🌑Chapter 16🌑

  "What exactly is going on here?" Moon's mother asked, more curiosity than anger in her voice. Moon wasn't sure whether that was good, or she was just trying not to make a scene in front of Winter, a complete stranger to her.

  Nonetheless, the small NightWing let go of him like her life depended on it, and though he seemed confused as to why, it seemed he quickly pieced together the clues.

  "Oh," Winter said, clicking his tongue. "I think I'm just going to excuse myself...don't want to get stuck in the middle of this..." he continued, clearly directed more toward Moon than her mother. Neither her, nor Secretkeeper, did anything to stop him from leaving the cave, his ears and face sporting a dark blue tone in a blush.

  Meanwhile, Moon felt her own face heat up like a hot spring as her mother entered the cave. She was anticipating some sort of questioning, maybe even a reprimand or punishment; Secretkeeper had never been fond of IceWings. Instead, she just sat down on the floor, curling her tail around her talons just like Moon did, motioning for her to sit as well.

  Moments of uncomfortable silence washed over them until Moonwatcher finally decided enough was enough, and broke it.

  "Hello, Mom," she said quietly, not looking directly at the older dragon. "What are you doing here?"

  "Visiting my daughter. Why else would I be here?" Her mother seemed awfully cheerful for someone who'd just seen her own dragonet hug someone from an enemy tribe. Moon knew what was coming and didn't get too comfortable, as this was a tactic Secretkeeper often used when Moon got in trouble. Usually she would avoid the subject for a bit before confronting her about it. "Didn't you get any of the letters I sent you?"

  Moon shook her head. "Nobody ever said anything to me about mail."

  Her mother exhaled heavily. "I knew that mail-dragon wasn't to be trusted...probably delivered them to the wrong place, or lost them...never mind that! How have things been? Have you made any friends?"

  "Things are pretty good so far," Moon said, blatantly lying to her own mother. Things had been far from good most of the time, with worries about Flame, or Winter, or the secret of her powers, or homework plaguing her the majority of the time she'd been here.

  Secretkeeper undoubtedly noticed. "I know that isn't true, honey. What's been going on? Wait - is that a scar on your face?!"

  "Well, the past couple months, there have been some issues between me and this SkyWing named Flame. I was out in the halls one day, and I saw him doing something he shouldn't have been, and he threatened me not to tell anyone or he would hurt me, but I did." Moon was rambling on now, and she knew it, but she just couldn't stop the waterfall of words from flowing. "And then somebody overheard me tell them, and they told Flame, and then he gave me these two scars with a knife," she said, pointing to the cuts on her face and shoulder. "And he cracked my jaw too, but that's mostly healed."

  "By all the moons, Moon!" her mother said, but with relief in her tone, rather than anger. She wrapped her in a fierce hug, and Moon just felt like she needed to cry. It seemed like she'd held back far too many tears here, and there had never been a shoulder to cry on until now, with Secretkeeper here. Sure, Winter could have been that dragon, but that would've just been weird, even if they had hugged already. 

  So, Moon cried, gentle sobbing breaking the blanket of silence over them.

  "It's alright," Secretkeeper soothed. "Maybe you were right, Moon. We should've just waited another year..."

  "No, it's not that!" Moon said between sobs. "I like it here, mostly. It's just that everything has been so stressful lately, and sometimes I just don't know what to do about it." 

  "Well, have you made any friends?" 

  Sure seems like it with her getting all cozy with that IceWing, a bitter side of her mother's brain thought. Moon often couldn't read her mother's mind, as she had developed a way to hide most of her thoughts. Sometimes one slipped through, like now.

  Ignoring that rude thought, Moon answered yes, telling Secretkeeper about everyone in her winglet, leaving out the part about Qibli and Winter having some sort of silent war going on, of course.

  Moon didn't realize her mother was pulling that trick about when she got in trouble until it was too late; she'd completely forgotten about the fact that she'd been seen with Winter like that, which was probably the whole point of her mother avoiding it until now.

