A/N: Welcome back, all, to another chapter of One Single Night. As seems is becoming too common, I'd like to apologize for the wait for this one. It's been difficult for me to find time to write recently, and the whole of October was dedicated to getting out my Halloween story for the year (its called "The Monster in the Rainforest"; I'm pretty happy at how it turned out so check it out if you haven't already). Anyway, rest assured I'll keep working on this, even if I'm not always as timely as I'd like. Enjoy the chapter!

Ch. 10

"You're late."

Winter groaned less at Swallow's words and more at the subtle smirk on the Skywing's face as he entered the scavenger sanctuary. Coldshock was with him, and he hopped off of his perch on Winter's back and rushed forward to greet the other scavenger studier and his pet scavenger. Tulip and Coldshock had gotten along quite well after that rocky start, and soon Winter heard her weird laughing sound as Coldshock nuzzled her.

"I know, I know," he told the Skywing as he yawned, "I had a hard time finding a pair of deer this morning, even though I tried to get up in plenty of time."

"A pair?" Swallow asked, "Felt hungry this morning, did you?"

"Had to get one for Moon," Winter explained, "Should be enough for breakfast and lunch—I'm hoping I won't have to go back until late afternoon. She said I shouldn't have to, but I may need to go check on her around noon."

It had been a week now since Moon's accident, and Winter had been doing his best to try and make sure that she was adequately taken care of. Catching plenty of prey, picking up wares from the market, and looking after Coldshock were just a few of the things that he'd found himself busy with now that he had a flightless dragoness to look after. Not that she was completely helpless, but Winter still felt responsible for what had happened, and he was resolved to make up for it.

Already, though, that was beginning to take a toll on his time in the scavenger sanctuary. He was well behind his reports now (even if it turned out that the ones that Coldshock had shredded were ones that he'd already copied, fortunately), and found himself showing up late and leaving early from his post. Which was already noticeable enough for Swallow to be bringing it up like he was now.

"She's doing better, then?" the Skywing asked, and Winter nodded.

"For the most part, she's fine unless she bumps her wing," he answered, "It's just a matter of her keeping busy at home. Luckily, she said something about a reading club that she has, and that should take up some of her time."

"Ah, that should be good for her, you said she likes reading, right?"

"Yep," Winter confirmed, stepping forward and taking his seat in front of the large windows looking over the scavengers, "Of course, right now I'm more concerned with writing. Have they done anything interesting today?"

"There was a small fight between two males, I think over a mate," Swallow said, "I made a note of it. Funny thing is that after the fight the female seemed to favor the loser, not the winner."

"You think it might be a sign of emotional attachment over instinct?" Winter asked, curious.

Swallow tilted his head, "It's possible, yes. I included a description of the scavengers involved so we can continue to look into it."

"Good, good, that's what I would have done," Winter commended him, "Anything else?"

"Not really," the Skywing shrugged, "Did you get last week's report done?"

Winter sighed. That had been the one he'd been working on when the accident had happened, and he just hadn't had the time to finish it. Not with all the flying around, not to mention the emotional exhaustion. "No…I haven't…"

"I thought that might be the case," Swallow gave a small grin and produced a scroll, "I thought I'd try my claw at writing one. Help you out a little, you know. It might not be up to your standards, but I did my best not to just scribble."

"You didn't have to do that…" Winter shook his head as he took the scroll and opened it, briefly scanning it, "And you know I like to be involved in these things."

"I know, I know," he smirked, "But you also like to be timely. I figured you couldn't be too hot—or cold, I guess—at me for doing it."

Winter rolled his eyes at the Skywing's words as he rolled the scroll back up. "Thank you. I'll look over it and do any edits that might be needed."

"If it's good, I can do this week's, too," Swallow offered, "I've looked over several of yours, and I think I've got the hang of the style you use."

Winter paused, looking at him. This was…a bit odd. Swallow didn't normally involve himself this much in reports. He was always more of an 'idea dragon', as he liked to call himself, and he normally left the harder and more tedious stuff to Winter. In fact, it felt like Winter had practically had to force the work out of him when he'd needed him to do some writing in the past.

