Ice at Midnight: A Winterwatcher Fanfic

🌑Chapter 25: A Horrid Discovery🌑

Moonwatcher slowly brought herself back to reality, embarrassed at what fools they'd all been to forget about the smoke. She blinked rapidly to clear her foggy eyes, and, feeling pressure on top of her, looked up to find that Karma had fallen on top of her when everyone had been knocked out by the smoke. But, if that were really the case, why wasn't she locked up somewhere, imprisoned by whoever had started this madness? Or worse? And...had Karma been there before all that happened? She couldn't remember much of anything that had happened before she'd fallen asleep, and it seemed that the smoke did that to everyone it affected.
Moon squirmed her way out from underneath the hybrid, blackened from the paint. She and Winter were the only two who hadn't painted themselves. Looking at the slumped, but still alive, dragons on the floor, it was clear she was the only one awake so far.
Where did Winter go? He was on his ledge, and now he's not here... she thought, feeling a mild panic set in. Then she heard faint sobbing coming from the area where all three winglet caves were located. Could THAT be him?
To her surprise, she walked out of their cave and found him huddled in an icy ball on the floor, his back legs tucked up to his chest and his wings wrapped around most of his body.
Moon walked over to him, her heart breaking as she could see him shuddering from the force of his sobs. What could've made him this upset?
"Winter?" she asked hesitantly. "What's wrong?"
His wings parted slightly to reveal angry, tear-stained eyes. He didn't seem angry with her, though, but rather with someone else. "Everything, pretty much. I...I'll explain once everybody wakes up. It was almost too much for my brain to handle, so I'm not even sure if you could..." he trailed off as she narrowed her eyes at him.
"Finish that sentence, Winter," she said with an edge to her voice.
"I'm not sure if you could keep the information to yourself before I got a chance to tell them," the icy dragon added, chuckling nervously.
"Mhm..." Moon replied. "Come on, let's go back insi...what happened to the window?!" she shouted.
"Like I said, I'll explain," he told her, getting up and wiping his eyes as Moon went back into their cave, wondering just what could've gone down while she was out.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
"So lemme get this straight," Qibli said amongst the chatter of all seven dragons in their winglet huddled together in the sleeping cave, "you have an older brother who's supposed to be dead but he's not, he was turned into a SkyWing by some sort of Animus spell-slinger, he figured out what that guy had done to him and killed him, and now the only thing he remembers about himself is that he hates NightWings."
"Correct," Winter confirmed.
"And that's why he's been kidnapping all these NightWings?" Kinkajou asked.
"Mhm."
"This makes my head hurt..." Turtle said, rubbing his temples.
No surprise there, Winter's mind spat.
Moon could tell he didn't like the green SeaWing, but had never gotten around to asking why. She wasn't all that comfortable around him either; he'd seemed a little too relieved once he'd found out his secrets were safe from her powers. Now wasn't the time or place to ponder that, though. There were more important things that took priority.
"I'm still kinda confused too, but I think I get it," the small NightWing said.
Karma stepped a little closer to Winter, raising jealousy flags all throughout Moonwatcher's brain. She resisted the urge to tackle the hybrid, mostly because it wasn't morally right to hurt someone with a disability. And also because that would be overreacting.
"I can't imagine what you're going through right now," Karma said to Winter in a tone Moon wasn't fond of. "If you ever need to talk to someone about this, we're all here to help."
Thankfully, Winter stepped away from her with an irritated scowl. "I'm fine, Karma."
"Yeah, quit flirting with Winter!" Sparrow teased the hybrid.
Karma blushed furiously. "I'd better go," she said abruptly, quickly following though on her words, muttering something about washing the black paint off herself as she went.
The atmosphere grew awkward and heavy for a few moments, until Qibli broke the silence.
"So much for everyone being here to help," he said with a smirk.
That got a good laugh out of almost everyone, even Winter. The only dragon who didn't was Moon.
Karma better not try anything with Winter...I know she likes him, but she's not crazy enough to try and make a move on him behind my back, or at all. Right?
