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Chapter 5:

It was only a short time ago when Watchful visited the Rainforest for his work. He'd meet Charming, a green-orange Rainwing running his own farm deep inside the forest. Well, he had claimed it as his own but the Rainforest was so abundant with fruits that no one objected when he told the Queen he'd keep and harvest a specific corner of the forest. So he had just put a few marks around the plants he grew, and a small board on trestles where he presented some of his best fruits, if anyone wanted to buy them. Which, of course, didn't work much since most of the Rainwings were content with the free Rainforest fruits.

Not that he cared much about selling locally as he often traveled throughout Pyrrhia and brought his fruits to far away corners where other tribes sought out his produces. Within a few months, he had dragons coming knocking at his door, eager to sell for him all over the continent. Watchful was one of his most trusted seller and he had refused to deal with anyone else when it came to the Ice kingdom.

He had met him when Watchful was still in Possibility, the hybrid dragon sometimes enjoyed walking around the market and he became very curious when Charming installed his tent in a secluded corner. The Rainwing seemed quite confident in his goods and didn't feel like he had to yell out loud about their freshness like the other merchants. His store was one of the shiniest and most colorful, so it quickly got the shopping dragons attention. The few who could afford bought some of his fruits and very soon through word of mouth, he was out of fruits to sell.

Watchful had approached the stand curiously. The black and white dragon stood halfway in his own world with his headset over his ears. He walked to him as if he was treading on thin ice, his eyes regularly darted around, almost expecting someone or something to jump on him at any moment. And just as quickly as he had been studying his environment, he closed his eyes and relax, appearing to walk normally again. He nodded imperceptibly at Charming and smiled as the Rainwing orange spots turned to a soft blue. Watchful remembered it meaning that the dragon was curious about him.

Charming pointed at his own ears with his talon while mouthing something at Watchful. He slowly pulled out his headset and presented it to the Rainwing.

"H-hi, s-s-orry, I li-k-ke to cut-t the sou-ounds arou-round m-m-me..", Watchful tried to hide the pain he felt while doing his best to have a conversation.

Charming's scales turned a little dull and then so quickly back to his usual self that Watchful hardly noticed the change. The Rainwing showed him his talon wide open as if to ask him to wait and dove under his table. He blinked and heard sounds of foraging through bags for some times. Watchful felt confused and a bit annoyed, he had wanted to tell him that it wasn't his fault if he spoke this way and that it was so rude of him to ask that he stops and... His mind was still trying to come up with reasons to be mad at the Rainwing when Charming raised up with his frills shining in a bright pink color and some things in his talons that he held away for Watchful to take.

He looked dumbfounded at the Rainwing then at his talons. There was some kind of book and an ink bottle. It took a few moments before he gently reached for them, and then his mind was suddenly empty, all the thing that he wanted to be mad about were gone. He wasn't really sure how to react, but the Rainwing felt so confident in his attitude and mind that he wanted to trust him no matter what. In that brief instant, he just wanted to trust him more than anything in the world without question. Such a peaceful mind, he thought.

"Please take this, it will make things easier for you", Charming finally said in what sounded almost like a warm whisper that only a close friend would do.

"Th-thank you." Watchful hesitated again.

He put the book on a corner of the table and opened the bottle, it was a nice purple with shiny reflections. He went to dip his claw in the ink when the Rainwing pressed something under his nose. He jerked his head back a bit in surprise, looked again at Charming who was smiling and pinker than ever before and then curiously stared at the new device offered. It was a long and thick fruit stem.

"Use this," he said, "it will be nicer than actually dipping your claw in the ink."

Watchful cocked his head and awkwardly grabbed it in his talon. It fell naturally in a position where the tip was angled towards the paper but not straight down, the stem has a pointy tip with nice curve underneath that when dipped in the ink, it would suck up some of it like a little reservoir. Watchful felt very dubious about this but pressed the tip on the paper nonetheless. A small dot of ink appeared on the paper, much smaller than any talon would be able to make. He slowly started to write something down. His scribbling was very hesitant at first and the ink trait was discontinued here and there but the feeling of the stem scratching on the paper felt really good. His first words were "Thank You!" that he proudly showed to Charming.

The Rainwing nodded with a smile, his now blue spots flashed pink.

"I'm sure you will get used to it in no time.", he approved

"Wh-why ar...", Watchful stopped mid-sentence and blinked then proceeded to write down his question when Charming stopped him.

"I've heard of your speech problem so I'd thought you might enjoy that."

