🌑Chapter 2: Clawmates🌑

  Forgot to mention that Winter doesn't have his scavenger in this story. Also, I didn't put a picture of a crocodile up there for no reason...😉. I bet a few of you will figure it out.

No way, Moon thought. I pray to the moons that this IceWing just made a wrong turn or something.

  The ice blue dragon standing at the doorway to the cave double checked the letter next to it, muttering something under his breath as he did so. Then, without a word, he entered, walking over the opposite side of the cave to where a large rocky ledge was carved into the stone wall. He used his frostbreath to coat the surface in a sheet of glittering ice, then layed down on his side and turning so he was facing the wall instead of her.

  Well, looks like this is my clawmate. Not exactly the talkative type, but neither am I. That's good. Probably. He looks so familiar though...wait! That's the IceWing I saw at the entrance to the school! 

  When they'd locked eyes earlier, she had quickly hissed and broken their gazes, hoping it told him that she wasn't afraid of him. Which was not exactly the truth. Her mother had reminded her after that to stay safe, and although she didn't specifically mention IceWings, Moon knew that like the rest of her tribe, she wasn't fond of the icy beings.

  I wish I could've stayed just one more year in the rainforest; I miss Mom already. We were only able to spend a couple of years together before this academy opened, and now I'm stuck here, in a cold cave, in a school full of rambunctious, noisy dragons. It doesn't help that I have these stupid powers to hide...

  Instead of focusing on the negatives about this situation, Moonwatcher went back to reading the scroll she had been paying attention to before her clawmate arrived. Some good news was that there was a nice little scroll rack in the corner, five scrolls set on each of its two shelves. Several minutes ago, she had been looking through the titles, and had found ones about military strategy and other things that she now realized were obvious hints that she was partnered with an IceWing. Those ones were pretty sophisticated, even for someone at her reading level. She was only four, but had probably read more scrolls than the rest of the NightWings in the rainforest combined.

  She was resting on a pile of moss and leaves that had been here when she entered, having created a makeshift bed. It felt just like the forest floor, where she had stayed secretly hidden for many months during the times when Secretkeeper had to be at the volcano with the rest of her tribe. It felt like home.

  Moon tried to remain intently focused on her reading, and not the minds of the other dragons nearby, however with someone else only a few feet away, their thoughts were strong and spiky, and easily caught the attention of her mind.

  ...can't believe I have to share a cave with a NightWing. I can't ask for my own cave either; there's only three here, and the other two are almost certainly occupied by now. Stupid Dragonets of Destiny, coming up with the idea of merging dragons from different tribes...

  Clearly this newcomer wasn't very excited about being here, either. A few silent minutes passed before one of them finally spoke.

  "Where did you get that map?" the IceWing asked gruffly.

  Moon quickly looked up from her scroll. "W-what?"

  "The map that you have," he replied. "The one right next to you."

  "Oh. Fatespeaker gave it to me. You know, the NightWing at the-"

  "I know who she is," he interrupted. "Never met someone more obnoxiously talkative than her. I'm just wondering why I didn't get one." He walked over to pick it up, unfolding it to examine the layout of the school that was sketched on it.

  "Maybe they only gave out one per cave," Moon suggested. "They might be in short supply. Did you at least get a schedule?"

  The pale blue dragon shook his head. "What about you?"

  She nudged a second piece of paper toward him with her tail. 

  As he looked over it, he frowned even more than he already had been.

  We have ALL of our classes together?  His mind roared, while the rest of him stayed silent. As if things weren't bad enough already...

  Moon had no idea why IceWings hated her tribe so much; all she knew was that things had been this way for a long, long time, and it didn't seem like it was going to change anytime soon. Maybe she could at least try and be friends with this one, though.

  "My name is Moon," she suddenly blurted. "Well, Moonwatcher, but you can just call me Moon, since it's shorter. What's your name?"

  His blue eyes narrowed, appearing to be studying her expression.

  Mother and Father said not to talk to NightWings unless I have to...so does that mean I shouldn't tell her my name? We will have to know each other's names to communicate though...why is she looking at me like that? 

  Moon quickly tore her eyes away from him, realizing she must've been staring a little too long.

  "My name's Winter. Prince Winter."

  "Your mother is Queen Glacier?!" she cried in astonishment.

  "No, of course not!" he replied in a sharp tone. "She's my aunt, so even though she isn't my mother, me and my siblings are still royalty."

  "Oh. That still sounds really nice, to be part of the royal bloodline."

  Winter snorted as he handed back the schedule and walked over to his ledge. "You'd change your mind if you walked a day in my scales, NightWing, I can tell you that much."

  "What do you mean?"

  He didn't reply.

________________________________________________________________________________

  BONG! BONG! BONG!

  Moon sat up at the sound of the gong echoing from the Great Hall, gathering her map and schedule. Winter was alert as well, seeming to not know what the gong was for.

  "That means we have three minutes to get to class," she informed him. "Two gongs means two minutes, one gong means one. Do you need the map? I've already memorized most of it."

  The IceWing rolled his eyes. "No, I don't need a piece of paper to tell me where to go! I know exactly how to get there."

