(A few days later)

Sandstorm woke up to the sound of Snowfall walking into the cave with a basket. She yawned and stretched her legs out. She rose up to all four of her claws and began walking over to Snowfall. “Good morning!" Snowfall called out, placing the basket on top of a wooden crate. Sandstorm came over and opened it, pulling out the fish inside. 

“Good morning, how are you enjoying those books that I brought back earlier?" Sandstorm started smiling widely at him, taking a few of the fish from within and taking them with her to the fire. 

“They've been quite fascinating!" Sandstorm said, going back over to her side and beginning to munch on the fishes. Snowfall chuckled, walking over the crates on the other side of the cave and began looking through them. “I've been wondering where you'd been getting them, I thought you wouldn't go back to Frost's tribe."

“I haven't, I've been getting books from a settlement not far from here who don't consider themselves part of either of the tribes." Sandstorm nodded to him as she pulled over one of the books to her side. She looked at the cover of it, which had a Frigidian on the cover. “Neutralists, I guess you could call them. All of the dragons there are really nice, I wonder if we should move there."

“I don't think they'll appreciate me coming with you. The amount of times you've been telling me about how they don't like outsiders, I think it's safer if I stay here." Snowfall frowned, but came over beside her. 

“To be honest, I don't think that will be the case in the settlement. I've seen two dragons that were Oceanians." Sandstorm's ears perked up and she looked up at him.

“Really? Why?" 

Snowfall just shrugged to her.

“I suppose they got stuck here and couldn't leave without risking life or death." Snowfall took one of the fish from Sandstorm and ate it. “It's just the tribes that have a problem with outsiders." Sandstorm nodded as she considered laying down, but decided to pick the book back up. She opened it to a certain page and began reading it. “That book series was written by a dragon that was drafted into the military of the rebellion," Snowfall informed her with a sad tone. 

“Ouch, I'm assuming he didn't make it?" 

Snowfall shook his head, which made Sandstorm sigh with sadness as she continued reading. “Well, I'm glad to be reading them. What's the last book in the series?" 

Snowfall thought to himself for a second before looking at her. “The last book is very rare, there's only one hundred copies of it. It's actually the book next to this one…" Snowfall nudged one of the books in the pile, which was the book she was about to read after the one she was holding currently. The book that he nudged had the same dragon, but with a shield and spear in his claws. She presumed it was going to take place during the military drafting, just based on the cover. Snowfall picks up the book and looks at the back of it. “I've been searching all over it for you, but I can't find it anywhere…"

“F-For me?" Sandstorm asked with surprise as she felt herself blush again. No dragon had ever done something specifically for her, not even Azuri was this nice. “Why for me?" She watched Snowfall grow a large smile, before their eyes met with each other. 

“Well, you enjoy it a lot and thought maybe you'd… You know." He shrugged and turned away from her with embarrassment. Sandstorm didn't reply, only blushing again as she returned to her book in her claws. The cave fell silent as Snowfall walked over to the crates on the far side of the cave. He begins shuffling through the massive amounts of stuff. “We've been in this cave for a few days, so I'm trying my best to keep you entertained and happy while we're stuck here." He finally took something out from the piles of stuff, which appeared to be an old chess board. “I have this, maybe we could play a game together?" 

“Where are the pieces?" Sandstorm placed the book down, watching him as he turned around and started fiddling with the large pile of junk in the corner.

“Uhhhh…" 

Sandstorm could only chuckle to herself, laying her head down onto her claws. After a few minutes, Snowfall started pulling out small chess pieces from within the pile. He placed them on top of the board, then continued going through the pile. “Uh oh…" He finally said as he turned back around to Sandstorm. “I can't find the rest." Sandstorm giggled and smiled at him. 

“Well, we could still play if there's at least a king for each side… buuuut it might be very easy for one of us to win." Snowfall looked down at the board beside him with the twelve pieces he found. Only four whites and eight blacks, which made him sigh. 