"That…shouldn't be necessary," Winter shook his head, "I thought that you didn't like reports."

"Well, it's important to make sure the scavengers get documented," the Skywing answered with a shrug of his wings, "And I don't mind helping when I'm needed."

"Hmmmm," Winter frowned, it seemed like there was something that wasn't being said, "If you're offering because you don't think I can—"

"Riptide stopped by," Swallow said quickly, cutting him off and changing the subject, "You weren't here, but he told me to give you a message from him."

Winter frowned but let the previous issue drop. For now. "What did he want?"

"He said to remind you about a meeting tonight at the town hall," the Skying told him, "He wanted to make sure you could come. Seemed pretty important."

"Oh…yeah," Winter vaguely remembered Riptide saying something to him about a meeting. But with everything that had happened with Moonwatcher it hadn't exactly been at the top of his mind.

"So…what is it about?" Swallow grinned, poking him with his tail, "Anything exciting?"

"I honestly don't know," Winter shrugged his wings, "Could be anything. Probably just an update on the town's affairs, though. I bet it's nothing more than an updated budget to go over."

"Sounds fun," Swallow commented sarcastically, "Glad I don't have to deal with that stuff."

"Well, someone has to," Winter mumbled. Although normally that wasn't him. Riptide took care of Sanctuary well, and he only really got the opinions of the other town leaders (which he insisted Winter was) as more of a formality. For the most part, Winter was content to let that remain how things were.

With that, they settled in and got to work, taking notes on the scavenger habits and behaviors. They were quite active today, which was nice. It enabled Winter some distraction as he engrossed himself in his observation and note-taking. It was a fascinating process, really, chronicling the lives of these other creatures. Sometimes he thought about what it would be like if it were the other way around, and he was the one being studied. He wondered if he'd be seen as interesting at all.

The day began to pass quickly, Winter and Swallow speaking little as they did their jobs. The Skywing left a few times, just for a few minutes to grab something or get a different angle of observation, and so did Winter. It seemed like the scavengers were in the midst of creating a new building of their own, and they wanted to see exactly how they were handling it. Their tool use, if nothing else, was proving outstanding. Almost on par with dragons, actually. It was just more evidence in Winter's growing theory that they were far more intelligent than any dragon gave them credit for, perhaps even himself.

But of course, there was one dragon present who couldn't really care less. Coldshock had alternately napped and played with Tulip as the morning went on, but by lunchtime he was in a different mood. Specifically, a hungry one.

"Foo?" the dragonet said, batting at Winter's tail, "Food?"

It was one of the few words in his vocabulary, but one that he was using increasingly more frequently. Which made sense—he was a growing dragonet, after all.

Winter sighed and set his quill down. He wasn't particularly hungry himself, but he was beginning to learn from experience that as long as Coldshock was, he probably wouldn't be left alone. Even when he firmly told his son "no", it would only be a matter of a few minutes until he came back asking again. It was better to get him some food now so Winter could get back to work.

"Come on," he told the dragonet, standing up, "Let's see if we can't find something for you."

Swallow looked up from his own work as Coldshock squeaked in gladness, "Don't worry, Tulip and I will look over things, won't we Tulip?"

Winter could almost swear that the scavenger rolled her eyes.

"Thanks," Winter told his assistant, "We might be a minute."

"Take all the time you need."

Winter walked outside, Coldshock following at his side. The hybrid tried to climb atop him, no doubt expecting to fly back home for lunch, but Winter set him back down. Coldshock tilted his head in confusion and whined.

"No, we're not going back into town to eat," Winter told him, "We're going to the stream."

Coldshock blinked. "Stree?"

Winter chuckled. "Come on," he motioned for his son to follow and began to walk along the wooden wall that kept the scavengers inside. Coldshock bounded after him, eager at first but growing more timid the farther they got from the familiar observatory. He held closer to Winter as they entered a thicker part of the woods, and Winter wrapped his tail around his son's. "Don't worry, we're not going far."

