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BANG!

Cyrno was awoken to the sound of someone barging down his door and a skittering of claws from behind him made him fall out of his own bed. Disorientated, he heard a voice speak to him.

"Hide me! They're here to make me royal again!" the voice hissed from under the crystals. Before Cyrno could even react, three heavily armored guards barged in and turned their attention to him. Oddly, they were more serpentine than he remembered the guards to be here...

"You!" one called out to Cyrno. In a daze, he pointed to himself in question, "Yes, you! Have you seen a dragon with a pair of orange eyes?"

Cyrno shook his head. Why were they looking for someone with that? Was a criminal already up and about at this hour? Looking outside, he saw that the sun was actually up and shining brightly. It was much later than he thought it was.

After scouring his room, the three guards left. Not through the door, of course, but they had to be odd and fly through window somehow. At first, Cyrno thought he was dreaming and didn't think much of it. A minute later, the scrambling of claws returned from behind his bed and he didn't think when he reacted.

Cyrno kicked off the ice and shouldered the source, sending them both to the ground. Cyrno brought the blades on his wings to the neck of what appeared to be another guard. However, when he looked down and saw that the dragon had orange eyes.

"Ow," was all the other dragon said.

"Who are you and what were you doing in my room?" Cyrno narrowed his eye.

"Hiding from my royal guards," The dragon held up his front claws in submission before moving them slowly to his helmet and taking it off.

The dragon's muzzle had fur on it along with two white whiskers that sort of floated upwards like tentacles. The fur was blue-black in color, but the thing that drew the most attention to it was a small crest on the forehead. It was shaped similarly to a crescent moon, but Cyrno would recognize that symbol anywhere. What the dragon yelled when he first barged in made sense now.

He had just assaulted a prince.

Instantly, Cyrno jumped off and opened his mouth to apologize, but sputtered words only came out. He must have looked like he had gone insane from the look on this other dragon's muzzle. After a minute, he calmed down and mumbled his apologizes, embarrassed.

"Oh, so you found that out, huh?" The dragon lifted one of his whiskers to the marking, "Yeah, I am a prince. My name is Xiao."

"M-my name is Cyrno, my lord," Cyrno replied, bowing his head in respect. The feeling of awkwardness had not left him.

"Cyrno...oh, you are Glace's adopted son, right? And don't call me lord or whatever, I hate it. Makes me feel like an ass," With a sigh, Xiao got up to his claws, "I'm surprised he didn't do this courtship thing for you as well."

"Ah...well...I'm two years younger than her. It's not my time just yet," Cyrno also got to his claws unconsciously. He glanced over to where his poem was and edged over to it. Prince or not, he didn't want Xiao to see it.

"So what do you do, then?"

"I'm a soldier..." Cyrno was now standing in front of his treasured work. Xiao didn't seem to notice.

"Oh ok. That's kind of explains how you lost your eye. Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I really need to run before my guards catch up," Xiao poked his head out of his door and started to leave, "I'll see you later, yeah?"

Within seconds, the prince was gone and Cyrno was left in silence. Waiting a minute just in case he came back, he then picked up the poem that Aura had reviewed and edited it quickly. Realizing that no place was really safe now that his room could be so easily invaded, he decided to simply keep it on him. Folding it neatly, he went to grab his armor.

After putting it on, he tucked the poem over where his heart was. Looking at himself in an icicle, he started to twist his body around as if he were trying to impress someone. Some time passed, he realized what he was doing and stopped, "There is no need for practice...I know what my heart says, but...." Cyrno sighed and left.

Cyrno may as well place the poem in Shiva's room. Cyrno headed over to where it was. A pair of armored guards passed him, nodding. Cyrno thanked his elemental that he was on friendly terms with the much stronger dragons, he pressed onward.

What would Shiva say to his poem? Would she be elated, sad, or would she hate him? The latter was not very likely, but he had to consider it. Maybe had had messed up in it. He refused to succumb to the nagging doubt: if he did, he would never surface. What's done would be done. He'd repair the damage if he had to.

Soon, he arrived at her door and found it wide open. Peeking inside, he saw that she was not around nor were her guards. He knew that he would get a few 'points' knocked off, but he walked inside regardless. Scanning the best he could, Cyrno eventually worked up the courage to approach where she slept. Leaving it out in the open may cause it to get damaged, so he decided to wedge it between the crystals in her bed.

As soon as he did it, a voice froze him in place.

"Cyrno, if you wanted to see me, you should have waited. I don't like it when others invade my room, as you likely remember," Shiva walked in. It was all Cyrno could do to not freak out.

"S-sorry...no one was here, not even guards, and the door was open. I was just...worried..." Cyrno looked down.

"So why are you on my bed? Are you telling me something?" Shiva teased, walking over to him. He turned his head away, grateful that he was wearing armor, "No...you wouldn't do that. Still, the question remains..."

"Checking to see if there were any traps," Cyrno said instantly. He wanted to get out of here, but he didn't want to recreate the scene that he made yesterday.

"Oh, how noble of you," Shiva replied quickly, sitting down on her bed and falling backwards with a sigh, "I freaking hate this courtship thing. I am tired of trying to entertain males and the occasional female. I just want to relax for a while and get to know only a few..."

"Well...I have to do it in a year or two...." Cyrno said slowly, flashing a small smile.

