Chapter 8

The Fiery Saga: Commence

Moonwatcher

Bandit had seemed so excited to go to Jade Mountain Academy at first. But now that the dragonflame cactus explosion happened, Bandit looked absolutely terrified to take two steps.

"Moon, why are we still here? Please, can we go home to mother?" he pleaded. "Anywhere is better than here!"

"I can't stop you from leaving, but I still have to find out who set the bomb in the history cave," Moon explained to him.

Not that it really matters, but I used to have a cowardly brother like Bandit. Darkstalker commented on Bandit's shaking.

I don't think I remember you mentioning that you had a brother before now. Who was he? Moon asked her ancient friend.

Nobody worth talking about. Just a useless traitor to the NightWings, he was killed shortly after his return to the Night Kingdom though, so it was a happy ending. Darkstalker said.

So, would he exist in the scrolls? Why didn't the animus history scroll mention him? Moon asked Darkstalker.

That's because he wasn't an animus, he would probably be in an IceWing royal lineage scroll though. Darkstalker said, his voice disappeared, he was probably going to spy on other dragons.

Moon walked all the way back to the library and rummaged through the IceWing section for a scroll on the royal lineage.

When she finally found what she was looking for, she unrolled the scroll and looked all the way up to two thousand years ago. The days when Darkstalker was a dragonet.

It began with Queen Diamond of the IceWings, then Prince Arctic and Foeslayer, then their dragonets; Darkstalker, Whiteout and Lightwing.

Fatespeaker appeared around the corner and saw her reading the scroll, her thoughts were always kind and gentle. Aw, it's that shy little dragon, I wonder what she's doing?

Moon nearly answered Fatespeaker's thoughts before she stopped herself. "Hi..." she said instead.

"Hello Moon! What are you doing here? Isn't there some kind of assembly going on in the Great Hall?" Fatespeaker asked.

Moon suddenly remembered that she should be getting there as soon as possible to find out who set the bomb.

"Oh! I'm going!" Moon exclaimed, rushing to the auditorium.

Ever since she'd gotten to Jade Mountain, Moon had been bombarded with the thoughts of so many dragons. But Turtle and Onyx's minds only had a quiet fuzz, and just recently; Bandit and Iceclaw gained this mysterious ability, and her mind reading wasn't getting weaker because Darkstalker was experiencing this phenomenon as well.

When she finally reached the Great Hall, she was greeted by all the dragons in the entire mountain-not Stonemover- standing in one large group, waiting for Clay to start speaking.

An IceWing turned around to see the new arrival. "Oh. Hello Moon, you're late," Iceclaw said and turned back to the dragonets of destiny.

"Hi everyone. I know you're all worried about yesterday's fire." Sunny said. "The school isn't closing, but we understand if you want to leave."

"We're hoping you'll choose to stay. We're asking for two days to find out what happened and who did this," Clay explained.

Moon was conflicted with herself between wanting to leave when she arrived but now, she wanted to stay-despite everything that happened-she needed to catch the dragon who set the bomb.

Qibli lightly nudged her and pointed to Icicle. He was telling her to see if she was to culprit.

Icicle's thoughts revealed that she probably wasn't the dragon who set the bomb, so she moved onto Flame.

His thoughts were very angry, but once again he wasn't the dragon who should probably own up to their crimes, but somehow, he detected a presence in his mind.

The shield around Iceclaw's mind dropped. I truly do hope they catch whoever made the history cave explode, I think it would be beneficial to the brothers and sisters and friends of Jade Mountain Academy, because then I wouldn't have to worry... I wonder where Bandit is...

And just as soon as they appeared, his thoughts went back to hiding behind that quiet fuzz. Iceclaw clearly knows something about this, I'd start with him. Darkstalker suggested.

Moon waited until the assembly had disassembled to approach Iceclaw.

She tried her best to wait until he was alone to be noticed, but somehow Iceclaw knew that she was behind him.

"Hmm... Do you suspect me little Moonwatcher, of being the dragon to kill Bigtail and Carnelian?" Iceclaw turned around, drawing the attention of Winter.

"NightWing, you will leave us alone, we are the nephews of Queen Glacier," Winter snarled.

"Winter, calm down. Moon would just like to have a polite conversation... Isn't that right Moon?" Iceclaw said.

Careful Moon, this could go south very quickly. Darkstalker warned her.

"Yeah... I just realized that you might know more about this than you're letting on... Do you know anything about the bomb?" Moon asked.

Winter looked offended, but Iceclaw looked quite calm. "I know some things... But if we were to discuss them, we would need absolute privacy," he said, giving Winter a glare.

"Fine..." Winter growled, stomping away while grumbling to himself.

"Alrighty, so what is it that you wanted to speak to me about, obviously concerning the dragonflame cactus explosion in the history cave?" Iceclaw asked.

"My friend Qibli is a perceptive dragon, and he noticed that you looked overtly calm when the explosion was happening, did you know it was going to happen?" Moon started by asking nicely.

"You can be honest with me Moonwatcher; I know the truth behind those silver teardrop scales of yours," Iceclaw said. "Which is why I took the proper precautions to combat your abilities."

Moon gasped. "How did you know about them?" she breathed.

Iceclaw took a small black rock out from his pouch, they looked identical to the ones on Turtle's armband. "Would you mind holding this for me?" he asked.

Moon cautiously took the rock, and all the thoughts went quiet in an instant.

"Ahh, now we have complete privacy... Meaning that certain ancient NightWings can't overhear this conversation as it's happening. I read some very old scrolls in the Ice Kingdom that seemed purposefully hidden away, explaining the true powers of the NightWings, and some legends about one in particular of whom everybody thinks is a monster," he explained.

Moon stared at the rock. "What is this?" she asked.

"Onyx calls them Skyfire, it's from the comet that landed six months ago," Iceclaw said. "It has the ability the block the powers of a mind reader, turning the wielder's thoughts into a quiet fuzz.

Now to answer some questions about the explosion, there was a target, but the target was not harmed, the culprit will strike again when the time is right, I also seem to believe that they have siblings in Jade Mountain... Two siblings, meaning that there are three dragons under this mountain who are related to each other, find them, find the culprit and put Jade Mountain back into a state of peace."

Iceclaw gently took the Skyfire rock back from Moon and walked away.

Moon! What did he do?! Darkstalker exclaimed.

List of the whereabouts and status of The Fiery Four: (Last recorded)

Jack: Identity: Lightwing, whereabouts: the lost city of night, status: deceased

Ian: Identity: unknown, whereabouts: unknown, status: unknown

Malcolm: Identity: unknown, whereabouts: unknown, status: unknown

Daniel: Identity: unknown, whereabouts: unknown, status: unknown

Suspects for The Fiery Four: Iceclaw the IceWing and Bandit the NightWing