About ten minutes later, they reached their destination. The stream was a relatively small waterway that flowed into the sanctuary proper, emptying into the small lake that the scavengers built their homes next to. It was also one of the weak points in sanctuary's barrier, as the containment wall could not be completely closed at the base. As a result, Winter had done his best to limit the gap size by using wooden planks similar to iron bars in a prison cell, making gaps large enough for water to flow through but not big enough for scavengers to slip through. It still wasn't perfect—a lot of debris got stuck in it, for one thing—which is why he liked to check here periodically and make sure it was still working. He was pretty sure that the only scavenger to have successfully escaped had exited this way, after all.

But right now, he hadn't come to check on the barrier (although he did take the opportunity to do so). No, he came because it was time to teach Coldshock another important tenant of being a dragon: fishing.

He turned and looked at his son as they stopped on the edge of the shallow embankment. Coldshock looked at him curiously, then around at the water in front of them. He approached and peered into it, tilting his head as he beheld his reflection in the water. The hybrid took a drink, then sat down on his haunches and looked at Winter expectantly.

"You've gotten better at hunting and pouncing," Winter told him, although he didn't know how much his son understood. It certainly seemed like he usually comprehended what Winter said, but he was still practically a hatchling, after all. "Now I want you to learn how to catch a fish. It's pretty easy to pick up on, and you should do fine if you just trust your instincts."

Coldshock just blinked, looking up at him with wide emerald-green eyes.

"Just watch," Winter turned himself away from him and towards the stream, reaching his long neck over the bank and peering into the river. He was facing the sun so that his shadow fell behind him, and he held himself motionless so that his prey would not grow skittish.

He didn't have to wait too long. Soon enough a good-enough sized fish swam past near the surface, and as soon as it drew close he struck, lunging forward and clamping his teeth down and into it with a splash. Triumphantly, he lifted his head back up, the fish still flopping in his jaws, and looked to Coldshock who himself was looking at Winter eagerly.

But Winter did not share his kill. Instead, he dropped it to the ground and began to eat it himself. Coldshock approached and whined, clearly wanting some, but Winter just looked at him and motioned towards the stream. "Catch your own."

Of course, Winter had no intention of eating the whole thing and robbing Coldshock of a meal should the hybrid fail, but his son didn't know that. So, with a hint of dejection, Coldshock turned to the stream and began to imitate what he'd just witnessed his father do. A few moments later, he launched himself into the water only to come up sputtering and empty-taloned.

"You need to be patient," Winter instructed him, "Let them come to you, not the other way around."

Again, Winter didn't know exactly how much of what he said Coldshock actually understood, but undeterred his son waded back to the shore and readied to try again. This time he did wait longer, but again his efforts were in vain.

The hybrid looked at him and squeaked pitifully, which was almost enough to get Winter to give him the rest of his own fish, but he steeled himself and simply told Coldshock to try again. His son needed to learn, after all. If he failed a couple more tries, then Winter would share.

He snorted to himself. What would Narwhal think? He wondered to himself, He never shared. Winter could still remember those lessons in the Ice Kingdom, his parents teaching him the lessons of survival. He probably wasn't much older than Coldshock was when they first dragged him out into the icy sea to catch his first seal. And for him, it was catch one or starve for the day. He'd spent a lot of days hungry.

He clenched his claw at that thought. Even for Icewings, that had been severe. He remembered Queen Glacier berating Tundra about it, but his aunt ultimately had no say in how they raised their dragonets. He wished she would have, but there had been no help for him.

But he wouldn't have to put his son through that. He didn't want to. Perhaps he didn't really know how to be a parent, but he supposed he knew from his own upbringing how not to be one. Maybe, just maybe, he could be everything for Coldshock that his father never was for him.

