bowing to me?"

Seal rose and stood with his talons close together. "Oh, the rankings must have changed while you were away."

The rankings?

Solstice turned on his heel, "Come with me. They changed?" He asked as he and Seal approached the rankings board. There was Queen Glacier, reviewing each and every one of her IceWings' names.

"Solstice." She said. "My congratulations to you."

Solstice swept quickly into a bow. "Thank you, Your Majesty. Uh, may I?"

She stepped aside. Solstice quickly scanned the board, and spotted his name. Startlingly, he was several spots higher than he had been the day before. But MOST startlingly, was that he sat two spots above his sister. Caribou's name startled just below his.

"It's thank to you that our battle against the MudWings was a rousing success." Queen Glacier said. "The information you gathered on their sibling military bonds worked wonders to crush their morale. We haven't seen hide more hair of their army since the battle."

Thanks to him?

Thanks to Oyster.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Solstice said, bowing again. "I will use this opportunity to bring glory to your kingdom."

"I'm sure you will." The Queen gave a ghost of a smile. "And how were your efforts today? Have you any new information to bring me?"

He fumbled with the scrolls, which seemed to magically gain weight at their mention. He withdrew them from the crook of his arm, and held them out for Glacier. "These are all from this week. I recorded every detail."

Glacier flicked her head at her sapphire-adorned assistant, who graciously took the scrolls from Solstice. "You are dismissed." She said simply.

Solstice turned and stretched a wing over his nephew, and the two of them walked swiftly out of the room.

"Your mother?"

"Furious with you." Seal nodded. "Furious with me. Furious all day."

"Wonderful. I'll avoid her for the rest of time."

"Brilliant idea, Uncle."

"SOLLLLLSTICE!!!"

Both IceWings ran a little faster, down to Solstice's room, where Seal shut the door behind them and collapsed onto the ice-shelf.

"I yawned during class yesterday, so they moved me down a spot. Mother is so upset."

"Caribou needs to learn that dropping two spots behind her little brother isn't the end of the world." Solstice growled. "Make yourself scarce. Go fetch me something to eat, please."

Had he just said please to an inferior??

Solstice slapped himself in the face "Something fatty, blubbery. Leopard seal, if you would." He specified with a wave of his talon. Seal disappeared with a "yes Uncle" and went soaring away out the window.

Just as Solstice sat at his desk, Caribou slammed his door open. If IceWings could breathe fire, she'd be smoke from the nostrils. Her blue scales heaved with her rising chest and glinted maliciously in the sunset coming through Solstice's window.

"Oh, Caribou. I thought that was you I heard." He said coolly, trying to mask his own heavy breathing.

"You jumped EIGHT SPOTS!!" she hollered. "In a DAY!!"

"Well, the work I did to earn it took much longer than that, but yes." He took a scroll out of a niche in the wall and procured his inkwell from one more to the right.

"You are conspiring with that snowbegone SeaWing aren't you?" Caribou seethed.

Solstice dipped his claw in the ink and flicked two droplets onto his sister. "I've done nothing of the sort. And I'm not too impressed with the way you are treating me, your superior."

It was then that Solstice wished he could preserve his sister's face into an ice sculpture forever. It was hilarious. Her eyes went wide as owl eyes and her snout scrunched up like she'd just smelled something awful.

Slowly, and angrily, Caribou crouched into a bow. Her wings shook with rage as she spread them respectfully.

"Much better. Now if you'd like to have a conversation like a dignified dragon, you may take a seat. But I am very busy this evening."

"What? You want me to go get you a moonglobe too? Should I clean your dinner bones for your next macabre craft project??"

Solstice smiled. "If you're offering, I'd appreciate that very much."

"AUGHHH!!" Caribou roared, turned on her heel and stamped out the door like she was ready to bulldoze any dragon that crossed her path.

"Is she gone?" Solstice heard Seal's voice from the window.

"For now. But you can't avoid her forever."

"That's what you think." Seal said with a grin. He dragged half of a leopard seal into the room, throwing it onto a rug before the blood could drop all over the rest of the floor.

Solstice rose from his desk and wiped his inky claws on a white towel. He patted Seal's head. "You are the best nephew a dragon could ask for."

"Yeah you too, Uncle." Seal smiled.

The two shared the seal for dinner.

"Where did you leave the other half of this thing?" Solstice asked

"It's down by where I caught it. Couldn't carry the whole thing all the way up here."

"Where did you catch it? I can get rid of it."

"For another bone project?"

"Something like that."

"Okay, but I wanna see what you're doing with it!"

Solstice thought for a moment, and nodded slowly. "Okay, but it's our little secret."

Oyster was getting dinner after all