  "Do you even know which class we have first?"

  He nodded. "Hunting." 

  At least he got that right.

  Moon took the map with her, just in case she got lost. Winter had already left the cave, the strange orb that had been floating over his shoulder left on his icy ledge. She followed him out of their winglet's section and further down the original tunnel it branched off from, but soon realized he was frequently looking behind him to make sure he was still going the same way as her.

  "You sure you don't need the map?"

  He replied with an angry huff, turning down a separate tunnel.

  "That's the wrong way!" she called.

  "I don't care!" he responded.

  She smiled to herself, wondering how long it would take him to find his way to class.

  BONG!

  One minute already?! I didn't even hear the second gong!

  The small NightWing hurried to hunting class, and miraculously wasn't late. She entered a small cave, only a little bigger than her own, where she found five other dragons sitting in a circle on the floor. The back wall of the cave was entirely gone, although an aqua-green curtain was hung in front of it, turning the sunlight blue-green as it poured inside.

  "Hello!" a large, deep blue SeaWing greeted her, one of the dragons in the circle. "You must be Moonwatcher! Glad you made it on time; come sit with us."

  "Okay," she said softly, her head starting to ache from all of the thoughts in the room. 

  She starting walking over to where a dark red SkyWing was sitting, however when they curled their lips up slightly to reveal two rows of razor-sharp teeth, she decided otherwise. Instead, she picked a spot next to a RainWing even smaller than she was.

  "Hi!" the multicolored dragon greeted cheerfully. "I love the little silver scales by your eyes! They're so pretty!"

  "Oh," Moon said, uncomfortable with the amount of energy practically radiating from this dragon. "T-thank you."

  However, despite her friendly demeanor, the RainWing's thoughts were the opposite of that.

  Oh mangoes! Why did she have to sit by ME? I guess it is better than sitting by Carnelian, but I've already spent too much time around NightWings...I hope my PTSD doesn't kick in, because that would NOT make for a great first day of school.

  "You don't happen to know where Winter is, do you?" the blue SeaWing asked. She must've been Tsunami; Moon could tell by the pattern under her wings belonging to only the royal SeaWing family. "You guys are clawmates, right?"

  Before Moon could answer, that very same IceWing walked in through the entrance to the small cave.

  "Speak of the devil," Tsunami said. "You're five minutes late, Winter, and on the first day. Don't let it happen again. I'll let it slide though, since you probably just made a wrong turn somewhere. Come sit down."

  He hesitated for a moment, before sitting down next to Carnelian, across from Moon. She saw the red dragon growl softly at him, and he replied by shooting a small blast of frostbreath next her tail and snarling at her. Carnelian didn't look scared in the slightest, although she did scoot away from him by a few inches. There was a pale yellow SandWing on her other side, trembling while trying to contain his laughter.

  "Take it easy, everyone," Tsunami warned. "Especially you two. Now, since we're all new here today and some of you probably don't know each other, we're going to go around in a circle and say our names and something about us. Winter, since you were the last one to arrive, how about you start?"

  Winter grumbled something under his breath. "I'm Winter, and I'm the nephew of Queen Glacier." 

  "Wow!" Kinkajou exclaimed. "You're a prince? That sounds like it would be a lot of fun!"

  Moon resisted the urge to squint her eyes shut at the sudden burst of pain resulting from the explosion of thoughts in the RainWing's head.

  Remember what Mom said; stay secret, stay hidden stay safe.

  "I'll go next," Tsunami declared. "Most of you know me, but if you don't, I'm Tsunami. Not to brag, but I'm one of the Dragonets of Destiny. Anyway, Turtle over there is my brother," she pointed to a kelp green SeaWing across the circle from her, "and apparently, I have thirty others, and I just found that out this morning."

  Some parents she has, the SandWing next to Carnelian thought. 

  Moon noticed all eyes in the room on her, and wondered why, until she realized it was her turn to speak.

  "Oh, um...I'm Moonwatcher, but I prefer Moon, and, uh...I grew up in the rainforest, not on the volcano like most NightWings."

  "So that's why you look so much healthier than the other NightWings here!" Kinkajou realized. "Okay, my name is Kinkajou, and I am obsessed with sloths. Not even going to lie, I completely adore them! They're just so cute, with their little claws and everything! Your turn, Turtle!"  

  "Oh, me?" He asked, seeming to have been dozing off. "Hm...I have this cool wristband," he said, raising his right arm to show off a golden band locked around it, with six shiny black stones set in it. "I made it myself, actually."

  Moon didn't pay attention to anything he said after that, her mind locked on one thing. And that thing was that she couldn't read his . It was just some sort of fuzzy blankness pushing her back whenever she tried to listen. Occasionally a word or two would slip out, but nothing more than that.

  How can that be? I've never met anyone like that! Even when Mom shields her thoughts from me, it doesn't feel like this.

  She only payed attention to the last two dragons for their names, puzzling over this new realization instead. The SandWing was Qibli, and the SkyWing was Carnelian. Moon noticed that Qibli had a small scar on his snout, and an amber earring on one of his ears.