He was distracted by another splash, and Coldshock rose from the water with a muffled squeal of glee. There in his mouth was a fish. A small fish—not much bigger than a minnow—but a fish nonetheless. And Coldshock looked at him with pride as he swallowed it down.

"Excellent job!" Winter praised him, and would have offered the rest of his fish to satisfy the rest of Coldshock's hunger that the morsel would not have sated, but before he could Coldshock was back to his spot on the back, eyes scanning the water, his tail lashing back and forth eagerly behind him as he prepared to repeat his success.

Winter just smiled, watching his son work and grow.

"Moonwatcher! Come in, come in!"

Moon was greeted by an excited Current only a moment after she knocked on the door, the Seawing eagerly welcoming her into her home. She shifted awkwardly, not too sure what to expect and still a bit nervous as to what others might think of her, but after a moment's hesitation accepted the invitation and stepped inside.

She was met by a number of familiar faces sitting on cushions in the main living area, the place already moderately crowded. Moon scanned the dragons present, quickly realizing that the extent of the reading club that she'd come for was pretty much the same group of dragonesses that she'd been with when she helped with construction. Gale was there, as was Willow and even Lantana, who Moon hadn't exactly pegged as a reader. Really, the only one that she didn't recognize was a much younger Mudwing that sat close to Willow.

All of them had been talking amongst themselves when she'd arrived, and an uncomfortable silence fell as they all turned to look at her. It was always an odd and unpleasant experience, hearing minds racing but not a peep in her ears. She swallowed and slowly raised a claw to waive.

"Hi."

"Moon!" Gale was the first to speak, standing up, "I'm glad you're here! I wasn't sure you were coming."

"Well, Current invited me," Moon shrugged her good wing, "And she tracked down where I was staying to make sure I knew the meeting time."

"Of course she did," Lantana huffed.

"I was a bit worried after you didn't show up to help any more with the building, though," Gale continued, then seemed to notice for the first time the wrap around her wing. "I take it that's why…?"

"Yeah…" Moon rubbed her arm nervously. She hadn't exactly been going around telling people the specifics of what happened, and up until now had mainly just kept to herself to recover. She also hated coming off as clumsy or hotheaded, and she also didn't want to accidentally imply that it was Winter's fault and hurt his reputation. Aside from Current, who had sought her out, she'd not talked to anyone she actually knew since the whole incident happened.

"So, what happened?" Willow asked, echoing the inevitable thoughts of all of them. They all seemed pretty curious, and a little concerned, which was nice even though Moon didn't really want to answer.

"I had an accident," she said vaguely, "I was at the construction site and some beams fell on me. Broke my wing. But not too badly!" she spoke the last part quickly at their concerned expressions, "I should be able to fly once it heals."

"That's horrible," Current shook her head, "That you got hurt, I mean. I'm glad you're okay!"

"Yeah," Willow agreed, "Dragonfly almost got crushed by a beam once. They hit you just right—or wrong, I suppose—and it's all over."
Lantana grunted in agreement.

"That's what I've been told," Moon nodded, then decided to change the subject away from her injury, "So who's this?" she asked, nodding towards the other Mudwing that sat next to Willow, "I don't think I've met you, have I?"

"Oh, this is Cordgrass," Willow said, "My sis. Cordgrass, this is Moonwatcher. I know I mentioned her to you."

Moon couldn't help but blink in confusion at that. Among the other dragonesses that she'd worked with, she'd been the clear youngest by at least a year. But Cordgrass looked to be a good two years younger than her, maybe three. Moon found it difficult to believe that she was hatched in the same clutch as Willow.

"Your sister?"

"My little sister," Willow gave a bit of a smirk and nudge the younger Mudwing with her wing, prompting Cordgrass to roll her eyes.

"But don't Mudwings…you know…" Moon asked, not sure if it was quite proper for her to ask.
"It is a bit confusing," Gale told her, apparently knowing the story.

"Not really," Cordgrass mumbled, her first words since Moon arrived.

