Claws of time

Chapter 15- Trust me

I had gotten far enough away from the group, and I was still looking through the stalls. There was so much here, and dragons from all kinds of tribes selling many different unique things. I stumbled upon a stall that was selling jewelry, finally. I walked up to the SandWing that was running the stall, "Hello, what kind of jewelry do you sell?" I gazed around at the copper, silver, gold, and other metals of different kinds of jewelry that hung on hooks and laid flat on the table. "Oh we have all kinds of jewelry that would be perfect for any occasion! What exactly are you looking for?" I hummed for a moment, what would look good at the festival? Before I could point to a silver chain and tailband, I heard talon steps behind me. "Don't bother wasting your scales on those." Darkstalker said. I turned around and looked at him, "I need something for the jubilee tonight, unless IceWings aren't welcome." Darkstalker frowned, "I never said that." I rolled my eyes, "You probably thought it." I grumbled in my mind. Darkstalker let out an exasperated sigh, "No I didn't think that either." I hissed, "Would you stay out of my mind!" "Alright, alright, no need to get upset now. I just wanted to talk to you." I grumbled, "Fine." Darkstlaker motioned for me to follow him, and I did. Darkstalker and I walked off into a quiet area of the markets. "Shiver, I'm sorry if I have offended you in any way, I didn't mean to." Darkstalker said apologetically. I huffed, "That's rich coming from the one who threatened me and my entire tribe while I was sleeping." Darkstalker looked exasperated, "Shiver I really am sorry, I was upset then, but I'm over it now. I wrongly accused you and I wanted to make it up by giving you this and inviting you to the party tonight." Darkstalker took out a pair of shiny silver armbands with sapphires embedded into them. "I promise I'll act better around you, just because one IceWing is bad, doesn't mean all of them are." He flashed a smile, "Friends?" Darkstalker held out the armbands and was still smiling. I looked at him skeptically, "What's with this sudden change in attitude?" Darkstalker looked at me confused, "I'm not sure why you're suspicious of me. Look if you want the truth I talked to Clearsight and she made me realize I was a big jerk to you, so, here I am apologizing to you." He took a long pause, "I was wrong and an idiot to be so rude, so I hope we can forget all that's happened between us and go back to being friends." He pushed the armbands closer. I don't know if I misheard him or not, but it sounded like he was implying something when he said the word forget. Besides, he's acting way out of character, something doesn't seem right. Darkstalker roared, "Oh three moons!" He cried out and hooked the armbands on. "Hey-" I started to protest but Darkstalker interrupted me, "You're overthinking this way too much, just stop worrying. We're friends again now, see?" I looked at the armbands warily, had he enchanted them? "No I did not enchant them, how very rude of you to assume I would! You can even check my scroll, I promise Shiver, I just want to be friends." He looked at me and let out a sigh, "Can we please just forget the fighting between us?" I rubbed my talons over the armband, I shouldn't trust him, but I didn't feel any different, and besides I did have my earrings on. I felt for the earrings and a wave of relief came over me when I felt them sitting in place where they were originally. I let out my breath, "Fine, I'm sorry too." Darkstalker smiled, "Great! You can wear those to the jubilee tonight. Now let's go catch up with the others." Darkstalker said, spreading his wings.
It was late at night, Darkstalker, his sister Whiteout, Fathom and one of his guards, and I were sitting inside one of the pavilions. The pavilion was surrounded by long white curtains that hung on the outside, they sheltered the pavilion from the noise and wind. The four of us were playing a confusing game called, 'Scales and squares." Clearsight and a new NightWing I had yet to meet walked over. The unfamiliar NightWing wrinkled her snout, "Playing board games at a festival?" She snorted. "How lame can you- THERE HE IS!" She grabbed onto Cearsight's arm frantically. I shook my head disregarding the two, and went back to focusing on the game. "Aha!" Fathom chortled, seizing one of Darkstalker's white squares. "I have totally figured out your mystifying game. I am the new scales-and-squares champion!" "Ooooh, sorry friend," Darkstalker said. He hopped a blue square over three of Fathom's squares, and swept them off the board. "Too slow, so sad." I reassured Fathom that he'd get him back next round, and was then interrupted by Clearsight and the other unnamed NightWing. I turned to look at them when another NightWing walked over. "Hey." He said in his deep voice. "Hey," Darkstalker said, sounding guarded, "I know you from... music class? You're Thoughtful, right?" Thoughtful gazed around at the rest of us, "Yeah. I was wondering if anyone wanted to try a scroll tower challenge with me?" Clearsight jumped in quickly and introduced herself, and started introducing the rest of us. "WINNER!" Whiteout shouted, nearly overturning the board as she hopped one of her scales around it. "Empress of all scales and queen of all squares! Weep for your tokens, adversaries!" Whiteout sat up and clapped her talons gleefully, until she finally spotted Thoughtful. "Oh," she said with wonder. "Look how shiny you are." "Shiny?" The unnamed NightWing said, snorting a fake laugh. "Whiteout, what are you ever talking about?" I looked at Whiteout a little confused, the way she talked and wordered things was odd, and I agreed with the unnamed NightWing, what was she talking about? The two eventually went off together, back to the other pavilion with a scroll tower. I shook my head, that was odd, but it wasn't that important so I just disregarded it.