"Dude, are you okay?" Arid's clawmate, Garnet, asked as he shot up from his bed.
"Uh, yup," Arid said as he tried to rub the sleepiness from his eyes,
"Well, get up, ya don't wanna be late." The SkyWing said as he left the room.
It was really just a normal day, nothing interesting had happened yet. Arid was a sand-colored dragon with the normal SandWing black eyes. He was the Quartz winglet's SandWing at Jade Mountain Acadamy. The school year had just started and it had only been a few days. He had been expecting loads of murderous dragons but there hadn't been any attacks on dragons so far, except that IceWing that attacked the NightWing in the prey center.
Arid got up and left the room. He found another dragon from his winglet, Barracuda, as he headed out for Breakfast, praying there would be something he'd like. He was wrong.
"Fish AGAIN!" Arid groaned as he watched Barracuda rummage through the fish pile until he pulled out his so-called 'favorite'. Although, Arid had seen him eat tons of different fish so far and called them all his favorites. Barracuda was the SeaWing of the Quartz winglet, he was a strong looking, aqua SeaWing with green eyes.
"Do you want me to grab you a fish?" Barracuda asked, holding up two of his own which flopped usually as he moved his hand.
"Eh, no.' Arid said, pushing the fish away, "I'll find my own food." Sadly, there were no lizards. The SandWing advanced toward the small pile of various meats. None of them were lizard or camel, the only kinds he had had before. He chose a large gone at random and walked off to find Barracuda.
"Yeah, and then the SkyWings bombed our palace." He heard Barracuda say as he spoke to the Quartz winglet's SkyWing, Garnet.
"Dude, I'm sorry okay!" Garnet said, trying to defend himself.
"At least Arid wasn't there… right, Arid?" Barracuda asked, looking to him for an answer.
"Yes, I was," Arid responded, surprising Barracuda as he took a bite out of his mystery meat. "I was on Burn's side with the SkyWings and MudWings." as he said this, he and Garnet high-fived.
"Hey!" Barracuda whined, "This is unfair."
"Love the new queen by the way," Arid told Garnet, ignoring Barracuda.
"Queen Ruby is fantastic." Garnet agreed as another SkyWing plopped down next to him.
"Hey, Carnelian," Garnet said as the dragon took a bite out of her food.
"Hey." Was all the new SkyWing grumbled to the group.
"Everyone, this is Carnelian, my cousin. Carnelian, this is some of my winglet. This is Arid and that is Barracuda." Garnet introduced. The two dragons did not look much alike as Carnelian had massive wings and scales of scarlet that were riddled with battle scars. Each and every scale shone like rubies. Her eyes were a deep orange color.
Meanwhile, Garnet, her supposed cousin, had many of her facial featured along with his ginormous wings. Garnet, however, was a red-orange color. His scales looked like a frozen lava flow. Each scale was a different shade but together looked fantastic. They also shared the deep orange eyes.
"Did Carnelian fight in the war with you?" Barracuda asked, looking again at this angry red dragon.
"Yeah, she did." Garnet told him, looking at his fellow SkyWing, "She's a really good fighter too." As the two dragons went on rudely, talking about Carnelian like she wasn't there, Arid studied her features. She looked awfully familiar.
"What are you looking at," Carnelian asked him, a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"Sorry, it's just that you look really familiar," Arid told her, a surprised look crossed her face.
"Oh yeah." Garnet said, butting into the conversation, "Arid fought on our side during the war." After that, most of the meal was silent for Carnelian as she began to study his features as if trying to pinpoint where he was from.
Arid decided that he liked his mystery meat as he finished up. Carnelian had grumbled something about music class while Arid headed off to his next class. History.
Arid silently banged his head on the desk as Webs droned on about The Scorching and how vital it was. Ermine, the winglet's IceWing, sat next to him. She had amazing snow white scales along with light, icy blue scales along her spine and wings. She had silver sapphire earrings hanging from each ear and she had light, crystal clear light blue eyes. All Arid had gathered on her so far was that she was great at medicines and was in the 'Third Circle' but, Arid didn't know what that meant.
On his other side sat Siamang, the RainWing of the group. She was shifting colors while starring at her talons, watching them change. She was always very calm and collected, unlike all the easily excited bunch of RainWings that he'd met so far.
In front of him was Newt, the MudWing. She was small, probably the youngest in her family. She had light brown eyes accompanied by light scales. She was also the only one paying any attention. The rest of his winglet was starring off into oblivion, or in Barracuda's case, watching Siamag's colors shifting. That girl was like a living rainbow.
As Webs went on about The Scorching, Arid noticed a small hissing noise, but quickly dismissed it as he saw the winglet's NightWing hissing at a drawing he had made, and messed up on. Mightyclaws was a skinny NightWing with black scales. He was Barracuda's clawmate and apparently didn't like to talk much. He rarely spoke and Barracuda told Arid that all Mightyclaws did was ignore him when he tried to speak to him.
Off in the corner, Garnet was looking miserable. He was holding his head and let out a small whimper that went unnoticed by Webs. The only dragons that heard it was himself and Ermine. The IceWing gave Garnet a sympathetic look before turning back to Webs.
"Class dismissed." Webs told them and before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, Garnet was gone. Arid hurried up to follow him. The SkyWing looked a little pale.
"Garnet, are you alright?" He asked him,
"No, I think I'm gonna be sick." His friend grumbled. Ermine strode up alongside them.
"May I offer some help?" She asked, her voice clear and confident.
