Chapter 19

Moon gave a contented sigh as she walked down the streets of Sanctuary, Coldshock at her side. It had been two days since Kinkajou and Turtle's departure, two days since her outpouring of emotion, and it was only now that she truly felt like she was back to normal. Or perhaps, better than normal.

It was an odd feeling, in the wake of her outburst with her friends. She had known for some time that she wanted to stay in Sanctuary, that she never wanted to go back to the Sand Kingdom, but verbalizing it like she had done had seemed to cement it within her, somehow. Confirmed it completely. There would be no going back to Qibli or returning to the life she left. Her life was here now.

And with that realization had come a change over Moon. As she looked at the buildings and stalls around her, Moon couldn't help but think of Sanctuary as her town. Her home. Not just Winter's, but hers. Her thoughts had been trending that way for some time, especially since she knew that she'd be staying there regardless of what happened when her house was completed (which would be very soon now) and she moved out of Winter's house, but for the first time she found herself certain in that assertion.

Moon was where she belonged.

"Coldshock," Moon said her son's name harshly, chastising him as she caught him veering from her side towards one of the stalls that sold the candies that he liked so much. He looked up at her with pleading eyes, but she just wrapped her tail around his and pulled him on. "If you want sweets, then be a good dragonet and maybe we can get something later today."

That seemed to satisfy him, and the little hybrid rejoined her side without protest.

Of course, the fact that Moon was walking with him so openly was in and of itself a show of that change she felt. Since arriving at Sanctuary, she'd been hesitant to be so out in the open with her son. Sure, they'd been out a few times and she'd taken him to her reading club one or two times, but there was still that lingering doubt and fear over dragons judging her and thinking less of her and Winter. But now…well, by now most dragons that Moon actually knew were aware of Coldshock, and if she was staying in the town it wouldn't do to try to hide him anymore. Dragons would know sooner or later, so she might as well let them get used to seeing them together.

Not that many dragons actually cared. Moon had barely heard more than a passing note of surprise about Coldshock being a hybrid in the minds of the dragons she passed. It was as Winter had always told her: dragons in Sanctuary didn't judge a dragons past, they were all here to escape their own.

"Oh hey, Moon!" a voice called out, and Moon saw Gale approaching her from the other side of the street. The Skywing was followed by Lantana and Current, all three looking tired and dirty. Moon noticed that they were coming from the direction of the construction, which might explain why.

"Good morning," Moon greeted back, not sure if it was even morning anymore. The sun was pretty high in the sky, so it may very well be past noon. "Been working hard?"

"More like hardly working," Current said with a laugh at her own joke. Lantana rolled her eyes.

"Nice to see you and Coldshock out and about," Gale continued, ignoring them, "Haven't even glimpsed you at all the past several days. Everything been okay?"
Moon debated saying something about Kinkajou and Turtle, but she didn't want to put any of her struggles on the Skywing. So, she just shrugged her wings. "It's fine, I guess. I've just been doing stuff at home the past few days."

She notices Lantana raise an eye ridge at her half-lie, and heard some doubt in her mind, but none of the dragonesses questioned her any farther.

"Doing anything at the moment?" Current asked, eyes flickering between her and Coldshock.

"We're talking!" Coldshock jumped in eagerly, causing the Seawing to chuckle.

"Coldshock and I are just taking a walk and visiting the market," Moon answered more seriously than her son. There wasn't too much else to do at the moment.

"We've been out working on the housing project," Gale said, confirming her earlier thoughts. "They're coming along nicely. Should only be a week or two until dragons can move in."

Moon blinked, surprised at that. She'd known that the project was ongoing, but since her injury she hadn't been over there much. Now it was almost done, and one of those houses was to be hers. If she wanted it, of course. Which of course she did. Sanctuary was her home, and she needed a place to live in it.

Even if a large part of her didn't want to leave the place she was already living.

"Well, we're taking a break from work to get a bite to eat," Current told her, "Care to join us? You and Coldshock would be most welcome!"

