What would it be like if the Wings of Fire characters were people? Instead of struggling with prophecies, powers, and dragons, they struggle with crushes, parents, and gym class. Instead of having to solve magic problems, they have to solve for X. B...
So. I may or may not have worked 4 months to publish a chapter, Again-- I guess this is just the terrible curse of me being too lazy to make a backlog, but regardless, I have returned, with a new part! And to reward you all for being so patient with me, this chapter is extra long, and has a small surprise drawing at the end ;)
As for announcements, I have quite a few- first of all, as a few of you may already know, I now have a special blog dedicated to my WoF human au drawings! I post pieces there a lot more regularly than I do chapters here, so you can view more fic-related content there (link in my bio). Also, I have an official tiktok now! (@bobatoaster) I have a lot of drawing and art related drafts, so it won't be a WoF account, but I would really appreciate it if some of you guys could follow! Finally, I just wanted to say thank you- as of July 15th, it will have been 1 year since I first published this book, and now, it has more than 55k! I never imagined it would come this far, but I'm forever grateful to you guys. Enjoy!
Moon rested her chin on the windowsill sleepily, watching trees whisk by in blurs of green as the bus drove on. They'd been on the road for almost 3 hours, but she hadn't felt particularly bored yet, despite not being able to sit next to one of her friends- Moon had planned to share a seat with Kinkajou, but in all the chaos of getting on the already crowded bus, she'd been pushed into a seat near the back, far from pretty much anyone she knew. Not that it was important- most of the time when Moon went on long car rides, she preferred reading a book over conversation.
But right after getting on the bus, Moon had realized there was no way she could possibly read in this ruckus- it was nearly as loud as the normal school bus that she took home every day, and although the teachers and the senior volunteer were trying to keep all the students in line...they weren't doing a very good job. Moon had plugged in her earbuds to tune out the overwhelming noise long ago, but the music couldn't do much to soften this commotion-- even through the Lo-Fi pop song playing in her ears she could still hear the popular kids' excessively loud conversations about how amusing it will be to share rooms with each other and bewildered Starflight's orders that students not open the windows or try to throw stuff out of them (she was glad she didn't know the exact context of that one). Maybe most people weren't bothered by this stuff- but to Moon it seemed like every word was piling on top of another, creating some sort of chaos that made her feel trapped.
It wasn't exactly what her mother had once called a "panic attack", but close enough to it was starting to become unbearable- Moon's previous school counselor, a mysteriously tall man with a hatred for strawberries who had only worked there for about a month, was the only one who seemed to understand what was going on in her mind. He'd suggested that she imagine the words as raindrops, slipping away and fading into the background- something that she still used to steady herself when needed. So now, instead of hearing the cacophony of voices or the bus engine roaring, the only thing in Moon's head was the sound of calm raindrops falling to the ground.
Moon awoke a few hours later with the sun shining, rather annoyingly, right in her eyes. She peered out the window and saw that the bus was still in motion, the trees blurring before her as they sped down the road- but the scenery was quite different now. Instead of oaks and maples lining the edge of the highway, the bus was now driving on an excessively bumpy rough gravel path surrounded by tall evergreens- in fact, the forest seemed so dense that Moon could barely see past the original tree line. But thankfully, only a few minutes later, the bus screeched to a stop in a shaded clearing.
She blinked through her still-tired eyes, examining the area outside-- the clearing was rather large, with a two story wooden building on one side bearing a sign engraved with the words "Jade Mountain Lodge". There were numerous activities arranged around it, including a small archery range by a lake, a tetherball pole, and...that was about all? It didn't take a genius to see that the school hadn't really put a lot of money into keeping the students entertained for this trip. But that was fine- with her crazy friend group, Moon guessed it wouldn't be hard to stay occupied.
A few minutes later, everyone had gotten off the bus, and Moon was infinitely grateful she hadn't gotten trampled in the stampede of students- she was surprised at just how warm it was here compared to Pyrrhia, but at least she wouldn't have to be cold while keeping her friends from causing pandemonium. Ms. Kestrel had (unfortunately) also come on this trip, and ordered them to find their roommates- Unlike on the bus, this time Moon was sure she would get to stay with her friends, as she'd specifically asked to share a room with Kinkajou and Peril. At first she worried it would be hard to find them- but just as she was taking her bags out of the bus compartment, she was tackled into a ferocious hug by someone. At this point, Moon didn't even have to turn around to know who it was.
"Oh my GOSH, I cannot believe we're finally here!" Squealed Kinkajou- she was practically vibrating with so much excitement that Moon figured she might light up like a glow stick if she freaked out any more. She returned the girl's smile and looked around to see Peril heading over to them along with Qibli, Winter and Turtle-- Moon probably would have cracked up laughing when she saw them if she wasn't so confused- for some reason, Peril was holding a croc shoe threateningly in her hand- she was sure there must be some sort of story behind that, but was too afraid to ask.
"So, you ready to have the best end-of-year trip ever?" Teased Qibli.
Moon looked down. She held herself back from telling him that she'd never actually been on field trip before- her mother could be rather overprotective at times, and Moon had grown up embracing that fact. Whenever she brought home a permission slip from school back in Florida, she wouldn't show it to her mom or just told her that she didn't feel like going. She didn't miss the disappointment that always crossed her mother's face when that happened, but she'd grown to ignore it.
This year was different, though. For once, she was actually sure she could have fun. Moon smiled widely, not bothering to mask her excitement like she usually did.
"Ready as I'll ever be!"
Again, this chapter had a lot of exposition and was overall filler, but I'm just setting up for the craziness to come ;) And considering that it's now summer break, I'll be able to return to a much more regular update schedule, maybe even one chapter per week! Oh yeah, and here's that small picture I promised--
Way too often I find myself writing Moon as being really anxious or worried, and I recently realized I don't have a single drawing of her actually just smiling. So here, a simple little drawing to go with the end of this chapter :D
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Hope you enjoyed this part, and I'll see you all soon!
