Ice & Warmth

A Year Later

It has been a year since Moonwatcher rejected Winter. It took him the whole year to recover enough to go back to Jade Mountain. When he landed at the front of the school, old memories flooded into his mind. The memories of leaving Jade Mountain and the memory of his father dying on the school grounds. Some of those memories he wanted to forget but it was impossible for him to do that. Then he saw familiar scales galloping toward him, they were a warm golden colour and bright yellow. Then Winter was pushed to the ground by the loving Kinkajou. 

"WINTER!" Kinkajou yelled happily. Winter smiled at her. 

"Hey, Kinkajou, nice to see you too," Winter beamed. Behind Kinkajou was Qibli trying to Kinkajou off Winter. When Winter was standing Qibli gave Winter a warm hug, it was warm because of his scales. In the shadows was Moonwatcher watching Qibli and Kinkajou with a hint of amusement. 

"Hi Winter, I'm so happy you decided to come back to school," Moon smiled. Winter smiled back. 

"I think I'm ready to restart as a new dragon," Winter replied. Moon just smiled. Then Turtle came and greeted Winter. Then Peril walked into the scene and had to force herself from not hugging Winter. 

"I'm so glad you came, a lot has happened, Kinkajou and I are in a relationship right now," Turtle informed. "And Clay is slowly but surely going to ask Peril to be his girlfriend." 

"Really!" Peril beamed. "Did he say that?" 

"Well, no, but it is obvious, you guys are always going on flights and picnics and stuff so yeah," Turtle smiled at Peril's blindness. Peril jumped side ways and didn't mind to make it seem normal. The winglet walked into the school and gave Winter all the gossip and information that he need to know. Qibli and Winter both went to their rooms and settled down. 

"So, you and Moon?" Winter asked. 

"Yeah," Qibli said nervously as if Winter was going to rip out his eyes. 

"That makes sense, but I have moved on," Winter said while he was drawing the cave around him. Qibli looked relieved but didn't push it. They both got their scrolls then Winter was shocked. He wasn't in the Jade Winglet and worst of all, he wasn't in any winglet. 

"I-I got to go," Winter gasped. Winter raced into the hall and pushed past all the students in the hall. Finally he got to Sunny's room and pounded on the door until she opened it up. Sunny looked startled when Winter pushed the winglet form in her face. "Sunny! I'm not in any winglet!" 

"Oh, Winter, we didn't know you were coming so we just put a SandWing hybrid as your substitute," Sunny explained. 

"But that hybrid isn't even an IceWing!" Winter argued. 

"Look, now that you're here you can join the Jade Winglet but we have to keep her in the winglet," Sunny explained. Winter nodded solemnly.

"Thanks Sunny," Winter thanked. Winter walked in the hall and saw that there were couples every where. Look at them, Winter thought. I promise that I would never fall in love with someone unless it is the true dragon that I want to love. 

Winter walked into the prey centre and bumped into someone. "Oh, my moons, I'm so sorry," said a bell like voice. Winter looked up and saw a gorgeous SandWing, but she didn't look like a SandWing she had no poisonous barb nor did she look pale yellow. She had hints of red on her body and orange eyes instead of black. She was an elegant dragon and clearly everyone liked her. Winter didn't notice that she splattered juice all over his scales. The SandWing hybrid walked to the counter to get tissues and started to wipe Winter's chest. Winter blushed hard when he saw every dragon look his way. 

"It's fine," Winter muttered. Winter walked to the counter and grabbed tissues to help clean the floor. 

"I'm sorry, I'm new here," the beautiful SandWing hybrid apologised. "Hi, I'm Sapphire." Sapphire looked at Winter expectantly for him to say something. What was she asking? Right my name.

"Um, W-Winter," Winter introduced. In the far side of the cave Qibli started to snicker as Winter stammered. 

"Nice to meet you," Sapphire smiled. "I hope we are in the same winglet, I would love to get to know you." With that she left Winter staring after her in awe. Qibli walked over to Winter and waved his talon in front of his face. 

"Winter?" Qibli said cautiously. What the heck just happened? I was just stiff. I'm never stiff, IceWing Princes don't stammer. Come on Winter! Winter thought. He was confused. He never felt that before. Not with Moon or with Lynx. So what the heck? 

"Y-Yeah?" Winter snapped back to reality. 

"You were stammering," Qibli grinned. 

"I beg your pardon?" Winter said nervously. "IceWing Princes don't stammer." 

"Yeah, IceWing Princes don't stammer, but you aren't a Prince anymore so, yeah," Qibli grinned grew bigger. Winter blushed and walked away. 

"You like her," Qibli stated. 

"I most certainly do not!" Winter protested. But what if Qibli was right, Winter did certainly feel different around Sapphire. Maybe deep down, Qibli was right. Maybe Winter did like Sapphire.