Moon only had to think for a second before agreeing. She'd come to like these dragonesses from the reading club, and she thought of them as friends—especially Gale. She had no problem with spending time with them outside of the club. If it weren't for her injured wing, she probably would have been out there helping build the houses with them anyway.

Spending time with friends, Moon thought to herself, What a novel idea.

Just one more reason why she felt more at home in Sanctuary in a matter of months than in all her time in the Sand Kingdom.

After a moment of discussion, the four dragonesses picked an eatery (since none had any interest in hunting) and the whole group made their way there. Soon, Moon found herself sitting outside the little Skywing café near the center of town. It was the only one in Sanctuary, which was somewhat surprising since Sanctuary was located within the Sky Kingdom, but even so Moon had not yet had an occasion to visit it.

"Try the roast mutton," Gale advised as Moon looked over the menu, "It's very good here."

"Most of the stuff on the menu is," Current agreed. She looked at Gale. "The chef here is excellent—what's her story again?"

"Cardinal—that's the owner and cook here—used to cook for the queen," Gale informed Moon, "Then that brat Ruby came along. Apparently, she didn't trust Cardinal enough not to poison her with her cooking. Which I doubt she would have done, even if the bi—" she paused and looked at Coldshock, who sat next to Moon, his head barely able to peek over the table, "Even if that worm of a royal deserved it."

Moon tilted her head at her friend, more out of confusion than interest in the story. She hadn't heard Gale like this before, hadn't seen such venom in her mind aimed at Ruby. Then again, she couldn't recall the topic of Sky Kingdom politics ever coming up in their reading club meetings.

"Anyway, getting kicked out of the royal kitchens apparently carries a bit of a stigma," Gale continued. "Either she couldn't get a job or she wanted to start her own business—depends on which story Cardinal's telling that day—and she ended up here. Which Sanctuary is undoubtably the better for, I might add. Skywing cuisine is worth its weight in gold."

"Bronze, maybe," Current snorted an amused snort. "We're practically in the Sky Kingdom. You can catch your native foods whenever you want. No, what I'm more interested in is that little shop over there," she pointed down the street at the Yellow Cod. The Seawing eatery was still under construction and renovation, but it was no surprise that Current of all dragons would want more seafood. "I talked to the owner the other day. He's hoping to be able to get fresh fish delivered straight from the ocean daily."

"Now if only they could get some lizards and camels here," Lantana lamented. Moon realized for the first time there was a distinct lack of traditional Sandwing foods in town.

"That will be good," Moon said, "The Seafood, I mean. I know Icewings like fish, and Winter and I actually have a date planned once it opens."

"Ooooo! A date!" Current squealed, reminding Moon for a moment of Kinkajou (who's memory she tried not to let spoil the moment). "Taking a step forward, are you? Oh, you should go on opening night, Moon! It would be so romantic—like something out of a romance story."

"Too many scrolls," Lantana muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"It's nothing that serious," Moon raised a claw, "We just both want to try it, is all. So we thought we'd make it a little special, I guess."

"Still," Gale grinned, "Like Current said, a step forward. I think it will be good for you two. And for him." She nodded to Coldshock, who was staring intently at a menu that Moon doubted he could read.

Moon had shared the same thought before, but she wasn't going to say that aloud. In truth, she was quite looking forward to the upcoming date, but she didn't want to make it a big deal to anyone else. She and Winter lived together, after all. They ate together almost every day. Certainly, doing so at a restaurant in public would be nothing special.

Right?

Fortunately, both her sudden internal consternation and Gale's ability to comment on the issue further were interrupted by the arrival of their server. Considering that the server was a light brown Sandwing, Moon figured it was a safe assumption that this was not Cardinal, although at a glance she was able to see a large blood-red Skywing working inside. At any rate, the server quickly jolted their orders down. Moon, taking Gale's advice, opted for the roast mutton. She ordered a half portion for Coldshock as well, the small dragonet not needing a full meal.

