Dragons Change

AN: So I went back and reread my entire story just because, and I am legitimately both horrified and embarrassed at the number of mistakes I found. So I decided that I would go back and reedit the entire thing and rewrite certain scenes I'm not satisfied with.

This one wasn't so bad. I just rewrote a few sentences that didn't sound write.

Edited: (4/28/21)

Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire. My OC Flint belongs to me. Cover art for the story belongs to beyzul on deviantart.

Prologue:

Winter sighed as he finally finished his latest report on scavenger behavior. It had taken a lot longer than he had originally anticipated. As a result, it was now almost midnight and he was unbelievably tired. It was good that he had finished the paper, but he was unsure why exactly he had stayed up to finish it tonight. He could have finished it tomorrow or the next day…or the next day…or the next. After all, it's not like anyone actually takes my work seriously. Nobody really cares if I finish it or not.

He leaned back after that particular thought and reflected on what his tired mind had told him as he looked around his office. Winter was no stranger to thoughts of self-depreciation, but it had been a while since he his mood had been this low. As his mind drifted to the past, his gaze slowly went to the silver bracelet with skyfire embedded in it that she had given him the night he left Jade Mountain. He kept it on as a constant reminder of his past mistakes, but six years can change a dragon. For him, he was lucky enough to find a friend that believed in him and his work. Some dragons aren't lucky enough to have such loyal support—even if it was from a Mudwing. I owe Flint everything: For helping me start the sanctuary, for helping me overcome my self-doubt, and just for being there for me.

Now that he was finished—and unwilling to listen to his tired mind's self-loathing tangents—Winter went to stand up so he could finally retire to his room to sleep. Unfortunately, that's when the shutter on his window suddenly blew open because of the storm that had been raging outside since around noon yesterday. The extremely strong, freezing winds common to Ice Kingdom blizzards had blown out the candle and scattered a bunch of papers causing him to stumble around in the dark before he eventually tripped and fell. Perfect. This is JUST what I needed right now. Eventually, he was able to get up and shut the window shutters tight. When he picked up and lit the candle again, he was greeted by the sight of all of his neatly organized piles of paper thrown about the room. And these weren't small stacks either, no. These stacks had several dozen papers each in them and there were at least eight stacks. In layman's terms, a LOT of papers.

Winter just stared at the mess, unable to decide if he felt enraged or resigned about the large mess he had to clean up before he could sleep. Then again, I could wait until tomorrow. He looked around the room again. Though I should just suck it up and get it over with. *sigh* Another sleepless night. Flint is NOT going to be happy with me doing this to myself again, but it has to get done either way. Better to just get it out of the way.

His mind made up, Winter set to work. The most infuriating part was that many of the reports had multiple pages so picking up the pages was the easy part. That only took about thirty minutes. Next, he had to sort them. And THAT was not going to be fun. Two hours and a string of unintelligible curses later…and he was only about halfway done. It turns out there were a lot more papers than he realized…and that was saying something.

Winter was tired. He was so tired he was past tired. He was so tired he was running on metaphorical fumes. And as he became more and more exhausted, the more frustrated and angrier he became. As he was shuffling through the mountains of papers, his infamous scowl stuck to his face, he finally had had enough and just dumped the rest of papers in a stack on his desk. "Screw this! I'm going to sleep!"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"You have got to be KIDDING ME! I JUST WANT TO GO TO SLEEP!" Winter yelled in frustration. He started walking towards the front door fully intent on chewing out the poor, unfortunate soul who dared to knock on the door. Winter was beyond livid at this point. He had never been one to skip sleep very much because he knew he would always get like this if he did. And when he did, everyone knew to stay away from him until he got at least ten hours to calm him down.

On his way towards the front door, he noticed Flint stick his head out of his room on the right side of the main hallway to see what the commotion was. As he saw winter approaching, he asked, "Everything okay, boss?"

"Yeah, what the hell is that noise?" another voice spoke up, Winter turned to the source of the voice and noticed Flint doing the same. They saw a male Skywing, Titan, who was walking up the hallway behind Winter.

Winter didn't even stop walking and just answered both of them with, "Go back to sleep. I'll handle this." Winter vaguely noticed the venom in his voice and wondered if Flint or Titan did, too. If they did, they were smart enough not to comment on it. Right now, he was too tired to care either way.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Winter was ten feet away from the front door when the second round of knocks came. He all but lunged at the door. In the back of his mind, he wondered who in the name of the moons would be out in this storm, at his front door, at this time of night, but he was still too tired to care. If not for his frustration and anger fueling him, he was sure he would have already collapsed.

So when he got to the door, he ripped it open despite the storm—fully prepared to deliver a verbal tirade that would make even the most seasoned and grumpy Skywing soldier blush. His voice disappeared and his anger instantly dissipated as he saw a shivering female Nightwing staring back at him. He instantly recognized the silver teardrop scales and dark green eyes that he hadn't seen in almost seven years.

"M-Moon!?"

AN: Even though I didn't change much, I think it sounds a bit better.

Until Next Time

AdmiralCole22