The story will now change drastically from this point on. I will attempt much longer chapters. I was covering only little bits of things for each chapter, now I will try and go much further in each chapter.
It was disgusting.
Scorch's entire front torso had been cut open straight down the middle. The cut was not well made, as if whoever had done it had been shaking while cutting. Her blood was leaking onto her ruby red scales which created an interesting shade of red. Her mouth was slightly open, a look of shock in her eyes. Typhoon, her clawmate, had gotten all the dragonets in the Amber and Amethyst winglets to look at the murder. Swordfish looked at the dragons in the room. Rattlesnake, Cedar, Darkseer, Vulture, Blizzard, Delta, Savanna, Frigid, Farseer and Typhoon herself. The killer was among them. So, that leaves Frigid and Farseer. Swordfish thought. Scorch was no longer a suspect.
Typhoon stared at the body and then back at the dragonets. "Whoever did this is sick. In the head." She snarled. "I was under the impression you hated Scorch." Rattlesnake pointed out. "Didn't you pin her down in the library that time?" Typhoon knocked over a scroll rack. "You shut your mouth!"
What happened next was a blur. The teachers came in again, and one by one, the dragonets were escorted the library again. Cedar began having a panic attack, his claws trembling and his tail lashing. Swordfish and Rattlesnake tried their hardest to calm him. "They're gonna think it's you Swordfish! Savanna already suspects you!" Cedar looked up at the roof and began to tap his claws on the library floor, making a tapping noise that made Starflight tilt his head. It made a tick tick tick. Just like the branch outside Swordfish and Cedar's cave. "What if they think I'm the killer? I know I'm a little… different, but I would never…" Cedar trailed off, a faraway look in his eyes. Rattlesnake awkwardly patted his shoulder. "They aren't going to think it's you, Cedar." Cedar wiped a single tear from his eye. "But what will happen to the school?" He asked. As if on cue, the rest of the teachers walked into the library. The dragonets of destiny, Fatespeaker and Webs, all staring at the students sternly. Silence fell across the room.
Sunny was the first to talk. "I'm sure you all saw how Scorch was killed." There was silence among the dragonets. "It was the same way Ostrich was killed." She continued. "Cut open in a line, top to bottom." There was more silence. Tsunami looked furious at something, and it took Swordfish a second to realize that she was looking at him. Clay was trying to comfort her. Three moons DO they think it's me? Sunny began talking again. "If our suspicions are correct, and we think they are, the killer is among you dragonets. But now, one of your own has been killed." Sunny closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. Starflight awkwardly twined his tail around hers. "The school… may close." Sunny said solemnly.
Swordfish was not surprised. After what happened last year with Moonwatcher and Prince Winter, and now all of the current events, what queen would want to send their tribe's dragonets to a place like this?
"We will begin interrogations of each one of you." Sunny said, and then abruptly turned to Swordfish. "Swordfish, please go with Clay and Tsunami." Oh no. Swordfish thought. They think it's me. Webs gave him a curious look, and Swordfish realized that Webs had been watching him too. Not angrily, like Tsunami, but like he was watching an interesting animal. Swordfish noticed the weird feeling Webs' eyes gave him. How Webs kept watching him even after Swordfish was looking back at him as Clay and Tsunami escorted him out of the room.
They went to the empty music room, the various instruments sitting in the dark. Clay lit a torch and lit the room temporarily. "Alright Swordfish, tell us about you." Tsunami began, pushing down her anger. Swordfish studied the forced neutral look on Tsunami's face and the anxious look on Clay's face. Alright, this could be worse. Clay still looks like he would believe me. "I was born to a guard at Queen Coral's palace named Urchin. I don't remember my mother and my father never talked about her. My brother, Starfish, stopped Anemone." Swordfish faltered when he saw the look on Tsunami's face. Oh right. Her sister. "I- I'm sorry about that by the way." Swordfish tried. Clay twined his tail around Tsunami's as her face did some weird stuff. "My- my father was addicted to seaweed and didn't pay much attention to me. Or my brother until after the massacre." Swordfish continued. "And the dragons in the town didn't like me much either. Or more, they thought I was weird. Apparently my mother had been a guard too, and that would make me the only dragon in my family that wasn't a guard."