"So Gale," Moon said once the server was gone, taking the opportunity to speak first and ensure the conversation topic was changed from earlier, "What was that you were saying about Ruby?"

"Oh no," Lantana groaned, "Please don't get her started…"

"I just…I always thought that Ruby was a good queen," Moon said, "I've only ever heard good things about her." She decided not to mention meeting her in person, or anything to do with her and her friend's involvement in Ruby taking the crown.

"Good is highly debatable," Gale snorted, "Although I will say that I'm surprised she hasn't run the kingdom into the ground by now. I'd even say some of her reforms have been decent ideas. But she's not a quarter of the dragon Queen Scarlet was."

Moonwatcher blinked, unable to quite keep from looking at Gale like she'd grown an extra head or two. "Scarlet?" she asked.

"Who else?" Gale said with a roll of her eyes, "Yes, I know she's a bit of a controversial figure, but anyone who actually followed her political actions knows she's not the monster her critics make her out to be. Her economic policies did wonder for the economy, and if we would have won the war and gotten the territory Burn promised—like we would have without the meddling of those pesky Dragonets of Destiny—we Skywings would likely have become the most powerful tribe in Pyrrhia. Because of Scarlet my hometown went from a second-rate backwater barely on the map to a fairly major trade hub, and that alone earned my loyalty."

"But what about the arena?" Moon baulked, hardly able to believe that such a normal-seeming dragon like Gale could support a tyrant like Scarlet, "And all the atrocities that she committed in the war?"

"The war was a war," Gale shrugged, "Plenty of the other tribes did terrible things, too. I would read a list, but I don't have one on me at the moment. As for the arena…it's not as bad as it sounds. Very few prisoners actually took part in it—from what I heard most actually volunteered for a chance to earn their freedom—and most that were had been found guilty of high crimes. I will say that I was never a fan of the arena personally, however."

"They did have good concessions, though," Lantana smirked.

Moon wasn't sure whether to be more relieved that Gale wasn't a fan of the barbarity of the arena or concerned that Lantana seemed to be. She shook her head and frowned.

"It's no use," Current said, looking at her sympathetically. "The rest of us have been over this plenty enough, and Gale is adamant in her beliefs, even with what Scarlet did to King Gill. Ask her about her egg-smashing."

"What about Scarlet's egg smashing?" Moon obediently asked, although the question was as much addressed to Current as it was Gale. She wasn't quite sure what the Seawing meant, aside from maybe the rumors that she had broken the egg of the dragonet that would have been part of the Dragonet Prophecy. That was probably what she was getting at.

"Unsubstantiated lies made to tarnish her reputation," Gale dismissed with a wave of her claw, "Yes, I'll admit she had some failings, but I refuse to believe that she would do something so despicable as killing unhatched dragonets. Those stories and others like them are clearly just propaganda from Ruby to gain support and make Queen Scarlet look bad."

It was clear from her words and thoughts that Gale was not going to be swayed from her line of thinking anytime soon. In fact, she seemed so certain that if Moon hadn't have had her own encounters with Queen Scarlet that proved the stories of her being a sadistic megalomaniac true, she might have doubted that the former Skywing Queen really was that bad. She felt a sudden pang of pity for her friend as she realized that she had fallen for blatant lies and chosen to accept them as truth.

"Is that why you're here, then?" Moon asked tentatively, not sure if it was okay. She knew it was generally frowned upon to ask why a dragon was in Sanctuary, but at this point most dragons she knew had told or implied it to her.

Gale nodded. "I joined the pro-Scarlet resistance as soon as Ruby's coup seized the throne. I was too young to join the actual military at the time, but they allowed me in as a currier. When Scarlet failed to regain the throne and was defeated in the challenge, most of us faced exile or imprisonment. So that's how I ended up here."

"She wasn't the only one, either," Lantana added, "At least a good half of the Skywings in the town are here because they supported Scarlet. Just like most of the Sandwings here supported Blister or Burn and don't want to serve under that desert rat pretender-Queen."

