Tempest Unleashed

Chapter 31: DON'T YOU DARE

When I woke up the next day, Winter whispered in my ear, "Good morning." I smiled, then realized that Moon was smiling slyly at me. I replied, "Good morning to you, too. I gotta deal with something real quick." I swiftly got up and chased Moon around the campsite, giggling and smiling. When I finally caught her, I bopped her on the snout and giggled. I saw something move in the shadows, and the grin dropped from my face as I got up and barked into the shadows, "Who's there? Show yourself!" After a moment of silence and stillness, a huge dragonbite snake burst out of the shadows and knocked me to the ground. I snarled and tried to stab it with my barb, but it quickly slithered off me. I snapped upright, hissing at it, it hissing back. We circled each other for a moment, and it made the next move. It lunged towards me, but it didn't calculate the chances of me being fast enough to dodge, or maybe it thought that I would cover my face with my arms. I whipped behind it and stabbed it with my tail barb. After a moment of writhing in pain, it stilled and stopped breathing, its eyes staring blankly at an empty patch of air. I threw it into the shadows where it came from. A moment of silence passed. Suddenly, Winter darted into the shadows and dragged a flailing IceWing into the light. The IceWing looked familiar to me, and once she noticed me, she asked sweetly, "Hello, Tempest, how are you?" I gulped, and replied, "I'm doing very well, Crystal, how are you?" Crystal was one of my closest and earliest friends when I was on the streets. She was probably the nicest IceWing ever because she had the sweetest parents (they didn't make her have the right posture or talk formally). She giggled, "I'm doing good, too, thank you for asking!" Crystal noticed Winter, and she gasped, "Who's that? He's handsome." I frowned, and replied, "Crystal, that's Winter, my boyfriend." She scowled at me, and snarled, "Oh, so, that's how it is? I see." I hissed, "Don't you even think about stealing him from me." "Or what?" Winter put his wing around me and told Crystal, "Calm down." She became kind once more, and replied, "Oh, alright." When his back was turned, she hissed at me angrily. I rolled my eyes, and thought, Is this what I was like before I met Winter? Territorial, in love, and defensive? I shuddered at that. Ugh. Moon came up to me and told me, "Turtle wanted me to give this to you. It's called skyfire." She handed me a black rock that was slightly sparkly. She explained, "It blocks me from reading your mind, you can just make a bag, tie the bag to your ankle/wrist, and put the skyfire inside." I nodded. "Alright, that's all!" She trotted away. I made the bag, tied it to my back left ankle, and put the skyfire inside. I laid down next to Winter, Crystal shooting daggers at me with her eyes, and slowly drifted to sleep.