Wings of Fire: A Twisted Future - Broken Visions

Chapter 8

Quietkeep leapt onto trees, jumping up and down on them until they cracked at some point near the trunk and fell. Raven and the SeaWing were also doing the jumping; meanwhile, Permafrost and Mango picked up the branches, sending the SkyWing and the MudWing off every so often to drop the piles off back at camp.
"You know, this — three moons! Is... a pretty good workout," Permafrost mused unexpectedly, grunting as three branches toppled onto her from Quietkeep's tree. He glanced down to see the IceWing staring up at him, eyes squinted bitterly; the NightWing returned the look with rue. Permafrost rolled her crystalline eyes, pulling her snout up.
"Hmph," she snorted, whacking the rowan tree trunk with her tail, and the entire flora trembled. Quietkeep yelped, swinging off a branch and into the air, avoiding the possibility of suffocating under a collapsed rowan.
Raven giggled gently, then turned back to stomping on her own sycamore. The dragonet shrieked as the branch crushed under her last touch, and her reflexes were too slow to unfold her wings and catch the wind. Instead, she covered her eyes, plummeting with high speed as everyone in the Winglet leapt to her attention with a yell, but Mango, darting away from the fallen branch with high speed and back, caught the little SandWing.
The SandWing was so small she'd only reach Mango's shoulders if they both stood normally, and it was that SkyWing who was the tallest from their Winglet, not even Mango.
"Oh, Uh... sorry, Mango, th-th-thank you, Mango," Raven stammered fluttering back to the sycamore.
"No... problem," the RainWing muttered pinching leaves and dragging them off her shoulders. "Also, maybe silver-tears over here can cover for your sycamore, he's sturdier. You go face that aspen over there."
Mango pointed over her shoulder as she turned back to pick up branches at a small pale tree with a fancy golden crown of leaves.
"Perfect for you."
Raven snorted, scratching her ear with her hind leg as she sat on her sycamore, lengthening her stay on the in the large tree.
Little RainWing... pushing me around like that. She's not my mother! She's only three years older than me... and not much bigger!
Quietkeep tipped his head to the side at her thoughts. Fiercer than in reality.
Of coyrse, I'd never say that to her face.. but still!
The NightWing watched along with everyone as the little pale golden dragonet hopped from branch to branch, unfolding her wings for balance when making big leaps from tree to tree, and finally found herself on the aspen. She didn't look small anymore compared to it. In fact, she was slightly larger than the canopy, so she could strip its branches in a minute or two.
"Let's finish this rowan," Permafrost called from below, tossing cedar branches onto the pile as the SeaWing bounced endlessly across the tree, bounding in circles. Quietkeep would do that for that cypress he'd located.
The dragonet watched as the MudWing, who he thought he remembered bore the name of Bracken, dragged himself forward, took a fraction of the branch pile onto his shoulder and slowly turned around. His thick tail accidentally smacked the pile as he turned, and the whole thing toppled over. If he realised, he didn't realise to help.
"Hey, you, MudWing!" the IceWing hissed, rearing on her hind legs and already flaring her wings. Quietkeep couldn't snatch his gaze away. The MudWing glanced lazily over his shoulder and acknowledged the branches with a scornful look.
"Oops," he said in the least apologetic tone every heard. The IceWing's nostrils flared, but the brown dragonet had already begun his long trudge back. The SkyWing wad already coming back for more branches, shooting Bracken a glare, then back at Permafrost. The IceWing narrowed her eyes at Buzzard, then turned her eyes back from the flashing orange to the boring brown.
Quietkeep exchanges glances with the SeaWing who'd stopped bouncing in circles and was now watching. There were heaves from behind as Mango carried all the aspen branches to the pile, of where it used to be.
"Huh?" she hissed. "Excuse, why are the branches all scattered?" The RainWing flicked her red tail at t  silver IceWing, who bared her teeth and lashed her tail, suddenly lunging forward and cutting through the air faster than Quietkeep thought possible and latched onto Bracken's neck. The MudWing instantly dropped all the branches, raising his talons and yelled as the IceWing stood on her hind legs and held him up, probably terrified as Permafrost reached for his throat with her long, serrated claws.
"Bozo, go pick those branches up NOW." Bracken stammered, then shook his head with an odd crow that Quietkeep thought was supposed to he a 'no.'
Permafrost tightened her grip, slowly parting her jaws and a white hue appearing at the back of her throat.
Buzzard clutched her head, tapping the grass with his foot before winging it toward the base camp. Mango watched, her ruff extended in a curious expression. The SeaWing scratched the branch he was on in anticipation.
Finally, to Quietkeep's surprise, instead of tearing out his throat, Permafrost whipped around and slammed Bracken's flat snout into the earth, ploughing through the ground as she walked forward, dragging him toward the branches.
Bracken wailed, smacked feebly at the IceWing's claws, but that only tightened the grip on his skull. The MudWing tried to yell, but the mud and earth clogged his mouth, muffling his cries of protest.
"Clean. This. Up. It's that simple," Permafrost hissed at him, whipping his flank with her tailtip. Bracken gasped, grinding his hind claws against the grass and churning up all the flora. Finally, he gave in.
"Fine! Fine..." he shrieked, pushing himself up when Permafrost finally stepped away, releasing his neck. She'd left deep indentations in between his scales — had she been trained to always aim her claws right under the scales, the most painful place to hit, or was it instinct or something she'd figured out in her head?
Quietkeep wasn't entirely sure, but Bracken wouldn't disobey Permafrost from now on, most likely.
Buzzard raced back with Cardinal, and the dark red SkyWing was staring with narrowed eyes at Bracken and Permafrost. The IceWing had twitched an eyelid, the one facing Quietkeep, otherwise Cardinal would've noticed, but kept staring at the MudWing as he reached for branches and slowly piled them back up. He already began splitting them all into groups for him and Buzzard to take, so the SkyWing dragonet just excused himself from Cardinal and came to Bracken's assistance.
Soon, everything was back to normal except the glare of a SkyWing boring into everyone's scales. Everyone grinded their teeth when Cardinal glared at them; Permafrost did, Mango did, the SeaWing and MudWing, Quietkeep, even Buzzard and Raven!
After about an hour of gathering a bunch of branches and dragging those to camp, Cardinal ordered everyone back to camp so that they'd get their next instructions.
Quietkeep already liked how this was looking:
The Quartz Winglet had scraped out the plan for each Winglet habitat, the campfire and the storage hollow. They were now sketching out a map with the details onto a huge piece of parchment; the Silver Winglet were panting and chuckling as they rested against the stones and boulders they'd either rolled or carried over all the way from the stream, which was a decent way away; the Copper Winglet were splitting the prey they'd caught into rations for all Winglets and the teachers, already dividing the fractions between their own Winglet.
Now the Gold Winglet was walking up to the Jade Winglet, who'd be collaborating to craft the tents. Quietkeep sighed:
Saguaro, Avalanche, Urchin, Swan, Topaz, Morningflower and Panther. Of all Winglets... Avalanche and Urchin. Quietkeep smacked his cheek, shaking out his wings.
"It's fine, Quietkeep, it's fine," he hissed to himself, earning himself a concerned glare from Raven.