"All my siblings from my original clutch were killed in the war, save for Dragonfly, of course," Willow told her, "Cordgrass was from our same mother, and her siblings were killed in an attack by the Seawings before she turned two. So Dragonfly and I made her a part of our own sib group—we are technically siblings, after all."

"As far as other dragons are concerned, at least," Cordgrass sighed, looking a bit grim at the story.

"It's how we ended up here, in Sanctuary," Willow went on, "It's easier to be in a town where you're not looked down on for having a different sib. Plus, Dragonfly got the nice job as the town planner and builder."

Lantana huffed. "Must be nice, coming here by choice."

"Oh, come now Lantana," Current shook her head, "You still chose to come here. I mean, you didn't have to pick Sanctuary."

The Sandwing just rolled her eyes, unamused.

"I mean, look at Gale!" Current continued, "She doesn't complain."

"Well Gale's still practically in the Sky Kingdom," Lantana countered, "The closest sand to here is on the shore of the eastern ocean, and that's a far cry from the desert!"

"So, I'm a Seawing far from the sea?"

"But you still have rivers and lakes to swim in, gill-neck."

Moon just stayed silent, watching the exchange as the Seawing and Sandwing bickered, not sure if she should try to make a comment. The dragons seemed welcoming enough, but Moon was still the outsider here, knowing less about the other dragons than they knew about each other. And she didn't want to just use her mindreading to learn all she needed to, even if she was already getting bits and pieces from them.

Slowly, she walked around them and over to Cordgrass, greeting the younger dragoness with a smile. The Mudwing returned it and shifted, inviting her to sit on the cushion next to her. Moon accepted, settling herself down. The young dragoness seemed like a quieter one by nature, her mind more reserved. Calming, even.

"They always like this?" she asked Cordgrass.

Cordgrass just shrugged her wings.

"Anyway…" Gale finally spoke up, stepping between Current and Lantana, "Aren't we supposed to actually be doing something right now?"

"Yeah, yeah," Lantana huffed, while Current lit up.

"Oh! Yeah! The scrolls!" Current rushed into a different room and came out with three or four in her talons. "We have a few options to choose from for our next story. As always, we'll put it to a vote."

Willow looked over and caught Moon's eye. "We just finished our last scroll at our last meeting, before the construction started. You'll be starting fresh with us."

"Current told me that was the case," Moon nodded as the aforementioned Seawing passed the scrolls out for them to look at. They went first to Gale, who gave them to Lantana. The Sandwing scowled as she looked them over, then passed them on to Willow.

"More Seawing stories?" Lantana asked, "Our past four have all been Seawing. Why can't we have any Sandwing scrolls?"

"Or Skywing scrolls?" Gale agreed, to Moon's moderate surprise, "We Skywings have excellent literature."

"I've told you before," Current sighed as Moon received them for herself. There were three of them there: The Lost Princess, The Lonely Island, and Seven Leviathans. All were clearly authored by Seawings—two were by Queen Coral herself. Which backed Current's explanation of the situation: "Coral has had so many scrolls mass written during her reign, it's very easy to get my claws on multiple copies. A lot of times they're practically being given away."

"I wonder why?" Lantana mused sarcastically.

"Well, if you want something different, you can spend the extra silver to get five—now six—copies yourself!" Current huffed.

"Well, I for one don't mind the Seawing stories," Willow said, "Thank you, Current, for getting them."

Cordgrass agreed with her sister and Moon, not having much opinion on the subject, nodded along.

"It might be worth it, though, for a few of our good Skywing scrolls," Gale thought out loud. She turned to Lantana. "Let's talk later; maybe we can get a plan going."

"Anyway…" Current said loudly, interrupting that, "What do you all think?"

Moon glanced down at the scrolls that were still in her claws. The Lost Princess was one she'd heard a lot about (it was practically the story about one of her teachers back at Jade Mountain, after all), but she had never read it herself. The Lonely Island appeared to be a tale about a Seawing who got washed far out to sea in a storm, taking refuge at and living on a small island far from shore. Why he couldn't just swim back Moon didn't get, but it looked interesting.

