Swordfish awoke to someone poking him repeatedly. "Whaddya want?" Swordfish groaned. "Shhh!" A talon shushed his mouth. It was Rainfall, the Rainwing from the Amethyst winglet. The one who owned Sloth the Scavenger. Along with him was Vulture, the twitchy Skywing, Darkseer, Farseer, Darkseer's violent sister and Frigid, who was staring at Cedar expressionless.
Swordfish blinked slowly, what was that weird dream. It felt so fresh, like it just happened, but he was already forgetting it.
"We're going to see the ghost." Rainfall said in a whisper. "Huh? What ghost?" Swordfish replied. "Well, he's not actually a ghost." Darkseer corrected. "An older student, Kinkajou, was telling me about this ghost that lives under Jade Mountain." Rainfall said, patting Sloth in what looked like a nervous habit. The scavenger yibbled quietly in protest. "Sorry." Rainfall said in what seemed a genuine apology to what most dragons treated like prey.
"Stonemover isn't a ghost, he's Sunny's father and the past mate of Qu- I mean a dragon named Thorn, leader of the Outclaw group Rattlesnake and Savanna are part of. He's an old animus, but doesn't use his powers anymore. He is halfway made of stone, a curse he put upon himself." Darkseer recited as if he had rehearsed it. Rainfall and Vulture stared at him in amazement. Frigid kept staring at Cedar in the odd way he looked at floors. Farseer snorted meanly. "You just have to show your power at the most convenient times, don't you?" "At least I have real power and not just intimidation, Farseer." Darkseer shot back. "You call me Scaleslasher!" Farseer said almost loud enough to wake Cedar. "Let's go outside." Vulture whispered quietly. "Wait, why aren't we taking Cedar?" Swordfish asked almost un-hearable. "He's too picky. It's really messy this way." Rainfall replied. They exited the cave one by one.
Once they were out in the hall, Swordfish remembered something. "Wait, aren't we going to get in trouble if they find us snooping around at night, especially when there's a serial killer on the loose?" "Well, if King Twitchy over here is right, we'll find the serial killer using this ghost." Farseer sneered, flicking her wing at Vulture. "Well if Darkseer is right, he's an animus, and he can simply enchant something to find the murderer." Vulture protested. Swordfish blinked rapidly. "Wait, why would he waste his soul on us? He probably doesn't want to go crazy." "Did you people even take it into consideration?" Farseer said. Darkseer looked down at his own claws. Swordfish could almost hear the internal argument he was having. Find the killer or don't reveal your animus powers. Tough question.
"Well, we won't know unless we find out." Rainfall said. He began to walk down the hallway. Farseer ran ahead of him. "I can't wait to prove you wrong Darkseer."Farseer said sharply. "So I can just go to sleep again." "Better go steer her in the right direction." Darkseer said sleepily. He ran after her. Vulture went with Darkseer so it was just Swordfish and Rainfall at the back.
Swordfish attempted to start a conversation with the Rainwing he hardly knew. "Hey, you ever wonder why the Amethyst Winglet has you, a Rainwing, but we don't have one?" "Yeah." Rainfall said. "About that. There's… something I wanted to tell you." Rainfall said nervously. "Yesterday, or was it two days ago? Three moons so much has happened since we came here." "Yeah. Really." Swordfish said. The morning screaming he had heard echoed in his thoughts. There was a killer among them. It could be anyone couldn't it.
"But, yeah, you questioned why there wasn't a Rainwing in the Amber Winglet. And you're right. There isn't. But here's the weird thing. I saw a Rainwing with your winglet." Rainfall said with worry in his eyes. Swordfish grabbed Rainfall's arm. "Really? You saw one and now you don't?" "Exactly. I saw them. What did Webs call them?" "Vine." Swordfish replied immediately. He had avoided talking about the weirdness of the first day with anyone. Not even Rattlesnake or Cedar. He worried they would think he was crazy.
"I have SO much stuff to tell you." Swordfish said excitedly. "Let me tell my part first." Rainfall whispered. "I saw Vine until Sloth touched me right between my eyes." Rainfall pointed to the space on his snout between his eyes. "After that, I can't see Vine. I have no memory of anyone named Vine around our age in the Rain Kingdom." Rainfall grabbed at the spot Sloth normally sat on his shoulder. "And I think I've found something out. I've poured over scavenger studies in my lifetime, and the stories of the Scorching. I have a log of my observations and my theories about scavengers in a scroll I've had with me." Rainfall looked into Swordfish's eyes with intensity. "I think there's something much larger going on here, and scavengers are a large part of it."
"I have so many things I've seen here." Swordfish whispered hurriedly. "Rattlesnake can appear and disappear at will. I've had strange nightmares about things called "Visitors" and a scavenger-like being made of darkness. I've seen a Mudwing ghost and a vision of a murder." "You saw Ostrich's death?" Rainfall asked in surprise, his eyes wide. "No, I saw a Mudwing get killed." Swordfish shook his head. "There's so much to go over. We can share more information together tomorrow in the library."
Vulture ran back to them. "Hurry up you mountain goats." Vulture said. "We've reached the tunnel." Swordfish and Rainfall ran towards Darkseer and his sister, standing by a stone opening. "Apparently, there's bats down here." Vulture said, wrinkling his map out of habit. "Bats don't scare me." Farseer said. She entered the tunnel. "Well, I guess we're doing this." Darkseer sighed. Darkseer entered behind the violent Nightwing, most definitely wondering if he should reveal his magic.
The tunnel was narrow and dark. They didn't see any bats along the way. They walked for what seemed like weeks in silence. Swordfish had so much buzzing around in his head. Rainfall knew about the strange things happening around this school. He had never heard of anything about this school being cursed, but if there's really a ghost down here like how Kinkajou said…, the school hadn't been open since Moon and Winter died, and now… maybe the spirits are still here. Maybe Rainfall's studies had the answers. And where was this animus?
The tunnel got darker and thinner, until it opened up into a cave. Swordfish heard a yell. He turned and saw the dragon's body lying on the ground.