Swordfish was thinking back to his house in the ocean, and he began to explain how he used to live. How the town had always had a dark green-ish light cast over it. How poor the town was in general. Swordfish used to leave the school the Seawings had in the area, and then go be with the other dragonets whose parents didn't care. There was a small coral reef he used to go explore with a dragonet named Snail. Not the same Snail that was at Jade Mountain, a different one. They would go and collect…
Swordfish realized he was drawing a blank on what they collected. Tsunami began to look at him weirdly.
"Is there anything else you would like to tell us?" Clay asked, but Swordfish was slightly panicking. It just hit him. He had told them all his memories, yet everything already seemed incomplete. Like he only had a few memories. The basic stuff, his brother stopping Anemone, and the coral reef. I can't remember anything else. He realized with a jolt of terror.
Clay and Tsunami looked at each other with worried expressions. "Come on, talk to us." Tsunami said urgently. Swordfish looked at them, scared. "I- I don't… I don't remember anyth-thing else." He stuttered out. Tsunami looked at him skeptically. "You don't remember anything other than what you told us?" Swordfish put his claws above his eyes. If I can't remember things… then how do I know I didn't do it? What if I'm a killer and I don't even know? Judging by the look on Tsunami's face, she was thinking the same thing.
The music room seemed to get darker as the torch began to burn out. Swordfish could imagine things in the dark. A serial killer on the drums. A scavenger monster on the harp, ready to stop playing and shoot him dead on the spot. Hooded dragons with golden armbands, all playing maracas, baring their teeth at him aggressively. And the giant, nightmarish thing from his dreams, towering over all the instruments, its enormous talons outstretched to grab him.
Swordfish was very scared, he decided.
When he was back in the library, Swordfish took out the scroll he took from Rainfall's table. He examined the map of Possibility with the red marks. But his mind was somewhere else. These days at Jade Mountain have been clearer than any others. Why would some of my memories be clearer than others? He looked over to see Vulture reading a scroll. I can't even remember how… how I got to Jade Mountain. It's like that first day when Rattlesnake teleported was the first part of a story. Like from a scroll…
Swordfish suddenly shot up from where he was sitting, his wings flared open. Blizzard gave him an odd look. He sat back down, his mind racing. He had remembered something. A sentence somebody had once said to him. "Hello, main character."
What if… I'm in something like a story? What if none of this is real? That would explain everything! Nobody reacted when Rattlesnake just appeared in the history class. The whole weird Vine thing in that same day, how Webs said Vine was right there, I blacked out and then Webs said there was no Vine.
Is that what was in Rainfall's chest? If only they could find Sloth the scavenger. Swordfish thought back to when he first saw the scavenger, Typhoon had tried to eat him. At first, Swordfish didn't care that much if Rainfall's scavenger pet got killed, but now he was so glad that Typhoon had not eaten the key to the potential answers to everything. Swordfish's train of thought was interrupted by Cedar returning from interrogation, bags under his eyes. "How was it?" Swordfish asked him quietly. Cedar plopped down next to him. "Awful." He whispered. Swordfish twined his tail around Cedar's. Something he scarcely did. "Tsunami just kind of yelled at me and Clay just stood there." Cedar shook. "I hate people getting angry at me. I told them about Mahogany dying. It was… not a pleasant time." Cedar was silent for a moment while Clay escorted Delta out of the library for questioning. "When I found Mahogany, he was wearing an earring exactly like Rattlesnake's. Golden, with two dragons entwined around each other. I walked out to go look out at the ocean. When I returned to Mahogany, he wasn't wearing the earring anymore. I never saw it again." Cedar turned and looked at Swordfish. "I've never told anybody that." He whispered. "Not even my sibs. I didn't think it was important."
Swordfish considered telling Cedar something he hadn't told anybody. His theory that the world was fake. But judging on how quiet the library was, and how that would make him look crazy, and possibly more suspicious, he decided against it. Not yet, anyway. He thought to himself. His theory included that he was the only one in the world that actually could think, and Swordfish could easily imagine the others thinking that a dragon who thought he was the only real one in the world would be a delusional killer.
Swordfish sat in the silence, quietly looking at Rainfall's drawings, now looking at the smiling Icewing again. Starflight sat in the center of the library at his table with Sunny and Fatespeaker, talking in hushed whispers. Webs sat alone, observing the dragonets in silence. Swordfish wondered to himself. I wonder what made the teachers suspect me of all dragons. But it didn't take Swordfish long to find Savanna looking at him anxiously as well. Just as Swordfish had thought, Savanna had tipped the teachers off that he suspected Swordfish. Thanks Savanna.
