(I do not own Wings of Fire.)
"Hey."Lobster peeled from under his talons, sniffling and hiccuping. A strange looking NightWing stood in front of him, she was staring at him confusion and worry, Lobster took his talons away from his eyes and hiccuped again. "Are you lost?" the NightWing asked, lowering her head enough to almost touch noses, but Lobster ignored that. He nodded, "Uh huh..." he mumbled.The NightWing smiled sadly, "Come on, I know the way back to the NightWing village, we can ask Queen Glory for help." she explained, she held out a claw to Lobster. He gave the claw a wary glance before taking it, the NightWing pulled him up and gestured for him to follow her. Lobster had no choice, once the NightWing took off, he did too. But it was not a pleasant flight, Lobster kept flying into branches or getting sweeper by vines.A sigh was heard from the front before the NightWing grabbed a hold of Lobster, at first, the little SeaWing protested and claimed he could fly on his own. But the NightWing was surprisingly able to hold Lobster up and prevent him from hitting anything while hitting nothing herself. "Uh... What's your name?" Lobster asked, he glanced up at the NightWing, who only looked straight ahead."I bet it's something cool, like Whitenight, or Nightstriker, or Powermind, o-""Silverscales." the NightWing blurted, she sighed, "My name is Silverscales." she mumbled. Lobster turned his head to look at Silverscales, who seemed rather regretful for the name, "Who gave you that name?" Lobster asked."I did.""Not your parents?""I don't know who they are.""Why not?""I hatched alongside the RainWings.""Oh. Then who raised you?""Everyone. Well, almost everyone.""It must be nice.""Yeah... nice..." Silverscales looked down, but not at Lobster, "Brace yourself." she cautioned. When Lobster looked down, he realized Silverscales was flying towards a treehouse, in fact, he realized that Silverscales had entered the RainWing's village. Lobster opened his snout to speak, but before he knew it, Silverscales released him.Lobster barked a frightened cry and threw his wings out, balancing himself and landing in front of the treehouse with a loud thump. "Be patient!" A voice came from the treehouse, Lobster heard two dragons chattering inside, but he was unable to identify what the words were. Silverscales landed next to Lobster with a giggle, "I did tell you to brace yourself." she said. Her laughter ceased when she saw Lobster's frightened face, she nudged him, "Hey, I'm sorry. Starfruit usually laughs along when I do this at our treehouse, but I guess you're not a happy-go-lucky RainWing."A RainWing left the treehouse, he waved his wing at Silverscales, who waved back. "Alright, you can come in know." another dragon from the treehouse called, Lobster snapped from his trance, he turned to Silverscales. The NightWing nudged him forward and walked into the treehouse, Lobster followed suit, his wings tucked close to his body.
Lobster sat at one side of the Prey Room, lazily biting on a dead squid. He glanced around the room and saw Clay happily hunting with other dragonets, he hummed and turned to look somewhere else. His mood brightened when he saw Silverscales and Starfruit enter, he stopped eating his squid and raised his head, he flapped his wings to get Silverscales' attention.
His wish came true, Silverscales turned and immediately spotted him, she said something to Starfruit and the two made their way to Lobster. They hopped onto the large rock Lobster was sitting on, "Hey! How were your classes?" Silverscales greeted, Lobster made a noise, "Eugh, biology wasn't the most fun." he mumbled.
Silverscales giggled, "I guess I better watch out huh?" she joked, Lobster smiled. "Ha, I guess." he agreed, "We were learning about RainWing biology."
"Well, I hope you answered them correctly." Starfruit hoped, turning to Lobster with a small smug smile, he returned the same smile, and he knew Starfruit could see it. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't." he said, leaning forward, Starfruit leaned forward with a smile that said: "You better have gotten it right."
Another set of giggles came of Silverscales, "Okay, while you two talk about answers, I'm gonna go see if fruit trees grow here." she said before hopping off the stone, she was immediately absorbed into the crowd and Lobster lost tracks of her almost immediately. He returned to chew on his squid, Starfruit sniffed the air around his kill and her tongue flicked in and out of her an out, as if she was tasting the air. She wrinkled her snout, "What are you eating?" she questioned, sniffling the squid.
Lobster chuckled as he pulled his food away, "Hey! This squid's mine." he teased, he pinned the squid against the stone he sat on and shook his head with a tentacle in his snout, Starfruit winced of the sound of a tentacle snapping off the body. "Ugh. That seafood you always looked for near the sea?" Starfruit questioned, looking as if she was trying to win 'The Most Disgusted Looking Face Competition'.
A hum of confirmation came from Lobster as he slurped up his food. "Mother would have the chefs cook squids into stew, but I always liked it raw and snuck one away from the kitchen whenever I could." he explained, smiling at the memory as he but into the squid again. Starfruit's face softened into a smile, "I bet you felt like a NightWing stealing from a fruit stand." she teased, making Lobster chuckle.
Silverscales hopped onto the rock a couple of seconds later, clutching some fruits on her talons, "The fruit trees are really far back in the room, so many RainWings and NightWings were clustered around it too." she explained, dropping the fruits and picking a mango up. Starfruit immediately reached for a pomelo, she dragged it to her and started to bite at it, as if she was going to rip the skin off. "I'm not surprised." Lobster said between bites of squid, he took the pomelo from Starfruit and pried the shell open for her before returning it.
