Snowstorm wanted to run. Or scream. In this situation, either would have worked. Sitting in the middle of an ash covered room behind a small cauldron were Avalanche and Clay. 

"Cousin, explain." Snowstorm sighed. 

"We were brewing things!" Avalanche told her, his tail tip wiggling around and stirring up ash. 

"Brewing things that explode?" She asked. "My stars, this room is darker than my scales, Avy." 

Avalanche huffed and stood, ashes falling off his hide. Though with as black as his scales were, it looked more like he was shedding those instead of ash. Clay coughed beside him, lazily thumping his tail onto the floor. 

"My stars cousin." Snowstorm sighed. "I'm walking away now."

"Why?" Clay asked. 

"I prefer not cleaning up my cousin's messes." 

The larger black scaled dragon growled and flicked his ash covered wrist at his cousin. Snowstorm shook her head and started walking off. Behind her she could hear Clay arguing with Avalanche over who would clean what. She chose to ignore it and rounded the corner. Five minutes later the Headmaster, an irritable dragon named Quake, stalked by her. 

"Do you not have class, Snowstorm?" He asked her as their wings breezed past one another. 

"I was heading to History of Warfare, sir." She answered. 

"Good, make sure you are not late." 

Snowstorm bowed her head and rushed off towards the lecture hall. Professor Corundum glared at her as she skidded into the hall and took her seat. A few other students snickered at her before quieting. Corundum shook his head and turned to write on the board Between Swords and Scimitars: The Weapons of the Humans. The pale yellow dragon then turned back to the class, tapping his tail tip just under the words. Obediently the students took out their textbooks just as a low, angry rumble sounded through the cave system. 

"What in the stars...?" Corundum said. 

Suddenly, an almost ear-splitting roar erupted out in the hallway. Quake's voice thundered in rage as the large dragon ran through the halls. Fearful squeaks, whom Snowstorm assumed were Avalanche and Cliff, echoed for a few moments before Quake roared again. 

"Alright class, alright now!" Corundum said over the irate noise. "This lesson is rather important to us, and I refuse to allow any of you to leave until this lesson is complete!" 

A clawful of students groaned and flopped their heads on their desks. Corundum simply shook his head and told the class to read the chapters over until the commotion died down. 

"SNOWSTORM!" The roar of the Headmaster blew into the lecture hall. 

Corundum nodded his head at her and the black dragon quickly hurried off. Snowstorm realized she had left her textbook and pack behind in the lecture hall, but it was far less important than the Headmaster himself roaring for her presence. She slid across the ground as she reached the still ash covered room. Avalanche and Cliff sat off in the corner, their heads bowed before the horribly livid Quake. 

"Explain what you found in this room, Snowstorm, before I came here." He ordered her. 

"I only found those two sitting around a cauldron and covered in ash, sir," She said. "And I told them I wasn't going to clean it up."

"You were not involved in this... mess?" Quake asked. 

"No sir." 

"You two have even more explaining to do." Quake growled. "Such as why you decided to implicate an innocent student for your crime."

Quake flicked his tail dismissively, and Snowstorm took it as a sign to flee back to class. Corundum briefly looked up at her before turning back to the board. The class went on as it previously had. The professor hadn't even forced them to stay longer. Snowstorm took off into the courtyard with a small oddly pink dragon named Orchid and flew near one of the Pillars. 

"Let us out!" Avalanche's voice called out angrily from the top of one Pillar. 

"Can't believe Avalanche and Cliff got in so much trouble to get chained like that." Orchid mumbled as they passed the Pillars. 

"Hey, they messed up one of Headmaster Quake's collection rooms," Snowstorm told her with a shrug. "They deserve the Punishment Pillars." 

"I'll bring them some food and water later." Orchid said. 

Snowstorm shook herself as the two of them landed in the Courtyard and began hunting some lunch. 

 "Sister, just... please explain." Firestorm sighed as he pinched the bridge of his snout. 

"Health class," Snowstorm answered. She rolled the oblong rock between her claws and gave it a couple of taps. "This is for health class."

"Snow, it looks like you have an actual egg!" Firestorm hissed. 