  "Do you like that boy?" Secretkeeper asked, a noticeable amount of displeasure in her tone. "The IceWing?"

  Moon winced; everything had been going alright up until this point.

  "No!" she quickly protested, no longer hugging Secretkeeper. "I'm not sure what to think of him, even with my...'talent'. One minute, he's acting normal and calm, the next, something sets him off and he becomes some raging hurricane of anger, pacing back and forth and muttering to himself, or just storming off."

  Her mother raised an eyebrow.

  I know dragons don't have hair, but there's not much else for me to call the ridges above their eyes that serve as eyebrows. I swear if anybody starts some sort of correction/what it should be called in the comments, I'm going to report them for the lack of having a life. So don't.

  "Are you sure? You seem awfully close with him from what I saw," her mother replied, almost in the form of a growl.

  Silence fell over them, but Moon refused to break her gaze. She was tired of backing down, letting others intimidate her, even if it was her own parent.

  "Yes, mother, I'm sure," she replied firmly. "But let's say, hypothetically, I did like him. Why, exactly would that be a huge deal?"

  "You do like him!" Secretkeeper accused, standing up and flaring her wings.

  "I said hypothetically!" Moon said, standing up and trying her best to seem tall. Even so, she still fell at least three inches short compared to the older dragon. 

  Her mother sighed, rubbing her temples and closing her eyes for a few moments. "Moon, NightWings and IceWings have been enemies as long as anyone can remember, and there's nothing we can do about that. I'm not quite sure why, and frankly I think it's all a stupid mess, but that's just the way things are. I don't want you getting hurt because someone suspected you had feelings for one of them."

  "So there's a them now?" Moon asked, starting to get riled up herself. "You know, I think if you just got to know Winter, you'd change your mind. He's not like the rest of his tribe, Mom! I know it might seem like they're all the same, just icy, cold-hearted dragons who only care about themselves, but he's different, and he sort of told us why most IceWings act like that. He said something about their tribe having insane, horrible expectations that they all have to be perfect and superior, and it pretty much just breaks them. It turns them from innocent, happy little dragonets, to stone-faced, unfriendly jerks! Don't you see? It's not their fault!"

  Secretkeeper's irritated expression fell to one of pity, maybe even guilt. Moon's heart soared when she thought that maybe she'd gotten through to her. And then it all came crashing down as that angered face returned.

  "I don't want you hanging out with that IceWing anymore, Moonwatcher. It's too great a risk."

  Moon crumbled on the inside, all her hopes that her mother might change her ideals on IceWings dashed.

  "I should be going," Secretkeeper said, turning to leave.

  "No, Mom, wait!" Moon pleaded. "Can't you stay a little longer? Please? I've missed you so much, I don't want you to leave just like that..."

  Something in her mother's face faltered for a second, but quickly went back to the way it was before. Disappointed. Angry. Let down.

  "It seems you've been doing just fine without me; I think you can manage."

  There was nothing Moon could do to stop her from departing without causing a scene, something she'd been getting into far too much lately. So, she just sighed and flopped down on her leaf bed like a sack of depressed potatoes. She sat there for a good couple of minutes, wondering why things always had to be like this, with her mother leaving every time things were starting to go well. At least, that conversation had been going well up until she asked Moon if she liked Winter. 

  Let's be honest, Moon; you do like him. Even if he can turn into some flurry of rage at the slightest thing, or how he's so unpredictable, worried about his reputation, yet not caring about it at all at the same time. He's a talonful, that's for sure, but for whatever reason, you just can't stay away from him.

  Her sorrow-filled eyes drifted to the small scroll the IceWing had left behind, and he couldn't help but wonder what knowledge such a small roll of paper could hold. She checked to make sure he wasn't coming back, stepping out into the main hallway, and then went over to his ice-cold ledge and unrolled it just enough to read the title.

  A Guide to Love? Why would he have this? Did he take the wrong scroll by mistake?

  She decided not to read it, placing it back where it had been before. Instead, she grabbed one of her own scrolls, lying down on Winter's ledge, the cold temperature nearly enough to drive her away from it, yet something about it keeping her there. Just like him.