"So, what are you guys going to do about the window?" Kinkajou asked.
Moon glanced at Winter, and he looked at her as well for a few seconds.
"Maybe we could patch it up with some leaves," Moon suggested.
"Yeah, but that could tear easily when it gets windy. I could try and use my frostbreath," he replied.
"But then it would get too cold in here," she said.
Sparrow gasped. "This might be your first big argument!" she exclaimed.
They both looked at her questioningly.
"It's just a window," Moon said.
"Yeah, it's not that big a deal," Winter agreed.
"Every couple has some kind of big argument at some point," Sparrow informed them. "Trust me, I know. This is probably gonna end in one or both of you storming out of the room in anger as you struggle to find a solution to meet halfway with."
Winter just rolled his eyes. "Please. How bad could it get? It's one window."
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
"Frostbreath is way more sturdy and durable then a couple layers of leaves!" Winter said. "Plus, I can shape the piece perfectly with my new ability."
Moon scoffed. "Oh there you go again talking about your precious ice power! It'll melt when it gets hot!" Their friends had all left about an hour ago, and they were still yet to make a decision on how to repair the shattered window.
"Not if I make it three inches thick! Plus, it won't be that hot until June, and by then we'll be done with the school year."
"The window frame can't support three inches of ice!" Moon argued. "The glass was like one inch thick before your stupid brother went and broke it!"
"You don't even know him!"
"Who, the insane IceWing trying to kill me and do who-knows-what after that?!"
"He was better before!" Winter shot back. "Before all this!"
"I doubt it..." she mumbled.
Winter glared at her with that piercing gaze of his. She'd seen him do the same to other dragons countless times before, but had never been on the receiving end of it herself. It was kinda terrifying, if she was being completely honest.
"Tell me you didn't just say that."
"Say what? That your genocidal brother has more than a couple screws loose?"
Winter didn't reply, but she could tell she'd pushed it too far by the way he was breathing deeply, his nostrils flaring in anger as he picked up a few shards of broken glass on the floor, silently fuming.
"Ah, shi...for the love of Pyrrhia..." he growled, having cut his palm on one of the pieces of glass. Moon was about to help him, but then he practically exploded, hurling the glass at the wall where it burst into even more tiny fragments, then punching the wall with his non-injured fist and muttering what were most likely obscene curse words under his breath, before he stomped out of the cave in a fit of rage, leaving icy footprints in his wake.
Moon saw Sparrow peek at her from the hallway, mouthing the words "I told you so," before she went back inside her own cave.
Normally, Moon would've followed Winter, but given the argument they'd just had and that she'd provoked his recent acts of fury, she decided against it and instead picked up the remaining pieces of glass and disposing of them, her falling tears as transparent as the broken fragments that she tossed outside.
I feel horrible...I shouldn't have said that stuff about his brother right after everything that he's been through...he had to fight his closest family member, for moons' sake...I'd better just let him work out his anger on his own. He'll be back in an hour or two, I bet. I hope.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
The icy dragon she'd come to love didn't return to their cave until nightfall, and by then she was beginning to think maybe he wouldn't come back until the next day, if at all. What she'd said must've really hurt for him to be gone as long as he was, but she was thrilled when he quietly walked into the cave.
It was pitch black, even though it was only eight o' clock, but that was normal for this time of year. Winter clearly thought she was asleep, because he jumped with a girlish shriek when she hopped up and embraced him in her wings.
"I'm so sorry," she apologized between body-shaking laughs.
"It wasn't that funny..." he said sheepishly.
"Yes it was," Moon replied, wiping tears that resulted from the laughter out of her eyes. She thought she was done for a moment, but then a whole new bout of giggles struck her, and she ended up laughing so hard she let go of Winter by accident and fell back on the floor.
"What's so funny that it had to interrupt my beauty sleep?" Qibli's tired voice came as he entered the room, walking over to Winter's ledge and rotating the moon globe so it illuminated most of the cave.
