Ice at Midnight: A Winterwatcher Fanfic

🌑Chapter 20: Enough❄️

  It seemed that the rest of Moon's winglet - besides Winter, of course - was eventually able to trust her fully again, after a couple weeks of wearing the skyfire. None of them completely ignored her, which had been a promising sign, but even Kinkajou had held a grudge for a couple of days. So all in all, Moon was very grateful they didn't despise her like she'd originally thought.

  But the question of how she would break the news to her mother still stood. Secretkeeper would surely be furious, and would probably ground her for at least a week; Moon was especially not looking forward to that, because whenever it happened, she wasn't allowed to do the thing she loved doing most; reading.

  It was pure hell, sitting in her room all day, trying to find something to do without the freedom of being able to immerse herself in the wondrous lands scrolls could hold. Often, she just tidied up or slept a lot.

  And then came an even more serious question: how would her mother react when she found out about her and Winter? 

  Moon was thinking about this one Thursday afternoon as she walked back to her cave. She and Winter had gone to the underground lake after classes were over, surprised to have the entire place to themselves for once. Anemone wasn't there to be as condescending as always, but then again, most of that had stopped after Winter had spoken to her. He'd been there most of the time anyway, following through with the suggestion of swimming lessons he'd made at the very beginning of the school year. It seemed like forever ago, with everything that had been happening lately.

  His guidance definitely helped, as after awhile, he had to leave to go work on a late assignment for history, but she'd still been able to swim around on her own just fine. Moon was starting to see the water as more of a friend than an enemy. Once she decided to call it quits, the small NightWing had gone outside to dry off, but only lasted a couple minutes, as the temperature was rapidly declining with November approaching quickly.

  Now, she rounded the corner to their cave, using pure muscle memory to do so. She'd wandered these halls so many times, she could probably find her way here blindfolded. While she was still occupied with thoughts concerning her mother, it didn't stop her from seeing the bizarre sight of a certain IceWing in deep concentration on his ledge, his brow furrowed as if he was angry about something.

  What in the world is he doing? she thought, deciding to watch this strange behavior a little longer. 

  She didn't have to wait long before she saw quite possibly the strangest thing she would ever see. It even topped the time she'd watched a large beetle scale a tree, hurling several other beetles off of it as it climbed, only to jump off as soon as it reached the top.

  Winter exhaled a relatively small amount of frostbreath, and it took the form of a dagger, the blade as smooth as glass, complete with a handle and everything. The fragile-looking weapon hovered in the air for a few moments until his blue eyes snapped open, and it fell into his open talons.

  Not bad...could've done a little better with the shape, but at least I'm getting better, his thoughts rang in her head, standing out from all the other faint strings of thoughts from nearby dragons.

  Moon finally entered their cave, the pale blue dragon not noticing fast enough to conceal his knife.

  "So, Winty," she said, walking over to stand before him. "How long were you planning on hiding this little talent of yours?"

  He cringed, as if he was embarrassed. "I don't know...a few weeks, maybe. I literally only found out I could do this two weeks ago, just so you know."

  "Well, I guess I wasn't the only one with a power I didn't want others to know about," Moon replied, sitting down next to him. "Why didn't you tell me? And...how, exactly, did you figure out how to do that?"