Ice at Midnight: A Winterwatcher Fanfic

❄️Chapter 15: An Invite🌑

  I know when I do chapters with mixed POVs, it often ends up going in the order of Winter's before Moon's and while I try to balance it out, a lot of the time the events taking place wouldn't make sense if Moon's POV was before his, because I would have to change the order. So I'm sorry if this annoys you, but it's just the way it is. (Also I'm on my laptop right now, and I'm not gonna lie, the emojis look better on here than on my iPad where I normally write!)

   Today had proven to be a strange one. Winter had noticed that many of the usually obnoxious students here at the academy were strangely quiet. That never happened, and his confusion only deepened when he realized Qibli was pretty quiet as well. It seemed nearly everyone was in deep thought about something or other, and to be honest, it was sort of eerie. Even Moon was hardly speaking to him, but that was likely because of the previous day's events with him running out on all of them and his meltdown in the underground lake. Still, his other friends - he was still mildly miffed at himself for automatically referring to them like that - would be chatty, even if it wasn't with him.

  And now, Argo had called a surprise Midnight Marauders meeting in the library of all places. They couldn't do any fighting here! While this seemed to perplex not only him, but the other three dragons -Bigtail wasn't present for whatever reason- as well. Nobody dared question the SkyWing though, as Pronghorn had gotten a tooth knocked loose the last time he'd questioned his motives. Thankfully, that mystery was quickly solved.

  "I bet you all are wondering why we're in the library today," Argo said to them. They were huddled in a small group by the history and nonfiction shelves. 

  "Shhhh!" someone scolded him from several meters away.

  "You shhh!" he replied. It didn't seem to occur to him how immature he looked now, as he went back to speaking like it had never happened. "As I was saying, we're here to do some research. What kind of research, you ask? Well, secretive research, and what better place to do it than here? You might even say the knowledge we may find today could be powerful."

  Winter still had no clue what he was talking about.

  Lowering his voice, Argo spoke to the group once more. "Look, I've been doing a little research myself, research that has spanned nearly a year. I haven't been super focused on it, just sort of doing this in my spare time, but I've found out about some pretty awesome stuff. That is, if any of it is true. You see, hundreds, maybe even thousands of years ago, it was rumored that every dragon tribe had some sort of hidden power, separate from the normal attributes that make all seven of them unique. Powers that set dragons above the standard, as long as they knew how to unlock them. However, this knowledge was lost over time, if it ever existed in the first place. I propose that we should try and find out as much as we possibly can about these hidden powers." Argo was clearly excited to share this news with them all, swaying side to side a little as he spoke. "I've heard this library has some pretty old scrolls, maybe even some from the library at Queen Thorn's palace, and that library has THOUSANDS of ancient facts and stories; if there's anywhere we could find out about these powers, it would be here."

  "So you basically want us to try and confirm your research," Icicle said, summing up everything the red SkyWing had said in one short sentence. 

  "Correct!" Argo almost shouted, receiving several 'Shhhh!'s from nearby dragons. "Now let's get to work! Look in the history and nonfiction sections, especially for the scrolls in the way back. If they're old, dragons will think they're unreliable, which in turn means they will be the most untouched."

  Winter wasn't pleased to hear that they had to sort through scrolls, but if it meant potentially unlocking powers long-forgotten for millenniums...he didn't even have to finish that thought.