"I think I better question is, what the hell is on your face?" Winter asked the SandWing, falling victim to a round of laughter himself.
Moon cleared her eyes enough to see that his face was covered in a green paste of some sort, a cucumber slice over one of his eyes, the other seeming like it slid down his face, as it was a few inches below his eye. The ridiculous sight only stirred up more laughter from Moon, and before she knew it, the rest of their winglet was in the cave, wondering what all the ruckus was.
"Why is it that whenever something disturbs the peace here, it always comes from your guys' cave?" Turtle complained, before he saw Qibli and began laughing along with Moon and Winter. Soon, everyone else was laughing too, besides the blushing SandWing.
"What? It helps me moisturize," Qibli said, eating one of the cucumber slices. He suddenly covered his snout, a disgusted look on his green face. "Okay, who farted? Fess up."
"Wasn't me," Moon said, finally done with her obnoxious amount of laughter.
"Me neither," Sparrow added.
It was eventually determined that none of them passed any gas, which left them all wondering what the stench was.
"Whatever it is, it reeks to high heaven," Qibli said, pinching his nostrils shut. "I think it's coming from outside."
"Well we can't close the window, so we might as well check it out and see if we can get rid of it," Winter said, climbing out through the window frame. Their window opened onto an outcrop on the mountain, like a cliff, but more sturdy.
Moon remembered with a start the glass shards she'd dumped out there. "Careful of the-" she said, not able to finish in time before he landed on the ground, a howl of pain slicing through the still night air. "Glass shards..."
She looked outside to see him picking glass out of his back feet, several bleeding cuts on each foot.
  Moon climbed out and cleared away the glass with a few sweeps of her tail and took a look at the cuts. "Sorry, I didn't know you were just gonna hop out the window like that..."
  A flash of light caught her eye, and she noticed some kind of handle sticking up out of the dirt, it's rusted exterior glinting in the moonlight. Winter seemed okay for the most part, so she crawled over to investigate the abnormality. It was clearly attached to something, and as she cleared away a loose pile of leaves and dirt, she discovered a metal hatch that seemed large enough for a single dragon to fit through, cold to the touch.
  "Have you found what's emitting that awful aroma?" Qibli called from inside.
  "No," Moon said, turning her head so her voice would carry, but keeping her eyes trained in the hatch. "But I think I found something much more important."
  "What? I gotta see this..." Winter said, crawling over as well. "Hm...strange. I wonder if it goes anywhere..."
  "No Winter, someone just put a hatch suspiciously large enough to fit a dragon in the ground that doesn't go anywhere," Qibli said, hoisting himself outside as well, followed by the others.
  "Oh, shut your trap, makeup-face," the ice blue dragon spat.
  "It's MOISTURIZER!"
  "Both of you be quiet!" Kinkajou snapped. "Let's get this over with so I can go back to sleep."
  Moon rarely saw the snappish side of the tiny RainWing, but she didn't waste valuable time thinking about that. A mixture of pure curiosity and also the desire to get all of this wrapped up, like Kinkajou said, pushed her to open the hatch. It was heavier than she'd expected, and she had to stand up and push back against the ground to make any progress on it. It didn't get her very far, though, so she locked her back talons around the handle and propelled herself upward with her wings until there was a gap so Winter could pry it open the rest of the way.
  "Nice teamwork," Sparrow complimented.
  All it took was one little breath for Moon to know that horrible smell was coming from whatever was at the bottom of a large tunnel underneath the hatch. It smelled like a combination of rotting meat and...something with a sort of edge to the smell. It smelled sour, but not like a lemon. Whatever it was, it certainly didn't please her sense of smell.
  "Who's going in first?" Turtle asked.
  "Not it!" Karma said, touching a claw to her snout. Everyone did the same, but Kinkajou ended up being the last to do so.
  "Aw, come on..." she whined. "You guys suck sometimes," she said, before taking a deep breath, holding it, and disappearing into the darkness of the tunnel.
