Riddle Me This (Winterwatcher)

Dinner? Anyone?

A/N: im hungry (also in the middle of revising)

Moon POV

Moon sighed in relief as she entered her house. Her house certainly wasn't large, by most dragons' standards, but she could live with it, and it had a guest bedroom.

Her only guest so far had been Kinkajou, however, and she was out on vacation in Cloudontom right now, wherever that was. According to her letters, she was "On the verge of a coma thanks to way too much sun."

Smiling, Moon retreated into a corner of her house, where she'd made a tiny library with a comfy plush chair beside it. As she sank into the chair, she grabbed a few scrolls, including her favorite, Gates of Oberon. Very desolate ending.

She'd just read to the exciting part when a pleasant ding-dong rang through the house.

Moon sighed. After the ordeal with Winter, she was in no hurry to see anyone right now, so she took her time, finishing the chapter and grabbing something to eat from the fridge, before heading to the front door and opening it.

Winter was standing there.

OH NO OH NO OH NO QUICK CLOSE THE DOOR-

Then Winter held something out. "You forgot this," he growled, eyes blazing with annoyance.

Part of Moon wondered if the scales next to Winter's eyes would start to melt.

Then she turned her eyes to what Winter was holding out, and she saw her wallet.

"Oh, thanks..." she muttered as she took it. Not wanting another awkward half hour, she continued, "I'll buy you food in return or something in the future."

"Oh sure, take me out for dinner," Winter said. Sarcastically.

Buut Moon's social battery was so drained that she didn't catch the sarcasm, so she just nodded, muttered a thanks, and closed the door.

It wasn't until after a 20 minute nap that she registered the sarcasm, and of course by then it was too late. Which meant they'd be meeting up again sooner or later.

Moon tried to stay calm, but that didn't work. Even reading didn't help.

So she did the next best thing:

Screaming into a pillow.

Still didn't help, and now her throat was sore.

Why am I so nervous about this dinner? She asked herself. But she didn't have a good reason. The best one she could think of was that she'd been in contact with only Kinkajou for so long that she was uncomfortable about meeting someone new.

But somehow that didn't seem right...

Gah, she wasn't going to think about that right now. She might as well go for a walk.

As Moon walked towards the town square, she registered the few stars that poked through the clouds and matched them to her mental map: Knight-Mare, Fanta-Sea, Koala-Fications. Seemingly close enough to touch, yet so distant. 

A/N: and no im not apologizing about the puns

She thought she smelled smoke, but it was probably nothing.

Until she arrived at the town square.

Chaos reigned there, with most of the buildings nearby on fire, flashes of color as dragons streaked by, some screaming, some crying, some laughing maniacally. Broken glass was strewn all over the ground, glistening merrily in the flickering flames. Ash-grey smoke billowed into the air, and occasionally a sharp keening broke through all the noise.

Meanwhile, Moon herself was struggling to not scream, curl up, cry, or do all three. Mostly she wanted to cry because the smoke wasn't exactly doing wonders for her eyes. She quickly darted under a balcony and tried to think about what she should do.

Get out of here first, then report it to the authorities, said the rational part of her brain.

SCREAM, insisted the rest of her brain.

Remember your mantra, her rational part shot back.

Moon decided to listen to her rational side for now. Take a deep breath, count to nine; you-

Unfortunately, she started choking as she was taking that deep breath. Ugh. All this smoke wasn't helping her lungs.

As she was choking, she heard a faint "WATCH OUT!" 

Huh?

Then she heard a cracking noise from above, and she looked up to see the balcony burning. Smoke filled the air, making it hard to see, but Moon realized that she didn't have the time to escape before the burning pieces of timber would collapse on her.

So this is how it ends...

And so Moon waited as the timber began to fall and winced as a few stray embers landed on her.

Then more cracking noises filled the air, and Moon saw the huge piece of timber that would fall on her in just milliseconds. 

A stream of thoughts ran through her head: I'm not ready to die after all WHAT DO I DO I HAVEN'T PAID MY MORTGAGE FULLY YET AND I STILL HAVEN'T GOTTEN THE CHANCE TO MAKE MORE FRIENDS OR USE MY POWER FOR A GOOD PURPOSE AND...

Aaand her brain started playing Let It Be, since of course it wouldn't cooperate during her times of trouble.

Before she had a chance to reprimand her brain, however - it would probably respond by playing Escape (The Piña Colada Song) anyways - the timber fell.

Moon closed her eyes, so she didn't know what happened next, but she felt something pushing her to the side, a fluttering of wings, a whoosh of cold air.

Then all was still.

A/N: Alr imma go eat something everyone have an ice day (or night, and yes the pun was intentional yw) and thx for reading