Well that's not fair, Moon internally huffed, resisting the urge to defend Thorn. Sure, Moon hated living the desert, but Thorn herself had always been kind and graceful to her when they'd met.

"Umm…can we get away from politics, please?" Current asked, perhaps picking up on Moon's displeasure, or just growing bored with the conversation (even though she had been helping facilitate it just moments ago). "Have you all read the next chapter of the book yet? I know it's not the meeting but…oh!" Her eyes flickered to Coldshock, "Has he read any? Do you think Coldshock would be interested in joining?"
Moon rolled her eyes. "He's not quite to that level yet," she said, "But on that note, do you have any good dragonet-scrolls in your little library. Any with drawings that would help him learn faster?"

Current's eyes brightened at the suggestion. "Maybe one or two…we can go look after our food arrives."

As if on cue, the Sandwing server arrived with their plates, and the dragonesses fell silent as they dug in. Moon gave a small, amused snort as she ate. Here she was, in a town full of dragons, having a meal with dragons from three different tribes and backgrounds with differing beliefs. By all means, they should hate each other, yet instead they read stories and joked together. If only all of Pyrrhia could be like this.

Plus, it would be worth it just for the exchange of food. Gale was right: the mutton was delicious.

"Letter for Winter. I thought I'd just drop it off now."

Snook—Sanctuary's head of the postal service—poked his head into the room and held out a sealed letter. The Seawing was old and grizzled, with dark blue scales and a perpetual frown coupled with a lousy attitude. Winter was sure he was one of the oldest dragons in the town, but he had never dared ask his age. Snook was good at his job, though, making sure that the letters were delivered promptly and went out on time. Although he mostly worked it part time considering the post was only brought in and sent out every four days or so, as they were at the mercy of the Skywing letter-carriers for all mail coming into or out of Sanctuary.

As it was, Winter himself was in the town's post office with Riptide when the mail was delivered. Riptide had been walking him through yet another important but tedious task of town management—making sure that the delivery worked as it should. While Snook handled most of the task associated with the post, Riptide had felt it prudent to show Winter the list of contacts with the Sky Kingdom and walk him through what to do and who to contact if the mail came late or there were issues of delivery.

"Thank you," Winter said as he took the letter, stuffing it in a satchel around his neck for later. He noticed as he did that the letter was addressed to one "Prince Winter of the Icewings" and bore a variation of the royal seal. He smiled—like as not it was Hailstorm writing to him.

The Seawing muttered a "your welcome" under his breath as he turned and went back into the other room to finish sorting the mail. Winter just gave an amused huff, glad that mail sorting wasn't and wouldn't be part of his responsibilities.

"Snook is rough around the edges, but he's good to work with so long as you stay out of his way," Riptide said, apparently misinterpreting Winter's huff as one of irritation, "He's very particular about things, but so long as it works for him it works for the town."

Winter nodded. "I'll let him continue to handle things, then."

"Good, good," Riptide hummed. He was sitting at a table and reading over a few scrolls to see if there was anything he was missing, having already gone over schedules, contact lists, registration details, and the new application processes. They'd gone through a towering stack of scrolls already (thankfully ones that they filed back in their places and nothing Winter needed to take back home), and by now Winter was beginning to grow tired of the training. It was all just boring administrative stuff, important but hardly riveting.

"Is that all for today, then?" Winter asked, eager to go home. It was about lunch time and he was eager to have a bite to eat, and he was hoping to get to the scavenger sanctuary in the afternoon.

Riptide tilted his head back and forth. "Maybe. Just give me a second…there was something here I was wanting to show you. I think it was in this scroll…"

But whatever Riptide was looking for would have to wait. With a loud bang, the doors to the post office were thrown open and a brown blur rushed in. "Riptide!" the dragon called, urgency in her voice, and it was then that Winter recognized Dragonfly. The Mudwing looked out of breath, and there was a grimace on her face. "I've been looking all over for you. We have a situation."

