Part IX: 24 AWSS

The execution of the Queen brought about massive change to the Icewings. The old monarchy was now completely abolished, and in its place the new Icewing Republic was officially established. Hearing news of Snowfall's execution, however, the Seawings and Mudwings officially joined the war against the Icewings. Seeing the dire military situation, the Republic issued a conscription order forcing more Icewings from all over the North to join the fight. While generally successful, it prompted much dissatisfaction from dragons outside the Ice Capital who didn't support the revolution. Counter-revolutionary uprisings began to spread in isolated areas throughout the North. In particular, the southern Icewing city of Sleet openly invited the Sandwings to occupy the city, an opportunity they readily took. Desperate to put an end to the situation as quickly as possible, the Republic sent an army south to deal with the situation.


For the hundredth time that day, no, that hour, Colonel Sunburn of Her Majesty Thorne's Eighth Regiment cursed whatever fate had brought him to this freezing cold city. The orders had been simple enough: occupy the city of Sleet and defend it from the hostile Icewings, but whoever was in charge of those orders had underestimated the tenacity and tactics of their foes. Almost as soon as his troops had arrived, the Icewing army had shown up to counter his every move. Taking advantage of their knowledge of the territory and their acclimation to the climate, the Icewing Revolutionaries had seized several key hills outside the city and had set up batteries there, using ballistae and trebuchets to besiege the city. Surrounded by the enemy, Sunburn and his soldier's morale dropped as low as the temperature that they fought in.

Seeking to relieve the pressure from the siege and score a much-needed morale boost, Sunburn had earlier that day ordered an attack on one of the enemy's positions, a battery nicknamed "the snowball" by his troops for its round and white appearance. While their assault was initially successful in securing the battery, a quick Icewing counterattack soon drove them back into the city with the Icewings hot in pursuit. Now the situation was no longer a siege, but rather a dragon to dragon fight in Sleet's streets. He and his troops were now engaged in a battle for their lives.

Sunburn cursed again as he took stock of his situation. His troops were scattered through the city, engaging in scattered fights with the Icewings. Around him stood a talonfull of his troops, still looking to him for guidance. At this point, he didn't even know which of his officers were still arrive to issue orders to. He could see from his vantage point on top of Sleets town hall that the Icewings were slowly squeezing them, and he knew that defending the city was now hopeless.

He turned to one of his messengers, he didn't recognize the dragon, but that was unimportant. "Go find Captain Sahara of Dry Company. If she's down, find whoever took her place. Tell them to pull out and head south. We're leaving the city."

The messenger nodded and took off. He turned to another messenger and told him to relay the same message to Sandstone Company, with the addition of the order to spread the message to any other company that they come across. With the state the force was in, Sunburn was really just hoping that it wouldn't turn into a rout.

From beside him, he heard the voice of one of the few Icewings who didn't seem to want to kill him. Snowcap, the unofficial leader of the royalist dragons who had invited the Sandwings here in the first place, did not seem content. Sunburn knew that the other dragon didn't really like Sandwings, and he knew Snowcap definitely would not support the retreat.

"What of my dragons?" the Icewing hissed, "You aren't going to just abandon us, are you?"

"Of course not," Sunburn said, although in truth he wouldn't have minded it. He and his troops hadn't exactly been well received by Sleet's citizens, despite the fact that they had invited them here in the first place. "As many as can make it can come with us back to the Sand Kingdom."

Snowcap hissed.

"Or you can stay here and face your fate," Sunburn finished.

Snowcap hissed again and narrowed his eyes. "Very well," he spat, "I will instruct my fellow Icewings."

Sunburn watched him fly off, then turned his attention back to the battle. The situation continued to get worse, especially with more dragons leaving the battle lines. He turned to his lieutenant, Acacia, the last dragon standing with him.

"Go and get Sunny Company to withdraw from the west and catch up with the others," He ordered, "I'll help the rest cover your retreat."

Acacia looked at the battle then at him. "With all due respect sir, I think you should lead out Sunny Company. I'll take the fight at the front."

Sunburn shook his head. "I'll be fine, now go. That's an order."

The lieutenant hesitated one more second, then took off to the west. A second later Sunburn took off and flew right into a frozen hell.

