Frozen Truth

Chapter 20

Whirlwind's POV

  It works, perfect. With this, I will change the world.  The SkyWing watched as Moon desperately tried to bring back any memories of him to the three teachers. 

Moon eventually gave up and stormed away. Leaving Starflight, Fatespeaker and Clay pondering her "strange" behavior.

He smiled, his yellow eyes seemed to pierce the darkness long after the red dragonet had slithered out of the small crevice and toward the nearest exit, a small shiny object clutched in his talon.

Winter's POV

His wings would've abandoned him several miles ago, if they weren't attached to his body.

He beat them again, before slowly falling down and landing harshly on the ground. He wobbled for a second, his legs numb from flying.

A squirrel ran past him, it's fluffy tail flicking as it bounded from tree to tree.

Winter sighed, to tired to chase after it, but too deathly hungry to ignore it. How long had he been going without food? A day? Two?

As soon as he managed to kill two squirrels and eaten one of them, he was ready to sleep. His mind protested, begging his body to continue flying, fly until he found Moon.

His wings snarled at his mind, before he obeyed his body and collapsed, falling asleep swiftly.

His eyes slowly opened, the world around him blurry, as if he were staring through a cloudy pane of glass.

"Where am I?" he muttered, opening his eyes and shaking his wings. Memories flooded back to him. "Right, I'm finding Moon," he reminded himself, eating the other squirrel and lifting off into the air. His wings were awfully sore, but he pushed through, the thought of seeing Moon again sent an excited thrill through his whole body.

He stopped suddenly, something was stopping him from going any further, it was a strange feeling. Something told him that he was going away from Moon instead of toward her.

Hovering he looked down, trying to sort out his thoughts. Finally, after much debate, he decided to return to Jade Mountain, surely Moon will have found her way back and will be waiting for him.

"Yes, she's there and she's waiting for you," Winter reminded himself. "Come on, you can't give up!"

He continued flying, until he saw Jade Mountain. Winter couldn't help but smile at the thought of seeing Moon again.

Swooping into the entrance he was met by Sunny and Tsunami.

"Winter!" Sunny exclaimed, smiling at him. "We were wondering where you went."

Tsunami glared at him. "You almost made me send a search party, which of course, would mean that I'd have to borrow some RainWings from the rain forest. And I definitely do not want to work with them again."

Sunny laughed, Winter weakly smiled.

"Is Moon here?" He asked, looking around. He landed next to Sunny and folded his wings, allowing them to rest.

The two nodded and Winter felt his heart soar. That feeling... that feeling was instinct... it must've told him that Moon was safe.

"She should be in the library, trying to convince Starflight and Fatespeaker about something," Tsunami said, shrugging.

Winter nodded, before running down the hall toward the library, not hearing the last thing that Tsunami called out. He droned out the other students as well, only focusing on the path in front of him, on finding Moon.

Entering the library his eyes quickly found the third black shape. It was shaking, as if she were yelling or anxiously fidgeting.

Two black dragons behind the desk were staring at her. Once in a while opening their mouths and talking, but he didn't hear anything.

Walking up silently behind Moon, he opened his wings and swooped her up in them, hugging her.

She stopped talking and turned around. The joy on her face was so bright it lit up the room.

"Winter!" she buried her face in his shoulder, the warmth giving him shivers. "I'm so glad you're here."

"I am too," he whispered, closing his eyes.

"Weird stuff has been happening," Moon said, fear edging into her voice. She pulled away and led him out of the library and into a side cave. Where she began the long tale.

Winter blinked, still trying to digest the information.

"So, basically, you think the Whirlwind is up to something?" he asked, earning a nod from Moon.

"It's the strangest thing, I've never seen anyone just forget someone like that, especially not Starflight.

"Maybe we should spy on him for a few days, keep a tab on him," Winter suggested, Moon nodded again.

"You know it's rude to talk about dragons behind their back," a sly voice said from the entrance of the cave.

Moon stiffened up, Winter spun around and glared fiercely at the red SkyWing.

"Come on, don't be like that," Whirlwind said, smirking.

"We have every right to be edgy around you," Winter growled.

Moon looked down.

"Do you?"

"Yes, we do."

He rolled his eyes and sat down, blocking the exit.

"So tell me, what were you saying about me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Gossip needs to be shared."

"It's none of your concern!" Winter roared, raising his voice threateningly.

"Do you want to end up like your friends?" Whirlwind suddenly hissed, his calm attitude  disappearing into thin air. 

"What do you mean end up like them?" Moon asked, speaking for the first time.

Whirlwind blinked slowly. "You'll find out if you cross my path," he pulled something out of the well concealed pouch on his wrist, a small diamond, about as big as a scavenger's paw.

It glowed in the faint light and seemed to send off an eerie aura.

Once in a while, dragon faces would appear in the crystal, before being replaced with either nothing but a cloudy white image, or another dragon.

"Memories," Moon realized, backing away. "What... how?"

"Not everything is as it seems."