A/N: I'm hopeful that this story will be updated more often now that I don't have a major project active. We'll see how that ends up working. At any rate, this is a pretty important chapter, so I hope you all enjoy it!

Ch. 8

Winter sighed, tapping the desk with one claw as his other held an ink-wetted quill. His eyes stared blankly at the half-written document before him, his body not quite able to make the quill move and make words. Even though he knew that writing was all he should be doing, it seemed like the one thing he really couldn't do. Even something as routine as writing a status report on the scavengers felt like a small weight on his shoulders.

Of course, it didn't help at all that for the first time in a while, he felt like he was also trying to rush to get his weekly reports done. Normally he'd have finished them at least a day ago so he'd have plenty of time to make a copy or two for Sanctuary's financial supporters (mainly Queen Glory and Queen Ruby), but he'd really been struggling to find the time and motivation. Now, it seemed, he was paying the price.

He growled slightly and forced out a few more words onto the parchment. It also didn't help that it was a very slow week as far as the scavengers were concerned, and he felt like he was really stretching the "findings" for this week. The scavengers really didn't do anything new or exciting, but writing "the scavengers didn't do anything new or exciting" and calling it a report just wasn't feasible. But it also was difficult to make the mundane activities sound interesting, especially when the scroll racks in his office were filled with the same kinds of things.

Glancing over at those same scrolls, he snorted and shook his head. Those had been simpler days back then, where everything about scavengers was new and exciting and he could fill the parchment easily. In fact, most of the first rack was filled with his writings from the first few months of research. It was such a thrilling and exciting time back then, now it felt almost bland. That's not to say that he didn't enjoy his research—far from it—but it felt like it had been a while since it had produced real results.

Maybe it's getting time for a change, Winter mused. Swallow had been wanting to introduce different animals, plants, and materials into the enclosure for a while now to see what they did with it. Winter hadn't allowed it on account of wanting to see how they behaved when they had a sense of normalcy without new items introduced all the time. Well, by now he just about thought that he'd seen it all; despite their ingenuity and dare he say smarts, scavengers were creatures of habit and could very much be boring at times.

Or maybe I take Swallow's other piece of advice, a different side of Winter's mind chimed in. Ever since Moon had arrived, the Skywing had been eager to get her involved and make use of her mindreading. Winter was…well, hesitant, and he really wasn't completely sure why. Maybe it was because it would be bringing her into his work in a way he wasn't sure he was ready for, and he was worried what that might bring with them working and being so close. Or maybe it was just that with her at his home, the scavenger sanctuary was the one place he could be without her and not worry about everything. Either way, maybe it was worth taking the chance, just once or twice, to see what she could come up with.

A knock on his office door interrupted his thoughts, and with his permission to come in the subject of half his musing entered. Moon only stepped a foot or so into the door—which he appreciated, as he generally discouraged her from invading his private place in his home—and tilted her head and squinted her eyes as if trying to read what he was writing.

"Yes?" he asked her, actually somewhat relieved for the distraction from his work.

She blinked and focused her eyes on him instead of his work. "Sorry to interrupt, but two things," she began, her voice sounding maybe a little uneven due to her perceived bothering of him, "First, I caught a pair of ducks today, and I was going to try cooking them, if that's okay with you."

Winter nodded. He wasn't terribly hungry, but he probably would be in a little while. Duck sounded like a nice meal, and he told Moon that.

"Good," Moon smiled a little, "Second, Riptide is at the door. He said there was something he wanted to talk to you about."

"Probably a shipment of something or other," Winter said (mostly to himself), yawning as he stood. He was always ordering things for the scavenger sanctuary, and Riptide normally let him know when they came in—especially the larger stuff—since it was usually items not handled by the post and the deliverers had no clue where to place them.

Funny, though, I don't remember having anything major being delivered, he thought to himself. The last major thing, if it could be called that, were those Seawing scrolls, and those had come not soon after Moon had arrived.

"Probably, yeah," Moon agreed, although Winter guessed she really had no idea.

"I guess I shouldn't keep him waiting, then," Winter said with another yawn. Since when has doing reports gotten me this tired?

He stepped past Moonwatcher, exiting the office, and grabbed the door to close it with his tail and swing it shut. But instead of the normal thud of a door closing into place, there was a bit of a muffled bump, and Winter heard Moon give a short yelp.

"Are you okay," he asked quickly, turning his head back to see what was wrong.

"You shut the door on my tail," Moon pouted, looking a little irritated but not in great pain. Apparently, her stepping back and aside for him to pass had caused her tail to get in the doorway, and the door had whacked into her.

"Do you need ice?" Winter asked, looking over her tail (he couldn't really tell where it had been hurt), "I can frostbreathe some water really quick."