"Please." Arid pleaded, looking at his friend. The IceWing didn't even look at Garnet. Arid guessed that she had been studying him for most of the class. The dragon looked like he was about to puke.
"Most likely food poisoning, I can escort him to the medical cave. It's a free period right now." As Ermine said this, Garnet nodded and began to follow her.
Arid wandered the halls for a while before ending up in his sleeping cave. Was food poisoning contagious? He sure didn't hope so. Arid began to twirl his earring between his claws. He had found it in the hallway the day before. He liked it, it was a gold earring with an onyx teardrop embedded into it. It felt eerie in a way that made Arid feel cool. It matched his pitch black eyes too, not that he cared about the fashion in it or anything. Ermine came to his cave later to tell him to get his tail to class. Along with the news that Garnet did, in fact, have food poisoning, but he'd be fine.
Arid sat stiffly as his second class began. Art. It wasn't that he didn't like to paint or draw, it was just that he wasn't exactly good at it. He carefully picked up a paintbrush, as the teacher had told him they were called and began to lower it into the yellow paint. As he began to make a large circle (He planned to draw the sun) Mightclaws interrupted him.
"Don't push the paintbrush down that hard." The NightWing told him, looking back at his own painting. Arid snorted in frustration, the dragon should just mind his own business. Mightyclaws was begging to draw a dark colored island. It wasn't very good, there were some spots that looked horrible, so Arid didn't see why the dragon had the right to criticize him.
Arid kept pushing his paintbrush down hard. Mightyclaws rolled his eyes and continued to paint the dark, gloomy island on his own easel. Arid kept getting angry because the fur of the paintbrush was coming off and getting stuck in his sun. He was mad, his painting was bad, this made him sad.
For a moment, there was silence.
Then a sound rang loud and clear throughout the school. Arid sprung up from the floor and bolted out of the room.
Arid knew that sound.
It was the sound of death.
An explosion had gone off.
Arid ran down the halls, thousands of thoughts cascading over his mind. The war was supposed to be over. This stupid school was about peace for moons sake! Why did someone set off an explosive? A strong smell of smoke filled his lungs and he knew he was close.
As he rounded the corner he saw it. Fire, chaos, death. The SandWing watched at Clay and another SkyWing, Peril if he wasn't mistaken, pulled dragons out of the burning history cave. He wanted to run up and see the bodies but dragons blocked his path. There were about seven dragons near the entrance. A panicked NightWing, an unfamiliar SandWing, an angry IceWing, a frightened RainWing, a male MudWing, and a female MudWing who looked confused.
If Arid said that he was scared and sad about the losses right now, it'd be a lie. He didn't know any of those dragons. It looked like two NightWings. Why would a SandWing care about two worthless NightWings?
It was then that Arid noticed that one of them wasn't a NightWing. He saw the glisten of scarlet scales underneath the black soot. He noticed the long horns of and the giant wings. Lastly, he saw the orange eyes. This dragon was no NightWing. This was a SkyWing. This was Carnelian.
Finally, another dragon covered in soot and scales colored white and lime green was rushed out of the area. The small grouping of dragons that sat by the dead bodies dispersed and Arid stood solemnly in the corner. He didn't know Carnelian that well. They had just met that morning. However, Garnet. He didn't know and the teachers were going to tell him. Arid wasn't going to let that happen.
Arid sped down the halls once more, flying ahead of Clay and straight into the medical den where an oblivious and confused Garnet sat. He looked better, some of the color had returned to his face, a face that smiled at him as he dashed into the room.
"Hey Arid!" Garnet said, not noticing the grave look on Arid's face, "What was the explosion noise?" As the SkyWing said this, Clay entered the room with Tamarin and Garnet looked confused again.
"Garnet…" Arid started, trying to find a way to word this correctly, "The bomb noise you heard was just that, a bomb."
"Wait, who?" Garnet asked, Arid continued and ignored him.
"It blew up the history room where two winglets were going to have class. There were dragons in there when it exploded. Garnet… one of those dragons was Carnelian. She's dead now." After Arid said her name, Garnet's face began to turn red and tears began to roll down his face. Garnet tried to speak but they only came out as hiccups. Arid sat down and wrapped his wing around his friend.
"Food poisoning isn't contagious right?" Arid asked his friend who just laughed through the tears and shook his head. They sat there like that for a while until an angry looking RainWing sat down next to the RainWing from the explosion. This new RainWing was small, angry and downcast. She looked down at what Arid could only assume was her friend. A few times the little dragon whispered the name Tamarin, other than that, she seemed to be lost in her thoughts.
It was after a while when Garnet spoke up, "Thanks Arid, you didn't have to do this you know."
"Yeah, I know… I just thought that you should hear it from someone you knew than figure it out on your own." Arid replied, looking at his friend's tear-stained face.
"It's getting late, you should probably head back to our cave," Garnet said.
"You could probably come back with me," Arid told the SkyWing as he stood up.
"Naw, I think it's best that I stay here." Garnet paused, "Could you come with me when I go up to see her body tomorrow?" Garnet asked, looking up into Arid's black eyes.
"Sure," Arid replied with a warm smile. He turned and left with a swish of his tail and headed off to his cave.
When he arrived he plopped down onto his ledge and quickly fell asleep.
.oOo.
Time turned midnight and a soft glow emitted from the room. A sleeping Arid rolled around in his sleep as magic did its work and time turned back.
AN:
Hallo! Yes, it's been a long time. None of these characters are OCs. They all really do attend the Quartz winglet in the books. I am using them because they are 100% insignificant in the books. This story takes place the day that Sora set off the bomb in the school.