The Mudwings of Jade Mountain Academy (Wings of Fire Fanfiction)

Chapter 12: Bye Bye Combat Teacher

"It wasn’t just an accident." Sunny declared to Prim, Poinsettia, Ali, and Cattail. "It wasn’t?" Prim asked looking horrified. "No, it wasn’t. We haven’t told any students this yet, besides you 4, and we don’t plan to unless absolutely necessary. We had an incident our first year very similar to this. We think this attack may have been modeled after that one. The same explosives in very similar conditions were used. Thankfully no one died this time." "Dragons died last time?" Poinsettia squeaked. "Yes, a Skywing like yourself and a Nightwing." Cattail got a sudden image of Dreamspeaker being caught in the explosion. She shivered. Poinsettia looked like she might be sick. "We're alive thanks to Poinsettia." Ali said. "You told us to stop. How did you know?"  "I smelled something funny as we were walking. I was just being cautious." "And I smelled smoke just before it happened." Cattail added. "That was probably the explosive." Sunny said. "Why are you telling us then?" Ali asked. "Because you were nearly exploded. Except for Prim, but we made and exception. We figured you deserved to know the truth." "Oh" Cattail said. 

"Why would someone do that?" Prim asked as her, Ali, Cattail, and Poinsettia walked away down the hall. "Why did tribes join the war of Sandwing Succession? Why do dragons do anything violent?" Ali replied. "Power, treasure?" Cattail answered. "It was rhetorical genius." "I'm not sure what that means." Ali sighed. "It just doesn't make sense." Prim said, interrupting their conversation. "Can we just stop talking about this, please?" Poinsettia snapped. "Yeah sure. Are you okay? You don't look so good."  Prim said, surprised by Poinsettia's outburst. "I just don't feel good. You know traumatized, head injury, etc. I'm gonna go back to the healers cave. See you all later." She's taking this pretty hard." Ali noted as Poinsettia disappeared down a side tunnel. "I'm worried about her, she doesn't seem so good. I think she's taking it too hard." Prim said giving a concerned glance after her friend. "She just needs rest and some time to get over it. She nearly died. I was protected, you weren’t there, and you’re fireproof. That's probably the closest she's ever come to real danger, let alone death. She just wasn't built for it, not like us." Ali told them. "You’re way to wise for a dragon so young. I'm supposed to be the Bigwings." Cattail lectured Ali. "Your probably right Ali, I should just give her some time." Prim cut in. "Guess what I heard the other day." Ali said, changing the topic. "Oh, no more gossip Ali! You’re nearly as bad as Delta." Cattail told her. "I am not! And listen, this isn’t just gossip. It’s important; it might have something to do with the dragon that caused the explosion." "What is it? What did you did hear?" Prim asked. "I overheard some teachers talking," At look from Prim she added "I'm small, they didn’t notice me coming up. Anyway, I heard them talking about the combat teacher. Do you remember how Terracotta said that she got food poisoning?" Both Prim and Cattail nodded and she continued. "Well, Terracotta's been teaching the class ever since. The teacher’s food poisoning has just gotten worse. Rumor is that The Founders are sending her back to the Sky Kingdom until she's better. They'll be short a teacher and so they'll be making Terracotta the combat teacher. Permanently. They say that she was poisoned on purpose. Someone poisoned a cow; she ate it and boom, bye bye combat teacher. At least for a while." "Why would anyone poison a combat teacher?" Prim asked. "They wouldn’t. It doesn’t make since- unless it wasn’t meant specifically for her. It could have been meant to poison anyone. Maybe they didn’t care who got poisoned, as long as someone got poisoned." Ali answered. "You've really thought about this." Cattail commented. "Well, if what Ali heard is true-" "It is." Ali piped in. "Then something is going on.” Prim continued "Something dangerous."