"Thanks, but I think I'll be fine," Moon huffed a little, bringing her tail around and rubbing it, "You didn't slam the door, thankfully. Go talk to Riptide; don't worry about me."

"If you say so…" Winter left her there and made his way to the door outside. He passed Coldshock on the way, who was playing with a small ball, batting it up against walls and then chasing it. As Winter watched, he leapt as it though he were striking prey, successfully grabbing it even as it rolled away. Winter grinned at the sight of Coldshock biting and clawing into it: already his son was improving.

Just as Moon had said, Riptide was waiting for him outside. Winter greeted him as he stepped out, noting that the Seawing didn't have any packages on him, nor was he leading any deliverers who did. No, Riptide was all alone, and it did make Winter wonder why he'd shown up right now.

"How are you doing, Winter?" the Seawing asked, raising a wing and inviting Winter to sit down with him, "I hope everything is going well with you and Moonwatcher, and little Coldshock."

"More or less," Winter answered simply, opting to stand. "We're getting along."

"Good to know," the Seawing smiled, "I hear Moon's been adjusting well. She's been helping with the construction of the new houses. Mayfly says she's a pretty hard worker."

"She says she enjoys it," Winter shrugged, "She's made friends with a few of the dragonesses in town. Something about a reading club, too. At any rate, it's something for her to do."

"It is indeed," Riptide nodded, "Although I noticed you haven't signed up any yourself this time around."

Winter wasn't quite sure what he was getting at with that. "Yes, well, the scavengers require no small amount of work. It's hard to find time when I have so much to do and deadlines to meet. I'll see about joining the next job, if I have time."

"I see…" Riptide trailed off.

Winter cocked his head and frowned, looking over the other dragon. "Riptide, why'd you come here?" he asked, perhaps a little more bluntly than necessary, but the Seawing wasn't normally one to come around knocking just for some small talk.

Riptide was silent for a moment, returning his gaze. His smile from earlier became a bit more serious. "Actually, I came to invite you to something."

"Oh?" Winter prompted, tapping his tail impatiently.

"A week from today we're having the city council meeting, I think you should attend this one," the Seawing told him.

"Oh, is that all?" Winter asked. While Riptide was more or less officially the head of Sanctuary, there was a small council of dragons that helped out with various aspects of making sure the town operated smoothly. Mayfly, being the engineer behind most of the city, was part of it, as well as a few notable shopkeepers and members of the community. Winter, too, was technically on it as well, although since the scavenger sanctuary got up and running he wasn't as involved in things.

"Pretty much, yes," Riptide nodded, "I just wanted to make sure you were aware and could make it."

"I…should be able to, yes," Winter said, his mind going over his schedule to see if there were any conflicts and coming up empty.

"Good," Riptide looked a little relieved, "I look forward to seeing you then."

"Any particular reason I should go?" Winter asked as Riptide stood up to go, "Anything important going down?"

Riptide gave a thin smile. "More or less," he answered without answering, "Nice talking with you Winter. I'll see you soon."

"See you," Winter said as he watched the Seawing walk off. He frowned, then shook his head. It was probably just some boring town stuff that Riptide wanted his input on, nothing important. And whatever it was could hold until later. Right now, his focus needed to be on what was important: finishing his reports.

He walked back into the house and to the smell of cooked ducked sizzling. "Dinner's almost ready," Moon informed him. "Should only be another minute or two."

Then again, Winter thought as he sniffed the pleasant aroma, Even important things like reports can wait until after a nice meal.

"Smells delicious," he told her, "Is there enough for all three of us?"

"Should be," came Moon's answer, "They were large ducks, and Coldshock already had a fish for a snack earlier, so I doubt he'll eat as much."

"Lovely," Winter snorted, then looked around for the dragonet, only to frown. "Where is Coldshock?" he asked. "I thought he was in here playing." His son had certainly been in the kitchen/dining area when he'd gone out, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"I thought he was, too," Moon said, only glancing over, "He probably just went into our room."

Winter nodded, but frowned as he looked over towards the door to Moon and Coldshock's room. It was shut tight, and he doubted the dragonet had gotten in. As was the door to Winter's own room. But there was a door to another room that was ajar.

His breath caught in his throat as Winter realized that his office—a place he had especially kept closed and away—was wide open for anyone to come in. And he almost intrinsically knew that was where the hybrid dragonet was. Coldshock was always curious, after all, and here was a new place he hadn't had access to.

Moon must not have closed it, Winter realized as he quickly stepped towards it. He'd shut it on her tail, he recalled in the back of his mind, and so it hadn't been closed by him, and apparently it hadn't been closed at all. He just hoped that Coldshock hadn't been in there long.