Riptide immediately dropped the scroll and stood on all fours, as alarmed as Winter was at the sudden entrance of the town's engineer. "What is it?"

"Vigilante," Dragonfly answered grimly, "Just arrived a few minutes ago."

"Son of a shark," Riptide cursed, lashing his tail. Winter felt like cursing too. He thought that the days of having to deal with this were far behind them. "Any details?"
"Dark brown Sandwing," Dragonfly said, leading them out the door and into the street without needing any further prompting. The post office was near the center of town, and Dragonfly took them north down Sanctuary's main street. "Strapped with knives and hard to miss. He's calling out Jackal and clearly wants a fight."

Winter hissed. That was no good. Jackal was a long-standing member of the town, one of the Talons of Peace that founded it, though he had no less a sordid past than many others. Winter glanced around him, looking for any signs of either of the Sandwings in question. Everything looked normal around him, which was good. Whoever was here hadn't disrupted things too much…yet.

"Do you know where Jackal is?" Riptide asked Dragonfly, "He safe?"

"No clue," she shook her head. "Do you need me to get some backup?"

Riptide thought for a second, then shook his head. "I'll try to handle this. If it comes to a fight, we three should be able to take one dragon. Hopefully there will be others around to back us up if things go south, too."

Winter frowned. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

They made their way down the street, the midday sun glaring off the buildings. Winter smelled the thick aroma of meat cooking from a nearby eateries, making his stomach rumble. He shook his head, not allowing himself to get distracted. Once they handled the situation, then he could grab a bite to eat.

Although, as he looked over the streets, he did catch sight of something that caught his interest. Sitting outside one of the eateries that smelled so delicious was none other than Moonwatcher who, along with Coldshock, was sitting with some of her friends from the reading club. She was talking and laughing with them, and she looked rather happy. It made Winter smile, seeing it.

"Jackal! Jackal! Where are you, you Moons-cursed cur?"

…And Winter's mind was brought back to the task at claw as he heard the voice of the Sandwing they were looking for. A moment later he caught sight of the knife-strapped dragon not far down the street, sauntering down it with a confident gate as the drake cast a spiteful glare on every dragon that crossed his path. The vigilante was so dark a brown he could have been mistaken for a Nightwing in poor light, and his voice was as rough and scratchy as gravel.

"I'll give two gold coins to whoever leads me to Jackal," the Sandwing called out, apparently getting nowhere on his own. He snarled and hissed in frustration as he searched for his prey.

"You'll do no such thing," Riptide declared confidently, striding up to the dragon until they were on a few dragons-lengths away. The Sandwing sneered at him, looking all three of them up and down.

"And why's that?" he growled.

"Because this is Sanctuary," Riptide said, meeting the dragon's hostility with an even tone. "By the allowance of all six queens of Pyrrhia, dragons here are protected in all areas concerning crimes or other incidents during the war. If you have a grievance with Jackal, then submit a petition and we will review it to see if it warrants turning him over to the authorities of another tribe."

Unsurprisingly, the vigilante was not convinced. "I don't care about this town's little neutrality gimmick," he hissed, "Jackal killed my brother, and I'm here to see that he pays for it."

"And did this alleged crime occur during the war?" Riptide prodded.

The dark brown Sandwing growled. "Makes no difference, as far as I'm concerned. War or not, my brother died at Jackal's claws, and he's gonna die at mine."

"Nobody is dying today," Riptide said firmly. "Jackal is under the protection of the town of Sanctuary. If you try to face him, you face all of us. And it would not be the first time that we had to fight off dragons coming to make trouble."

At his words, Winter bared his claws and flashed his fangs menacingly. It was a minor show of intimidation, but one that did at least seem to shake a little of the dragon's confidence. Winter risked flickering his eyes towards where Moon and Coldshock were sitting. They were watching on with concern and confusion, although next to them he saw Gale and Lantana standing and baring their claws as well. In fact, most dragons in the area close enough to see what was going on had stopped to watch and back up the head of their town if needed.