“There's no king for the blacks." Sandstorm shrugged, before lifting the book up in her claws. He quickly starts looking back through the pile. Silence falling onto the cave once more. Snowfall eventually pulls out a box of checkers that appeared to have pieces inside. He whipped it out in front of him and opened it, checking inside. His face lit up when he noticed that it had every piece inside. “We could play a game of checkers?" Sandstorm didn't say anything, but she watched him approach her and set down the box between them. “I'll be the blacks and you can be the reds."

Sandstorm set down the book in front of her, turning to Snowfall and the box and watching as Snowfall started setting up the pieces until they were in the correct positions. Unfortunately, before either of them could start playing, a large explosion was heard outside that shook the cave. Sandstorm watched the pieces get messed up and scatter all over the place. “What was that?" Sandstorm asked Snowfall, turning toward the cave entrance. Snowfall's ears perked up as he looked toward the cave entrance as well. 

“Shhh…" He raised a claw up to his mouth, both of the dragons standing up on all fours defensively. Sandstorm stopped Snowfall before he could start going toward the entrance. “What?" Snowfall asked her with a confused face.

Sandstorm looked around the room until she spotted a custom knife nearby. She grabbed it and held it out in front of her, getting in front of Snowfall. “Stay behind me," she whispered over to him, “I'll protect you." She slowly began to approach the cave entrance, noticing the blizzard falling down from the sky outside. When she got close enough to the cave entrance, she looked around outside for any sign of intruders, but she couldn't see clearly through the harsh weather.

Snowfall slowly walked up from behind her, “Do you see anything?" Sandstorm shook her head. “Maybe I should take a look," Snowfall said as he came up beside her, spreading his wings and preparing to take off. “We have the capability to see in rough weather conditions, so I might be able to help." Sandstorm stopped him before he could fly away. 

“Wait!" She cried out to him, making him look back at her. “Take this…" She reached the knife over to him, but he shook his head. “What if it's an intruder?" 

“Why would there be an intruder at all out here?" She just shrugged at him. 

“I… I just don't want you to get hurt is all." He raised a claw at her, before turning his attention back out into the storm. Sandstorm then took a few steps back as Snowfall once again spread his wings. Sandstorm watched him lift himself into the air and begin flying upwards and into the sky, disappearing through the harsh blizzard. Sandstorm slowly started taking steps back from the entrance, keeping the knife in front of her in a defensive manner. She eventually found herself standing beside the fireplace, still looking ahead at the entrance. She gulped as she heard footsteps outside in the snow. “Relax Sandstorm, it's probably just a wild animal." She said out loud to herself in a soft voice, feeling her heart pump faster. 

She stood there in silence before eventually hearing the scream of Snowfall. “Sandstor–!" The cry was cut off before he could finish, like he was being muffled. This made her begin rushing toward the entrance of the cave. She was about to start flying out to search for him, but was quickly interrupted when a large dragon landed outside of the cave and looked toward her. She took a step back at the sight of the dragon and its size. She looked at the knife in her claw and wondered to herself if this was an opportune moment to attack, but before Sandstorm could make a decision the dragon whipped something out and began twirling it around in the air before letting it fly straight toward her legs. 

It wrapped around three of her legs, making her fall face forward. She still felt herself clenching the knife in her left claw, beginning to use it to cut through the rope. She looked upwards to the dragon, who was slowly approaching her. She felt her legs get loose from the grasp of the rope as she cut through it. She noticed that the dragon that attacked her was wearing protective gear with thick cloth, its face was covered by a pair of glasses that was too dark to look through. She couldn't tell what dragon was underneath the clothing and protective gear, making her feel worried and her heart pump faster. She felt her legs being freed from the rope as she managed to cut through it completely.

The dragon was only a few meters away, but she growled at them. She quickly jumped up through the air and onto the dragon. They raised their claws up in surprise as she pushed the dragon onto its back. She kept the dragon pinned below her, which raised up its claws to grab onto Sandstorm's, trying to pull her off but to no avail. Sandstorm then switched claws so she could use the other one with the knife but stopped herself when she heard the voice of Snowfall from outside the cave. “Stop! Don't hurt him!" Sandstorm looked up to see Snowfall beside another dragon in similar gear.

