"Hey, Eis?" She questioned, "is this really Shiverthorn's Smite?"

He gazed at her, then back at the sword, she saw him shrug, "my father used to say that this was a replica of Shiverthorn's sword, not the true thing. He said that the real blade was... a lot more extravagant than this, but I don't believe that."

"So, there's the chance that this blade was, indeed, Shiverthorn's?"

Eis nodded, "yep, you can touch the blade if you want, I don't really care. I always thought that keeping such a beautiful weapon on display was wasting it."

She slowly got closer, her right talon gently grasping the blade's grayish-blue hilt, the cold sapphires brushing her palm had an odd, pulsing blue glow in their azure depths, fairly similar to the sapphire statue that her mother had created.

CryoFangs picked up the silver sword from the pedestal, watching the light dance across it and giving the silver blade a lustrous white shimmer across its cold surface as she held it up.

She took a few steps away from her friend and slashed the weapon through the air, every move seemed fluid and confident, as if she knew what she was doing despite never truly knowing how to wield such a weapon.

This sword is perfectly balanced in my talon, it's oddly perfect, like it was meant for me, she thought, doing a few more slashes through the air before she spun around, the blade twirling with her as she arced it through the air above her head, coming to a stop as she lowered the sword, pointing it's wicked tip towards the floor.

CryoFangs saw Eis staring at her, his eyes slightly widened at her display, "that was beautiful!" He breathed, she scratched behind her head nervously, "thank you, I honestly don't know how I did it."

He raised a brow at her confusion, then shrugged as he grabbed the scabbard from off the pedestal, the sword belt was connected to it as well. "Here, if you wish to carry it with you, you'll need this."

She took it and examined it, the belt itself was a dyed blue leather, the buckle was simply made from iron. The scabbard was made from a lovely dark blue, polished cobalt, intricate gold bands adorned the scabbard, Runes were engraved into them, perhaps telling of who it belonged to or something else currently unknown to her.

Cryo then gazed at her waist, finding that fraying string that held her coin pouch (which she'd honestly forgotten about,) she hastily untied it and set it down, securing the sword belt around her waist and making sure it was positioned correctly. The coin pouch she tied around her neck.

It feels odd, but I'll get used to it, she thought, sliding her new weapon into its sheath, hearing the quiet shink! that sounded as it slid into the scabbard.

 "Well, this is something," she said with a shrug, "I have a weapon that isn't my teeth, talons, breath, and spikes now."

"Aye, and if you want to get some true use out of it, then you'll need training from yours truly." He grinned, she chuckled.

"You know how to wield a sword?"

"Yes, as the Prince of the HallowFrosts, I'm expected to know how to wield a bunch of weapons in the case that we ever went off to war with another tribe, if I needed to lead my people, I needed to be brave and know how to slice a dragon's head off in under two seconds."

"I don't really have much of a purpose anymore, now do I?" He questioned with a sad smile, she frowned at his words.

"That's not true, Eis. You've always had a purpose, you just have to find it."

He sighed, "I hope you're right... sorry to bring you down about my problems."

CryoFangs gave him a sympathetic look, "look, Eis, I haven't ever had anyone else to talk to besides Nimbus in years, and you and I happen to share a similar past, so if you ever need to talk to me about your problems, I'll listen."

He nodded thoughtfully, "thanks, and I'll think about it... a-anyway, shouldn't we be looking for stuff pertaining to those beings?"

Remembering the task at-hand, she quickly rushed for the bookshelf next to them, the one that she had nearly died next to, the memory made her shudder.

CryoFangs skimmed through the books, Eis was searching the other side of the shelf. She could hear him taking books off the shelf and flipping through them, occasionally giving a violent sneeze as the dust from various books flew around.

As she pulled a leather-bound volume titled "Caves and Caverns of Elementia" she heard her friend sigh.

"What's up?"

"Not only are we looking in the wrong book section, don't you think that a book talking about murderous black dragons would be, you know, kept somewhere secret?"

Good point... "where should we look, then?"

"Corners of the library, check under the carpets for any loose tiles, maybe even check up high, who knows what's on top of these shelves?" He suggested, and with that, they split up, each going to search the room for what they needed to find.

Cryo immediately took to the air, checking the tops of the shelves, she was met with various forgotten books that were too old to be truly read, and a whole lot of debilitating dust that made her sneeze continuously until her throat hurt.

"Everything alright?" Eis called up to her, she sniffed and coughed, "yep, just the dust ruining my exploration."

She didn't find anything upon looking at the other shelves, so she decided to check down low, searching the floor and lifting up the silver carpet, checking the tiles and feeling the chilled pale-blue walls.

Coming across nothing after about an hour, she began checking the only place she hadn't been, which was the far right corner of the library, it was a dark little corner, and it looked like the oldest part of the room.

Upon reaching the corner, she felt on-edge; the atmosphere was different here, like the air was abnormally stuffy or the shadows drew closer.

She crouched down, her sharp eyes settled on a series of ancient cracks in the wall, was someone trying to break through here? She wondered, nearing it to get a closer look.

The cracks had originated from somewhere under the silver carpet beneath her, and upon wrenching it up from the floor, she found a hole in the floor.

Whoa, what the heck?

"What'd you find?" She heard Eis ask, tapping her shoulder.

Cryo got to her feet and pulled the carpet back, revealing the dark, dragon-sized hole, he looked puzzled.