"That's sort of the point, Fire." 

Firestorm sighed and smacked his sister with his wing. As the oldest of their clutch, it was his job to make sure his little siblings were safe. And were not galavanting around their colleges with rocks shaped like dragon eggs. Snowstorm stared into his orange eyes with her own pale ones. It always felt as though a blizzard had taken over the fire in his heart when she stared into his eyes like that. If dragons ever developed an ability to breathe ice and frost instead of flames, Firestorm was positive that Snowstorm would be the first to have it. 

"At least Sandstorm isn't here, I'm sure he'd try to rip apart any dragon he got his claws on." Firestorm mumbled. 

"You and I both know that Sand would try attacking Leo first, and then we'd have a bloodbath on our scales!" Snowstorm said. 

Firestorm smacked her again and stalked out of her room. Snowstorm squeaked behind him and hurried to follow him, holding the egg close to her chest. He nearly grabbed the dumb rock and launched it into the wall. It was unnerving how similar it was to their own eggshells. He could still remember fragments of his hatching day, surrounded by four black round things that twitched and rocked in their nest. He could remember seeing a pair of pale icy blue eyes peeking out of the cracks of the egg closest to him, staring in what could have been jealously or anger. 

Snowstorm poked him with her tail as she hurried down the hallway. A large chamber at the end of the hall acted as the lobby of the dorm complex. Hundreds of dragons wandered about, with several clawfuls of them carrying around rocks. Firestorm felt a shiver of irritation brush over his wings. There were several rocks that were blue or green, a couple were bright red with gold sprinklings, and some were of a purple hue. A clawful of a clawful were bright and shimmering yellows and oranges. Not a single one was black or even a dark grey. The singular black egg-rock belonged to Snowstorm. 

"Eggs!" A shrill voice called out. 

Firestorm spotted a pale skinned, pointy eared thing running through the legs of the dragons. Some nearly dropped their egg-rocks in shock. 

"That's Archer!" Snowstorm said. She rushed forward, clutching her rock closer to her body. 

"You egg!?" The small creature called Archer exclaimed. 

"No, I did not have any eggs!" Snowstorm told him. "At least not yet." 

"Not for a very long time." Firestorm growled. He moved to stand beside his sister, and looked at the awe on Archer's face. 

"Twins..." Archer whispered. 

"Twins don't exist among us dragons," Snowstorm said. "Firestorm and I are just from the same clutch of eggs. There's three others from the clutch, too." 

"Yes." Firestorm rumbled. 

Archer nodded and spun around, running off and disappearing among the dragons. Firestorm shot his sister alook of confusion before she shrugged and moved to intermingle with her fellow students. 

"Snowy!" A pale purple dragon exclaimed. An equally pale rock sat between her claws. 

"Don't call her that." Firestorm growled. 

"Leave Lavender alone, brother," Snowstorm sighed. "It's a harmless nickname." 

"Did you name it yet?" Lavender asked, completely ignoring Firestorm's presence. 

"I was thinking Rainstorm, actually," Snowstorm admitted. 

"You want to name a rock after our grandfather."

"Shut up, Fire." 

Firestorm stood and smacked Snowstorm with his wings as he flew out into the courtyard. He dove down towards the river, trying to ignore the fact that he fell like a rock and that the rock between his little sister's claws was a little too similar to an egg. Once her assignment was over, he told himself, he would get rid of that stupid rock himself to ensure there was no way it could be anything other than that. 

   A day off was rare for Zephyr's, let alone an entire week off. Quake had decided to reward the staff and students for their hard work by giving everyone a full week to do whatever they wanted. Majority of students decided to head home for the week, with some complaining that they couldn't get the same interaction through com-crystals. Snowstorm and Avalanche chose to stay at the college. Their home valley was more than two days' flight away, and it was simply just easier to relax within the mountain tunnels and caves than endlessly fly to and from the valley. 

The cousins flew over the courtyard together, Avalanche occasionally bumping Snowstorm up into the air with his wings. He always felt bad for her. With wings smaller than most it was always a challenge for her to fly for too long. Silently he praised his good fortune to hatch with larger than usual wings. Though unlike him, Snowstorm was fully capable of amazing aerial stunts, so he wasn't too sorry for her. 

