Ice at Midnight: A Winterwatcher Fanfic

🌑Chapter 9: New Students🌑

  The next week or so passed relatively uneventfully. Aside from the occasional school project or run-in with Flame - none of which escalated too much since Winter was often with her when they happened - nothing very exciting happened. Moon kind of liked it that way, but she could tell it was getting to Kinkajou. 

  "It is just me, or has everything been so BORING lately?" the RainWing asked as Moon was helping her with math homework in Kinkajou's cave. It was Saturday, and the only class that occurred on weekends was hunting. "I like action and drama! I wish more stuff like your little rivalry with Flame would happen around here. Has he done anything to you like he said he would?"

  "One thing at a time, Kinkajou," Moon said with a small grin. "I personally like it this way; it means I can focus more on schoolwork. And I think Winter has more of a rivalry with him than I do; I'm pretty much just on the receiving end of all of this. And no, he hasn't gotten the chance to follow up with those threats with Winter around most of the time."

  "It that so?" Kinkajou said in a sly tone, her scales shifting to a slight pink hue to combine with her already yellow-orange scales. "Seems like you two have been hitting it off lately, hmm?"

  Moon had grown so used to dragons making remarks like that that she didn't even blush anymore when it was brought up. Well, maybe just a little. "We're only friends, Kinkajou; it's way too early on for us to be anything but. Besides, if I was with him, or any other IceWing..."

  She didn't have to finish the sentence, for they both knew it would be disastrous.

  "I'm just saying," the small multicolored dragon replied. "Anyway, did you figure out number four? I had to skip it."

  Moon slipped into deep concentration over it, then stopped after a minute when Kinkajou made a face. She realized she was chewing on the end of the RainWing's pencil.

  "Sorry," she apologized. "I don't try to do that. It just happens when I'm concentrating."

  Before Kinkajou could respond, Sunny's voice directed their attention to the entrance of the cave. They both stood up, having been laying on their stomachs while they were working.

  "Good morning!" the golden SandWing greeted them cheerfully. "Sorry if I interrupted, but your winglet has two new students who just arrived this morning." Sunny turned her head to the right and beckoned what must've been them forward. "This is Sparrow and Karma."

  Sparrow was a red SkyWing with an orange underbelly, somewhere between Moon and Winter in terms of height, but with a build similar to that of Qibli's: lean, but slightly muscular at the same time. She seemed a little shy by the sound of her thoughts, but gave them a warm grin anyway.

  Wow, that NightWing is really pretty! I bet I can find someone to match her up with in no time! I'll have to see what her personality is like first, though. That RainWing seems really happy and energetic...I don't know many dragons like that...she might be more tricky.

  It appeared that Sparrow liked matchmaking, which for Moon, wasn't good. She was specifically trying to AVOID that, and if this SkyWing thought she and Winter were a match...this was going to be rough.

  Karma looked like a mix between an IceWing and NightWing, seeming to be close in height with Winter, probably a couple inches shorter. She was still taller than Moon, though. She resembled an IceWing in terms of her body shape, flaunting all the spikes and shine of one, as well as the unique shape and positioning of her scales that all IceWings had. Her underbelly and face were where the NightWing side of her began to show; her lower half was jet black with thousands of white speckles scattered across them, spiraling like fireworks did after they exploded. They looked even more like stars than those same markings on NightWings! And starting right between her eyes and leading all the way down the flat part of her snout, was the same pattern as her underbelly, except the white markings had no specific pattern to them. 

  Another NightWing, huh? Not like I haven't seen a million of them before... Karma thought, although not with hatred like Moon would've expected. The tiny rainbow there seems a little too perky for my tastes, but I can manage. Where are all the IceWings? I want to see what they normally look like...

  That was strange. It sounded like Karma had never seen an IceWing before. That led Moon to believe that she was raised in the rainforest around NightWings, but if that was the case, why hadn't she seen her before?

  "Sparrow will be staying with you and Turtle," Sunny told Kinkajou. "And Karma, you'll be in that cave, with Qibli and Carnelian," she said, pointing to the middle cave. "Make sure you show them around and make them feel at home here, okay? Tell that to the rest of your winglet as well." 

  The golden dragon walked off, and Sparrow entered the cave slightly hesitantly. Moon didn't think much of it as Karma entered her new cave. Not until she saw the hybrid turn for a moment, and she realized that she was missing a wing.

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  When Qibli, Carnelian, Winter, and Turtle all returned from whatever they'd been occupied with, Moon and Kinkajou introduced everyone outside of the three caves; there wasn't enough room for all of them to fit in any of them. Carnelian wasn't exactly happy to see the two new dragons, but nobody was surprised by that.

  "She's a bit of a grouch," Moon heard Kinkajou whisper to Sparrow. The SkyWing smiled, stifling a giggle. The two of them had already gotten along well and found a lot in common, and it had only been just over an hour.

  Meanwhile, Karma was obsessed with Winter, having never seen a true IceWing before. 

  "I'm sorry," the hybrid said when he gave her strange looks as he walked in a full circle around him. "I've never seen an IceWing in my life."

  "You're a hybrid between an IceWing and a NightWing, and if that wasn't weird enough, you don't know what one of your own parents looks like?" he asked, a spiteful tone in his voice that wasn't welcome.

  Karma was clearly a little offended by this, but she continued examining him. "Look, it's not my fault my mom walked out on me and my dad as soon as she found out a had a birth defect. I never saw her enough to remember what she looked like, and me and my dad always stayed in the rainforest. Even on the rare occasion one of your tribe would visit, he never let me see them. He says that they might try to hurt me, or call me names or something, me being a hybrid and all."

  The whole group fell silent.

  Qibli sucked in air between his teeth. "Ouch. Bet you feel like a jerk now, Winter."

  "Shut up," the IceWing hissed, jerking himself away from Karma as she lifted up one of his wings to look at the underside of it. "That's enough," he told her, before retreating into his and Moon's cave.

  The rest of their winglet continued talking like that never happened, but Moon clung onto Winter's thoughts for a moment, not exactly able to tune them out anyway. Even though he had just insulted Karma unintentionally and acted like nothing was wrong with it, she could tell he felt bad.

  After a couple minutes, they all went back to their caves, except for Moon, Kinkajou, Sparrow, and Karma, who ventured off to go explore the academy. As they left, she heard Kinkajou say something to Sparrow, something that she couldn't help but agree with herself.

  "Winter's a grouch sometimes, too."

  Sorry that this chapter was a little short, I just wanted to introduce all the new students. And there are still 3 more I'm going to add, so don't worry if yours wasn't featured! If you want to submit an OC now, too bad, requests are closed. I've got 5 of them on my plate at the moment. BTW, Karma is my OC. Cataclysm138, out!