By the time camp was finished, it was past midday, and all that was left was a few hours before dusk. A fantastic day spent with two of the worst dragons ever! Who also happened to be his clawmates! Quietkeep considered talking to Cardinal or the IceWing principal about that... but that would mean interacting! No, actually, on second thought, he could survive a few... years with Avalanche and Urchin.
Everyone was gathered at the campfire, and Eel seemed to have taken instruments out of literally nowhere, although she said she'd been carrying them with Heron for the entire journey.
"Alright, Jade Mountain students, it's finally time for our pre-final event of the day!"
Dragonets clapped half-heartedly, forcing the remaining shards of joy after an entire day of working; Quietkeep noticed that most dragonets were wondering three moons, how is she still boiling up excitement?!
Though, once the news was shared, some dragonets understood her enthusiasm.
"We're letting you do whatever you want for the rest of today!"
The students immediately understood, and all the SandWings exchanged glances of you know what I'm thinking? I know what you're thinking, let's do it!
They all barrelled into the instruments, picking out their favourites and carrying them over to logs that the Gold Winglet had taken along with them during their quest for leaves and mud.
Though this time the songs they were played were much happier.
Dragonets sung, danced around the fire as the sun set, and laughed at jokes, roasted squirrels and fish over the blaze, commenting on their taste, texture and whatnot. Even Permafrost enjoyed it: she got to wrestle with others when teachers weren't looking, and laughed about failure. She knew that it was her loss because others distracted her anyway, so she didn't feel the need to.
Raven was in the band, singing and dancing, laughing and smiling, tapping her little drums and plucking guitar strings.
Mango wasn't in a bad mood, after what seemed like two full days. She drew narwhals in the sand, surprising dragonets with her skills, and stared in awe at the gathering bats, soon changing her wings to black, wrapping herself in them like a blanket and hanging on a branch beside them by her tail.
Even Quietkeep was happy — like everyone, he'd sung the songs and tripped a few times as he tapped his foot to the rhythm of the music, played the guitar a few times in a couple of different songs. Then got to read his scrolls.
It was a happy evening. By the end of it, every dragonet was exhausted, instruments were packed back into the storage hollow, the dip was covered by a canopy which was pinned by sharp stones cutting though the ground, and most dragons went to sleep by that point.
Quietkeep, is fact, was also very exhausted by midnight, rubbing his eyes and tapping his firefly jar to indicate that it was ok for them to rest.
The NightWing lay in a comfortable, warm position in his hammock, in between Raven's and the SeaWing's, under the Jade Winglet tent...
When the ground rumbled.