The Next Generation of Wings of Fire

Charming

The Silver Winglet had music class with the Copper Winglet in the morning. Once again, the gong woke Leaf up, and she was running towards the music cave.

She skidded into a halt in front of the entrance, her talons scratching at the stone floor. Few! Just in time, she thought as the gong announced the beginning of the classes.

Everyone was already there, and she sat down beside Cloud.

"Did I miss anything?", she whispered.

"N-no, don't w-worry, it's not s-started yet"

Hum. Is it just me or she seems more shy than usual? Leaf raised an eyebrow. What happened?

Behind her, someone poked her shoulder, and she spun around. Mamba's freckled snout was only a few inches from hers.

All her worries about Cloud disapeared immediatly. By all the knifes, he's so handsome!, she sighed in her mind. He gave her a big smile, almost like he'd heard her silent comment. The silver teardrops beside his eyes glinted in the sunlight.

"I'm glad you're here! I was worried something happened to you", he declared.

He was worried? About me?! That means he cares about me? she smiled back at him.

"Okay class, quiet please! Welcome to the music cave. Today, all you do is experiment with the instruments, dance, sing, whatever you want!", Sunny explained, grinning.

"Now, music time!"

Everyone rushed for the instruments exept for Mamba, Cloud, Leafcatcher and a few others from the Copper Winglet.

Instead, they waited for the crowd to scatter and walked up to the small pile.

Mamba grabbed a weird wooden circle with thin leather stretched across it. Strings were fixed on it's base and tied on top of a long handle.

B-A-N-J-O, she read the label fixed on the side of it.

Mamba grinned. "It's a SandWing instrument. Thorn taught me how to play it."

Leaf found it a bit odd that Mamba called his Queen by her name, without her title, but her doubts were quickly swallowed by the other romantic thoughts in her head.

"...can show you if you want", she snapped back to the dissordant reality of the music cave.

Mamba handed her another banjo. Oh, it would be amazing if he showed me, I could impress him and get his attention and he would love me like even more and- once again, she forced herself out of her day dream.

Leaf reached to the handle, and her talons clamped around it, over Mamba's sharp claws.

Immediatly, everything went pitch-black. In a heartbeat, the light came back. Mamba's adorable face was still there, but disfigured in fear and anger. Wind whipped around him, His wings were expanded to catch his fall, but bloody gashes torn the membrane. Then, everything went black once again, and she blinked.

The light gradually came back and she was staring at a banjo Mamba was handing her.

I'm back in the music cave!

The vision had only lasted a heartbeat.

Leaf tried to remember the details, but it was already fading from her memory.
What just happened? I feel like there's something I should remember. She thought for a second. No, Mamba will tell me if there's something important I forgot. He's always here for me.