The last scroll, Seven Leviathans, looked pretty dense. It was a much longer scroll than the others, and appeared to almost be more a philosophical discourse than a narrative story. She found it hard to get a good feel of it, but it definitely did not give off the feeling of being just leisure reading. All the same, she found herself intrigued.

"I think The Lost Princess would be good," Cordgrass suggested, and Gale chuckled.

"Of course you do. Didn't you vote for it the last couple of times?"

"And it was never picked!" the Mudwing complained, "So I'll vote for it again."

"I'm almost tempted to agree, just to get it over with," Willow said, "But I vote for The Lonely Island."

The others casted their votes, and it was indeed The Lonely Island that won. Moon herself decided to vote for Seven Leviathans, but she was the only one that did so. Current took the scrolls from her and went back to the room she'd retrieved them from, then came out with a bundle of new ones in her claws, each a copy of the chosen story.

"You have a lot of scrolls, I take it?" Moon asked as she was given her copy.

Current's response was a chuckle. "A lot is an understatement. I barely have the room for them all, and it doesn't help that I have all the extras for the group."

"Do you own them all, or do you get them from a library?"

"Sanctuary doesn't have a library," the Seawing answered, "I wish it did, though."

"The closest thing is probably Current's room," Gale added, "Might as well make this place the town library."

Current shrugged her wings. "I could probably be okay with that."

Moon laughed along with the others, then looked down at the scroll in her claws. She opened it slightly and glanced over the first few lines. It might not have been what she'd voted for, but it did look like a rather good story. Even if it was by Queen Coral, who's work Moon had heard…middling reviews about, to put it mildly.

"So, how does this work?" she asked the group in general, "Do we read here, or…"

"We take them home," Gale answered, "We generally read two or three chapters before meeting the next week and discussing them."

That made enough sense to Moon. It was how she'd heard some clubs operate, although she'd never gotten the chance to partake in one. Hardly any Sandwings she knew in the desert cared about reading at all, and even then Qibli would never have been very keen to let her go off by herself. So instead, she'd just stayed cooped up and hidden away in the palace, practically a prisoner in a kingdom of sand.

She may as well have had a broken wing there, too.

"So, do we just want to do that?" Lantana proposed, "Take two chapters to start?"

"The first one looks short," Willow pointed out, looking the story over herself, "We should do three."

"Sounds good," Gale agreed, and the rest did too. Moon just stayed more or less silent, content to let the others voice their opinions. She wasn't about to speak too loudly or push anything her first meeting. Best to ease into it, she figured.

"At least they all look pretty manageable in size," Lantana said, "Remember that one we read a while back? With the talking scavenger. What was that called?"

"Wasn't it 'Big and Small', or something like that?" Cordgrass proposed.

"Large and Little! That's what it was," Gale exclaimed, "Its chapters were sooo long. I forgot to read one time and it took me practically half the night to get the two chapters done. And the writing in them was tiny."

"It really was," Willow agreed, "And I still think the story wasn't so good. The talking scavenger was annoying."

"Agreed," Lantana huffed, "What kind of an author thinks that having talking primates in an otherwise straightforward world full of dragons is a good idea?"

"I mean, it could work, I guess," Gale shrugged, "But not as main characters."

"Of course, that's far from the only problem," Lantana went on, "I felt the ending just didn't live up to the set up. I'm still kind of angry that…"

Moon didn't really pay too much attention to the rest, although she did still listen. She'd never heard of the scroll they were talking about, but it was clear that they were passionate about it, or at least stories in general. They all clearly liked reading, and that connected them despite their differences in tribes and backgrounds. And so even though she had no real idea about the specifics being talked about, Moon found herself smiling and laughing as the discussion continued.

If nothing else, it felt good just to be a part of something. And Moon liked it.

A/N: I'd to give a thanks to fellow author MaybeBirb for doing some proofreading on this chapter, as well as a few previous ones and short stories. If you're not familiar with his work, it's worth checking out.