Ice at Midnight: A Winterwatcher Fanfic

❄️Chapter 5: The Little Things❄️

  To be clear: I'm not planning on alternating the POV every chapter, but I want to try and have a decent amount of chapters in Moon's POV this time around. There will almost certainly still be more in Winter's, since it's easier for me to write from his perspective. Also, I added a window to their cave, cuz why not?

  Winter woke up early the next morning, not quite sure when he'd fallen asleep the night before. All he remembered was that after the little incident involving what had sounded like - but surely wasn't - a prophecy, he had layed down on his ledge and eventually drifted off. It had to be around four in the morning, because the sky outside was still filled with stars and the cave was pitch black. His night vision had never been the best, and his moon globe wasn't in its usual spot on his ledge. He came to the realization that it must've rolled onto the floor overnight. There was a very dim glow on the floor next to his bed, and Winter knew it had to be it. His claws locked around the circular object and he brought it up to float above his left shoulder, rotating it to adjust the brightness. He was slightly alarmed when the pale light revealed Moonwatcher gazing out the window; her scales were so dark that he hadn't seen her until now.

  The NightWing noticed the soft glow penetrating the darkness. "I didn't know you were awake," she said, rather than greeting him. Then again, he wasn't exactly expecting one after the events of the previous day. "Do you always wake up so early?"

  Winter shrugged. "Back home, I just woke up whenever my parents came to tell me to get ready for training. Which was pretty much whenever they felt like it. Why are you up?"

  "It's hard for me to fall asleep at night sometimes," she replied, turning her eyes back to the view outside. "I'm not sure if it has anything to do with me being a NightWing, but most dragons in my tribe aren't nocturnal, so I don't really know."

  The thought of being nocturnal seemed like an alien subject to Winter. Although many IceWings stayed up late at night with the power of moon globes under their control, he had never been a night owl himself.

  The pale blue dragon stood up, cracking his knuckles and flexing his wrists. "Well, maybe you should try and get some rest. I don't know about you, but I would never be able to function being tired all the time like you must be if you have a hard time sleeping at night." He began to walk toward the cave opening.

  "Where are you going?" Moon abruptly asked. He turned around to see her sparkling eyes focused on him, the dark pupils dilated in the dim light.

  "I'm just going to fly around outside for a bit. To loosen up my joints and try and wake up more, you know." He explained. "Alone," he added, in case she wanted to come with him.

  "Are we allowed to leave the academy at night?" she questioned.

  "I don't know, but I don't care if we aren't," he said, before he slipped out into the hallway. 

  Most of the fire globes were still lit, providing the same amount of light as they did during the daytime hours. He was the only dragon in the tunnels aside from the occasional wanderer, at least as far as he could tell. The only ways he knew that led outside were the front entrance and the hunting cave. In case he wasn't supposed to leave at night, he decided to try and find the hunting cave; that would be the less obvious choice.

  Was it two rights, and then a left? Or two lefts and a right? Or a right, then a left, another right, then two more lefts?...

  His mind was still foggy, and that didn't help him any. These tunnels were confusing enough without being half-asleep. He was so deep in thought that he nearly collided with a dark red SkyWing while turning a corner. His immediate thought was that it was Carnelian, but instead it was a larger, more muscular male. The dragon's snout was horribly disfigured, a portion of his lips seemingly melted away to reveal a set of yellowed, jagged teeth and part of his reddish gums.