Frozen Truth

Chapter 10

Winter's POV

Winter ran as fast as he could, with his injured arm, toward his next class, which happened to be taught by Sunny. He skidded to a halt right outside the door and walked in, well, limped in.

"Winter why are you late?" the golden dragon questioned, looking slightly annoyed, but her tone was just as happy and friendly as ever.

"I lost track of time.... and I had a little run in with Tsunami so I talked with her for a while. Winter said, pausing a little. Sure the first part was a little bit of a lie, he'd known perfectly well what time it was, but then again... he lost track when he was talking with Tsunami and Qibli "helped" him... so maybe it wasn't really a lie at all.

"Oh, it's ok that you're late, because it's only by a few minutes," Sunny said, checking a sundial set near one of the classroom's many windows. "Now, I moved the seats so that you could sit next to someone new," Sunny flicked her harmless tail toward the only empty seat in the classroom.

It was right next to Umber.

The small MudWing turned and looked at him, and awkward smile spreading across his face. Winter searched the room for Qibli, and found him sitting near the back, next to a very unhappy SkyWing.

"Ok, back to what I was saying," Sunny said, turning a little to address all the students in the room.

Winter shuffled slowly across the classroom and sat down next to Umber, he looked down, fiddled with his claws, checked the bandages on his arm. He did everything possible to try and ignore the dragon sitting beside him. His tail lashed when Sunny read out the assignment, it wasn't the fact that it was due sooner than all the other projects.... no....

It was the fact that he had to work with his table partner. Great He thought, finally turning toward Umber, who was giving him a slightly confused and happy look.

"So do you want to do part a or part b?" Umber asked, sliding a piece of paper towards the blue dragon. He took it and quickly read it over, it listed what the essay had to contain, the basic standards, and a quick review on the lesson in case anyone accidentally forgot it.

"I'll do part b," he decided, flipping the paper over and looking down. Along the top it read Partner B. Winter looked around, seeing an ink pot between him and Umber, he sighed unhappily, which Umber either ignored, or didn't hear. 

His white claw turned black once he dipped it into the ink, the school made sure to use an ink that would wash off, no matter how old it was, they didn't want the queens to be complaining about something like that, even though Winter doubted that would ever happen.

Like... what kind of queen pays attention to her subject's talons? That's not very queenly of her. And, as the IceWings say, it isn't proper posture. If someone in the royal IceWing family were to look at their talons all the time, they might get thrown all the way down to the bottom of the third circle. And that was low for any dragon of a royal blood status.

He winced, he didn't want to think of home. It only brought back memories of Hailstorm and Icicle. What were they doing right now anyways? While he was sitting in boring classes, writing essays and listening to lectures. Were they out hunting? Like when he and Hailstorm used to go out looking for polar bears?

He ignored the rest of the blaring questions about home and started writing, dipping his claw again in the ink, at first he'd been thinking so long the ink had dried up on his claw.

Umber was hard at work beside him, his claw moving across the page like lightning. Even though his handwriting wasn't very neat, Winter could tell what most of the words were. Once in a while he'd see a blob that he wasn't sure was portraying. Was that blob supposed to be a period? Marking the end of the sentence? Or was it a word....?

Winter chuckled at his childish thoughts and continued working.

Qibli's POV

When Qibli had gone up to ask Sunny about changing the spots so that he could "sit with someone new" just meant he didn't want to sit next to Winter anymore. He wanted to get partnered with Moon, or Umber. Yeah... Umber would probably look better for his image.

He definitely liked Umber much more than the grumpy SkyWing sitting to his right. Whirlwind was almost impossible to talk to, and he was pretty sure he was impossible to like. Whirlwind never talked to anyone, much less Qibli.

The only thing that the SandWing had ever heard come out of the crimson dragon's mouth was. "What do you want to be?"  six words... it made Qibli feel cheap, like he only deserved six words.

He shoved the though aside, I mean, it was better than sitting next to Winter. The SkyWing never complained, never argued. Like Winter probably would have.

Should I ask if we can have new partners in a few days? Like after the assignment's done? Maybe then I'll meet someone new. Qibli thought, tapping his claw against his chin, thinking. I should get to know Whirlwind better, maybe there's more to him than meets the eye.... 

Qibli scanned Whirlwind, his bored expression, the way he held his wings.... they all suggested that in his world, it was either, you were with him or you were against him, there was no in between.

After this semester was up, Qibli was planning on moving back with Thorn, and taking Moon with him, he remembered how much she'd loved the astronomy tower, he loved when she made that face... an expression full of happiness and wonder.

He growled in frustration. He couldn't like Moon... he just couldn't. He was with Umber now, and Umber was who mattered. Not Moon. 

The rest of the class was spent with Qibli anxiously trying to get rid of an image. An image of a beautiful NightWing, a NightWing who shattered his heart and corrupted his mind.

I need to stop this. Qibli thought, scratching one final word down. I can't take this any more. One more thought and I think I'll go insane.