Silver Moonlight: Winterwatcher Wings of Fire University AU fanfiction

Chapter nine

It had been a few weeks since the explosion.

Winter walked across the sidewalks aimlessly, winds ripping through the air wildly.

The night was cool tonight. Crescents etched itself into the sky, little strokes of white against the black carpet of stars.

Winter didn't know what to do now. He didn't know what to tell Qibli- how to tell him the truth without him getting mad at Winter. Which was practically impossible, now that he thought about it.

Moon was out eating dinner somewhere. The last time she talked to Winter was about thirty minutes ago, through a voice text in his phone. Winter had asked for her number, though not very casually.

He put his phone on silent, his head tilted to the air, breathing deeply. He hadn't felt so calm in a while, standing in the middle of peace and silence, no distractions.

Winter stretched his wings, imagining the wind carrying all his worries away, drifting away in clouds, farther and farther away from him. Winter lifted into the air, spiraling until his wingtips brushed against clouds, the moons brightly visible from here, like wide eyes peering curiously down at him.

He wished he didn't get tangled up in this kind of mess.

Winter hissed a hint of frostbreath into the air, creating tiny ice crystals in the air, like whirling mists wishing into white blossoming flowers. The explosion was caused by somebody, but Winter didn't know who. With a shock, he realized that Moon had never told anyone else about a dragon planning the explosion, and no one was investigating it.

Winter set his jaw firmly. He landed on the ground, his feet thumping against the cobbled sidewalks, and sprinted to the school building, his breaths short. If he could find anything that would catch the attacker, maybe Carnelian's and Bigtail's deaths would be avenged. He clenched his teeth, grinding them together as a memory of Hailstorm flashed through his mind.

Talonsteps rang out as he climbed the stairs, all the way up to the auditorium. Winter inhaled sharply, the entrance poking its way into his vision, and then he bumped into someone.

"Ow!" Winter shook out his wings, and realized a MudWing was in front of him. Sora, His brain remembered, Clay's sister.

"Sorry!" Sora yelped, her talons shaking.

"It's okay," Winter sighed. "What are you doing here?"

"Um. Taking a walk. There's a lot on my mind lately that I can't clear out." Sora fidgeted. "Have you seen Icicle?"

"Icicle?" Winter's cold sister had barely interacted with him when he first got into the school. "Sorry. Haven't seen her. Are you guys clawmates?"

"Apparently," Sora cleared her throat. "Sorry, I gotta go. B-bye," The MudWing nearly shoved Winter out of the way as she rushed down the stairs until Winter couldn't hear her anymore.

Weird. Winter stared after the jumpy MudWing, his eye twitching. He felt like something was out of place, like a misshapen piece trying to fit in a jigsaw puzzle. He turned back around, looking at the entrance of the auditorium. It was completely charred, flickers of black lacing the door that led into the once warmly-lit room.

Winter approached it carefully, his eyes adjusting slightly to the dark, and a sharp pain stung against his feet.

He jumped back, taken by surprised, and peered at his feet. A misshapened blob of spikes were stuck there, and Winter tried to pry it out to examine it in the moonlight.

It came off with a small pop, spikey and black, the size of a small grapefruit. He held it between his claws, not knowing what to do with it, and he looked into the auditorium again, and what he found made his voice catch sharply.