Turning back, Winter found himself back in Sanctuary, dragons milling around. Riptide was waiting in front of his hut.
"Well, there you are!"
He smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, couldn't sleep."
Riptide nodded understandingly. "I get it. It's because of… your friends, right?"
Winter grimaced. "Yeah."
The Seawing patted him on the shoulder. "Alright, then. Feel free to take a break if you think you need it, Winter. We can survive without you."
He smiled. "Of course, Riptide. But… I think I can function."
With that, he walked off, to inspect the few scavengers that he'd caught with Kinkajou in the rainforest (read: caught everywhere else. There were no scavengers in the rainforest.)
The scavenger enclosure was a big thing, surrounded by a wall of logs lashed together, with enough space inside for the scavengers to do things. As Winter poked his head over the wall, the scavengers crowded around his position on the other side of the wall, looking up.
Winter smiled. They did this everyday, whenever he came over to look at them. From what he'd heard, they only did this whenever he arrived, not for other dragons.
Winter just knew that they had complex emotions, and were intelligent.
(Even this behavior proved it, somewhat.)
(Winter swore that he the scavengers were always communicating: just look at that house they built! It looked so eerily like something dragons would build, but… smaller. Or those plants lined in neat rows, fenced in.)
(This couldn't be done by unintelligent creatures.)
Winter just stood there, watching them, and his mind went blank.
He went back to thinking, but this time about everything that wasn't his overbearing guilt over failing everyone.
Future expansion plans, getting new scavengers, more observations, dealing with Jade Academy homework (he'd requested to still continue his education, just not at the school) and that dragon who was supposed to arrive to help him.
Wait a moment, wasn't Jay supposed to arrive today?
He froze.
Ah.
He ran over to the little clearing they'd designated as the town meeting-place. He… hadn't really wanted any help, but Riptide insisted.
(Winter did admit, having someone else to talk to would be good.)
He watched, as a Skywing gracefully landed down.
He frowned. "Are you Winter?"
Winter was taken aback at his blunt tone, for some reason. "Y-yes."
The Skywing brightened. He was slightly larger than Winter, with muted blue eyes and deep red scales. "Ah, so it's you!"
"I suppose this relates to the whole scavenger thing?"
"Yes. My parents owned a few, and I took care of them."
"Well, they're not pets here," Winter replied, as they walked down the street to the scavenger enclosure (and his hut). "They're research subjects. I study them."
Jay nodded. "Yes, I surmised as such," he said dryly.
Winter stopped in front of the log wall, and poked his snout over it again.
The scavengers looked at him, like they always did. Then one of them came up and set something down in front of him, on the other side of the wall.
Jay raised an eyebrow. "Woah. Do they do that for everyone?"
Winter smiled. "It's just for me, according to what I've heard. They like me."
Jay stared at the scavengers. "Mine never did this," he said.
"Well… I had a pet scavenger once, too. It never did this either. I think… they, you know, they're more than just animals, obviously. And here… I think they don't feel like… they're trapped, so they do this."
Jay nodded. "Even though you, let me guess, captured them and brought them here?"
"Yep. I guess they realised that I'm not going to kill them and will instead, you know, look at them for some reason every day?"
(Winter didn't know why he was acting like this. He shouldn't be joking so much– that was Qibli's job.)
(He shuddered. Could Qibli have left a mark on his mind?)
"Hey, Winter?"
"Ah! Sorry, just… thinking. About my old friends."
"Which are?"
"You know Jade Mountain Academy? … Yeah, I was a student there. I left because… things happened. But I had good friends."
"Wow, how did you get in? My parents tried to get me in, but they failed."
"I'm Icewing royalty– or at least I was. But that's how I got in."
"Was?"
He sighed. "Long story. Can't and don't want to explain."
Jay smiled. "Well, looking forward to working here with you."
Winter smiled back– the second one in two days that made him feel good (He must be on a lucky streak). "Same. And even if you turn out to know nothing about how to study scavengers– which I think is true– I'll still have someone to talk to."
"Hey, you like me!"
"… Well, maybe I do."
ALL HAIL NOT EDITING OR LOOKING OVER THE WIP
that's how i'm writing the rest of the story, now. no plan. no editing before release. very short chapters (more like drabbles without a word limit actually) telling Winter (and now Jay's) story.
Yes, they will be gay for each other. That's the only thing I've got planned here. They are gay. Just not now.