A Light in the Darkness ~ A Wings of Fire Fanfiction

Chapter Six

After school, Firefly excused herself to the showers. She'd just had Fighting & Flying class with Tsunami, so she was drenched in sweat. She explained this to the girls, and they, too, decided to take showers. Leopard had headed off to tell Asteroid.

After a nice, warm bath, Firefly felt very clean. The dirt in her claws from hunting class was gone. She needn't pick her itchy scales. Autumn told them she would wait for Leopard to finish her shower. So that left Firefly alone with Sunbeam. 

They were walking in silence. Firefly decided it was awkward, and she should try to make a conversation. "So... how are you liking school so far?"

"It's fine, really," Sunbeam spat, like she was forcing out every word. The SandWing paused, then said, "Honestly, I'd rather be at home, with my parents."

That was good. Sunbeam didn't have to tell Firefly that. 

"So do I," Firefly said. She realized how little she knew about her winglet. After all, they'd only known each other for two days. She was reminded of her fight with Fatewalker. Well, he's wrong, and I won't have anything to do with him until he apologizes. Firefly thought stubbornly. Although... we're kind of forced to, being in a winglet together and all.

"So, Clay told us about the field trip in two days," Sunbeam put in. "I told you there was one, didn't I?" She glanced at Firefly, half smug and half uncertain. With a shudder, she realized her smug look was nothing like her father's. His grin was teasing and warm, but hers was actually smug, in a 'I'm not joking' way.

"Yes, you did," Firefly agreed. "Not that I, or anyone else, doubted that." She almost said something else, but she decided not to in case Sunbeam didn't take her words lightly. She didn't need more enemies. Especially in her winglet. 

They stopped talking. They had reached the library. The first dragon she recognized was Fatewalker. He peered creepily at them through a hole in the bookshelves. "Hello," she said curtly, meeting his eyes. He flinched, as if he thought he was really stealthy. "I can see you, you know."

"Right," he muttered, looking away and straying to the far corner of the library. "I knew that."

"Son!" a deep voice bellowed from the center of the library. "Who are your friends? I hear Firefly's voice! But there are others. Who are they?" 

Firefly would have thought Starflight was a calm, quiet dragon. According to her mother's descriptions, and her visits to JMA. Apparently, he was not feeling moody today. More like... shoutish. As Queen Glory would say, "Um, who are you, and what have you done to Starflight? I have no idea who this dragon is, whatsoever. Introduce yourself, strange dragon! Why do you look so much like Starflight?" and so on.

"Hi, Uncle Starflight," Firefly walked to the center of the library and smiled at him. She almost waved, but was reminded of his disability due to the bandage covering the NightWing's eyes. 

"Oh, right!" Starflight ducked under his desk, and Firefly heard papers shuffling. He popped back up, seven cards in his talons. "Quartz Winglet library cards. Yes. Please distribute them to your winglet, I understand they're visiting today." He smiled warmly. "I forgot to give them to you during seventh period, but I'll show you how to use them tomorrow."

Firefly nodded, "Okay." She studied one of the cards intently. It was a white card, with black ink letters at the top. LIBRARY CARD FOR: ASTEROID. A brief description of Asteroid was also scrawled on the card. RETURN TO JMA LIBRARY IF FOUND.

As awed as she was, she couldn't stand in one place forever, especially if there was work to do. She handed Asteroid the card, who looked suspiciously at her, like, "Why were you looking at my stuff?" He glanced at the card, and his worry lines faded.

Once she had handed them all out, she looked at her own card. It had a surprisingly accurate description of her. With a shudder, she thought, If someone had an order to kill a dragon called Firefly, and they had no idea who I was, they could just steal my library card. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Fatewalker look at her. She reached her senses out, trying to read his mind, but all she could hear were her friends' thoughts and a faint buzz (which would have been soothing if Fatewalker's thoughts weren't so important). Moon's advice must really be working.

They had found a nice quiet place in the back of the library, where they could detect all dragons who might be eavesdropping. Firefly had found a scroll she was meaning to check out afterward. After all, they were in the library. 

It was Leopard who broke the silence. "Well, we're here to talk about Firefly's dream, vision, or prophecy. Whichever you'd want to call it. My mom's always telling me to tell an adult dragon whenever I'm not sure about something, but I haven't yet. I wanted to get your guys' advice. Um, if you have any."

"Right," Fatewalker nodded. "Fatespeaker's always telling me that too, but I'm not sure we should tell the teachers. They would report to Tsunami, and she's always telling everyone how horrible prophecies are."

"What about Sunny?" Whitefish put in. "She seems nice."

"Better not. I suspect there's some kind of history she has with prophecies. During science, I asked her what she thought of the Jade Mountain prophecy, but she flinched. I guess it has something to do with the DOD prophecy?" Asteroid said.

"Yes," Fatewalker agreed. "She, out of all the dragonets of destiny, really believed in that prophecy. She was always pushing, believing that dragons were out there, waiting for her to save them. It was Morrowseer that revealed the prophecy was made-up."

Intriguing, Firefly thought. I'll have to research that, if there are any scrolls about it.

Fatewalker shot her a look, as if he wanted to say something, but he wasn't sure whether Firefly was still mad at him. She almost thought, Well, I'm still mad at him, before reminding herself that he was a mind reader too.

"Wait, there's something important I have to say." Sunbeam's eyes flashed with urgency. "Today, I saw--"

GONG! GONG! GONG! GONG! GONG!

The school's bell rang. Firefly jumped. The bell ringing five times meant they had to report to the Great Hall for an emergency meeting. Pressing the scroll close to her chest, she ran out of the library. Something bad had happened.