🌑Chapter 7: Confusion & Mistrust🌑

  After hearing the argument between Winter and Qibli in the SandWing's sleeping cave, Moon had decided it would be best to leave them both be for now. It was probably better for all three of them. The two males were most likely silently fuming to themselves, and she was stuck in a whirlwind of emotions that she saw no way out of. So really, right now the best thing to do seemed to be to give them space. She probably needed it more than they did, anyway.

  Moon now sat in a vacant sleeping cave, knowing that nobody inhabited it at the moment. She had her history homework with her, hoping it would keep her mind off of the things she had just heard.

  So it was the SkyWings who destroyed the Summer Palace. At least I think that's what Webs said. But...wasn't it a MudWing who betrayed him and followed him there? Or was it the SkyWings AND the MudWings?

  She sighed, setting her homework down and burying her head in her arms like an upset dragonet. Which, now that she thought about it, wasn't too far from the truth. She wasn't sure who to trust between the icy dragon who was her clawmate, or the charming SandWing known as Qibli.

  It was only the second day of school, and she was already getting wrapped up in drama and confusion. Moon longed to be home in the rainforest, where things were much simpler. Sure, nearly everyone in her tribe hated her there, but at least she could be away from all of this craziness. 

  I thought Qibli was a nice guy...maybe he is, but right now it sure doesn't seem like it. How can he say I'm his, that he likes me in...that way, when we've barely known each other for two days? I don't like him like that! Especially not now that I've seen his dark side. But Winter isn't much better, is he? He's always treating dragons as lesser individuals, and it seems like he only cares about himself. But at least he's not obsessive of me like Qibli seems to be. And he did try to talk his way out of the fight before resorting to violence...but then again, he said we aren't friends, and we never will be. Maybe I don't WANT to be friends with him now...did I ever want to, though? I don't know who I should like more at this point. Both of them have pros and cons to them, but that's pretty much the same for everyone.  

  Rather than tormenting herself by continuing to ponder this subject, Moon simply wrote down what she thought the answers were to the homework, too tired to try and remember it all. Then, she fell asleep early in this cave, the dark shadows enveloping her as night grew closer. She didn't want to go back to her sleeping cave just yet. It seemed that for now, the only dragon she could truly trust, was herself.

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  Moon woke up the next morning, noticing that it was still relatively dark. It didn't seem super early, but clearly classes hadn't started yet. She felt rested and refreshed; she'd actually gotten a good night's sleep for once. A surprise, considering what she had heard the previous day.

  Knowing that there was still time to kill, the NightWing got up to go explore more of the academy, only to feel a sharp pop in her spine.

  She cried out in pain as the horrible feeling continued at a dull throb. She must've slept wrong last night. 

  Moon went through with her plan, although she had to move a little slower to ease the pain. She didn't have her map with her, having left the leather pouch in her sleeping cave by accident. At least it would test how well she could navigate without it. 

  She was able to figure out where she was for longer than she thought she would, so that was a sign of improvement. After awhile though, she ended up at the Great Hall when she thought she had been heading to the library. She must've taken a wrong turn somewhere. Moon didn't stick around for long, but smiled a little when she saw Clay drowsing next to the large gong, the mallet sitting loosely in his claws.

  Moon remembered that the underground lake was close to the library, and she knew how to get there from here. So, she walked along, passing only a few wandering souls before coming across the large body of water. She had heard panicked thoughts long before she got there, although couldn't tell from whom they originated. It wasn't long until she could hear shouts coming from inside the cavern, and then she knew who it was.

  "Sunny, hold the net still!" Tsunami barked. "This thing is slippery, and we have to get it out of here before the school day starts!"

  There was a soft splash, followed by a loud curse from the SeaWing princess.

  "Sorry!" the small SandWing apologized. "I'll get it!"

  "You better! I can't hold onto this thing for much longer!"

  Moon took a peek inside, and saw her wrestling with a large, wormlike creature. It was several feet long and dark gray, looking similar to some kind of catfish. 

  That must be what Winter was talking about. I guess there really was an electric eel in there.

  "Okay, I got it!" Sunny said, scrambling back up onto the rocks with a fishing net in her talons. 

  The NightWing walked off, wanting to get to the library soon.

  She arrived there within a few minutes, and was disappointed to see that Starflight wasn't working the counter. Instead it was Fatespeaker; the blind librarian must've been asleep still. The dark purple dragon currently there was drowsing as well, a pool of saliva next to her mouth. Clearly she wasn't taking her role very seriously.

  Moon ventured over to the shelves of scrolls, looking through the genres she enjoyed best: sci-fi, nonfiction, mystery, biographies. She liked all of them, but none were as fascinating as fantasy. She loved that genre in particular; there were no rules to fantasy, which could make for some pretty interesting stories. She had once read a scroll about talking scavengers. And not the tiny creatures speaking in their own language of gibberish, but actually using words she could understand! It was so strange, yet made perfect sense at the same time.

