"Night and Ice Do Not Mix" *Winterwatcher*

Chapter 4

"Moon, what are you doing?" Winter asked. "Oh," Moon answered. " I just wanted to tell you that I love you." "What?!" Winter nearly shouted. "How? You can't love me! I'm cold, harsh, and uncaring. No one loves me."
"Of course dragons love you," Moon said to Winter, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I can prove it! Well, I love you and I think Qibli and Kinkajou like you." "No. NO!" Winter shouted on Moon's face. "No one loves me, and I don't love anyone!" "Are you sure?" Moon said innocently. Winter looked around. He was shocked at what he saw. Moon and his tail were twined together, and Moon was leaning toward him. She came closer and closer. Winter closed his eyes and —
~~end of dream~~

Winter's eyes shot open, only to see Qibli's face right in front of him.

"What in three moons are you doing?" Winter yelled at Qibli, shocked and angry.

"Oh," Qibli said, unnerved by Winter's sudden outburst. "I was going to wake you up, but you woke up before I had the chance."

Winter ignored Qibli's answer and headed toward Bandit's cage. Why in Pyrrhia, am I paired up with a stupidly smart SandWing! Well at least Bandit's sleeping well...

Qibli, pretending to not notice Winter's rudeness, bounded over to him. "We get to meet our winglet today!" Qibli told Winter, who was checking up on his pet scavenger. "Isn't that exciting? I wonder who we're with? I hope it's with some nice dragonets. I think —" Winter ignored Qibli's yammering.

Who knew that SandWings are so loud? Winter thought as they headed out of their cave.

BONG! BONG! Went the gong, twice this time. Winter and Qibli walked toward their first class. Tunnel after tunnel. It's so closed up in here.

"Actually," a voice up ahead said. "after yesterday, we decided to switch a couple of dragons around, since you guys seemed like a good match." Oh, it's Tsunami. "You've already met, you're all interested in scavengers — we think you'll fit well together."

BONG! Went the gong for the last time.

Winter noticed Moon looking at him, so he glared at her. It's her. I'll find out why she knows so much about scavengers. I'll find out everything about her.  Hmmm. I wonder what she thinks of me.

"Let's go around and introduce ourselves," Tsunami said. "I mean, maybe it's unnecessary, but that's what Sunny said to do. And then she said I probably wouldn't listen to her anyway, so I am proving her wrong, so there. I'm Tsunami, if anyone didn't know. I was going to give myself a title like Commander of Recruitment, but then for some reason everyone voted that I would be terrible at recruiting, whatever that is all about, so they made me Head of School instead. So I'm pretty much the boss. And I'm running your first small group-discussion class, which was Glory's big idea, so I figure we'll figure it out together. Any questions?"

"Yeah," said Carnelian. "Are we stuck with this group?"

"That's not quite how I would put it," answer Tsunami. "But yes."

"What if we would prefer to be in a group with other IceWings?" Winter  asked. "Such as my sister?"

"That's not how winglets are set up," Tsunami said. "But you'll be in bigger group classes with her and have plenty of time to make other friends as well." Like I want to make friends.

"I love our winglet," Kinkajou volunteered.

"When do we eat?" Umber asked. "Just kidding. Pretending to be Clay." He grinned.

"Ha! Actually I brought food," Tsunami said. She cleared aside a tangle of vines and revealed a carved stone bowl full of fish, which she set in the middle of the floor. "Help yourselves."

"Awesome," said Turtle.

"Yyyyyyyuck," said Kinkajou. "I'll wait and have a banana later, thanks."

Winter took a step toward the fish, but as he did, Moon, who was also going to the fish jumped back. Winter gave a curious look. She's frightened of me. Mother would be so proud. Winter turned away, skewering a fish on one of his claws. I guess I did threaten to slice off their face.

"Here," Qibli said, taking a fish and handing it to Moon.

"Thanks," she said.

"Right, introductions," said Tsunami. "Carnelian? Want to go first?"

Carnelian heaved a deep sigh. "I'm Carnelian." There was a pause.

"Anything else?" Tsunami prompted. "What should we know about you? Family, favorite color, anything?"

Carnelian growled, low in her throat. "I'm a loyal subject to Queen Ruby," she said finally. "I'm on a camp that believe me Queen Scarlet is dead, and if she isn't, I'd be happy to kill her myself to protect my queen's throne. I'm here because by Queen told me to be, although I should be training with my battalion and guarding get palace, not eating slimy wet fish with a bunch of spineless dragonets." She frowned at them all for a moment.  "And my favorite color is red."

"All right," said Tsunami. "Good to know. Kinkajou?"
The RainWing's scales got shot through with bright flares is yellow and purple.

"Oh, sure; I'm Kinkajou, I'm a RainWing, and I've never met any SeaWings or SandWings or IceWings before, I mean, apart from the dragonets of destiny, of course, beach use in really good friends with them. I'm excited to learn how to read and I want to know everything about all your tribes and I think this school is the best idea in the world. And my favorite color is yellow!"

"Of course it is," Carnelian said.

"Your turn," Kinkajou said, bumping Moon's side.

"I'm Moonwatcher," the NightWing said softly. "but please call me Moon. Um. I grew up in the rainforest. I like scrolls." she finished nervously.

How did she grow up in the rainforest? Winter narrowed his eyes at her, but Tsunami had already turned away.

"Me too," said Turtle. "At least, I like scrolls the weren't written by my mother. I've read way too many of those." He rolled his eyes. "I'm Turtle by the way."

"I'm Qibli," said Qibli. "I was one of Thorn's Outclaws before she became queen. My plan is to learn everything as fast as possible and then get back to help her run the Kingdom of Sand."

"I'm sure she's lost without you," Winter said scathingly.

"And I'm sure you're perfectly essential to the operation of your kingdom," Qibli shot back. Winter frowned. That's true. My parents or Queen Glacier never noticed me...

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Ok! I might do another chapter today. It all depends. Thanks for reading! Remember to Vote, Comment, and Share!!