Phantom's PoV
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Oh joy. Training day....again. With the most vicious IceWing in the tribe.

And no, it wasn't Polar. She's scary, sure, but not horrifying as if she was a giant polar bear about to eat you. She doesn't want to make you die as soon as you see her, because that'd be better than training with her.

But Jökull does. A hulking monster of a dragon, she's terrifying, petrifying you with fear from her glare.

"Alright, you lot of walrus blubber! We're doing partner claw-to-claw combat today!" she barked, eyes sweeping the small crowd of us dragonets.

We all were holding in groans, but nobody dared make a noise of protest in front of the beast before us. No sighs. There weren't even any eye rolls.

"Permafrost, you're against Caribou. Seal, you and Chill. Freeze, you're fighting against Frostbite." Jökull walked around, pitting tiny dragonets against one another.

A small voice piped up. "What about me?" The demon halted matching dragonets to fight against each other. She slowly pivoted, eyes narrowed.

"Shut up. I'll get to you later, if you survive me cracking ice blocks over your head, of course," she growled, eyes alight with malicious fury. The dragonet she snapped at immediately wilted under her intense glare.

Finally, it was down to just a few dragonets left. "Drift, you're with Iceberg." They nodded at each other and grinned as they scampered away, but their small moment of joy was short lived.

Without turning around, Jökull snarled, "Don't get too happy. If I don't see you trying to kill each other, I'll just murder you both." Drift and Iceberg scurried away, heads low. I would've laughed, but that probably would've been me next. So I didn't. I kept my mouth firmly shut.

"You." A hefty paw with with large, sharp, vicious talons was pointed directly at me. I gulped nervously, searching desperately for a means of escape. But I should've known better. There's no escaping from a dragon like Jökull.

"You're with Wolf, as seeing that he's the only one qualified to be paired with something like you."

A silvery-gray dragonet broke away from the few stragglers that were left. He seemed stunted in growth, clearly smaller than the rest of us. His horns were short and scratched, a bruise clearly visible on his hip. He had some scrapes with dark blue blood crusted over them. He was almost in as bad a shape as I was. Key word *almost*.

"Hey," he said. "I'm Wolf. What's your name?" he asked.

I looked at the ground, ashamed. I didn't want to admit that I didn't have one, but it's not like I had any choice.

"I...I don't have one," I admitted reluctantly.

Wolf stared at me, jaw dropping. "Why on the freezing tundra wouldn't you have a name? Everyone has one!" he gasped, incredulous.

"Well, I don't." I huffed, irritated and a bit off-put by this dragonet.

He clapped, suddenly excited. "Oh. But does that mean I can give you a name?" he cried enthusiastically, bouncing on his toes.

I hesitated, unsure. Could he give me a name? Would I be okay with it?

"Pleeeaaaassssee?" he begged, staring up at me.

I sighed. "Fine," I agreed carefully. I had no idea what sort of name he'd come up with. I merely hoped I wouldn't regret that decision.

"YOU TWO!!" a loud voice bellowed, belonging to no other than Jökull. "QUIT SITTING THERE SQUAWKING LIKE PENGUINS AND START TRYING TO KILL EACH OTHER!!!!!" She stalked closer with every word until she was glaring at us, snout to snout, her eyes dark with fury.

I shrank back with a whimper, eyes shooting downwards to stare at the ice. Wolf simply looked up at Jökull, before shrugging as he replied, "Okay."

I watched nervously as she stormed away to go terrify another pair of unfortunate victims, before turning to face Wolf. "You can go ahead and beat me up now," I muttered, bracing myself for the blows that would inevitably come.

Instead, he cocked his head at me, confused. "Why would I do that?" he questioned.

I stared at him. Now it was my turn for my jaw to fall open. Polar bears and penguins, this dragonet was either extremely dumb or was actually, genuinely, confused. Or both.

"Doesn't everyone?" I countered. I was so baffled as to why I didn't already have my head stuck in the snow. Why I wasn't already on the ice, black and blue. Why I didn't hurt all over from being beat. Was there something wrong with Wolf?

"Well, I'm not everyone," he argued. "Now let's start training before that tyrant decides to pulverize us and turn us into seal meat."

I hastily agreed. I didn't want to to die any more than he did. But knowing Jökull, we'd probably be dead by the end of the training session. No questions asked.

To my surprise, Wolf was a very accommodating partner. As we sparred, he'd throw in some tips to help me out.

"Tuck your tail in on the spin," he pointed out as he lunged at me. "Otherwise, I can do this--" he caught my tail between his jaws. "--and it's very painful." He finished as he bit down slightly on the weak spot every dragon has on their tail. I winced slightly.

"Okay, okay!" I gasped. "You win." He backed off, a pleased expression on his snout.

"Let's try it again," he suggested. He leapt for me, talons glinting. I danced away, watching him as he spun around to face me. I saw his front left foot shift, ready to bear more weight. He's going to swing with his right leg.

Sure enough, he swiped at me, as I had predicted. But I ducked down, beneath the blow, striking at his left foreleg. I swept his leg out from underneath him, and shock registered on his face as he went down.

But he landed on top of me.

Reaching out a claw and resting it on my throat, he smiled. "I win. You might want to think a bit further ahead next time. But it was good move," he acknowledged.

I heaved a sigh of defeat, glaring at him. "Get your polar bear fat off me!" I grunted. "You're squishing me."

"Oh! Oops," Wolf grinned sheepishly as he rolled off me. He held out a paw, offering to help me up.

A sly smirk crept into my snout. His expression morphed into one of confusion. I kicked out a hind leg and knocked out his supporting leg.

He glared at me. "That wasn't fair!" he protested whinily. I just shrugged. I didn't trust myself to say anything, because my mouth has a habit of getting me tripped, knocked around, shoved, and all-around hurt.

"Alright! Get outta my sight!" Jökull snarled at us, signaling that the session was over. We were all too happy to oblige, dragonets scampering away from her as fast as they could. Some limping, others bruised, even more leaving dripping trails of bluish blood behind them. But all grinning victoriously, because they survived.

I dashed after them, wanting to put as much distance between the monster behind me. To my astonishment, Wolf ran by my side as we made our escape.

Suddenly, he slowed down, a frown on his snout. "I never gave you a name!" he exclaimed. He paused for a while, thinking. "Hmmm....can I call you Ghost?" he asked.

I shrugged. It sounded fine to me, I didn't really care because I'd never had a name before. I didn't know if it was supposed to be something significant, or not.

"Ghost! What rank are you in the Circle?" he said suddenly. I jump, partly because I'm not used to being called 'Ghost', it's always 'you' or 'that' or 'thing'. And partly because I don't like that question.

I look down, shuffling my feet. Wolf must've sensed he struck a sore spot, because he piped up after a moment of awkward silence. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm on the second to last rung. I'm never going to go up. I'm going to be stuck there forever," he mumbled sadly.

Wow. Even he's above me in the rankings. Everyone is above me. Even the ones not yet in the rankings. Because they're pure and I'm not. Because purity is superior to the impure. And I'm contaminated.

"I'm on the last rung. Permanently." I continued to look at the ground, not wanting to see his expression. It's probably one of disgust. Or false pity. Whatever it was, I didn't really want to know.

There's a pause. A moment of silence. Then, "I've got it! We can be Seventh Circle buddies!" he exclaimed excitedly.

Uh...what?