Tide's Story

1

Tide was getting sick of school. They hadn't made any friends, and the classes were nothing like they were at home. The other Seawings, of course, knew all about Tide's power, but were forbidden by Queen Piper to say anything, so they did their best to avoid Tide. Tide had admitted to Starflight how they felt, and Starflight had been relatively helpful.

"Sometimes... Sometimes, it will feel like you're alone, but you're not... This may sound weird coming from your teacher. So, I had a 'predetermined destiny', right, and I was raised to truly believe in fate and destiny and all that fluff. But I still believe in that. So here goes. Sometimes it will feel like you're alone, but you're not. You haven't met them yet, but somewhere out there is your group... the dragons who are perfect for you. And hey, maybe try doing something relaxing and fun- like art- and they will just walk into your life."

And so that was why Tide was now alone in the art cave, sitting in the middle of the room and quietly painting on a large canvas.

A Mudwing with an over-the-shoulder bag flew into the cave. He walked over to a table and pulled some paper out of a nearby box. Both dragons sat in silence for a few seconds as the Mudwing got supplies.

If I stay quiet, will he figure me out? Will he figure out my power? Tide couldn't take it any longer, so they resorted to their usual strategy: Be overbearing and loud, only ask questions, don't answer them.

"Hi, I'm Tide! What's your name? Are you a MudWing? Ooo, do your sibs go to this school too? What art are you going to do?"

The Mudwing jumped, looked around, and spotted Tide. He replied in a shy voice. "My sibs don't go to the academy... and I'm here to draw I guess..."

Oh, poor guy... maybe if I pretend not to notice that he's shy, maybe he'll be more comfortable. "Oh, cool! I'm a Seawing. Have you ever been to the Sea Kingdom? It's so gorgeous there, and the salty smell... Plus the fish are delicious. Do you like fish? What do Mudwings even eat, rocks? What's your favourite food?"

The Mudwing looked a little stressed. "Ummm..."

Oh, am I scaring him away? Crap, I'd better fix this. "Sorry, you don't need to answer. I'm just curious. Hey, what are you drawing?"

He held the paper up, revealing a detailed picture of a sunset over Jade Mountain. "Uh, just drawing, I guess..."

The picture was amazing. Tide was shocked. How could someone do that? All Tide had managed was a blue canvas with little stick dragons and some fish. "Oh, wow! You're a good artist. Like, really good."

The Mudwing blushed a little. "T-Thanks." Haha, it's working, he's warming up. "So what were you drawing?"

Tide laughs. "Well, I was trying to paint the ocean, but..." he shows the other dragon his canvas. "Hey, you never did tell me your name."

"Oh- it's Terra."

Suddenly Terra's bag began to move, as though something tiny was kicking it from inside. Tide jumped. "Is there... something alive in there?"

Terra's eyes widened and he ripped open his bag. He did some weird movements with his hands- sign language, Tide guessed, which they'd never learnt- and pulled out a wriggling scavenger. The scavenger yawned. Terra signed something else at it.

"Awww, is that a scavenger? Is it your pet? What's its name? Wait, does it know dragon sign language?" Tide asked.

Terra rubbed the back of his neck. "They aren't exactly a pet... more of a friend. Their name is Bonsai... and I think so.

"It's so cute!!" They poke the scavenger's nose. "Hello Bonsai!"

It really was cute. There was a tuft of fur on its head that was a light brown, and it had huge shiny eyes. It startled backwards and did a sign.

"Did you train it to speak sign language?" Tide asked.

"Nope it actually could do it before I met it..."

"Oh, WOW. You are amazing. Scavengers must be smarter than I thought!" They were shocked... and immensely glad they'd never eaten a scavenger.

"That means we can communicate with the scavengers!" Terra sounded just as excited as Tide felt.

The scavenger signed something again. "Well... you can. I don't speak sign language."

Terra smiled. "I'm sure you can learn!"

Tide frowned, noticing the scavenger's pained expression... and noticing its missing leg, which had blood pooling out around it. "Moons above, is it okay?"

"A MudWing was going to eat them... they lost their leg as you can see"

Tide had a thought. But... I'm not meant to use my power. This is meant to be a fresh start. On the other talon, this is so exciting!! They gasped and whirled to face Terra. "I can make something, and we can understand it even better!"

"Oh? Are you an animus or something?"

Tide dashed to one of the tables, and made a skinny circle of wire that wouldn't even fit on their wrist, but would hang loosely around Bonsai's neck. "Actually, yes, but you're not meant to know that." They told Terra. They walked over to Bonsai. "Enchant this wire so that when any scavenger wears it, they can instantly and perfectly understand and speak dragon, until the moment they take it off." They then draped the wire over Bonsai's head.

"That's so cool!" Terra said.

"Bonsai?" Tide said hesitantly. They poked their own talon... it had the same texture and firmness of the wooden table, and was a little cooler than usual. Nothing to worry about. "Did it work?"

"How are you talking!" the scavenger said, sounding panicked.

"Umm they enchanted that wire around your neck so you can speak dragon I guess." Terra explained, sounding surprised that it had worked.

"Woah," Tide said, a little shocked themselves.

"But why!" He seemed terribly upset.

"Well... now you can actually understand us, rather than only hearing growling and snarling."

Tide felt a weird prickling sensation, all through their legs. The cave walls were closing in... The air seemed to be getting harder and harder to breathe... they needed to run, to escape, to get out of the mountain because it would crush them- They leapt up and bolted from the cave, yelling "I'll be back!" as they went.

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(ew, sometimes I hate the wattpad layout)