  Moon waited a few moments, then realized she couldn't let a two-year-old go into some creepy, probably rat-infested hole in the ground all by herself. "I'm going with her," she announced, before reluctantly stepping into the tunnel as well.
  "Me too," she heard Winter say. She heard a thud behind her, and felt safer knowing he was close by. Several more thuds indicated that the rest of the group followed suit, which made this feel a little less scary. But only a little. It was still very dark, and eerily quiet, and the smell was only getting more and more intense as they walked. After a few minutes, it even overpowered the smell of the dirt around them.
  "Does anybody hear...snoring?" Sparrow asked from somewhere behind Moonwatcher.
  She pricked her ears, and after focusing for long enough, she could confirm that she heard it too.
  "Who would be sleeping down in this filthy, rancid place?" Winter asked.
  "Someone with no sense of smell?" Qibli guessed.
  There was a shrill gasp from up ahead, followed by the sound of vomiting. Kinkajou had to have seen something horrible to throw up almost immediately.
  "Kinkajou?!" Moon asked, rushing ahead to see what was wrong. The light slowly grew brighter, but not much. She could see what was probably the end of the tunnel further ahead, but it was only illuminated by a few lanterns, it seemed, as it wasn't a whole lot brighter than the rest of the tunnel.
  WARNING: IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH, I SUGGEST YOU SKIP AHEAD WITH NARROWED EYES UNTIL YOU SEE BOLD AND CAPITALIZED TEXT LIKE THIS. THERE I WILL EXPLAIN THE HORRORS SOME OF YOU MAY READ IF YOU CHOOSE TO CONTINUE. I WILL PROBABLY HAVE A BIT OF TROUBLE WRITING THIS MYSELF. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
  Moon finally entered a medium-sized chamber, not much bigger than the sleeping caves in the academy. The stench was most pungent here, and she realized why with a horrified gasp, just like Kinkajou, who was ghostly white, a pile of vomit next to her as she stood open-mouthed, staring at the left wall with a look of pure terror.
  On the wall hung the lifeless and brutally decimated bodies of the three NightWings who had been captured within the last two months: Bigtail, Mindreader, and Mightyclaws. They were unidentifiable, aside from Bigtail, but Moon honestly wished she didn't know who he was. A blood-soaked hook had been shoved through the back of his neck and came out through his open mouth, and his right talon had been severed at the wrist. As if in mockery, his tail had been cut off as well, resting below the gruesome sight on a bloodstained wooden table.
  The second NightWing had a spear pinning them to the wall, shoved through their chest. It appeared their heart had been dug out, as the place where it should have been was empty, just a gaping cavity where it had been removed. It would've been bad enough to see the life-giving organ sitting below the carcass on the table, but instead it was gone, leaving Moon wondering what might've been done with it.
  And the final NightWing was most likely Mightyclaws, as all his claws had been cut off, and were now strung on a morbid necklace sitting on the table below the hanging body. His throat had been torn open, and one of his eyes was gone, a limp optical nerve hanging out of the empty socket. His stomach had also been stabbed countless times with a pencil, and she knew this, for it was still stuck inside his abdomen. She remembered seeing him drawing often. This was probably some sick joke for that.
  OKAY DON'T LOOK AT THE ABOVE FOUR PARAGRAPHS, IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH, THEY ARE PRETTY GORY. Anyway, basically the bodies of Mightyclaws, Bigtail, and Mindreader were all hung up on the wall of the chamber, and they were DEAD DEAD. Like, horror-movie dead. That's all you gotta know. Not my fault if your imagination gives you a picture, that's your brain, not me.
  There were several rounds of vomiting and gasps or screams from her companions as they each saw the horrible sight before them. Winter was definitely the most emotionally affected by all this, though, because it was clear who had done this when Moon saw them in the corner of the room, their claws stained with blood and eyes wild with anger and fright.
  A pure white IceWing - aside from the blood - bigger than Winter. Just as he had described them over twelve hours ago after they'd all woken up from the smoke produced by this very dragon.
  Hailstorm.