Wings of Fire: A Twisted Future - Broken Visions

Chapter 21

Quietkeep had a lot of questions. Why was Mango wielding such weapons? Where did she get them from? Where they there all the time? How did she get past the security without getting exposed? Was she an assassin? For how long? Why was she an assassin? Did she do it often? Did she kill dragons for money?

And that questioned sprouted more: did she frame Permafrost? That seemed a little too over the top since the two were clearly building a sort of relationship, or at least a mutual respect, so a sudden change of personality and point of view was odd.

The days since then had seemed to slow down, so boring, so meaningless, just writing and writing, doodling the things he saw in his visions, not raising his talon to answer questions, slowly doing his homework at night. Mango did show up for class everytime so she was fine, but was her peculiar assassin side real? Or was it a dream?

Quietkeep sighed, letting his head rest against his talon as he fiddled with the huge peacock feather in his grasp. Literature class was never so boring, it couldn't get more boring, but with each minute it got worse. Pondweed was explaining who knew what on the board, tracing something with chalk onto the huge slate. The only dragons who seemed to be listening were Raven and Flounder, always sticking together, doing the same thing. It seemed as though the SeaWing princess had attached herself to the small SandWing.

The feather was nice; it had an almost ultramarine base, highlights of green like emeralds and a large spot at the top, encircled by speckles of lavender and silvery teal. The ink slid smoothly off the tip, making writing easier than with most other feathers, like pigeon feathers which were too small, even for him. Maybe this would be a good way to pass time in literature class; think about everything there was to think about and observe each and every detail in the class. Surely there was enough to suffice him till the end. Quietkeep stared at small crooks and crannies, eyeing the windows, inspecting the shelves with scrolls, the parchment hung on the walls with class rules and the grammar and structure of the Dragon language. The yellow light seeping in through the leaves beside the windows, blasting a flashing glare into Quietkeep's eyes.

It seemed like centuries before Pondweed began to walk around the class, checking everyone's scrolls. Their subject? Fictional descriptive writing, in a simpler form, a story. Now, Quietkeep could already see everyone's stories unfold in their minds: Flounder writing something about a princess introducing a peasant friend to her mother, the friend getting rejected and the two running away to explore Pyrrhia on their own; a fearless explorer,  spreading his huge red wings and soaring over the ocean, reaching a distant continent with unknown dragons; a dragonet fighting hard against all odds to make the world a better place; two hybrid sisters facing dangers, the older one saving the smaller one from the buzzing claws of an animus monster and flying off to the horizon; darkness. When Quietkeep flicked a glance at Permafrost, she was writing, but her expression was a little tense. Like she found it hard to imagine what she wanted.

Well, Quietkeep was going to be as metaphorical as the rest of his Winglet; he was going to write a story with a character exactly like him and that character would do the exact same thing as Quietkeep if he was in a certain situation. Quietkeep soon realized that he was useless; that he was such a timid little dragonet with dandelion fluff pouring out of his ears, always running away from danger. Was this a sign? That whatever lay ahead he couldn't do alone? NOO there was nothing happening, despite the phenomenon that an IceWing was having visions...

What a fantastic way to reflect on your behavior, the dragonet realized with a snort. You're a fearful creature that could be scared of his own shadow if you wanted to. Well, no matter. This literature assignment wasn't defining his life in any way, shape or form, despite his thoughts not long ago about having this character be an identical reflection of him.