Well, that wasn’t the response Winter thought she was going to get. Hydros launched into a full-on story, from when his power came in to when he got captured by Shade.
Winter didn’t know what to say, partly because the group of events Hydros had just told her was caused by her. Well, more specifically Shade, but at the same time not really.
She wanted to believe what Hydros had just told her was an elaborate lie, but she couldn’t. He had told his story with a sadness that not even Shade could fake.
“I–I’m sorry,” Winter stammered.. “I didn’t know…”
Hydros stared at the ground. “It’s fine.” But he said it with a lightness that let Winter know that, no, it wasn’t fine, but Hydros would never admit to that weakness. Winter felt her respect grow for the previous Ice Alpha One.
“What’s your story?” Hydros asked.
“Why do you want to know?” Winter snapped, respect breaking.
“Everyone has a story,” Hydros said, honesty filling his voice, “And by hearing these stories we can learn and become better people.”
Winter closed her eyes. For a moment, she saw her younger brother’s frozen body, his last dying scream. “I’m not telling you my story,” Winter said, trying to sound strong, but her voice cracked and broke the illusion. “It’s not important. You don’t need to know.”
Hydros seemed to take in what she said as a warning to not push any farther, then nodded. “Sorry,” he said.
Winter just glared at him, internally thinking, do I really have to guard this guy?
Shade and her dragon slinked through the sky, and Shade summoned her shadows to hide them as they scanned the streets for anything unusual. The moon was high above them: No reasonable person would be out at this hour. Well, except her, because she was kind of a night owl. Anyway, back on track.
The dragon suddenly snorted, flying in place, head tilted to the park. Shade followed her dragon’s gaze, spotting four figures running under the trees. A trio of thieves and an innocent unlucky enough to be caught alone at this hour.
Shade hesitated, wondering what to do. Below, the thieves had caught up to the innocent and forced them to the ground.
Shade urged her dragon into a downward spiral, shedding the shadows that cloaked them as they flew to the park. They landed with a thump behind the four people, and the thieves swung around.
The first thief took one look at the dragon, let out a terrified screech, and ran away as fast as they could. However, the other two thieves were not swayed by the dragon’s angry hiss.
“What do we have here?” The second thief asked, grabbing a switchblade from their pocket.
“A hero from the sky and their dragon, come to rescue an innocent. How sweet,” the third thief said, moving away from the innocent, who stared in shock at the dragon.
Shade slid off her dragon and growled, “Leave the innocent alone. There is no room for hate in this world.”
The second thief laughed. “How cute. But you’re wrong.” He turned to the other thief and cried, “Go get ‘em!”
The thieves attacked at once. Shade summoned her shadows around her and grabbed her dagger, slashing out at the third thief. He stumbled backwards, then launched forward and tackled Shade, wrestling her to the ground. She stabbed him again and rolled over, throwing him off.
Nearby, the second thief ran for Shade’s dragon. Shade opened her mouth, ready to call out a warning, but her dragon was already on top of it. It opened its mouth and launched a ball of shadow at the thief, which hit him right in the chest. He blinked in confusion as black spiderwebs began to make their way across his skin, then he collapsed to the ground. He didn’t get up again.
The second thief pounced on Shade again, taking her by surprise. She lashed out with her dagger, but missed, and the thief forced her to the ground.
Shade struggled, but she couldn’t push the thief off. She let out a cry of pain as the thief stabbed her with their blade, but she didn’t stop struggling.
Suddenly, the thief went limp. Shade scrambled away, looking around, shadows spilling from her wound.
It was the innocent that had been attacked. He had a rock in his hand, which he must’ve hit the thief with to knock him out. The innocent was looking at the rock in surprise, as if he could not believe he had just knocked out the thief.
Shade’s dragon ran to Shade and nuzzled her with its face, as if asking, are you okay?
“I’m fine,” she told her dragon, but her dragon snorted as if it didn’t believe that she could be fine and bleeding at the same time.
“Thanks for helping me,” the innocent said, walking over to Shade. He was an older man, and his voice was scratchy and deep.
Shade stood up and brushed the dirt off her cloak. “No problem,” she said. “Happy to help.”
“I’m Farosh. You?” the innocent said.
Shade almost said her full name, Deadly Nightshade, but then remembered how Hydros had recognized her name when she had told it to him.
“You can just call me Shade,” Shade said instead.
“Well, thanks again for helping me. I should probably get home now,” Farosh said.
“Alright,” Shade said. As Farosh ran off, she called, “And don’t go walking the streets alone at night!”
As soon as Farosh had run off, Shade turned to her dragon and mounted. “I think that’s enough adventure for one night. Let’s go home.” And she and her dragon took off, flying to the Tower.
It was an average morning. Shade was retelling the story of some heroic deed she’d done during the night, each retelling becoming more and more dramatic, while Vida bandaged Shade’s arm, scolding her about how dangerous it was to confront a group of thieves. Gardien Du Temps was making everyone smiley face pancakes for breakfast, but struggling to keep up with everyone’s ever-changing favorite fruits.
However, it was not an average morning for Winter. She sat in her chair, arms folded, the table and floor around her slowly developing a sheet of ice. She hated guarding that hydro-what’s-his-face in the dungeon. It was dark in there. And boring. And he wouldn’t stop talking. It was horrible. Winter reminded herself that if Shade ever put her on babysitting duty again, she would punch her. It would probably result in her getting smacked in the face with a shadow, though.
Gardien turned to Winter. “Hey, can you go ask Hydros what his favorite fruit is?” She asked.
Winter sighed. “Yeah, I guess I can do that,” she said, then slowly stalked down to the dungeon.
Today was going to be horrible. Winter could feel it in her bones.
Shade had a pancake breakfast and had done her daily check of the Tower’s wards. Now, she sat on her bed, listening to the sound of rain patter on the balcony and the crash of thunder, as she planned the Misfits’s next move. As the sort-of-leader of the group, she had to always know what to do next, and have a backup plan in the rare occasion when something went wrong. The others depended on her. Shade was not going to let her friends down.
Shade’s bedroom was small and compact, with its only furniture being her bed, a nightstand, a dresser, and her desk. She also had a closet, which was currently empty, and a small balcony, which was separated from the rest of Shade’s bedroom by glass double doors and thick purple curtains. The floor was purple carpet, and the walls and ceiling were black. Black and purple. Shade’s favorite colors. Also, not furniture, but one of her dragons curled up into a lazy ball in one of the corners of the room, staring at the curtains, head tilted.
Shade wondered if this was the youngest of her dragons, which hadn’t seen a thunderstorm yet. Maybe she would show her dragon. So she stood up and opened the curtains, then blinked at the thunderstorm in surprise.
Whoah.
The thunderstorm was no ordinary storm. The clouds above her were normal, and letting out hail and rain alike, but distantly, in the forest, the clouds bunched together on the ground, dark gray and angry. That was where the lightning was coming from, streaking out into the nearby trees, which had no leaves this time of year, but yet the bolts of electricity did not light the trees on fire.
“Well, this is odd,” Shade murmured. Her dragon stood next to her, head craned forward, as if trying to get a better view.
“We should go see what it is!” Shade decided.
The dragon tilted its head questioningly.
“No, I don’t think we should ask the others to come with us.” Shade responded. “They’re busy. Besides, it’s just for a quick peek. We can’t be out long in this hail.”
The dragon hesitated, then nodded in agreement.
Shade hopped onto her dragon’s back, and her dragon spread its wings. A moment later, they were airborne, flying into the storm.
