A Cold Alliance

Yet another collab between Emberfrost and Valkyrie.
==One==
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)
Category:Content (Orphiceunoia)
Category:Collaborations
Category:Content (Emberfrost12)
Let's begin with something exciting, shall we? A chase. I was running away from SandWing guards, which sadly was normal for me.
“There’s the thief,” One yelled, “Get her!"
"I’m not a ‘her’ right now!" I yelled back at them. News flash; I’m genderfluid. 
I sharply turned around a corner and burst into the Palace Courtyard. Oasis’s obelisk sat in the far corner. I spread my dark wings and threw myself into the sky.
I didn’t stop to look back for pursuers, I only had one goal in mind to evade capture. I don’t have experience in prisons, but I really don’t want any.
My talons sunk into the warm sand when I landed by the gate to the Scorpion Den. I’d been so focused on escaping the palace, I’d almost flown past it.
There weren’t any guards at the entrance, most likely because the Outclaws weren’t running the Den anymore. I slipped inside and made straight for my hut.
On my way home I passed the only NightWing who lived here. Her name was Shadoweyes, very mysterious, which is something about her that I admire. Shadoweyes didn’t notice me as I passed her, she never paid any attention to anyone. She looked angrier than usual so I hurried past.
My hut is located near the back of the Scorpion Den with a clear view of the sky. I pushed open the door and immediately knocked over a stack of stolen files. I’d get around to cleaning it up, and by ‘get around’ I meant never.
I dumped the small bag of treasure in the corner where I’d probably never see it again. I waded through the piles of discarded objects on the floor, not looking twice at the bottles of poison sitting right next to my food.
I ducked under the counter and found my hidden stash of weapons. Come to think of it, why did I think it was a good idea to break into the most secure place in the Kingdom of Sand and not bring an extra weapon? Because I’m forgetful? Or maybe I just forgot these were here? I’m going to go with the latter.
Outside the sky was just beginning to darken. I could see out of my window that a few of the Talons of Power were patrolling the streets, ordering all dragons who were still out to go home. 
The Den hasn’t changed much since Thorn became Queen. Everyone here still acts like barbarians; lying, cheating and betraying everyone who trusts them. There was no reason to spy on the Talons so I retreated from the window and walked over to a slightly neater corner of my house which I'd designated as my sleeping area.
The next morning I woke to the sound of sharp knocks on my front door.
That’s odd, I thought, I never told anyone where I lived which meant that I had a stalker, or some jerk had sold information about me to the Place guards.
I slowly got up from my nest of blankets and opened the door a crack. There was no one at the door so I opened a bit more so I could look down the street. Still nothing.
It's probably some dragonets, I thought grumpily, closing the door. That’s when I noticed a rolled up scroll on the doorstep. I scooped it up and hurried inside. 
Unrolling the scroll I could heal my heart sinking into the pit of my stomach, it was a wanted poster with my name and face.
REWARD - REWARD - REWARD
FOR ANY INFORMATION ON THE ICEWING RAINWING HYBRID NAMED ICE STORM.
WANTED FOR CRIMES AGAINST QUEEN THORN AND THE OUTCLAWS.
COME TO THE STRONGHOLD WITH ANY INFORMATION THAT COULD LEAD TO AN ARREST - YOUR SAFELY IS GUARANTEED
REWARD - REWARD - REWARD
Below the text was a drawing of me - or maybe it was a hippo crocodile hybrid. On the back was a note written in red ink ‘What happened? Did one of Princess Burn’s weirdlings escape her tower and take your place? If you surrender, tell the queen to pay more attention to her criminals or she might arrest a fried pig.’
Was this dragon trying to sell me out? And did they think I was that ugly? I mean, they did call me a weirdling and a fried pig. I turned the page back over, "They're not wrong," I said aloud to myself, "Though I think they made me look like an ostrich with an excessive amount of earwax.”
