Winterwatcher! - Light in the Dark

🌙 Chapter 9 🌙

Soft light peeked through in between Moon's eyelids. She stirred slightly and slowly opened her eyes.

"She's AWAKE!" Kinkajou screamed while pouncing up and down on top of Moon. Moon examined where she was. Blurry dragons were crowded around her bed, blocking out the view of other patients in beds beside hers. Everyone's eyes were fixed on her like they were expecting her to scream or shout.

Moon was in the hospital.

"Moonwatcher, it's so glad to see you alright," Tsunami stepped forward and breathed a sigh of relief. Qibli, Turtle, Kinkajou, Tamarin, Anemone, Starflight, Fatespeaker and Sunny were also there.

Out of the corner of her eye, Moon spotted Winter sitting in the corner. His expression was blank, like he was confused or upset or angry.

"Can you tell us what happened last night?" Starflight asked, concerned.

"Huh?" Moon genuinely didn't understand. Tsunami's dark blue eyes stared her down. They were all waiting for an explanation, an explanation Moon didn't yet have.

"Last night. Winter found you unconscious in the middle of a cave," Sunny explained.

"Winter... found me?" Moon said softly, shocked. She glanced over at him and their eyes met for a second. "Umm I can't remember." Moon shook the weird feeling out of her system.

Suddenly images of last night's scene flooded Moon's mind. Suffocating, horrific, deadly, black smoke. Deep, strange scary voices, ear, piercing whistling sounds, Icicle leaning over her teeth bared dripping with blood, red stains splattered all over the raw, stone floor. Then everything went black and Moon woke up in the hospital wing.

"I walked in because I could hear noises from inside the cave and there was Icicle in the back corner of the room. I didn't know how long she had been there. She crept towards me, her teeth were dripping with blood. She said something to me. I couldn't hear it clearly. Something came over me and then..." Moon bent the truth a little bit, obviously because no one could know about her powers. She thought it best to leave out the smoke and the whistling just in case that was all in her head. Doubtful, but still she wasn't even sure about what had happened next.

'Don't worry little Moon. I can hear it too.' Where did it come from? Icicle? Someone else? What did it mean? Is it referring to the creepy, whistling noise? Too many questions.

It wasn't at all familiar. It wasn't like a normal dragon's thoughts. It was like Icicle was telepathically communicating to Moon. Well Icicle but not Icicle. That look in the IceWing's eyes did not belong to the real Icicle. Moon also wondered if the whistling had come from "Icicle"as well. She was pretty certain that it was what knocked her out.

"What about Carnelian?" Tsunami asked suddenly. Winter caught Moon's eye again, thoroughly intrigued this time.

"Carnelian?" Moon was actually confused now. Even though she still wasn't perfectly clear on what had happened last night, she was sure Carnelian played no part in it.

Or did she. After all, I was unconscious all night. This just got way scarier than what I thought.

Just because I was out, doesn't mean that the action had stopped .

"I don't know what happened with Carnelian? She wasn't even there!" Moon said half-truthfully until she heard something from Winter's thoughts that shook her from head to toe.

Carnelian's blood was all over that cave.

Moon launched out of the bed with a jolt. Carnelian's blood? What?!

She walked over to Winter feeling her heart beat at a gazillion miles an hour. Questions swarmed her brain like 'why were you up so late anyway?' or 'how did you find me?' or even 'why didn't you just leave me there?' but only one came out. "Where's Icicle?"

Winter looked down at his feet so Moon couldn't read his expression. Moon swore she saw a tear slide from his cheek.

"She's gone. Carnelian and my sister are missing."

A/N: There's a little bit of a cliffhanger for ya!

I'll try and update ASAP. Sorry for leaving you all in suspense but that's all part of my job ;) Thankyou all for the supportive comments and even for voting and reading!

If this chapter was kind of confusing don't worry it will get clearer. Stay tuned for more!