Conquest : A Wings of Fire Fanfiction

4. Unexpected

'Where have you been?' 

Sandstorm jumped and guiltily turned around. 

A few tail-lengths away, glaring and suddenly imposing, stood Moon. 

She heard Maelstrom utter a soft expletive under his breath at the sight of her mother, the principal of the school - and also the punisher of shirkers of class like them. 

'Uh...' Always the best way to start an excuse. 'We, uh, wanted to go to the... um -' Moon cut Sandstorm's rambling short. 

'This is the last straw!' she said angrily. 'First thing in the morning I'm comforting a terrified SkyWing couple who're convinced that Ruby's killer is after all SkyWings that ever existed. Then I've had to deal with those terrible dragons who come marching into the school, threaten us and then turn the whole school upside down in their search for some rubbishy thing that they very likely have the least clue about, and then you two go missing!' 

Sandstorm tried to edge farther behind Maelstrom, who hadn't moved from his position like the all-good hero he was. Well, right now he was a very cornered all-good hero. Sandstorm could see no good outcome from this situation - at least, for them. 

'We're -' began Maelstrom, but again, Moon interrupted. 'No excuses - no sorry's, either! Have you any idea how worried we were when we found you two weren't in class?' Sandstorm bent her head, feeling more than a little shameful. 

She and Maelstrom had decided to bunk History so they could find out more about those strange, nosy dragons (pity she was so curious - her essay was actually quite good). Who wanted to listen to old Webs drone on about The Territorial Battle, anyway? Especially when they could snoop around like private investigators! 

And she and her best friend had carted themselves out of the History lesson with their amazing plan. Which, incidentally, didn't seem so amazing now that they were facing the angry principal of the very school they'd planned to bunk. 

'Well?' demanded Moon. 'What should your punishment be?' Sandstorm sighed inwardly, careful not to show any sign of sarcasm to the infuriated dragon. Teachers - and any other dragon in position of receiving obedience - always said that line. 

In the end, they didn't value Sandstorm's useful insights at all. What was the point of asking, then? Moon seemed to detect what she was thinking, even through Sandstorm's expert concealment of complete uninterest. 

'I've let you off the hook too many times!' she said angrily, her gaze trained on Sandstorm. 

'Why can't you be more like your brother and sister?' 

Oh, no, thought Sandstorm, fury beginning to rise in her. 

You didn't just say that.

 Maelstrom tensed beside her and she saw his talons moving out of the corner of her eye. They rested briefly on her own, and she knew they were meant to calm her down, but she couldn't - and wouldn't. 

Moon seemed to realise she'd crossed a line. 

She tried to backpedal, looking flustered, but her eyes were still glowing with anger. And that spurred Sandstorm on. She knew they were in the wrong, she knew they'd caused a lot of trouble - but that also didn't mean crossing the barriers that Sandstorm always put up around her. 

Anyone who knew Sandstorm knew that the subject of she and her siblings had been a tentative, risky one for the past four years. 

'Yes, I'm nothing like my siblings,' said Sandstorm in a low voice.

 Rage quivered in her words, and the icy frost that crept up between her and her mother would've been visible to a blind dragon. 

'And I'm glad for it.'