It turned out he had been, or at least long enough. Winter found him jumping up and down in a pile of torn up parchment. He paused for a moment, his mind wondering where his son had gotten it all from, and then he trembled as he saw the scrolls rolled off his rack, down at the dragonets feet. What Coldshock was playing with—what he'd destroyed—was Winter's hard work and hours and days of research.

Winter was still for a moment longer, his body processing what he saw as Coldshock looked up at him with an innocent smile on his muzzle. Then the emotion set in, a hot ferocity that burned more like a fire than the ice in his chest. He tried to hold back what was coming, but couldn't.

With a voice that shook the building, Winter roared.

Moon was just finishing up with cooking the ducks when she heard Winter's cry, not that she would have been able to miss it. It was the loudest she'd heard him since she'd arrived, and maybe before that, and she immediately set the food aside and rushed to where she saw him standing outside his office door.

"What's the matter?" she asked quickly, and was rewarded with a look of absolute fury from the Icewing. She heard a squeal, and Coldshock shot of the door as fast as his little legs could carry him. He saw her and immediately turned towards her, then pressed up against her hind leg so that she was between him and Winter.

For his part, Winter didn't answer, taking several deep breaths but not appearing to actually calm down. His gaze kept flickering between her and the room.

"Winter, what happened?" she tried again, taking a step forward.

His voice seething, Winter stepped aside and pointed into the office. "See what your son did," he growled.

She stepped forward and peered in, and it didn't take long to see what had him so upset. Strewn about the floor were the remnants of at least three scrolls, each torn into very small pieces. Apparently Coldshock had found them and thought them some sort of toy, and he'd ripped them apart.

"I'm sorry, Winter," she said sympathetically, "Maybe we can try salvaging them. Some of the bigger pieces might fit together—"

"This shouldn't have happened," Winter cut her off, her words not helping at all, "All that work, wasted."

"It was an accident," Moon said, glancing at Coldshock, "He didn't know what he was doing. You can't hold that against him."

"No," Winter growled, "But you should have been watching him. And you should have closed the door."

"So it's my fault?" Moon asked, suddenly feeling indignant. "You're the one who shut the door on my tail."

"And you're the one who told me to go ahead," came his retort as he gave an angry huff, "I thought I'd told you to leave my office alone in the first place, and here you go just leaving it open for any dragon to waltz into."

"Well I'm sorry if I happened to forget," Moon said, her own voice nearing a growl.

"You should be," Winter hissed, "Do you have any idea how long it takes to do these reports? How much might have just been destroyed? I don't know if I had copies, or when these were done to even know what was lost! This could have been some of my most valuable research!"

"Sure," Moon scoffed, "That's why it was at the bottom of a scroll rack."

Winter shot her a nasty look that suddenly made her glad he was wearing skyfire. "Great. Wonderful. You can't even appreciate what happened, can you? First you come here interrupting me so that I can't hardly get any research done, and now you destroy what I already did. Are you determined to ruin me?"

"Not get any done?" Moon snorted, "You're almost always at the sanctuary, looking over your precious scavengers."

"And I can't hardly even do that, with a dragonet crawling over me," he shot back, "And you're always here to distract me when I come back. I have work I need to do, I can't be dragonetsitting two dragons."

"Is that what you think of us being here?" Moon sneered, "And here I thought you wanted to be a part of your son's life."

"I do, but I would have preferred not being thrust into it like this," he seethed, "Do you know what's it's like to have someone flip your world in one day and suddenly pull away all you thought you would do? It's not exactly an easy thing to deal with."

"Actually I do know," she bit back, "Or do you forget that you're the one who put an egg in me and left me in the Sand Kingdom. Do you have any idea what it was like to see Qibli's face when he realized what we'd done? Do you have any clue what it was like to leave all that to try to be here with you, because I wanted something better not for me, but for him?" she gestured to Coldshock.

"Well, if you didn't want him, then maybe you shouldn't have been so eager to lift your tail," Winter went for the low blow.

"It's not like you didn't waste any time climbing on top," she retorted immediately.

Apparently, that was a bit of a mistake as it only seemed to make Winter even more angry, as his tail lashed furiously behind him. "I didn't think this would happen!" his voice rose, "I didn't want this to happen! I don't want any of this!"

That took Moon aback a little. "None?" she asked, softer.

"I just want to have my sanctuary, and the peace and quiet this world refuses me. Is that so hard?"

"Winter, you," she began to say, instinctively reaching out a wing to comfort him…

"Don't touch me!" he shouted, recoiling from her, "I've told you not to touch me!"

"I'm sorry, but—" she tried.

Winter gave another roar, softer than the one from earlier, but equally full of anger and frustration. "I don't want this," he repeated, "I don't want…Moon…I can't…" he looked away taking deep breaths.