The only scents that filled his nostrils upon his arrival at the front were those of blood and charred flesh. The second gave him a little satisfaction, as he knew that it was his troops that had inflicted those burns. That satisfaction disappeared almost instantly, though, as he surveyed the state of his dragons. The dead were scatted on the ground all over, and those that had survived all seemed to be wounded. They fought on, still, but in vain. As he landed near them one Sandwing saw him and called out "it's the colonel!". A second later the serrated claw of an Icewing foe tore out that same dragon's throat. Sunburn was no stranger to the horrors of war, but the way that the snow on the ground was colored red made him sick.

Off to his side, a large Sandwing plunged his tail barb into his enemy's chest before flying over to him. It wasn't until the other dragon said, "orders sir?" that Sunburn realized that the dragon was Captain Juniper, the head of the final company that was still fighting in the front. The Sandwing was so covered with wounds and blood from himself and his enemies that Sunburn could only make him out by his voice.

"Captain, your orders are to maintain a defense while initiating a tactical retreat to the south," Sunburn said, doing his best to maintain his air of professionalism. "We are abandoning the city."

"Yes sir," the Captain said before barking the orders to the dragons under him.

Slowly, the Sanwings began to withdraw. Sunburn himself fought off several Icewings who attacked him, seeking the glory of killing a high-ranked officer. Already low, though, the number of Sandwings fell lower and lower, and more Icewings joined the fray. Sunburn and his dragons kept fighting, even as the situation grew more and more severe. They fought, then fell back, then fought, then fell back. Juniper fell to an Icewing's tail, a dragon fighting right beside Sunburn was blasted in the face with ice breath and fell dead to the ground. Still they fought, to the southernmost point of the city, and Sunburn had hope that they may yet make it out.

Until their backs bumped up against those of Sunny Company and his lieutenant, Acacia.

Sunny Company had, like them, attempted to break out to the South. After several of the other Company's had done this before, however, the Icewings had swung a significant force south to block their progress. This meant that Sunny Company had been unable to escape, and now they along with Sunburns force were now sandwiched between the Icewings. They were completely encircled and outnumbered.

While it gave him some joy to see that Sunny Company was nowhere near as bad off as the dragons that surrounded him, he knew that they soon would be if the fighting didn't stop soon. A quick look at the remaining Sandwings and the Icewing positions made it clear that victory was impossible and further retreat would result in massive casualties. Although his duty to his queen told him to keep fighting, he also had a duty to his troops to keep as few of them from dying as possible. He knew that he had to make the decision that every dragon in every army feared and hated.

Calling out to all the Sandwings that could hear him, he issued the order to cease fighting and put down any weapons they had—they were surrendering.

Sunburn alone stayed standing and walked forewords as his troops laid themselves down on the ground in surrender. As an officer in Her Majesty's Army, it was his job to make the surrender official and ensure fair treatment for his fellow Sandwings. A few of the Icewings that were beginning to organize and gather their prisoners seemed to recognize him as an officer and approached him. When he asked them who he was supposed to surrender to, they pointed him towards a male Icewing a short distance away that was issuing orders to various Icewing soldiers. As he approached him, he saw that the Icewing had the rank of captain. He also couldn't help but notice that he was rather young—only a few years into adulthood—and appeared somewhat short for a dragon his age.

The Icewing finished giving orders to a lieutenant as he arrived, then turned his attention to Sunburn. A small smile graced his face as he recognized Sunburn as the leader of his opposition. "You must be the Sandwing Colonel that was sent here," he said in a civil tone, more like one used to address a fellow leader than to talk to a defeated enemy, "You fought well today."

Sunburn was a little taken aback by this as he hadn't really expected any civility at all from the Icewing, but he quickly composed himself. "It was a hard situation you put us in," he replied in a similar tone, "but we did the best we could."

A short pause ensued before Sunburn continued. "May I ask who I have the honor of surrendering to? I don't believe that I have heard of you before."

The Icewing smiled once more. "My name is Napoleone di Bonaparte, but you may call me Napoleon."


A/N: Keep an eye on that last Icewing, he just might be significant.

In all seriousness, though, I tried and tried to come up with a good Icewing name for Napoleon, but I simply couldn't. So, I decided to just keep his name as it is in our world. This will be the only case in the story where this happens.

Anyway, one last thing: the Pyrrhia in this story is assumed to be a bit larger than Tui makes it out to be in the books. It never sat well with me just how small the continent seemed to be (I mean, they could just about fly the whole length in a couple of days), especially considering the amount of hunting land and prey would be required for several civilizations of large apex predators. Because of this, I imagine Pyrrhia to be much more massive as a whole, as well as having many more town and cities than just the few that are mentioned in the novels.