Sand and Stars: A Moonbli Story

Moon

She hurried to the library after history class. Now is when I finally tell him, she thought, Now is when I either get rejected or accepted. Now is when I say everything.

Her wings beat as she flew. Technically, you weren't supposed to fly in the hallways, but for once she didn't care. She swooped into the library and landed by one of the reading chairs and dragged another near it.

When Qibli got there, he didn't need any explaining. He sat in the chair next to hers.

When he met her eyes she felt like she was melting.

"I-I have something to tell you," she stammered, "Something I've needed to say for weeks."

"What," he asked curiously. Back out. Back out, whispered the scared side of her brain. Tell him. Tell him, Whispered the brave side of her brain.

She took a deep breath.

"Qibli, I know you probably don't feel this way anymore," she began, then internally scolded herself for sounding so pessimistic, "but sometimes I feel like-."

The warning bell began to clang.

"Got to get to class," Qibli said.

Oh no, Moon thought, He doesn't like me. She knew he hadn't said that out loud, but it still felt real. Trying to distract herself, she grabbed a random scroll of the shelves and went to Starflight's desk.

"We'd better do this quick," he said, "you should get to math."

Grabbing her scroll, Moon hurried along the halls to the math cave. Sunny was at the front of the cave, rolling a small piece of chalk in her claws.

"Okay class," she said authoritatively, "Today we are going to learn how to subtract. Qibli, please pass out these work scrolls. We'll go through the problems together. Moon looked at the first one.

If  Starflight has checked out 7 scrolls and checked in 2 scrolls, how many more scrolls has he checked out than checked in.

It reminded her of the scroll she'd grabbed so she looked at its title.

Dragons of the Desert the scroll proclaimed. Below those words was a large sketch of a SandWing in flight who looked a little like Qibli. The pain of his maybe-rejection came back and she shoved the scroll away.

"Moon, why don't you do the next problem in front of the class?" Sunny said, shoving Moon back into the real world.

Moon walked to the front of the class. All the problems were done on a strip of dark stone fitted onto the wall. Written in Sunny's neat talonwriting was the next problem.

If there were 10 dragons at an oasis and 3 flew away, how many dragons would be left at the oasis?

This problem also reminded her of Qibli.

"Uh, nineteen?" she mumbled. Seven.

Several members of the class giggled.

"Please write it out on the board," Sunny said, "See if you can prove to us what the answer is."

Moon's brain didn't seem to be working right. She doodled messy triangles and scribbled numbers across the board.

"Why don't you let me try," Sienna said, "It seems like a crocodile has eaten your brain." The class giggled. She quickly proved that there would, in fact, be seven dragons left, not nineteen.

For the rest of class, she drifted in and out of a haze of he doesn't he doesn't he doesn't he doesn't he doesn't he doesn't.

"Moon! Moon!" Someone was talking to her. It was Shard, Qibli's clawmate.

"You seem distracted," he noted, "Just wanted to tell you that class is over, you can go to the library to read your scroll."

"Okay," she mumbled.

What am I going to do now? Should I try Winter? No, he's not my kind of dragon, but who can I try?