Honor Or Opprobrium

The dragon soared into the air, and Raith and his soldiers flew outside the open-air palace.

He had to scale up the mountain before reaching a higher layer where he could vividly feel the daylight. 

However, there was light in the palace. Raith concluded that it was some trick of the dragon because the depth of the tree's roots was as dark as the night. It made no sense that the palace was bright. 

After scaling to the top of the mountain, he now had to shoot into the air to catch up to the dragon. 

The dragon shot a freezing breath that crashed him back to the floor, grazing him across the mountain surface and creating a remnant of ice cones throughout. 

Raith tried to get up but was heavily wounded. Ice had peeled off his skin in different areas. He stood up and saw a glide of ice cones from where he had crashed onto up till the point where the breath had grazed him. 

He looked up at the dragon that was barely balanced with one wing.