"Down there!" Snowstorm gasped. 

She dove down suddenly, disappearing among the trees, another shadow among shades. Seconds later she burst back out, a plump deer between her claws as leaves fluttered and fell in her wake. The deer bellowed in fear and confusion as Snowstorm flew to one of the clearings. By the time Avalanche landed next to her, the deer was dead and Snowstorm was preparing to cook it. Her wings were pressed against her sides as she moved about setting the fire pit up, and when she twisted and scurried about it looked as if she had no wings at all. Not like Avalanche. He was awful at hunting anywhere other than the river and wide open spaces. It wasn't his fault his wings were so large, after all. The benefit of flying longer was always offset by the loss of his hunting capabilities. 

"What's wrong Avy? You look like you ate a bad squirrel." Snowstorm said. She bumped his wing with hers as she lit the fire pit and pushed the deer over it on a metal plate. 

"Don't worry about it, Snowy." Avalanche told her. 

Snowstorm shrugged and kept an eye on the deer. She poked and prodded it until it was dark on one side before flipping it over. The charred side of the deer half resembled their scales. Instead of the deep void black color, though, it was clearly still partially brown. Snowstorm smiled and pulled the metal plate from on top of the fire pit. She pushed the deer towards him before taking off into the air. Angling towards the forest she disappeared once again, slipping amidst the shadows once again. Avalanche heard a faint splash. 

He knew that Snowstorm would be gone for a clawful of minutes. Quietly he started pulling at the cooked deer and separating the pieces into small piles for the two of them. Snowstorm would insist on saving some for their friends, and Avalanche presumed that's why she bothered to go fishing suddenly. She liked eating with friends. Avalanche thought it had something to do with how his Uncle Thunderstorm always insisted on family eating together, and Snowstorm always eating with friends might have been her attempt to have a semblance of family at the collage. 

"Avy!" 

Snowstorm plopped a pile of fish in front of him, swooping around in the air to snatch a stray boar and toss it on the pile before landing. She grinned widely as she set up the fire pit once again, sweeping the fish onto one late metal plate with her tail as the boar stumbled around in a daze. 

"I got it." Avalanche said. He grabbed the boar and ended its life as painlessly as he could. 

His claws felt heavy as he watched Snowstorm happily and nimbly move around the fire pit. A short twitch of her tail there, a flick of her claws here, and within mere moments the fish pile was cooked and ready to be shredded. She grinned as she dropped the still hot meat in front of him and plopped her tail beside his. She reached out, snatched a delicious looking salmon, small claws ripping away flesh and bones into neat little piles. Avalanche tried to copy her, but his caws were bigger and a little clumsier. Snowstorm didn't seem to mind as she reached for another fish, jumped the pile, and tossed the boar into the pit. 

"We should hunt together more often, Avy!" She told him. 

Snowstorm hummed softly as she pulled the boar out and extinguished the roaring flames. She made short work of stripping the boar clean, smiling as she lumped together the meat of the deer, fish, and boar into several pouches. Avalanche had forgotten she carried pouches for their friends when they left for home. Snowstorm bumped him with her wing and took off, presumably to put the meat on ice. She was far more graceful than the dragons Avalanche watched. He hated that she could be graceful in tight, cramped places like forests and underbrush, while he tripped, stumbled, faltered, and fell like a giant rock with wings. It hurt that so many dragons looked down on her for her wing size, while he was surrounded by starstruck wannabe lovers. 

As Snowstorm glided down to eat her hard caught meal with him, Avalanche quietly pushed his thoughts aside. Snowstorm was never bothered by her wings, and Avalanche shouldn't worry either. He draped a wing over her back and scarfed down his meal, laughing at Snowstorm's protests. 

"Barbarian!" Snowstorm snickered. She smacked his chest with the back of her claws and walked off towards the river.

Avalanche chose to take off into the air and stretch his wings. A flight always cleared his mind. As did a belly full of fish and boar.