For a moment, a look of uncertainty passed over the Sandwing's face before he covered it over with a mask of confidence. He grabbed one of the many knives secured across his flank and twirled it in the air as he lifted the venomous barb on his tail high like a scorpion. "No one else needs to be hurt," he said, "Just point me to Jackal, and we can take care of business without any of you needing to risk your scales."

"Unfortunately, that defeats the purpose," Dragonfly said, taking a step forward, "If we let you seek vengeance against a dragon here, we'd have to let anyone with a grudge come in and make trouble. We can't make any exceptions, understand?"

The Sandwing growled. "I don't care. I did not come all this way just to be turned around by a bunch of pitiful outcasts. Jackal is here, and I'm going to find him."

"If you do, we will be forced to stop you," Riptide told him, his voice not aggressive, but firm. "And even if you hurt or even kill some of us, you will never be able to get to Jackal. You will not have your vengeance, and your death will have been for nothing. Go home. Leave this town and live, and let the dragons here live and face their own demons."

With a snarl, the Sandwing dug the knife in his claw into the dirt. "That's not good enough," he hissed.
"Nonetheless, it's how it must be," Riptide said. "Now, will you make things easy and leave quietly?"

The only reply was the dragon spitting on the ground.

"Very well," Riptide said, his eyes flickering to Winter. "Winter, would you…?"

Winter knew well what he meant. He'd already been preparing his frostbreath, so it was a small matter to open his mouth and begin to summon it in earnest, the cold ice filling his chest and throat, a deadly blast that would quickly put an end to the whole situation. All he had to do was aim and unleash it and…

"Wait!" the Sandwing cried, taking several quick steps back. Winter snapped his mouth shut, taking note of several other dragons in the town doing the same. As he had been preparing his ice, others had been readying their fire, and the vigilante had seen that he would not be escaping the combined blasts.

"Wise choice," Riptide commended him.

The Sandwing growled once more as he continued to slink backwards. "A curse on all of you, you dirty murderer saviors. I hope your pathetic town burns." He spat the words with venom, then took to the air.

Winter watched him go, eyes watching him until the winds took him north of the town. Once the vigilante was out of sight, he gave a sigh of relief. Winter really wasn't looking forward to a fight—he hadn't kept up with his training as much as he should at, and he feared he was little out of practice when it came to combat.

Riptide looked relieved, too. But unfortunately, the job wasn't quite done. "Put up a notice about this in the town square," he told Dragonfly, "We're going to need to organize a patrol for the next few weeks until we're sure he's gone. We don't want him trying to sneak in during the night, or coming in through a back alley, or hiding in the woods for an opportunity to ambush someone."

"Got it," Dragonfly nodded, "I'm sure we'll have no problem getting volunteers."

"Thanks," Riptide sighed. "Jackal will need to stay in town and lay low. I'll let him know about what happened so he can plan accordingly."

"No need. I saw it and heard it," a new voice said, and Winter looked to see none other than Jackal approaching from a nearby store. "Three Moons…I never thought I'd see that dragon again. Hopefully I never will. Thank you for chasing him off, by the way."

"No problem," Winter grunted. Jackal had done the same for many dragons back when the town was just being built.

"Who was the character, if you don't mind me asking?" Dragonfly questioned nonchalantly.

"Dragon from my hometown named Sidewinder," Jackal answered. "In the early days of the war, before the other tribes got involved, his family supported Blister. I supported Burn. When Burn's troops came to establish control of the town, I joined them while he and his brother rebelled. I won't go into all the details, but the death of his brother was in the course of the war, not a murder, although I can't blame him for taking it personally."

"It's nothing abnormal," Winter observed. "Same thing happened with my sister. She killed a Mudwing in a battle, and their sibling took it personally. Almost killed her when she found out."

Winter felt a twinge of longing as he said that. He didn't hear too much about Icicle—even more seldom from her—and he wondered how she was doing. They weren't as close as he and Hailstorm were, but she was family. He missed her.