"Yeah, good luck. I know you won't hold up to having multiple females going after you if you run off the way you did," Shiva irritably answered.

Cyrno instinctively jerked his head back. She probably didn't mean it, but her words struck deep in his heart. What hurt the most was that she didn't seem to realize it. Yet, he couldn't retaliate to her. For all he knew, she was just under a lot of stress and didn't care what she said at the moment.

So he did the only thing he could do without letting her know: laugh. "I guess. I didn't expect you to pull that stunt as soon as I got back, though."

"Mmm....but really, have you thought about what I said?" Shiva lifted her head up and stared into his eyes.

Cyrno, yet again, froze. He cursed the weakness that his body held when he was put on the spot by a female. Shuffling his claws, he pointed to where he had placed the poem with his tail. Shiva rolled over and delicately picked it up and started to unravel it. As soon as she did, guards started to run by. Cyrno started to make towards the exit of her room.

"I-I have to go, Shiva. I'll be back," He called to her. She nodded, reading the poem.

As soon as he left, he felt weak on his claws. Now was not the time to swoon, though. Dashing after the other guards, he found himself in the main garden. When he arrived, he saw that there were at least ten guards, eight of which were holding back a growing crowd. Slipping past, he saw what they were trying to keep away from the crowd.

A corpse, torn to shreds, awaited him.

Asking what happened, all he got was that someone had seen the body in the courtyard and no murder. The one who had seen the corpse was in questioning as far as anyone knew, but it was doubtful that she could have done it. The guards were starting to push the crowd away and then Glace himself came into the picture, Ephiral a bit behind him.

"Hmm...it appears that someone is trying to eliminate the competition," Ephiral noted, bending down near the bloody mess.

"I was thinking the same thing. I don't suppose you know what happened here?" Glace asked the guards. They gave him the same answer Cyrno got.

Cyrno soon stopped paying attention and searched the area. No weapon, no signs of a fight...if he didn't know any better, he would guess this was the perfect crime. Making a full round around the garden, he noticed something odd. The ground...it was rippling.

Just as he was about to walk closer, something stopped him. Other than the ground was rippling, there was something wrong. It was as if his greatest fears were coming from it. Then, just as the fear threatened to make him panic, it vanished. The rippling also vanished. He stood there for a moment before continuing, avoiding the spot.

The rest of the patrol yielded nothing. At one time, he thought he felt a rumble beneath his claws, but he assumed it was a small tremor. That was, of course, until he saw movement come from between two pillars. Cautiously, he approached where he had seen the figure go by and saw that it looked like a sickly dragon. There was a limp in his right side and there was an awful smell coming from it.

"Sir, are you alright?" Cyrno asked, slowly approaching. The dragon stopped and slowly turned around.

"Hun...gry...." Was all it said.

"Stay there, I'll get you an E.R. If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a few questions when I get back," Cyrno spread his icy wings and flew up in the air.

E.R. stood for Elemental Recharger. It usually came in a crystal form, but other shapes are not uncommon. It recharged the elemental gland (located at the base of the neck) and provided nourishment. Cyrno really had no idea how it worked, but it always fascinated him. However, he knew not to dabble in anything other than ice/water ones. The results could range from a mild illness to instant death.

The storage room was in the tallest tower. As soon as he landed, bipedal guards crossed their spears, blocking him, "State your business here, Cyrno," a female said roughly, but softened, "Sorry, its protocol."

"I need to grab a small crystal. There is someone down there that looks like he just flew across the tundra during a storm," Cyrno explained.

The female jerked her head to the male, who went into the storage area, "Y'know, your horns somewhat remind me of an earth dragon's. I mean, they look like branches."

Cyrno looked up and felt his horns with his claw, "Uh..."

She smiled, "Don't worry about it. It's just an observation."

As soon as she said that, the male returned with a crystal and clawed it to Cyrno. Just as he turned around to leave, the sickly dragon appeared on the edge, panting. The guards crossed their spears and Cyrno went to confront the dragon, when a piece of flesh flopped to the ground. Needless to say, Cyrno was going to have nightmares.

The dragon growled and, instead of lumbering towards Cyrno, dashed towards him. He swung around and caught it in the jaw with his tail, snapping the neck and sending it into a wall. At first, he was horrified with himself for killing him, but then he realized that the dragon was not quite done yet. Somehow, it slowly rose up and growled again.

"The hell is that thing?" The male guard asked.

"A dragon," the female replied in an almost questioning form.

No sooner did she answer that the dragon lunged at her, the head lopsided and opened. The eyes were turning a sickly green color. Cyrno shot an ice lance at him, but it only stopped it from attacking. The creature, Cyrno now called it, still rammed into the guard and sent her flying backwards. Unfortunately, the other guard had his spear out and it impaled her and the creature.

Rushing over, he saw that she had been stabbed through the lung and the creature through the heart. Only twitching came from it. Tearing it off of her, he propped her up and went to remove the spear. When he wrapped his tail around, the other guard stopped him.

"Don't do it here. She'll bleed out if you don't do it carefully," he said.

Cyrno nodded and placed her on his back, "Stay here just in case that thing moves. I'm going to get the other guards after I get her to safety."

"Let us hope she lives to see the next blizzard."

"Aye."

After making sure that she was secure, Cyrno took off. He praying he would make it in time.