Starfruit mumbled a thanks and dug in, the three didn't say anymore as they ate, but it wasn't long before Gravel appeared with Glow under his wing. "Hey guys! Mind if we joined your little buffet?" Gravel asked, snickering at his own statement. Lobster gave a friendly smile and nodded, "Sure." he allowed. Glow crawled onto the stone and settled herself between Silverscales and Starfruit, the tip of the NightWing's snout tipped down slightly.
Gravel, however, sat beside the rock, he dragged a cow to himself and started to chow down. Glow pulled dead and possibly dried lizards and snakes from her satchel and began eating too. "How did your classes go?" Silverscales asked, eyeing the dead snakes suspiciously, Glow saw Silverscales staring at the snakes and grabbed one to shove at her face. Lobster chuckled as Silverscales yelped and jumped to her feet, she batted Glow's claw away lightly with her tail and sat back down, huffing with a giggling Glow and a confused Starfruit behind her.
A chuckle came from Gravel too, "I gotta admit, science is fun." he admitted, "Apparently these birds called 'pigeons' usually walk away from approaching dragons because flying takes up a lot of energy and we ain't worth it."
"Oh we'll be worth it when we eat it." Silverscales joked, she right now had Glow pinned under an arm and Starfruit was trying to free Glow, with a smirk, Silverscales lifted her arm and let Glow stumble back. Lobster smirked too, "Maybe we can hunt one down someday." he said.
The bright coloured figure of Blizzard came bustling into the prey room, he immediately spotted Glow and bounded over to her, "Hey Glow!" he greeted. He shifted his gaze to the rest of the group, "Oh, and hey guys." he added. Half of the group waved while the other half greeted Blizzard back, "Welcome to out lunch group, either have some fruits or have some dry reptiles." Lobster joked, he grinned at his own statement.
Blizzard laughed, it was like a hearty sounding roar. "I think I'll have some fruits, I've always wanted to try some." he said, he picked up some blueberries and began to pop them into his snout. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you sound like you get very happy whenever Glow's around." Starfruit noted, raising an eye crest at Blizzard, who smiled brighter. "Yup! She's like a sister to me, we met when I was on an errand." he explained between a mouthful of blueberries, he patted Glow's head, but his talons were coated in the berries' juice.
"Eww!" Glow whined, she touched her crest and her talons came back with lots of blue juice, she frowned and shook the juice off as Blizzard started to laugh. But he flinched and his smile was washed away, he dropped his berries and brought his clean claw up to his bandaged wound. "Ow..." he mumbled, "I guess I shouldn't laugh that much."
Glow's frown was replaced with a worried look, she patted Blizzard's claw in sympathy. "Maybe not." Gravel agreed.
Lobster was about to ask Blizzard a question when suddenly, Falcon appeared behind Silverscales and Blizzard. The two dragonets turned and yelped to see the large SkyWing behind them, Lobster glanced to his side and saw that Gravel looked like he was making himself small, but Falcon seemed to pay them no heed. "All of you, follow me." Falcon requested, he didn't sound rude, in fact, he was quite serious. "Why? What's wrong?" Starfruit questioned, looking rather skeptical.
"Please, it's important. I don't know who else to look for, I didn't see any adult dragons around when I saw the scene. And there's someone following me, I couldn't sprint around to find an adult, this was the nearest place. Please, I don't have anyone else to go to but you guys. Come with me and help me investigate." Falcon pleaded, now he sounded slightly desperate, and Lobster's curiosity has been piqued. He stood and hopped down the stone, his necklace made soft jingling sounds as he landed, "Alright, lead the way." he said.
Lobster glanced behind him and saw Silverscales and Starfruit stand too, and after them, the other three were convinced to follow and stood as well. Falcon nodded and gestured for the winglet to follow him, they left the room together and headed deeper into Jade Mountain Academy. "Would you mind filling in some blanks?" Lobster questioned, he struggled to keep in pace with Falcon, for he was about twice his size.
Falcon spared Lobster a glance, "I got lost when finding the Prey Room, I wandered too far back and passes the room without knowing it." he explained. "Then I heard a shriek, at first, I wanted to turn and run right there and then, but my curiosity got the best of me and I went to take a look at what made the noise.
"It came from an empty room, and it was messy when I looked inside. I would've gone in myself, but there was someone there, I couldn't see them, but I knew they were waiting. So I left, but I realized the figure was copying my pace. I walked faster, they walked the same speed, I walked slower, they copied. If I stopped, they would still approach me, but slowly.
"So I trotted, I tried to act as if I wasn't aware of the situation. When I saw the Prey Room and was near it, the figure went away. I think it wanted to catch me alone." It was clear that, Falcon had finished his story, so Lobster didn't push for any further information.
Falcon abruptly stopped, almost causing Glow and Starfruit to bump into him, luckily Glow pulled on Starfruit's tail, but the little RainWing wasn't happy about it. "What is it?" Lobster asked in a whisper, he watched as Falcon sneak a peek into a room, after awhile, the SkyWing turned to Lobster and gestured for him and the winglet to look inside.
Lobster stepped around Falcon and gasped, he jaw hung as low as it could and his pupils shrank. "What?" Silverscales inquired, Lobster felt the presence of his winglet as they looked into the room, everyone gasped.
In the room, several corpses decorated to floor, blood had been splattered on the wall and trails were drawn on the ground like rivers. Lobster turned and saw a NightWing without its head, he gagged and backed up slightly, but no matter which direction he looked in the room, there were body parts. Lobster turned to Falcon, who was cringing at the sight.
Lobster turned back to the gore painted room, he shook his head and backed away. He looked at his friends, who were all either gaping or having the look of trauma in their eyes, Lobster turned to Falcon, "We need to find an adult. Now."