Shadowfall lifted his head from a restful doze and blinked around the cave. The barred entrance was open.
Ice was gone.          
Shadowfall jerked upward and his back hit the ceiling. The last traces of sleep disappeared from him like sticky strands. Then he thumped back and realize the chain was wrapped around him so he could barely move. 
He knew, Shadowfall realized. "He knew I had read his mind. He knew it all along. He shuddered at the realization. Then, I've got to get out of here. He realized the chains were wrapped tightly, but in a hurry. He could get out of them. He pushed out a bit with his wings and slithered forward the smallest bit. Bright sunlight filtered through at the open mouth of the cave. With a yelp, Shadowfall, striving towards the light, fell into the shadows below his ledge. I am a creature of the shadows. He thought forlornly. Though I try to reach the sun, I am always hidden away in darkness. He beat his wings against his sides as much as he could and wiggled forward, defying the despair that threatened to overtake him. For over an hour he worked, until the sun had risen high enough that the low cave entrance covered up it's place in the sky.  And at last he popped out, free. He shook out his tail and spread his long wings. Then for the first time, he stepped out into the sun. Ice had always taken him out at night alone and he had been left to stare longingly out at the sun rising through the bars that confined him. But now. And then he looked down at his black scales shining a brilliant purple in the light and he saw it, or the absence of it. The shackle around his hind leg was gone.           

He was free.
Shadowfall stepped forward and leapt into the air, the rising wind taking him into the clouds. He looped around a cloud and got a snout-full of mist. There was no chain that weighed him down now and he was more powerful than he had ever been.          
Powerful.
Then he gasped and doubled over in pain as a vision blistered through his mind. 
He was a king, lounging on his throne. Dragons from every tribe bowed to him. Queens, their faces agonized, were executed before their own subjects. The subjects were forced to carry out his bidding. The dragon world was all under his command, dragons no longer got to decide their own fate. And Shadowfall laughed. For he had let his soul fall into the shadows and himself rise up to ruler of the dragon world.  He snapped back into reality a second before he hit the ground. He snapped his wings open and whisked into a fast glide before tumbling snout over tail to a stop on the ground. Shadowfall sat up, dazed. Ruler of the world? And Shadowfall felt the first stirrings of ambitious. The world had treated him so harshly, well, he would treat it right back. And then, he realized he was back by the cave. A small scroll stuck out of the rolled up bars. Shadowfall tugged it away from the thick iron. It was from Ice. This is what it said: 

Dear Shadowfall,
I am so sorry for everything that has happened. The Talons of Peace are coming for you. I didn't particularly want to chain you up but I had no choice. You couldn't run away. The Talons wanted you to grow strong by flying everyday. They wanted you to get used to starvation and the like. I am so sorry. I have fled, trying to avoid the Talon's wrath. But your mother was a brave dragon. She did not let the shadows alter her path. Do not let it happen to you my son. 

          Shadowfall stopped reading Son? He wondered. He started to tremble. He had always scorned cross-breeding. He wasn't, couldn't be...

I should have told you this a long time ago, but you are my son, Shadowfall. I have been forced to do inexplicable things to you and I shall never forgive myself. But it was all for your sake, and the sake of the world. 

          Shadowfall's heart crashed around in his chest and he threw himself to the grass. The mountains loomed in the distance. He was but small, insignificant. He was worthless because he was not even a complete Nightwing. He had always believed he was a Nightwing. But he was Icewing. He was related to Ice. Oh the disgust! How could a father... Shadowfall fell to the sand, hidden behind rocks, hidden from the world.