Conquest : A Wings of Fire Fanfiction

3. Visitors

Sandstorm groaned as yet another balled-up piece of parchment hit her in the snout. 

'Maelstrom, stop,' she hissed, trying her very best to ignore his snickering and bending lower over her homework. She was sitting in the library with Prince Maelstrom, and they were finishing their essays on The Territorial Battle for Webs. 

At least, she was.

 Maelstrom pretended to write, but instead kept chucking his waste parchment at her whenever he thought the coast was clear (in revenge for the water-flicking event during Group Discussion, he said. That was fair enough, but Sandstorm hadn't splashed him quite so many times!).

 Sandstorm rummaged through the pile of scrolls in front of her determinedly, trying to gather her thoughts, and snatched one up. She scanned it quickly, looking for any information that she may have missed. 

Sure enough, a small paragraph at the end of the scroll seemed unfamiliar and when she checked her almost-complete essay, she hadn't written it. 

She quickly copied it down, and for a moment peace reigned. The SkyWings refused to hand over the Claws of the Clouds, she scribbled. They were adamant on it staying as their kingdom's border. Soon, the MudWings rebelled against this declaration.

 But she didn't even finish half of the paragraph when the lid of an ink bottle thudded into the side of her head. 

Furious, she stood up, glaring daggers at Maelstrom, who was trying his best to cower and look innocent at the same time. 

'Stop that!' she hissed, severely annoyed. 'What? That was an accident!' he protested. But Sandstorm wasn't listening to him; she picked up the pouch containing her library stamp and swung at in his direction. 

Thwack! 

It hit the SeaWing prince directly in the snout. 

'OW!' he yelped. 

The library went quiet. 

Sandstorm, embarrassed, sunk into her seat slowly, trying to look inconspicuous, as every eye turned to her. All the dragons were watching her every move. She snatched up the very scroll she'd abandoned in her pursuit of hitting Maelstrom in the face with her pouch and pretended to look involved and slightly puzzled at the same time. 

Maelstrom was rubbing his snout, his head bent, and kept giving her furious glances. The dragonets turned away and Sandstorm thought that she'd tricked them, and breathed a sigh of relief. 

But Starflight, blind or not blind, knew exactly who did it. 

Somehow. 

He soundlessly got up, emerged from behind his desk, and approached the corner where Sandstorm and Maelstrom were seated. 'Hi,' mumbled Maelstrom, when he stopped and towered over them.

'Have you forgotten rule number one of the library?' scolded Starflight in a soft voice. 'No talking!' 'Yeah, we recall that,' muttered Sandstorm. She tried hard to avoid looking at his bandaged eyes. 

She had the creepy feeling he could see them, though that was perfectly silly, for he was blind.

Sandstorm shook herself once and bent lower over her parchment when Starflight sighed and said, 'I guess it's as much use telling Tsunami what to do as telling her son.' Maelstrom's eyes glowed mischievously and gave Starflight a devilish grin which he obviously couldn't see.

Starflight turned away and went back to his desk, muttering something about royalty and when it mixed with Tsunami.

Sandstorm glowered at her best friend, who shrugged nonchalantly. 'What? That was better than what I'd expected,' he said matter-of-factly. 'Just because you're Tsunami's son,' shot back Sandstorm, careful to keep her voice low. Several dragonets were still giving her curious glances.