The image that popped into my head immediately afterwards made me want to puke. (Let's not continue that train of thought- bad long term memory ERASE!)
I rolled up the scroll and stuffed it under my bed. Moping around my house wouldn't get anything done, I decided. I grabbed the sack of treasure from the corner where I’d deposited it last night.
The market was as busy as usual. I tried to hit as many stalls as possible, trying to spread the treasure around and hoping it would make tracking me much harder. 
I passed a dark alleyway. It was hard to see all the way down, but I could make out two distinctive shapes. One was much larger than the other, and they were holding something down. With a shock, I recognized the larger of the two dragons, then mentally kicked myself for not noticing sooner. It was Shadoweyes, and the dragon under her was… oh no. It was a small dragonet, they couldn’t have been older than two, their body had been slashed to the point it was unrecognizable. I stepped closer, Shadoweyes had both of her talons wrapped around the dragonet's broken neck.
"What did you do?" I asked in horror, "Why did you kill an innocent dragonet?"
"Sounds like you answered your own question," Shadoweyes sneered, not looking up, "I'm keeping myself safe."
"Murdering innocent dragonets isn’t going to make you any safe!" I cried, "It’s just going to make you high on the officials’ watchlist."
"Do you think the talons give a crap about who kills who here?" Shadoweyes demanded, "As long as Vulture gets the treasure he wants, it doesn'’t matter what we do to each other."
I couldn't find a way to disagree with that, she was right, the Talons didn't care, they served Vulture, not us.
Shadoweyes looked down her nose at me, "What are you doing here anyway?" She asked suspisously, "You have all that treasure that you stole, shouldn't you somewhere rolling in it?"
"How, exactly, did you know about that?"
"I PAY ATTENTION, okay?"
"Hm...do you stalk me?"
"If I were a stalker-and I'm not- I'd pick a less boring fried pig to follow around." 
That sounded familiar...huh. "You left me that wanted poster," I guessed, "I KNEW it! You where stalking me!"
"I was doing myself a favour," Shadoweyes snapped, "I don't help ANYONE but myself." She let go of the dead dragonet and set the body on fire. 
"Why’d you kill him anyway?" I asked, "He didn’t do anything."
"He saw something he didn’t need to," Shadoweyes replied simply. She turned her head sharply towards me. "You won't be telling anyone, will you?"
I shook my head in fear, "No, I wouldn't, I swear!" I could tell by the look in Shadoweyes's eyes that she didn't believe me.
"See, I don't believe you," Shadoweyes said, "It would be so easy for you to go to the queen and tell of my whereabouts in exchange for the clearing of your name."
Clearing my name… That sounded pretty nice. An idea was beginning to form in my head.
"You have an idea," Shadoweyes said, eyeing me, "You want to strike a bargain." She wasn’t guessing, she was so on track with my thoughts I was suspicious that she was reading my thoughts.
"I’m not," Shadoweyes said, "Though I have the mind reading scales-" She brushed the long gold scales by her eyes. "I can’t actually read minds like other NightWings."
I still wasn’t sure, but I needed to propose my deal before Shadoweyes decided killing me would be the best course of action.
"I was thinking," I began awkwardly, glancing at the long dagger Shadoweyes had strapped under her wing, "That in exchange for me keeping this murder a secret, you have to help me clear my name."
"This seems like you get more out of this than I do," Shadoweyes said, "I still like my plan more; You die." 
"Well I don’t," I said, "Plus, I like any plan that keeps all my parts together."
"Then you’d better come up with something else," Shadoweyes threatened, "Before I decide to go with option one.”
"Then how about this deal goes two ways?" I blurted out before I could fully comprehend what I was saying, "You clear my name, and I clear yours."
Shadoweyes stopped giving me that unnerving grin. She seemed to be considering my proposal. "If I agree to this and one of us gets captured," She said slowly, "neither of us says anything. Deal?" She held out her talon.
I shook it, "Deal."