Unshattered

Chapter Thirteen

After those few words, Soaren felt like flying out of the cave right there and hiding in his pit forever and never coming out.

What if I say or think the wrong thing and she'll just go ahead and kill me? But will she? Three moons, she's becoming terrifying WHY IS SHE STARING AT ME STOP STARING IT'S SO CREEPY.

He jumped back away from her.

"I can read your mind, remember?" Moondrift said.

"S-so are you going to kill me?" Soaren stammered nervously.

"No, of course not." She said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the whole world. "You seriously think I'd kill you for thinking certain things? Bah, I wouldn't kill you no matter what you do. I don't assassinate random dragons with no purpose anymore."

"Assassinate?"

Before she could explain, Qibli went, "AHA!"

"What is it?" Moonwatcher asked with a panicked voice.

Qibli had opened the dead IceWing's mouth for further clues and found something nobody would have guessed was hidden in there.

"It's..." Moon said.

"A letter," Deathbringer continued suddenly. "Or at least, it looks like one."

Qibli took out the piece of parchment and unravelled it.

On it was written in black ink, scrawny handwriting embedded on the worn out paper.

"Three moons," Snowstorm gasped. "Is that what I think it is?"

Qibli nodded, shock had silenced him.

"It is," he said. "It's an enchantment..."

***

Queen Glory exhaled sharply as she read what it said on the enchanted paper. "It was an animus."

"Yes, my queen," Deathbringer said loyally. "A SandWing animus to be specific."

"But I don't understand," Soaren said. "If the dragon who killed the IceWing was an animus, why leave that big mess of blood and stab him and the chest instead? It's like the murderer wants to be caught."

"Actually," Snowstorm nodded, "he's completely right. Why would an animus killer go through all that trouble, leaving that huge mess so noticeable and conspicuous? Wouldn't you want to cover up your traces of your crimes? Especially being an animus?"

Moondrift tapped a claw on her chin. "Unless..."

"Unless what?" Glory asked.

"Unless the SandWing wasn't an animus, but just had an animus enchanted object."

Everyone froze.

But Moondrift continued. "Or we could have been right and the killer wanted to be caught after all, it's just a couple of theories."

"But they are really good theories." Snowstorm said.

"Were there any other helpful clues that could get us on another track?" Glory questioned them.

Deathbringer shook his head, but Soaren could easily see the uncertainty in the NightWing's face.

Then an image of something blue and spiky that popped into Soaren's head. "Wait, there was the—"

"It's so confusing," Snowstorm sighed. "I think the animus is just trying to confuse us or something. It's driving me nuts."

"We don't know for sure if it really was an animus or just an enchanted object." Glory pointed out. "But we should do further investigation. I'll send some of my best guards to Jade Mountain, they can help you get more clues."

"I think the killer is an animus," Soaren blurted.

Everyone looked at him.

"How would you know that?" Glory asked. "You could never be too sure about it, SkyWing."

Soaren didn't like how the RainWing queen kept calling him 'SkyWing' instead of his actual name.

"Think about it," Soaren said. "If the criminal wasn't an animus, it would have made an effort to clean up the blood and the whole scene." He thought for a moment.

"And if it was an animus, it would have surely cleaned up more evidence on who it was. Which it did. It left a clue that it was a SandWing, but made it confusing if it was an animus or not. Animus dragons are clever enough to trick us into thinking things that they want us to think. Wouldn't you agree?"

Soaren could tell by Moondrift's mildly impressed expression that he was right.

"Smart dragon," she said. "But tell me, SkyWing, would it matter if it was an animus or not? Would it matter if we found out that it was or not and could be helpful and possibly identify the perpetrator?"

Soaren took that into deep consideration.

"It would," he said after a long period of silence. "If we didn't know what it could do, how would we be able to catch it, or stop it without getting anyone hurt?"

Deathbringer cracked his knuckles. "Maybe if we have an animus of our own on our side..."

"But we don't even know who that dragon is yet!" Glory snapped. "Can't just go attacking any SandWings on sight!"

"Who said I was?" Deathbringer mused.

The RainWing coldly ignored him and turned to the others.

"We'll all go to the Academy," she ordered. "And we're going to find out who the killer is once and for all."

-813 Words

Sorry for the 4 hour late update I was at a family reunion! 😅
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!