Watchful gave him a scared look, who knew about him? Was someone after him? And why this dragon knew about him?

"Oh no, not like that, I don't know you specifically! Turns out I have a friend who's a doctor and they often tell me about the things they discover or work on.", quickly spurted Charming when he saw the other dragon face, "Sometimes a bit too much if you want my opinion but don't tell her I said that!" he winked.

Watchful could feel his heart racing in fear, he couldn't stop his eyes from looking around in case some dragon was hiding in a corner like a stealthy assassin who would want to kill him for whatever reason. He instinctively grabbed his headset and put it back on, his talon slowly slid along his left ear as he closed his eyes. He breathed deeply.

The silence fell around him. The world disappeared. And as his voice raised from a low grumble, so did his fears. His body stopped trembling. His vocal undulations made the ground vibrates. He slowly modulated it into a note that sounded as bright as the sun. Slowly, he started to sing as if he was hearing some sort of music that no one else could. A few dragons stopped what they were doing to stare at him.

The words he sung were beautiful even if they didn't seem to make sense. But at that very moment, Watchful didn't care. He was just singing. Singing for himself. Singing his favorite song.

_"Juste quelqu'un de bien,

Quelqu'un de bien,

Le coeur à portée de main~"_

He finished the song in a whisper and opened his eyes. He had managed to push his fear deep inside again. He was much calmer now. Charming's pinkness has grown to his whole face, he nodded approvingly. Watchful was about to walk away when the Rainwing handed him the book, the stem and the inkpot as well as a few fruits in a bag. He whispered "See you next time!" with a big smile.

This was certainly the most awkward encounter he had ever have in a long time. He looked down at the bag hanging from his claws. He certainly would come meet Charming on the next market day.

Over the course of several months, he would work on his writing every evening, Charming brought him new ink and stems whenever he needed them. And then, each time, he'd spend almost the whole day at his store until the day he mentioned he would have to move to the Ice Kingdom. The Rainwing didn't seem surprised nor did he ask for an explanation. Instead, he asked him if he'd like to be his reseller there as he had yet to find someone interested in doing so. Watchful agreed after some reflection as he really didn't have much plan for what to do once there.

Since then, Charming had invited him to visit his farm in the Rainforest. He was a bit wary at first, he hadn't been there since his childhood but it turned out the plantation was far away from the Nightwing village and the few he met there didn't seem to remember him. At best, all he got from the others were in the likes of "what a peculiar looking dragon...". Charming had explained that very few Nightwings were interested in working with plants, most of them were more into construction,; inventing devices and rules, or writing more scrolls.

It took a few visits until Watchful felt confident enough to ask the Rainwing why was not afraid of him. He had made sure they were alone before asking.

"You mean like your look? What is it to me if you look like a mango or a penguin? You're a good dragon, you shouldn't worry what others think, even when you can hear their thoughts."

And that was that.

Charming had refused to say more about it as he felt like there was nothing more to add to it. He had felt in his mind that he held him with respect and as a friend, which he wasn't sure how to reciprocate.

That day, he had almost came straight from the Ice Kingdom, as he didn't feel like stopping for a rest at Possibility. He landed right next to the farm and walked around, he had grown used to all the fruits there and thanks to Charming, he had grown a very keen eyes on which he knew would grow as the tastiest. The Rainwing often jokingly complained that he was stealing the best fruits for the Icewings and that he should never had taught him to recognize them.

In the corner of his eye, he noticed a couple Rainwings discussing about a blind dragonet who seemed to be in everyone's mind. They went in great length to repeat what news others had spread, that she had unknown powers and that no one really understood what she was capable of. There was even a rumor that claimed she could see Rainwings even when they were hiding and that they were glad she wasn't from an enemy tribe.

Charming confirmed to him what he heard about that dragonet. And continued to explain that she was quite peculiar, but also a very typical Nightwing in that she wanted to have all the scrolls she could find read to her. He went on how another older blind dragon, a Rainwing, took her under her wing and helped her to learn to find her way in the Rainforest.

Watchful made sure to retain every bit of information about her. Could she be one of them? He would have to find out.

---

His errands first got him to stop at the Jade Mountain Academy, as it was storming with dragons from all tribes. He could see so many of them including a few hybrids too but no one like him. He tried to ask his way to Sanctuary but the words wouldn't come out. It was like each one of them was traveling along a road lined up with boulders and that it hit every single one of them.

Other dragons looked at him puzzled at first but no one really had bad thoughts, either they were growing irritated or just annoyed at his inability to speak normally.