“Snowfall? You're okay?" Snowfall rushed in, Sandstorm releasing the dragon beneath her and backing off from him. “I thought they captured you, I was about to come rescue you when I heard the scream." 

Snowfall helped the dragon up to their claws before turning to Sandstorm. “These guys are from the settlement I told you about. I thought they were here to take me too, until she-." Snowfall gestured to the dragon behind him. “-put a claw around my mouth and tell me who she was." 

“Okay, then why the hell did he throw a rope at me?" Snowfall's eyes widened as he looked up to the other dragon. 

The dragon scratched behind his neck in embarrassment. “Uh… Sorry, I kinda thought she was keeping you hostage or something. She also had a knife so I just reacted with instinct…" The dragon sounded like a male, but his voice was muffled from the face covering.

“Sorry, I forgot to tell them about you. I was going to eventually, but I wanted to wait until they trusted me first." He looked at both of the dragons, “You guys can take off your face coverings now." He said with a smile, which prompted both of the dragons to start taking off their face masks. The one behind Snowfall was a Oceanian, the scales were a deep blue with a small hint of light green on the chest. It appeared to be a female, with light green markings along the cheeks, her eyes were a dark green. 

The other dragon that Sandstorm pinned was a male Vaermesian, though his scales were a darker yellow with small hints of orange around his ears. “Sorry about the rope," The Vaermesian said with an apologetic expression. Sandstorm nodded to him with a forgiving smile.

“This is Squibi." Snowfall pointed toward the Oceanian, then toward the Vaermesian. “And this is Sunburn." 

“He's an idiot..." Squibi gestured her head toward Sunburn and chuckled to herself, as Sunburn furrowed his eyebrows like he was offended by what she said. He didn't look over to her, only looking down at the ground.

“Nice to meet you guys, name's Sandstorm. You gave me quite the startle." 

“Sorry, we didn't mean to frighten you guys," Squibi said with an apologetic tone. Snowfall walked over to Sandstorm. 

“Why did you guys come?" Snowfall patted Sandstorm on the shoulder, walking past her. 

“We were hoping to bring Snowfall back to the settlement. We were hoping to get him somewhere much more reliable to stay in." Sandstorm's eyes lit up when she heard this. “Though, I guess since you're also here. We should bring you along as well. We promise, it's very safe back there." 

“I'd love to!" Sandstorm said, a grin appearing on her face. Snowfall started packing up his things into a bag. Sandstorm turned around and looked back to Snowfall. “Right? Are we going? You said that earlier about how you wanted to move there." Snowfall nodded his head as he packed up a few things into the bag. Then, he looked over to Squibi and Sunburn. 

“Did you guys bring an extra pair of protective gear? Sandstorm can't fly through the snowstorm." Squibi and Sunburn's expression faded to wonder as they glanced at each other. “I'm assuming you didn't based on your expressions." Squibi and Sunburn both shook their heads, which made Snowfall sigh. 

“I can go grab one…" Sunburn turned around and put his face mask back on, “I'll be back," he said through the mask before starting to fly out of the cave and into the sky. Snowfall continued packing up the last few things, then he came over to Sandstorm and helped her pack up whatever she needed to bring. It wasn't a lot as Sandstorm already used everything she brought with her. The only things left were her armor plates and the books she was reading. Eventually, Sunburn returned with the pair of protective gear and handed it over to Sandstorm. She quickly started putting it on, which felt very comfortable and warm inside.

Once she put the mask on, she could see clearly through the mask. When looking out toward the winter storm outside, she could actually see better through the harsh storm. Sandstorm wrapped the backpack around her and let it lay against her back, and Snowfall clenched his bag tightly in his claws, swinging it over his shoulder and letting it rest on it. “Alright, let's go," Snowfall said to them before Squibi and Sunburn led them out of the cave. Snowfall stomped out the fire before following closely behind Sandstorm. Within minutes, they all flew into the air and began flying away from the cave. Sandstorm felt herself beginning to grow happy and relieved to finally be leaving the cave that she had been stuck inside of for the past few days. A smile grew on her face as she followed behind Sunburn and Squibi toward the settlement.