Listen, And The Stars Shall Speak

Mean Sandwings and Murder

A few weeks into school, our small gang of dragonets was walking through the halls, after another torturous class with Webs.

"Did we really need to write a whole ESSAY on the Scorching?" Ember complained. "No one even cares about that stuff anymore!"

"He'll probably fail us all, anyways." Apple agreed. "He hates dragonets."

"No no no, you're all using the wrong tactic!" Ray explained. "Mea and I write all our essays in Latin. Since he has no idea what we're saying, he assumes it's correct and gives us the best grade!"

"...Seriously?" Haze questioned.

"Yep! I haven't failed an assignment yet!" Ander declared. 

"TEACH ME YOUR WAYS!" Anaconda pleaded.

"Anaconda!" a voice yelled out behind them. "Cy!" They turned to see Willow, Cypress's younger sister, running up to them.

"Hey Willow," Cypress grinned. "How are you liking JMA?" 

"It's nice," Willow offered. "But my Winglet has a really mean Sandwing. I don't like him at all."

"What's his name?" Dawn asked.

"Drought." Haze and Dusk instantly froze.

"Well, maybe you could introduce us to him. Perhaps we could turn him around."

"NO NO NO!" Dusk and Haze exclaimed in unison, earning frowns from the rest of the group.

"Dawn, promise me you will stay FAR away from this dragon." Dusk pleaded.

"Okay?" Dawn insisted, looking confused. Dusk let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey, I heard they got new paint colors in the Art Cave," Willow continued. "Anybody wanna check them out?"

"Sure!" Dawn agreed, instantly brightening. The two girls far off down the hallway. As soon as they were gone, the others slowly turned their attention to Dusk and Haze, awaiting an explanation. 

"Soooooo, who's Drought?" Boysen questioned.

"He's my half-brother." Haze sighed.

"You have a half-brother?!" Permafrost yelled, earning a smack from Haze.

"Not so loud!" The Sandwing declared. "And YES. He's my mother and Prickle the prick's son, and a total jerk."

"He's also my cousin, and very deeply involved in the Sandwing gang my dad used to be apart of." Dusk added. "He could be running it for all I know, now that Prickle's gone. And Dawn, being the only innocent member of my family, has NO idea about my father's past or anything to do with it, so her going anywhere near Drought would be horrible."

"Yeah, whatever happened to Prickle?" Stardust asked. "I mean, we had him, and then all of a sudden he disappeared, and now he's dead?"

"They don't know for sure that he's dead." Ray offered.

"They never found a body." Ander said bluntly. She and Ray exchanged a glance.

"....Okay, you two totally killed him, didn't you?" Haze demanded.

"What!" Ray exclaimed. "No we didn't!"

"You have no evidence of that!" Ander added. Shore, Rin, and Apple gasped.

"Little Ander KILLED someone!?!?" Rin gaped. "I don't know whether to be proud or shocked!"

"I do," Apple declared. "Welcome to the club, Ande! It was getting lonely here with just me."

"Wait....How did you..." Shore looked very confused. Orange leaned over to whisper to Permafrost.

"Ten bucks says Joy helped her." she whispered.

"You're on." Permafrost offered.

"Mother was quite helpful in hiding the body." Ander explained.

"Damn." Permafrost swore.

"MOTHER KNEW ABOUT THIS!" Shore shouted.

"Of course, she was very impressed." 

"Wait." Dusk began. "Wait. So  you're telling me, that my father's evil older brother, who has TERRORIZED my family for YEARS, was killed by you?"

"Yes." Ander confirmed. Dusk stared blankly at her.

"Well." he offered. "....I have a letter to write now." He wandered away, looking confused.

"I don't see why you're all so surprised," Ander insisted. "I've killed dozens of demon stars and various animals before- why is this any different?"

*~*~*~*~*~*

As the others continued to speculate over Ander's murder of Prickle, Willow and Dawn headed out on their own adventure.

They did not go to the Art Cave, naturally.

Dawn had inherited her father's rebellion, after all.

So, Willow helped her locate the mean Sandwing in her winglet, hoping that her friend could make him a bit nicer.

"Hi Drought!" Dawn greeted him. "I'm Dawn!" Drought eyed her carefully, a slow smile growing on his face.

"Well hello Dawn," he insisted. "It's so nice to meet you."