The Silver Scales

The Silver Scales Chapter 14

Back to Jade Mountain Academy

(A/N This chapter will, unfortunately, be shorter than most of my chapters due to college, but this chapter will take a break from Spirit and focus on my other characters as I have been focusing on the sandwing/nightwing hybrid for too many chapters and too much focus on her. So this chapter will be about her friends and classmates while Spirit will be being coached and taught the ins and outs of being a liaison between the Abyssalwings and the rest of Pyrrhia so she will be absent for this chapter and possibly the next chapter depending on if I want to focus more on the others or go back to a general overview of the entire cast I have. Hope you enjoy!!)

Avalanche jotted down some notes, but only half listened to Clay's lesson as she worried about this new tribe that came out of nowhere. Not only did she not trust them because they came out of nowhere, but because they also kidnapped Spirit, how she didn't drown Avalanche would never know... did they have animuses as well? What else did they do to her while she was in that deep sea kingdom of theirs?? What were their true motives for appearing out of the blue? And WHY in the three moons and seven tribes did they seem to be part sea creature?? The one who kidnapped Spirit had a moons forsaken CRAB CLAW AS HIS RIGHT TALON!!

"AVALANCHE!" Clay's shouting voice made the princess jump, looking up at Clay before she realized what had him concerned, her talon that had been holding her inkpot and crushed it, the shards of glass digging into her scales and making a mess, but without penetrating her scales to make her bleed. "Oh... uh..." Clay shook his head. "Get the mess cleaned up, I know you are all worried, considering recent events," Clay said as Avalanche began to clean up the mess she made. "But the queens are already speaking with Queen Maelstrom about peace, if that wants they want then there is no reason to suggest they mean us any harm," Clay said. "Other than the fact they Kidnapped Spirit?" Alligator grumbled, his talon almost white with how he gripped his desk, clearly as upset as Avalanche.

Clay sighed slightly. "Yes, they freely admit that Prince Abyss was not supposed to be interacting with us until their Queen wanted to make themselves known. I am sure that there will be suitable punishment both on our side and on the side of the Abyssalwings." Clay noticed Alligators talon, but didn't mention it.

"For all we know they are just trying to get our guards lowered," Treefrog said doubtfully. "True." Clay sighed. "But if they do attack us, for whatever reason, there is one of their tribe and seven of ours. Even if there was another war I doubt that Queen Maesltrom would be in any rush to attack. For all we know if they are angered or show hatred to us they will simply go back into isolation in their deep sea kingdom." Clay said before the gong rang. "Alright, class, remember to study your material and prepare for the upcoming tests," Clay said as his students packed up and began to leave. "Alligator, Avalanche, could you stay for a moment."

Avalanche and Alligator shared a glance but, after putting their pouches back on, they waited for Clay to speak to them. "You two seem to be taking this a lot harder than the others. Is there something that you both need to speak about?" Clay asked them both. "Well forgive me if I don't like my friends being kidnapped by some crab-clawed freak!" Avalanche snapped.

Clay raised an eyebrow at her, as she had just proven his point. "As I was saying," Clay said, looking to Alligator to see if he was more calm in his response. "And what about you?" Alligator rolled his shoulder silently at first. "I was concerned about her, she can't breathe underwater, and the fact she survived has me worried they have animuses." Alligator said simply, making a better and much more convincing argument. Then Avalanche was. But Clay already had his answer: they both had feelings for the hybrid dragoness. Clay wasn't about to tell them in front of each other, that was their business, but he did say one last thing before he let the two students leave. "Alright, but you should both should think of one thing: As much as you two feel for Spirit's ordeal, what do you think she felt during that time?" Clay asked them both, not trying to out their feelings for their classmate, but he hoped to get them both to think more carefully about whether Spirit returned their feelings. "You two may go."

Alligator and Avalanche both left silently, even as they walked neither of them said anything. 'How she felt during that time' was the one phrase repeating in their heads. The two of them hated how she was kidnapped, but Clay was right, Spirit had gotten the brunt of this experience.

Treefrog was in the music cave, playing on a bongo slowly, lost in thought. "Hey," A familiar voice said, causing him to look up, it was Snowstorm. "You alright? I've never heard you play so... somberly." Snowstorm asked, picking up the violin she often played with Treefrog's assistance, still getting used to some of the finer techniques. "Yeah, just... thinking." He said, shaking his head to try and clear the cobwebs. "How have you been? What do you think of the new tribe?" Treefrog asked.

"Well... I can't say I'm very happy about them blaming my tribe for killing a nightwing thousands of years ago. But given the climate now and what I know about the climate back then I can't say it is impossible that an icewing did kill a nightwing back then." She admitted. "But from what I know of them, or rather what I've heard through rumors, they don't seem violent. I mean They could have killed her instead of just talking to her." Snowstorm pointed out. "True..." Treefrog shook his head again. "Anyway, did you want to try any new techniques?"

Snowstorm had a feeling Treefrog was still concerned, but if he didn't want to talk about it she wasn't about to force him. "Yeah," Snowstorm said with a small smile.

Archerfish was in the library with Mindreader, studying for upcoming tests that both Clay's and Web's classes would be giving them soon. "Hey, Mindreader." Archerfish tapped his friend's shoulder, snapping her out of the state of staring off into space. "Are you ok?" Mindreader nodded. "Yeah... just.... I wasn't expecting an 8th tribe to show up... they are almost like seawings, just... adapted to live in the dark of the bottom of the ocean. For all, we know they are seawings who just broke off from the tribe."

Archerfish nodded, he couldn't deny there were similarities, but why had he never heard of them if they were an offshoot? Then again... two thousand years is a long time, no one is even alive that would be able to remember them breaking off from the tribe. "Until the queens are done speaking with them, I think it is best to focus on our lives rather than worrying about them. If they are anything like seawings they would have attacked by now." Archerfish said, wrapping a wing around Mindreader "Besides, if any of them do attack they'll have to get through me first!" He said with a fist in the air, Earning a giggle from Mindreader. "Oh, YES, they have to get through your yapping gums and eagerness to learn knowledge before they get to me." Mindreader smirked

"Exactly!" Archerfish said, before pausing. "HEY!!" Archerfish looed back at Mindreader, who was laughing. "C'mon now I'm trying to be heroic here!" Archerfish laughed along, giving Mindreader a long glance, admiring her laughter that was music to his ears.