In that moment, she was frightened of him. He reminded her more of that first Winter she'd know, the one that had threatened to rip her face off. The one that couldn't see reason and was rash and quick tempered. And she didn't quite like seeing that Winter again.

Moon backed away, looking at him, then Coldshock. "If that's the way you feel," she said, slowly, "Then I'll leave. It's clear you don't want me."

He looked back up at her. "Moon?"

"You said it yourself," she growled, "You don't want any of this. So I'll relieve you of it."

"That's not what I…Moon!" he called after her, but she had already turned and was heading for the door. She almost, almost, stopped and looked back, but a pang in her chest made her keep going. She didn't have to take this from him, not now.

Coldshock looked at her as she left, a concerned look on his little face that made matters none the easier. She left him there; she knew she'd be back sooner or later, but for now she needed to get out of there, to leave Winter to himself and get away from him before they both burst any further. The miserable roar she heard as the door shut behind her only confirmed that.

Who does he think he is? Her mind seethed as she walked down the street, the evening sun setting far away, Does he really think I'm just a lost dragonet? Does he really consider me no more than a bother?

She growled as she walked. It wasn't fair. Not at all. Here she was just trying to do what was best for her—for their—son, and he barely felt like putting any time in at all! It was bad enough he all but ignored her, flying off to be with scavengers all day, but to know he blamed her for it all…it was almost too much for her. She had to wonder if he even cared for either her or their son at all, or if he did it all out of some misplaced sense of duty. After what had just happened, it was hard to think anything else would be the case.

Vaguely, she noticed as she walked the nice streets of the town turning to looser dirt and mud, and in the back of her mind she realized her feet had carried her into the construction area, one of the few places in Sanctuary she was pretty familiar with. Not that she cared as her mind continued to replay Winter's explosion in her mind.

It was only a few stupid scrolls, she snorted, Is all that really worth more to him than Coldshock? Than me? I know after what happened he's been reserved, but three moons! Does he really hate me that much for what happened? Apparently so; he can't even touch me!

She lashed her tail, frustration only growing. It's not fair! her mind screamed, Just when I was starting to feel it was all coming together, this happens. First Qibli, now Winter. Why can't anything go right? Why can't I just be happy? It's just not fair!

Her tail lashed again, then stung as it slammed against something. Moon heard a creaking rumble, a sound loud enough to pull her out of her thoughts enough to take note of her surroundings. Her gaze whipped behind, then rose up, but by then it was too late.

Several of the large wooden beams that were made to support the new homes had been set against one of the unfinished house's supports. Whoever had set them there, however, had done a poor job, as they had certainly been teetering precariously, and were in no means very organized to set up and stay in place. All it would take was something as simple as a lash of a tail to upset them and bring them down, and Moon had done exactly that.

Her mind processed all of that in an instant as she saw them fall, the massive beams coming towards her. Instinctively, she began to scramble away, but there was only time for one or two steps before they were on her. She felt the weight first, pinning her in place and crushing her downward and off her feet. Then she heard the clatter of the beams against each other, the ground, and her. Finally, she felt the pain.

She roared in agony as she experienced a searing, tearing feeling along her right side. She tried to look at her side but couldn't, as the wooden beams pinned her down. But even without seeing herself, it felt bad. Horrendous. Especially her wing. It felt like she'd been trapped in a vice and squeezed until she broke.

She tried to move, and white flashed across her vision as she screamed in pain again. All she could do was whimper, feeling the weight pressing on her more, causing whatever it had done to only hurt more and more and more. She gasped, tears streaming down her face, and the white pain from earlier began to turn to black around the corners of her vision.

"Moon?" she heard a familiar voice, but couldn't give more than a choked sob in response. "Moon!"

She heard clawsteps, and a shuffling. A moment later, part of the weight was off of her. Then more. Soon, she was free, yet all she could do was lie there in agony. She tried to move once, but he sharp pain in her wing dissuaded her.

"Are you okay? Moon? Talk to me, Moon. Please!" she felt cold claws on her body, feeling her for injury. They felt…pleasant. And then she was pulled into those soothingly cool white scales as the other dragon gingerly began to cradle her. "Please be okay," he begged, and she felt something wet fall from his face and onto her, "Please, Moon, be okay."

Almost despite herself, she smiled. It stung to do, but she found herself lifting a claw and setting it on him, the blackness from earlier overtaking his white scales as each second passed.

"You're…you're touching me," she whispered, "I missed that."

That was the last thing she knew as she closed her eyes and the world around her faded into painless unconsciousness.

A/N: This wasn't the easiest to write as a Winterwatcher fan, but it had to be done for the sake of the story.