  Unfortunately, she wasn't able to find anything that sparked her interest before she heard the now-familiar sound of the gong echoing through the academy. Class was starting soon.

  Moonwatcher wished her winglet could hunt today, but they only went on Mondays and Fridays. At least they were able to go twice per week, but it still seemed so far away. Reluctantly, she abandoned the shelf of scrolls she was examining and headed to science class.

  She was able to make her way there fairly quickly, considering she didn't have her map with her. Winter was actually one of the first to arrive, but she saw it resting underneath his chair when she got their. He must've taken it from her pouch while she was gone. Technically it wasn't hers, per say, and at least he wasn't late this time. She was glad she didn't sit next to him currently, not after what she had overheard earlier. She felt the same toward Qibli right now.

  I wonder if he really meant what he said to Qibli, she thought as she took her seat. I should've looked at his thoughts to check...but do I really want to be purposely sifting through dragons' minds like that? It's one thing to not be able to control it, but it's another thing entirely to abuse my powers in that way.

  Sooner or later, everyone trickled into the classroom. Clay was late, simply because he had been ringing the gong. Everyone else was on time, including Pike, the SeaWing who sat next to her on the left. Nobody sat to her right, which was the main reason she'd chosen this desk.

  "Settle down, everyone," Clay urged as he limped into the room. "I know you're all excited, and it's only the third day of school, but we still have work to get done."

  Once everyone had quieted, he continued speaking. 

  "Now, yesterday when I gave you all partners to work with, I was just testing out who works best together," he explained. "That little experiment was really just to keep you busy. Today, I'm going to assign your partners for the rest of the school year. If we ever do projects with more than two students per group, we'll figure that out as we get there. But for now, here is the list of partners..."

  Moon was unsure whether she wanted to be partnered with Winter or Qibli, or someone else. It would probably be better than being with some stranger or Carnelian, or someone else who didn't get along with her, but at the same time, there was a lot going on between the three of them, and she didn't want this to fan the flames. If she did have to get partnered with one of them, she silently prayed it would be Winter, even if he was a jerk sometimes. They got along well for the most part, and it was pretty fun when he wasn't so uptight, like the day before.

  "...Icicle and Bigtail. Flame and Tamarin..." Clay listed. 

  Moon looked over at all four dragons, seated in different areas of the room. She recognized Icicle as the female IceWing who had accompanied Winter when they had gotten to the academy on the first day. Flame was unfamiliar, but an injury to his snout sure made his face pretty unforgettable, and not in a good way. Neither of them looked pleased with their partners. Tamarin, a blind RainWing, looked uneasy, while the only other NightWing in the room, Bigtail, seemed kind of happy.

  "Qibli and Turtle. Carnelian and Kinkajou..."

  Moon heard irritated sighs from two of the four dragons, although she wasn't sure which.

  "Wait, I read that wrong," Clay admitted. "Qibli and Carnelian, Turtle and Kinkajou."

  Yes! was the excited response from Kinkajou's mind. Not surprisingly, Turtle was a little nervous, and both Qibli and Carnelian weren't looking forward to being partners.

  I can't believe I got partnered with him...

  This is not going to be good. I wish I would've been partners with Moon! And she and Winter are the only two left...

  "And finally, Winter and Moonwatcher," the MudWing finished. He set down the sheet of paper he'd been holding, and walked over to the chalkboard. "Now that we have that all figured out, today we're going to learn about cells and the different parts that make them function. In this class, we only learn about the basic cells, though. Of course, there are special ones that are responsible for...other things...but that's a different subject that we don't cover here."

  Someone snickered in the back of the classroom. Either Clay didn't hear them, or he disregarded it, because he continued with class. 

  "I like to think of cells as tiny little cities," he said, beginning to draw a sloppy diagram on the chalkboard. "The nucleus is like a town hall or something, mitochondria are like the sun, I guess, if sunlight powered cities somehow..." There was a repetitive tapping as he continued drawing. "The cell membrane keeps things in and out, like a wall, and cytoplasm holds everything together, like the queen of a tribe. Then there's the Endoplasmic Reticulum - I know, it's a mouthful - and it's like the letter deliverer. It delivers materials and nutrients to the rest of the cell. The vacuoles are storage, ribosomes produce protein, and the Golgi apparatus temporarily stores that protein." Once he was finished, he had a diagram of a cell completely drawn on the chalkboard. It wasn't very detailed, but it was legible for the most part.

  Qibli raised his arm.

  "Yes, Qibli?"