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  (The next morning...(read that in the voice of the Spongebob narrator) )

  "Please, Moon?" Kinkajou begged, staring up at her with sad eyes. "I haven't been able to find it anywhere! Will you pleeeaaase come with me? I can get you something too, if you want."

  Kinkajou had been pestering her for the past ten minutes to come with her to some market going on at a small town near the academy. Apparently there was some bracelet the RainWing really wanted, and she was asking Moon to come with her to see if it was there. The reason she even wanted it was probably because of the dance coming up tomorrow. The staff had let everyone take the day off to prepare, and nobody wanted to miss this opportunity.

  Forgive me if I have the days mixed up, but all you need to know is that it is now Thursday, the day before the dance.

  "Alright, fine." Moon said, growing exhausted mentally just from this conversation. She didn't feel like getting into a debate over something this early in the day. It wasn't even close to noon yet. "I need to get something to wear as well, so sure, I'll go."

  Kinkajou beamed. "Thank you sooooo much! I'm going with Turtle tomorrow to the dance! Well, he didn't exactly agree, but I think it's kind of implied that we're still going together. Isn't he so cute? Also, you don't really need any jewelry; those silver scales by your eyes are pretty sparkly already!

  Moon smiled. "Thanks, but the flyers did say you need to dress up a little. Maybe I'll get some earrings or something, but I'm not going to overdo it."

  "Oooooh! Sounds like someone has a secret date for the dance!" Kinkajou said, nudging her in the side with a pinkish-yellow wing. "Who is it? Tell me tell me tell me!"

  "Kink..." Moon sighed, knowing the small dragon would not stop until she got an answer. And telling the truth was probably better than lying. "It's Winter, okay? I asked him yesterday, and he said yes."

  "I knew it!" Kinkajou squealed, jumping up and down, her scales an eye-assaulting shade of pink. "That's kind of poetic, an IceWing and a NightWing in love!"

  "We are not in love, Kinkajou!" Moon called as the small RainWing went bounding out of the cave probably to tell Sparrow. The two of them were pretty good friends now.

  Poetic, huh? Does a creepy, ominous prophecy count as poetry? How did it go again? It was something about NightWings going missing, then two IceWings, and blue smoke...I do remember somebody talking about Bigtail not being seen for a day or two...oh no. If it is a prophecy...it seems like it's already coming true! What if more NightWings start disappearing? Should I tell someone? I can't tell any of the staff; they won't believe me, having actually experienced being tricked and lied to with a fake prophecy before. 

  For some reason, her mind flicked back to when Tamarin had admitted she loved Flame. It seemed wrong, even to Moon, to love someone so cruel, but she obviously saw some good in him. She remembered the pained look on the blind RainWing's face, and knew she had to find some way to get Flame to go to the dance with her. Maybe she could ask someone in charge about that. Then she would seem like a good dragon, then maybe they would believe her if she told them about her powers...

  What am I thinking?! I can't tell ANYONE about them! They probably won't even believe me, and if they did, they'd hate me forever...I can't lose all these friends I've made. They actually like me, and I like them. They're really all I have here, besides myself, and maybe Starflight. I still need to see if I can't work something out to get Flame and Tamarin together tonight...am I turning into Sparrow? Sparrow! I should ask her! She knows all about this kind of thing...I bet if she tried to convince somebody important to let Flame back into the school for an hour or so tonight, they would let him!

  That rushed string of thought barely finished before the matchmaker herself sauntered into the sleeping cave, a wide grin plastered on her face. Kinkajou was trailing her, making it clear she'd told.

  "So you're going to the dance with ColdClaws tonight?" Sparrow asked, using a random nickname she'd given Winter a couple weeks ago. "I had a feeling this would happen! We have to make everything perfect! First things first, you're gonna need something sparkly-"

  "No!" Moon interrupted. "Forget about that; I'm going with Kinkajou to pick something out anyway. What we really need to focus on is convincing Clay, or Tsunami, or somebody to let Flame go to the dance with Tamarin. She told me that she likes him, and I know that sounds horrible, with him being so mean, but she believes there's good in him somewhere. We have to give them a chance, Sparrow, and you're the best dragon I know to handle this. Could you, maybe, try and work something out? I know it's probably just an extra hassle for you, but I want Tamarin to be happy."

