The Silver Scales

The Silver Scales CH 17

Abyss's Experience, and Gulpereel's Plot

Abyss wasn't sure what to make of things.... The classes he was watching were informative, if not a little behind the times. They represented just how far these tribes had to go to mend fences—and all because of a war that the six other tribes should not have even been a part of. It was an internal dispute that should have stayed internal. But maybe that was just Abyss's personal bias against inter-tribal war. "Hey!' A talon being waved in front of his face and a loud voice in his ear snapped Abyss back to reality, looking at the hybrid who he was assigned. "Are you ok? You've been standing like a statue for almost an hour." Spirit said, gesturing at the rare deep sea fish in front of Abyss. Not many deep-sea fish were caught for the prey center, but sometimes they got lucky. "Your food might rot away before you even take a bite."

Abyss shook his head with a slightly annoyed snarl. "Not hungry," Abyss thinks, rubbing his temples. Spirit raised an eyebrow at this, a little confused, he hadn't had anything to eat all day. "If you say so..." Spirit said, watching as one of the few remaining raccoons in the prey center snatched the fish and ran off, hoping to hide and eat in peace. "I'll be taking a look around' Abyss thinks to Spirit before getting up and walking away without another word.

As Abyss traveled through the caves and tunnels of Jade Mountain Academy, he made sure to double-check any sonar readings, his echolocation wasn't at its best above the water, so he had to be careful. His ear flicked slightly, turning down one of the halls and into a cave not long after Abyss found himself in the music cave, there was a rainwing playing on a harp it seems if the frills by its head were registering correctly. Abyss looked at a familiar instrument on the wall, a small drum. He remembered seeing a few in the kingdom of the Abyssalwings, it was taken with them when they had initially dove into the chasm they now called home. No one played them, no point underwater, they wouldn't be able to hear anything.

Taking it off the wall, Abyss sets it down on the ground, sliding his talon around the drum. He feels the leather it is made of, the strings that keep it taught, and even traces some of the decorative carvings in the wood. Tapping the leather slightly his finely tuned hearing could pick up the small sounds coming from it. In truth, he had never even heard the sound a drum could make before and was excited to see how it went for the first time.

Settling himself before the drum, Abyss took a moment to feel out the dimension of the leather, familiarizing himself with where it ended so that he would not accidentally hit someone walking by. Once he was familiar with it, he began to pat his talons across the drum, his head slightly bouncing as he got into a nice rhythm. Bum bumbum bum bum bum bumbum Focused so much on bouncing the palm and wrist of his talons across the leather he hadn't realized that the rainwing in the cave had stopped what she was doing and looked over at him. "You're pretty good at that!" She said loudly, now just a few feet away from Prince Abyss, causing him to instinctively swipe in her direction.

She ducked out of the way easily, giggling. "Woah there, easy! I didn't mean to scare you!" She giggled, sitting down. "Apologies," Abyss said, his voice still dry and hoarse, but improving slightly. "No problem! My name is Sunflower, btw! Go on, keep playing, I'll join the tune!" She said, holding a flute in her talons. Abyss hesitated for a moment but began to continue that same rhythm from before, his ear closest to the rainwing perked up to catch what she did.

The rainwing listened carefully for a moment before placing the flute up to her lips, blowing and moving her claws to the same tune of Abyss's beating of the drum, matching his tune and keeping pace with him. The prince found himself smiling as Sunflower joined the tune, his tail thumping against the ground. Maybe this academy wasn't so bad after all.

Down in the depths of the ocean, in the chasm that the Abyssalwings call home, a plot was brewing. Not everyone wanted peace, some of the tribe thought dealing peacefully with the surface tribes was the wrong path to take. Gulpereel was one of these dragons, as Brother to the queen, if Abyss had never been hatched, he would have taken full ownership of the tribe if he had challenged and beaten his sister in combat. But once Abyss had been hatched, the last dictated that Abyss was next in line. Gulpereel snarled to himself, swimming away from Pyrrhia, unlike the other tribes the Abyssalwings never forgot about the continent and its tribes.

Surfacing above the waves Gulpereel stepped onto the beach, where a Hivewing was waiting. "Well?" The hivewing hissed, he was one of the few still loyal to Wasp despite her having control over their minds for so long. "The tribes.... are unifying...., the queen is.... speaking about.... your home,... revealing weaknesses...." Gulpereel lied, with his inability to speak fluidly for long sentences it was easy to hide any deceit. "Tell the queens.... The Pyrrhians..... Are going to rage war...." Gulpereel said before diving into the water and swimming off. The hivewing smirked as he took to the skies. 'Let's see if Queen Jewel still trusts those outsider tribes after hearing this.

If Gulpereel couldn't have the throne by the normal methods of inheriting the throne, he would just have to make it so Abyss suffered a casualty on the battlefield. 'Then we'll see if the tribe trusts anyone again, everything is falling into place.' Gulpereel thinks with a cock, triumphant smirk.