Chapter 2
A Terrible Start
Winter woke the next morning to a squeaking noise. At first, he thought it was Qibli and his awful snoring, but then he remembered that he wasn't at Jade Mountain anymore. The strangest thing was that he couldn't see what was making the noise.
"Blliner!" said a voice in a commanding tone. "Skrup!" Then, Winter felt warm paws on his head. He batted them away, and a small object plunked into his lap. It was his new scavenger, Clingy. Her hair was a mess, and she was wearing a robe made of a blue fabric that was strangely familiar.
Winter frowned and made a face. "You know, this isn't the best way to be woken up," he grumbled. He looked to his window, where the sun hadn't even peeked out yet. But that wasn't the worst part. The curtains had large holes cut in them that JUST HAPPENED to match exactly the design of Clingy's robes. "Clingy! Those were new!" Winter scolded her angrily. "How did you even get it here?" The scavenger gave Winter puppy-dog eyes and pointed to the door.
Annoyed, he followed Clingy to the entrance of the scavengers' room. The door was open. Of course! Winter felt so stupid. He must have forgotten to close it. "Pree, Blliner?" squeaked Clingy innocently. Winter couldn't help seeing her expression as a smirk.
Winter nodded absently, only half listening. He was thinking. Clingy had called him "Blinner." It was a word that sounded an awful lot like his own name. Had she heard Kinkajou calling him that yesterday, and just repeated it? And more importantly, did this mean scavengers understood the dragon language after all? As much as he would have preferred to go back to bed, he forced himself to stay awake. Winter had to mark down this data now. Otherwise, he would probably forget it.
A few hours later, while Winter was writing out a new test, a growl came from behind him. He turned quickly, teeth bared, ready to fight. But after looking, he realized with a relieved sigh that it was just the scavengers, rubbing their stomachs. Oh! It was past lunchtime, and Winter hadn't even given them breakfast yet.
He must be the worst guardian ever. Too busy thinking about his old friends to take care of his new ones. He really needed to take better care of the scavengers.
Winter ran this through his head as he went to the kitchen and pulled out a piece of raw meat. With a quick swipe of his serrated claws sliced it into pieces, then distributed it between the six scavengers. He also gave each of them a thin stick. He'd noticed they liked to skewer their meat.
Oops. It was then that Winter remembered from back at Jade Academy, when he'd given a scavenger named Bandit a piece of raw meat, that he'd refused. Winter couldn't roast meat, though. He was an IceWing and had frostbreath instead of flames.
Maybe he could get Riptide to breathe fire on the meat, he thought. Oh, that's right. SeaWings couldn't breathe fire either! How frustrating. There must have been someone nearby in the Talons of Peace camp who had fire breath and could help him...
Winter lost his train of thought when he noticed what the scavengers were doing. Clingy started chatting with another scavenger (Winter still hadn't named this one) and then they began rubbing their sticks together. Odd. What were they doing?
Soon, though, his confusion cleared when a spark appeared on the sticks. They had made a fire! The scavengers placed the sticks that were on fire on the ground. Now they had nothing to skewer their meat with. Oh well. They didn't seem to care, because they each toasted their meat happily and began to eat it.
Cool. Winter hadn't known that they were so resourceful. Maybe the scavengers were smarter than the dragons had thought. Maybe Kinkajou had been wrong, and they WERE as smart as dragons. He would love to be the one who told her that news.
"Kibbeps Blinner," Clingy chirped to the unnamed scavenger, pointing to Winter. It was uncanny, really, how much it sounded like she was saying his name."Blinner prrefy pfrrey, kibbebs milly sib klippsey karble," said Clingy's friend sternly. He went off on a lecture, only stopping to take breaths.
Like Starflight, Winter recalled. Ha, maybe the scavenger should meet Starflight! They would be best friends.
Would Moon have found that joke funny? He thought it was, but Winter had a kind of twisted sense of humor. Hmm. She might have thought it was funny if Qibli had said it. She thought everything Qibli said was funny.
Stop! Stop thinking about her! It doesn't matter what Moon thinks, Winter told himself. The scavengers are what matters now. Not Moon. Not jokes. Moon is behind you now, right? Your new beginning?
Hmph. Your new beginning was supposed to be good for you. Instead, it's been a terrible start.