  The SandWing lowered his arm. "You do know there are many more parts of cells, right?"

  "Yes, I do know that. We're just covering the most important parts. Unless you'd like me to go over the rest?"

  "No!" most of the class responded.

  Clay smiled. "That's what I thought. Now that I've gone over all of this, I'm going to hand out a worksheet to all of you. It covers what you've just learned, but I'll leave the example up on the board in case you need it. Once you and your partner are done, check each other's work, and then the rest of class is yours."

  As the MudWing was handing out the homework, Moon realized that for once, there hadn't been a flare of negative thoughts from Winter when it was announced they were partners. Maybe they were making progress.

  The worksheet was a double-pager, but all she had to do was label the parts of a cell and fill in what each one did. She didn't even need to resort to using the diagram on the chalkboard.

  Winter finished just a couple minutes after her, and they met at one of the back counters to compare answers, so not to reveal any of them to other students. 

  After examining his paper, she passed it back to him. "You got the Endoplasmic Reticulum and Golgi Apparatus mixed up, but that's it."

  The IceWing grumbled something nearly inaudible to her under his breath. Not quite, though. She was almost certain that he'd said thank you.

  After quickly correcting his errors, he slid her paper back. "Yours is perfect."

  The two parted and went back to their seats. Moon suddenly realized she had nothing left to do, and there was still thirty-five minutes left in class. She knew the scroll she'd been reading was at their cave in her leather pouch.

  The NightWing shyly walked up to Clay's desk, where he was busy writing something down. He looked up at her with amber eyes as she approached.

  "Need anything?" he asked, keeping his attention partly on what he was writing.

  "Um...could I go get something from my cave?" she asked softly. "I-I think I left a scroll there."

  Clay smiled. Whether it was out of pity for her obvious lack of social skills, or for something else, she was unsure of. "Of course! There's a hall pass by the door; make sure you take it."

  She muttered a quiet thank you, hurriedly taking the hall pass and slipping out into the deserted corridor.

  The halls were empty as Moon walked to her cave, the glow of the fire globes suddenly eerie and making her feel uneasy. 

  She knew she was nearing her winglet's set of caves after walking for a good minute or two; she was getting good at navigating the school. Moon had just turned a corner when she collided with someone. A flash of crimson was all she saw before steadying herself.

  "Watch it, shadow-muncher," a gravelly voice hissed. 

  Moon craned her neck slightly, and then wished she hadn't. She was staring at a SkyWing, about as muscular as Winter, but just a smidge shorter. It was clearly a male, and a scarring injury crossed one side of his snout, the scales seemingly melted away. He was holding a small jar of a thick black liquid, and he smirked when her eyes drifted to it.

  "You're lucky none of this spilled on you," he said. "Want to take a guess as to what it is?"

  She shook her head, beginning to walk away when he stepped in front of her, blocking her path.

  "It's dragonviper venom," the crimson dragon said with a twisted grin. "I'm coating my claws in it to make them extra black. It's the only way to get them dark enough; you can't buy this at a store. Only dangerous while it's still wet, though. Want me to demonstrate?"

  Moon noticed with a pang of dread that one of his claws was slick with the substance. Before she could do anything to stop it, he lightly brushed one side of it on her arm. It wasn't much, but it was enough to cause a horrible burning sensation on the spot where it had been wiped. Tears of pain instantly welled up in her eyes, and she forced herself not to touch it.

  "Hurts, doesn't it?"

  "Y-yeah..." she said softly, refusing to meet his orange eyes. "Isn't that illegal? I mean, it has to break some sort of law-"

  In a split second, the SkyWing had her pinned up against the wall he'd recently been leaning against, his yellowed teeth uncomfortably close to her. She could feel his hot breath against her scales, and attempted to squirm out of his grip. It was useless, though; he was far too strong to allow that.

  "You tell anyone you saw me doing this, and I'll use a LOT more venom next time," he snarled. "Got it, NightWing?"

  Moon nodded furiously. She just wanted to go to her cave and grab her scroll. Was that too much to ask?

  He let her go, and she sighed with relief. He had already started walking off, probably looking for a more secluded place to do his handiwork. 

  "If there's one thing you remember about what just happened, remember this," he said, turning around for a moment. "The name's Flame, and don't you forget it." 

  Then, he was gone. 

  Moon wiped her eyes with the arm that didn't have the claw polish on it, then continued on her way to fetch her scroll. Before she did, however, she saw two quote boards hanging from the ceiling in the same spot. That was unusual enough, if not for what they said. 

  The first one read, "Don't depend on anyone too much in this world. Even your shadow leaves you in the darkest times."

  And perhaps even more ominous was the second: "Not trusting anyone may protect you from getting hurt, but it also stops you from finding the one."