  Sparrow beamed. "Of course! I live for love, Moon. You should know that by now!" Then, she was off, a red blur as she hurried down the hallway.

  Moon sighed. "I hope she can persuade them. For Tamarin's sake, more than anything," she said aloud, although in retrospect, she probably didn't need to.

  "C'mon Moon, let's go! That bracelet isn't going to come to me, and neither are your earrings!" Kinkajou, said, tugging her along as she left the cave again.

  Today was going to be one of those days. Moon could just tell.

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   The crowd turned out to be busier than they'd expected. It seemed other students from the academy had heard about this place, and were searching for a little bling for themselves. Fortunately, many of the vendors were selling accessories, so it wasn't like there was one spot everybody wanted to be in. 

  "Where should we start?" Kinkajou asked, her excitement obvious. "Everything looks so clean, and shiny, and sparkly..."

  Moon found some of the jewelry to be too glamorous, with the crystal-clear sky shining above the small, grassy valley this market was being held in. She reached into her bag to make sure her money was still in there, and came across a familiar, round object while doing so. It was the egg, from the egg project a couple weeks ago. Somehow, she and a Winter had managed to not let a single thing happen to it, and had received full points. She hadn't remembered keeping it, but put it back inside the satchel anyway.

  "Just look for something that catches your eye. You can change the color of your scales, so it really doesn't matter what you get as long as you like it," Moon told her.

  "That's really smart! Okay, something eye-catching..." she replied, her head turning as she skimmed over the nearest selling tables. "Ooh! I see something! Or rather, someone...a certain someone who may, just possibly, might be going to the dance with you tonight."

  Moon was thoroughly surprised at her observation. "Winter?! What's he doing here?"

  "Probably the same thing as us," Kinkajou said, her eyes fixated on him in the distance. Moon could tell it was him, even though she couldn't see him very clearly through the groups of other dragons. He was talking to a SandWing at a small table covered with a black cloth.

  That's a smart business choice. That'll make the items stand out even more.

  "Can you see what he's doing?" Kinkajou asked. "I'm not very tall, and I can't fly up to see without seeming suspicious."

  "Well, you'll have to take what you can get, Kinkajou. I'm pretty small, too." Moon explained, although she still tried her best to see. "Hm...it looks like he's checking out some sort of wristband, kind of like Turtle's in terms of size and shape. Now, he's looking at a necklace, I think. It's silver, but I can't tell what it looks like other than that. Oh, wait - two necklaces!"

  "Seems like he might be buying something special for you!" Kinkajou commented. "Or maybe for both of you!"

  Moon didn't respond, hoping Winter couldn't see them. He held on to all three items, then spilled some coins from a pouch he was carrying onto the table. The SandWing counted them all, then smiled and said something to him, before Winter left. 

  "He just bought all three things," Moon reported. "He's going to another table now...it's closer than the one before. It looks like the dragon there is selling ties."

  "Neck ties, or bow ties?"

  "Both." The NightWing watched as he examined several. She grinned when he looked at one of them on himself in a mirror, then made a face of disgust and immediately took it off, setting it back on the counter. After a few minutes, he seemed to settle on a navy blue one with white stripes. Then, he got into some sort of argument with the dragon running the stand, a SkyWing, probably over the price. Eventually, they settled on something, Winter paid, and then started to leave. Not before he looked right at Moon, though, practically scaring her out of her scales. Amid the thundering sound of her beating heart, she could faintly hear a string of thoughts from him.

  Thought I wouldn't notice her here, huh? Hm...I guess she does look sort of cute when she gets startled.

  Then, he turned around and flew off, leaving Moon a confused mess.

  He...thinks I'm cute? Maybe this will work out, after all...