  "Okay, now that we have that done, it's time to go hunting!" Tsunami said. "Most winglets only go hunting once a week, but you guys and the Copper Wingelt go hunting twice. And yes, we know that's extra work, so as a small privilege, if you want to save something you catch for yourself, there's a special spot in the prey center where you can put it. No one else is allowed to touch anything that's there. Everybody needs to catch something, and if it's small, like a lizard, it needs to be at least three of them. Once we finish, we'll bring everything to the prey center. Let's go! Oh, by the way, this is your only class since it's your first day, but tomorrow you have all of them."

  The large SeaWing proceeded to pull the curtain covering the absent wall aside, flying outside and beckoning for them to do the same. 

  Moon stood up and started to walk over to the opening, however was elbowed aside by Carnelian.

  "Watch it, NightWing," the angry SkyWing snarled.

  "Sorry..." Moon muttered.

  "How about you watch it next time?" Winter said, more of a statement than a question. Moon was surprised that he came to her aid, however it could've just been that he and the red dragon still weren't on friendly terms and he wanted to keep it that way.

  "What'd you say to me?" Carnelian hissed, whirling around and flaring her large wings.

  "You heard me, SkyWing," he retorted, shoving past her and flying out of the cave.

  Rather than chasing after him like Moon thought she would, she continued to pester her.

  "Bet it feels good to have your stupid boyfriend come to the rescue," she spat. "What are you going to do if you get in trouble and he isn't there to save you," she mocked, pressing the tip of a claw into her chest. "Nothing, because you clearly can't stand up for yourself."

  The SkyWing prepared to take off, but Moon decided right then that she wasn't going to take this sitting down.

  "For your information, I had to survive in the rainforest on my own for months when my mother wasn't around," she said with a glare. "I could've been eaten alive, could've starved, died from illness or something, but I didn't, because I was able to fend for myself. How about you think about that next time you try to push me around?"

  Carnelian's mouth dropped open slightly, the shocked look on her face telling Moon that not many dragons had talked back to her before. Without another word, the NightWing flapped her star-speckled wings and took off, waiting until she was out of the SkyWing's sight before letting a grin spread across her face.

  I can't believe I just did that! That felt so...good! Maybe Winter saw...why do I care though? He's been nothing but rude to me so far. Then again, he did stand up to Carnelian back there when she pushed me...

  Where was he? Tsunami was still impatiently waiting for everyone to fly out, but he seemed to have left to go hunt already. 

  Moon flew upward and ended up on the side of the mountain, scanning the rocky cliffs and grassy hills for anything bright and shiny. She didn't see him anywhere, but he was an IceWing, so he probably wouldn't be looking for mammals that live in mountainous areas. 

  Her thoughts left the subject when she spotted two white mountain goats jumping from rock to rock as they scaled the mountain. One of them was much lower than the other, and the one higher up had paused to wait for it. An unsuspecting target. Perfect.

  The NightWing flew up high enough so that she would reach the waiting goat by gliding; she didn't want it to hear her wingbeats and get startled. 

  Letting the wind current carry her, she silently glided several meters above her prey. She waited until the second goat was almost to the level of the one higher up, then broke into a well-executed dive and scooped the one waiting off of the side of the mountain with outstretched talons. It instantly began bleating, however its cries didn't last long. Moon quickly snapped its neck, and its struggling body went limp. 

  "Nice job, Moon!" Tsunami called from below. She looked down and saw that the SeaWing had been observing her while she hunted. Moon was glad she hadn't seen her earlier; she didn't do well with...pretty much anything when she was being watched.

  I still don't see Winter...where could he be?

  "Hey, Moon," Qibli said, suddenly appearing in front of her. She nearly dropped the goat she was holding, she was so startled. "Oops! Sorry if I scared you. Just wanted to say it was cool - and kind of hilarious - when you talked to Carnelian back there," he told her with a smile.

  "Oh," she replied. "Glad you think so. Have you seen Winter anywhere?"

  His happy expression faltered for a moment, and she wondered why. He quickly fixed it, though. "I think he went down near the beach to fish for something. Anyway, I better go find some prey and fast, otherwise Tsunami won't be happy with me. See you later!"

  Moon watched him fly away for a moment, then headed toward the beach to see if she could find Winter there. It wasn't until she was getting close that she realized she had no idea why she wanted to see him. Maybe it was to thank him, but she felt like it might be that she wanted to be in his presence, which was strange. Then, she could suddenly feel his mind, although it was very faint.

  ...need a weapon, need a weapon, need a weapon...this is bad! That thing came out of nowhere! Ow! There's a rock; it's not much but it's all I've got right now.

  She immediately dropped her goat carcass, trying to locate him based on how strong his thoughts sounded.

  Winter was in trouble.

 Sorry to leave y'all on a cliffhanger, but you know how much I love to! I probably won't update this for a few days, because I'm going to start working on a new cover for this story. I'm not the best artist, but hopefully with the power of a YouTube walkthrough and the helpfulness of digital drawing, I can make one that you'll all really love. Cataclysm138, out!