One of them invited him inside to meet with StarFlight hoping the librarian could help figure out his condition. Watchful had a look of horror when he saw that he was going to be presented to a Nightwing, he tried to escape but bumped in the dragon who was walking beside him and the pain immediately knocked him down. He fell on his side and cried. It was like a thousand thorns had been shoved into his wing at once.

The red dragon panicked and nudged him on the side doubling his pain. Watchful eyes watered and his mind became fuzzy. He couldn't even hear the others gathering around him through the pain. Heavy talonsteps approached quickly and someone lifted him gently. After a moment, he was lowered onto a soft surface and a warm cover was draped over him making his pain subside a little. As tears dried down on his face, he fell unconscious and didn't wake up until the next morning.

A couple of large dragons were watching him, a large Mudwing and a much leaner Nightwing. He almost jumped out of the bed until he noticed that the Nightwing had a bandage over his eyes.

"Hi little one", said the Mudwing softly.

"Hi", repeated the Nightwing

He looked at them and nodded some, too afraid to say something.

"You are safe here, you're at Jade Mountain Academy", the Mudwing smiled.

He pulled the blanket halfway over his head and felt something attached to his wing and when he tried to stretch it, it felt like it was firmly pinned down. It didn't feel cold at all, but it completely restrained it. The pain in his wing was nowhere near as unbearable as it was the previous day. He tried to look at it but could barely get a glance at what seemed to be wood planks encasing his wing.

"It's OK," said the Mudwing holding his wing down gently, "your wing will be fine now, we had our doctor look at it and you will soon be able to fly again."

Watchful looked at him, blinked and stopped struggling, laying down again, he was still confused and tried to make sense of what happened.

The dragons took a couple steps away and started talking with their back turned to him.

"What do you think we should do, StarFlight?", whispered the Mudwing "I don't know, really. I have sent Fatespeaker to the Nightwing Village to see if we can locate his parents but I'm not sure if we will have any answer." He paused for a while and the Mudwing turned his head at Watchful. The dragonet blinked again.

"Oh little one, I'm really sorry. Why did your parents keep you there when the Icewings and the Nightwings still hate each other so much... You may not look like him but you're certainly a reminder of their most hated evil dragon... Why did you have to hatch in those times?", the brown dragon either didn't notice Watchful's silver teardrop or he wouldn't have had that those thoughts so close to him.

Watchful turned in the bed and pulled the blanket all the way over his head. The plank around his wing hit the wall with a thunk but there was no pain.

When he woke up again, it was the middle of the night and no one was in his room. He looked around, it was a rather small room with a table in a corner surrounded by shelves full of scrolls. On the opposite wall to his was another bed. He imagined that those were the school dormitories and he was put into an empty one. He slowly got up, his wing didn't hurt for the time being but it did feel numb. He wasn't sure what they did to it except for the restrainer around it. He will have to find a way to remove it but for now, he needed to escape.

That Nightwing was about to tell everyone about his presence here and he was not going to be there waiting for them. What would they do to him if they find out he is there? Throw him from the cliff again?

He looked outside the room carefully, everyone seemed asleep and there was no one to guard his room. He trotted in the hall quickly, he was not going to let that opportunity pass.

But which way to go? He barely could read yet and the path felt like a maze. Once again, he would trust his instinct and chose a path to follow, surely it wouldn't be as hard as finding Possibility, would it?

After a while, he arrived at the library. He hadn't encountered any dragon so far so he was shocked when he heard talonsteps and tried to hide but the place was devoid of anywhere to conceal himself. He looked around frantically and in the blink of an eye, decided to run right into the library between the giant shelves. As he ran, he looked back to check if he was being followed but didn't notice the large dragon in front of him. He bumped into them and tumbled on the ground, scrolls falling on his head.

"Ouch!" yelped the black dragon, she tried to hold onto the scrolls in her talons but a few got away.

"Oooh... I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to drop anything on you..." she apologized.

He looked up and took a couple steps back, he was about to run away again when she pulled him up and gathered the scrolls. She looked at him for a bit as if she was deciding if she wanted to help him or punish him.

"You must really love reading if you are running into the library at night...", she smiled.

"Y-yes..?" he mumbled.

"Oh good! I'm Fatespeaker by the way, you must be the new kid who arrived today.", she brightened.

Watchful wasn't sure how to react, did she not see he was an Icewing/Nightwing hybrid? Did she not notice his wing either?