"I don't remember this being here..." he muttered, and she watched him crouch down, swiveling his ears and tilting his head, as if hearing something.

She followed suit, and something unusual hit her ears. "Is that... rushing water I hear?"

"It seems like it, I wonder where it goes... maybe to the book we're looking for?"

CryoFangs seemed nervous, "you're seriously going to jump down that hole just for a dusty volume that may not exist?"

The prince laughed, "no, of course not! I'm jumping down that hole and taking you with me, milady CryoFangs!"

"Raylios!"

She yelped as Eis grabbed her talon, and she was suddenly thrown into a dark descent into the earth, she desperately tried clawing for the walls, but as she fell, the walls only got further apart as the sound of rushing water only drew closer...

Splash!

CryoFangs hit the water, her limited swimming abilities kicking into action as she surfaced, breathing rapidly as she clung to the slick stone walls, looking for the flickering light that Eis conjured.

 Eis was on the opposite side of the cave, his light pulsing gently as he looked at her, "well, that was something..."

"Are you insane?!" She hissed at him, "we could've clonked our heads on the way down, you fool!"

He genuinely looked guilty, "are you hurt?"

"No... but you better not do that again, got it?"

 Eis nodded and sighed, "I'm really sorry... I wasn't thinking..."

CryoFangs nodded to show that she heard his apology as she pushed off from the wall, slowly swimming further into the darkness. She hadn't wanted to snap at the prince, but something as abrupt as that was not something to ignore.

She felt Eis swim up beside her, his light showing that, off to the left of the small underground rivulet, there was a simple pebbly shore. 

Upon pulling herself out of the water, Cryo conjured up a light of her own, the shuddering ball of light showing what was around her.

A passageway was up ahead, with pitch blackness swirling within it, might as well see where it goes, she shrugged.

Eis walked beside her in silence, his eyes glancing about as they examined the dark passageway, small stalagmites were scattered about the floor, many casting sharp, cold shadows across the walls as they passed.

Things seemed pretty usual for a cave system, despite being a bit eerie. Cryo momentarily glanced at her talons, which glistened a lavish sky-blue thanks to her recent dip in the water, and then her eyes drifted to her chest.

The weird, yet now faint glow was still settled around her heart, she wondered what it meant, what activated that sudden burst of power and light?

Perhaps it would remain a mystery, maybe the voice she heard was nothing more than her imagination.

"I give you my Light, Eingeheiligt, defeat the darkness..."

"ICH BIN DAS LICHT!"

It all sounded real, and those words I spoke... what did I say? Why did the voice call me... "Eingeheiligt?"

The word made an odd feeling of peace wash over her, as if she had come to an understanding with someone after a drawn-out argument.

Oh, all the mysteries this HallowFrost held.

"...CryoFangs?" The real world came flying back as her friend nudged her with his elbow, she jumped.

"Everything alright? You zoned out for a bit."

She cleared her throat, "yes, everything is fine..."

"You sure?"

She nodded quickly as they continued deeper into the passage, which appeared to be slowly going up. As the two walked, she listened to the environment around her, ears flicking as they came to an enlarged cave.

She heard their faint footsteps, an almost non-existent breeze drifted through the cave, water dripped somewhere nearby, and... was that a voice?

Are we not alone down here?

"Did you hear that?" She whispered in Eis' ear, he strained his ears and nodded a moment later, "yes, is that someone speaking?"

"I don't know, should we figure it out, or–"

He hastily pressed his claw to her lips, silencing her as a noise whispered through the cave:

"...Slipstream, I think I heard something."

"You really think that somebody else is down in these forsaken caves? Or did you hear something other than your entitled tail talking to yourself?" Whispered a different dragon, probably the one named Slipstream.

"My ears don't lie, Stream, and neither does my nose... hmmm, it's coming from down here. Come on!"

CryoFangs looked at Eis nervously, he silently extinguished their only light source as he pushed her further into the dark cave, she felt as Eis brought his snout up to her ear, his breaths made her shiver slightly.

"There should be a dip in the floor that you can hide in," he whispered almost inaudibly, she felt his lukewarm scales leave her as he went into hiding nearby.

She used her feet to feel for the dip, and upon feeling out a rather deep hole in the cave floor, she hastily dove for it, wedging her body into the space and praying she would be able to squirm out afterwards. The hilt of her sword dug into her side painfully, she had hardly any room to move.

How did he know this was here?

CryoFangs had hid at just the right time as the two new dragons came in, one had a bright blue lure aglow over their heads, the other seemed to have lava running through their horns.

"I smell them..."

"You really think there's more than one dragon in here?" Asked the dragon with the lure, the lava-horned one nodded.

"Yes, two of them, exactly... Slipstream, what's up with the book?"

CryoFangs caught sight of the lure-dragon pulling forth what looked to be a book, the words on its cover were glowing brightly, the designs on the book's ancient spine shimmered as the two gazed at it in confusion.

Abruptly, the book shot out of the dragon's talons, who yelped as it came flying right towards CryoFangs, who had no choice but to brace herself...

She felt as hard leather whacked her in the face, a growl of pain escaped her, something eerily warm ran down her forehead, and the book dropped to the floor before her, its Runic writing glowing even brighter as the frosty-blue glow illuminated most of the cave.

Revealing exactly where Eis and CryoFangs were hiding.