Unshattered

Chapter Eleven

"ACK! GET YOUR NOSY SNOUT AWAY FROM ME." Moondrift bellowed at Deathbringer the next day.

She flared her wings into his snout, knocking him back as Snowstorm had an unsure look on his face.

The SkyWing swore he saw several red things on Moondrift's wings, but he soon forgot about it.

Soaren was invited by them to help with solving the murder while Queen Glory was questioning the RainWings and NightWings.

"Ergh, I would have gotten away from you even if you didn't tell me," the bodyguard grumbled.

He was finally convinced to be leaving the queen alone for once in his miserable life.

"But ONLY for this time," he'd said sternly.

"Yeah, yeah, now run free, little NightWing," Glory had teased.

"Well, good." Moondrift snapped, tucking her wings back in. "Now, I swear by all the moons that if you mess this up, I won't go easy on you anymore."

Soaren wondered what she meant by 'go easy on you anymore', but he could tell that the hybrid didn't get along well with the NightWing.

"Oh, so you've been going easy on me this whole time?" Deathbringer hissed. "Gosh, everything makes sense now!"

He and Moondrift both glared at each other for what Soaren would think was the fifth thousandth time since they met.

"Please," Moonwatcher said, "let's just solve this. Class is in session and we can just go through each class and question the students like what me and Qibli did when the cactus exploded."

"Right," Deathbringer nodded. "And Snowstorm and I will look for more clues. Soaren, you can help us."

The SkyWing agreed to it and followed the NightWing and IceWing to the 'crime scene'.

"So Moondrift," Moon said. "Webs didn't want to teach today, so you'll be the history teacher for now."

Moondrift sneered. "Fantastic."

***

"Hmmm," Deathbringer observed the body closely. "There seem to be no talon prints or anything of another dragon but the red blood, which means we don't really have many options here."

"You think?" Snowstorm said.

"This is terrible," Soaren gasped. "How could someone do this?"

The NightWing raised an eye ridge at him. "Not familiar with death, eh?"

"I am," Soaren said, "I just don't like it. I really, REALLY don't like it."

Snowstorm tipped his head in agreement.

"Me neither," he replied. "Dragons seriously need to stop all this death stuff. I mean, some dragons even send other dragons to kill more dragons! SO MANY GUILTY DRAGONS."

Deathbringer looked offended. "Ex-CUSE me! Ex-assassin over here!"

"Oh, right," the IceWing rolled his eyes.

"Maybe we should look at the body more carefully," Soaren said, ignoring the two. "There must have been something we've missed. And Deathbringer, formerly being an assassin, would have known to check each scale ONE BY ONE."

Snowstorm smothered a snigger while the NightWing frowned.

"Fine," he said regally, "let's eye each and every scale individually."

"That's not what I meant—" Soaren pointed out.

Snowstorm let out an, "Eeeehhhhhhh...."

Deathbringer glared at him.

"Maybe," the IceWing thought, "we should ask Moondrift—"

"No!" Deathbringer lashed his tail at him. "We DO NOT need her! We can figure this out ourselves!"

"Right," Snowstorm said, "cause you're all-powerful and all-knowing."

"Guys," Soaren said, staring at the stab wound in the dead IceWing. "I think I see something..."

"No way," Deathbringer said. "You see something?"

"Something yellow and nasty," the SkyWing snapped. "A scratch almost..."

He walked over to the corpse and snapped his fingers after his eyes flicked.

"I knew it!"

He pointed to a sandy yellow scar that was pierced across the wound. It really was nasty, with its desert-like colour over a severe amount of bleeding flesh, Soaren felt as if he was going to gag.

Thankfully, he managed not to.

"I know SandWing venom when I see it," Soaren muttered.

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