"Sooo, what do you want to learn tonight, little one? I will try to help as much as I can, I'm afraid I might not be able to answer as much as StarFlight but he is asleep right now and I don't feel like waking him up, he had had a long day today so I hope you understand."

She was talking so loud, he thought the whole Academy would wake up but not a single sound came from outside the library. Fatespeaker mindlessly rearranged the scrolls and put them back into place while waiting for his answer. He wasn't sure he wanted to tell her what he wanted to do so he tried to think of a way to ask without raising her suspicions.

"D-do you ha-have a m-map of P-Pyrrhia?", he asked slowly

Fatespeaker raised an eyebrow as if she wanted to point something out but nodded and pulled one of the largest scroll and unrolled it on a table nearby. Watchful stared at the map and back at Fatespeaker.

"Oh... sorry, I guess you don't know how to read, am I right?" she asked gently.

He shook his head. He wished he did, it would be so much easier to not have to tell others about what he wanted to do. Luckily for him, Fatespeaker was quick to proceed and showed him all the places on the map, so all he had to do is remember where she pointed at.

"So, this is Jade Mountain and that's where we are right now, this is the Rainforest, where the Nightwings and Rainwings are, This is the Mud kingdom...", she went on for a while going all around the map pointing each kingdom with each big place that she knew about. She seemed to enjoy it way more than he did but he wasn't going to stop her. Eventually she reached Possibility and Sanctuary. I need to remember those places, at least I was going in the right direction when I left the Rainforest, he thought.

He pointed at the map after she finished.

"C-can I ha-ave i-i-t, p-please?"

"Oh... well, not that one but there's a smaller version here.", she turned around and grabbed another scroll and gave it to him.

She reached out for a second one and put with the first one.

"And here is the alphabet so that you can start learning how to read but don't tell StarFlight, he thinks dragonets under a certain age are too young to learn how to read."

Watchful blinked and looked down at the scroll. He put them both on the table and reached for the pouch that he carried with him. He was glad that no one had taken it from him when he was asleep. The second one he unrolled and looked pleadingly at Fatespeaker, it was still the middle of the night and he could always leave before the others woke up. The tall Nightwing nodded gently and slowly went through all the letters as he consciously repeated them in his head.

Time went by and when they finished, the library was already bathed in the light of dawn. He packed the scroll in his pouch, it was growing tight against his back as it wasn't meant to hold so many things but it would have to do for now. He bowed gently at Fatespeaker and walked away as if he wanted to go back to his bedroom. But when he turned to leave from the front, there were already dragons going in and out of the main entrance and they would certainly not miss a black and white dragonet trying to escape. He ran back to where he knew was his room, thankfully no dragon were in the halls and he swiftly passed through all of them until he descended down a series of passages. He wasn't sure where he was going but he hoped there would be another exit that he could go through without being noticed. He knew he should have asked for a map of the Jade Mountain Academy but it was too late now, at worst, he would stay hidden in a deeper cave until the next night and nobody would find him.

After running through a long and twisted cavern, he ended up in a large gallery lit by a single light next to a strangely shaped boulder. He wondered why they'd put a lamp for a big carved stone so deep in the mountain until it hit him. It wasn't a stone, it was a dragon... made of stone? He stared at him and the dragon stared back. Watchful heart jumped. If his wing wasn't restrained, he would have flown to the ceiling and not get down until he passed the cave.

The staring contest continued between the two dragons and neither was blinking, Watchful out of fear and the other, he felt, out of curiosity. The stone dragon was curious as to why someone would visit an old Animus dragon so early in the morning. Watchful wasn't sure what to do, so he bowed very slightly and walked past the dragon. There was an exit. But before he could leave, he heard a creaking noise and turned around.

The large stone dragon spoke softly.

"Be careful of your power, Nightwing. Don't let it be your doom.", then he rested his head again.

Watchful wanted to question the large grey dragon, but he already had closed his eyes and went back to his slumber. How did this dragon knew about his power? Did he have mind-reading power too? He tried to look at the dragon face closer but couldn't find any teardrop next to his eyes. He must have noticed Watchful's ones and knew what it was. He must have known how dangerous it was. Would he try to kill me too like mother if he was capable of doing so? And what's with his scales? Is that what all mind-readers become? He tried to think of all the mind-readers in his tribe but no one was even close to look like this one. What was this dragon's awful secret? He had so many questions he wanted to ask him...

Outside the sun darted its first rays. Watchful had to run before someone noticed he left. They probably already had and were searching for him. He could not waste anymore time. He would have to let his curiosity remain unsatisfied.