Cedar suddenly jerked his head up. "What?" Swordfish asked in a hushed voice. "I just got an idea." He responded. His claws were quietly tapping again, and Cedar was itching all over, like a nervous twitch. "I think I know who the killer is!" He whispered loudly. Cedar got up and walked over to Rattlesnake, who was half asleep. Swordfish was right behind him. "Rattlesnake." Cedar called quietly, poking her shoulder. "Hm?" She said when she woke up. "You've known Savanna for a long time, right? You were Outclaws together, right?" He whispered in his quick, excited-but-nervous voice. "Yeah. He was the best weapon wielder the Outclaws had at the end there. He could make his own weapons. That's why he wears that dagger necklace." Rattlesnake responded. "Well, do you think he could design a weapon specifically made for cutting dragons open? Do you think it's a coincidence that the two dragons that were murdered, were enemies of Blaze, who he now works for?" Swordfish inhaled sharply. He thought back to the day he met Savanna in the history cave, and what Savanna had said. "I fashioned Thorn's personal spear for the attack on Burn's stronghold. I now work for Queen Blaze."
Rattlesnake looked alarmed. "Do you really think he would do it? I've known him for years. He saved me from a thug in the Scorpion Den years ago." She whispered. Swordfish snuck a quick look back at Savanna, who was still looking at him. "I found a weapon in the hallway one time, I wonder if it's his." Cedar asked. "Well, show me it after all this. I can recognize his work. We were very close." Rattlesnake answered. That last sentence pained Swordfish. He knew it. Savanna and Rattlesnake were close.
Tsunami suddenly burst into the library. Clay and Farseer behind her, Farseer giving Tsunami a death glare. "All of you are free to go back to your rooms, except Frigid, Farseer, and Swordfish." The other dragonets filed out of the library. Swordfish watched as Savanna followed Rattlesnake and Cedar out of the cave, giving Swordfish one last look before disappearing past the doorway. I have to protect her. If Savanna is the killer… It suddenly struck Swordfish that he immediately went to Rattlesnake's safety, and not Cedar's as well. Then he was in the library. Alone with Frigid, Farseer and the teachers.
Farseer gave everyone in the room an angry look, and Frigid kept staring out a window. "We have narrowed it down to you three." Tsunami said. "You will not be allowed to leave until you have proved your innocence." Sunny looked at them all. "We're really sorry, but this is for the safety of the school." But Swordfish wasn't listening. Rattlesnake and Cedar were immediate danger.
She was suddenly cut off by Swordfish getting up and running out the library door. "HEY!" Tsunami yelled. "I'm sorry!" Swordfish yelled. "I think I know who it is!" Swordfish ran and ran, taking turns to try and lose Clay and Tsunami, who were tailing him. He eventually leapt out of an open window by the art cave and began flying outside of the academy.
Ok, so the art cave is there… that means that my cave would be… to the left. Swordfish began to fly left, flying as fast as he could. He passed over the small trees below, looking out for any sign of a scavenger monster, as that was the woods Swordfish saw it come out of before Rainfall was killed.
One by one, the leaf windows of the student caverns came into view. Swordfish began to look for the branch that would tap. Adrenaline coursed through him when he saw it come into view, the branch looking like a claw, tapping the window, asking to be let in.
Swordfish landed right outside. The branch made the noise again. Tick… tick… tick… Swordfish lifted up a corner of the leaf. Inside, Cedar and Rattlesnake were talking.
"I know it seems a little crazy, and it's probably not right." Cedar was saying, itching all over himself. "But I'll show you the weapon." Cedar pulled out the small trunk of belongings he brought with him to Jade Mountain Academy. Cedar paused, and drew a shaky breath.
There was a small silence before Rattlesnake said "Well, show me!" Swordfish peeled back the leaf a little further. Cedar suddenly looked back at Rattlesnake, a strange grin spread over his face. "I always liked you." He said. "And now you will be in the big sea in the sky."
Swordfish screamed as Cedar turned around, slashing the weapon, a dagger designed for precise and short kills. Slashing it across Rattlesnake's chest, the blood as red as Scorch's scales.