"Well, I'm glad he didn't catch you alone," Riptide said, "It could have been nasty."

"You don't have to tell me," Jackal shook his head. "And don't worry, I'll be discreet and only go out in groups until we're sure that it's clear. I know the drill."

"Good." Riptide gave him a smile, then a deep sigh. "I tell you, I won't miss this part of the job when I'm gone."

With that, their small group disbanded. Dragonfly went to make the notices and Jackal returned to his business. Thankfully, Riptide didn't feel the need to return to the post office and conclude their (mostly finished) training, and with a last word of thanks left Winter to deal with some other business.

Alone and in the center of town, and with no more emergencies, Winter's stomach growled. He once again noticed the smells of cooked food wafting through the air, reminding him that he still needed to eat lunch.

…But before he could get to that, he was intercepted by a certain Nightwing.

"Winter!" Moon called out, leaving her spot at the nearby café and approaching uncertainly. Coldshock trailed behind her, looking far less concerned. "What…what just happened?"

Winter gave a shake of his head. He was pretty sure that Moon was smart enough to understand the gist of what she'd seen without him needing to spell it out, but all the same she looked rather bothered by the events. Then again, he wasn't sure if she was quite in earshot to make out everything that had been said.

"Just a dragon trying to take revenge," Winter told her, "The very thing that this town is supposed to protect dragons from."

"Does…does this happen often?" she asked worriedly. Winter wasn't sure why—she hadn't exactly done anything dragons would be tracking her down and seeking to hurt her for.

"No, not too often," he answered. "It used to be a regular occurrence, though. Many dragons took Sanctuary as a place for settling old scores, and there were a lot of dragons we had to chase off. Unfortunately, some of those vigilantes got lucky…but none have succeeded in a long time, now."

"I see…" Moon looked down and tapped her tail. "But don't dragons know that everyone here is protected? Legally, I mean. Wouldn't they get in trouble with the queens who sanctioned this town if they attack a dragon here?"

"They should know, and if caught they should face punishment, yes," Winter nodded. "Unfortunately, some dragons just don't care about the consequences."

Moon grimaced. "I guess not."

Winter sighed, the talk bringing some unpleasant memories to mind. There had been a lot of fights in those early days of the town, dragons flying in to try to extract their own justice on dragons just trying to live and leave their lives behind. Dragons like Oryx, the doctor, had frequent attacks, and that particular Sandwing's home had been burned in the night more than once. Other dragons weren't so lucky. It had happened more than once that a dragon was slain before anyone could intervene, or a dragon went into the woods to hunt or get some logs for construction and never came back. There was a cemetery not far outside the city that bore the names of many dragons that had been unable to escape their past in the end. Some of their killers had been apprehended and faced punishment. Many hadn't.

"Well, I'm glad nothing bad happened this time," he huffed, trying to put the memories of finding and burying those towns members out of this head, "Sanctuary needs to be just that—a sanctuary."

Moon nodded in agreement, her eyes flickering briefly to their son.

"Now," Winter said, stretching his wings. "That being handled, I'm off to have lunch, then off to my scavengers."

"Oh, you haven't eaten?" Moon asked, perking up, "Would you like to join us? We were just finishing up, but I still have some mutton you can have, and Coldshock has a few bites, too."

She gestured to the table where Gale, Lantana, and Current sat. The Seawing saw him looking over and gave a small wave of her claw.

Winter shrugged his wings. "Why not?"

He wasn't exactly the closest with the dragons from Moon's reading club—Gale being the only one he'd spent enough time with to call a friend—but from what he knew they were good dragons. If nothing else, they were good to Moon and his son. It certainly wouldn't be bad for him to get to know Moon's friends a little bit better.

Besides, the mutton from that café was delicious.

A/N: Only thing I have to say for this one is that a friend of mine has a story that I helped with called "The Things You Learn" over on Ao3. It was initially posted a while ago, but it should be receiving updates pretty regularly now. If you're interested in seeing a story where Moonwatcher was found and raised by Icewings, go check it out!