An Animus Trial

Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)
It is Moonwatcher's second year at Jade Mountain Academy, and she is thrilled to see her old friends again, after having spent two months in the rainforest. Qibli, Turtle, Anemone, Peril and all her other friends seem the same, but when it comes time for her first day, a shocking revelation sends Moon into a spiral of mysteries, betrayal, and secrets.
== Chapter 1 ==
The sight of Jade Mountain loomed into view, and Moon felt her scales buzz with excitement. Beside her, Kinkajou's own scales were turning all sorts of colours: first gold, then lavender, after which followed a whole rainbow before finally settling on a cherry-coloured pink. The other RainWings followed suit, except Tamarin, whose scales remained a calmful emerald. 
With assistance from a thick wind, Moon swept onto the ledge outside of the mountain. The first thing she saw was a small group of SeaWings on the other side, by a small, thick-leaved tree. Covered in pearls, Moon instantly recognised them as the royal family. Queen Coral was stood there, frowning down at an emerald-green scaled dragonet, who was flapping happily a few inches of the stone ground. A long elastic harness attached the two, just like the last time she'd seen them, and Coral was holding the leesh between two of her webbed claws. Anemone was grinning as she fluttered, above Auklet, lowering her neck so Auklet could play with her pearl necklace. Turtle was already staring around anxiously, and his dark green eyes glowed happily when he spotted Kinkajou, who waved merrily over to the prince. 
"I'm not sure if Auklet's ready," Coral started as Tsunami came rushing up to them from the entrance of the school. Anemone cast an annoyed look at her mother, giving Moon a feeling they'd been had a similar conversation for months. The oldest SeaWing princess grinned down at Auklet before glancing up at her mother.
"Mother, we talked about this. Me, Anemone and Turtle will all be looking after her. That's like, one more than Anemone had, and looked how she turned out!"
"Yeah, enchanted by some crazy NightWing animus." Coral muttered. Anemone flinched and turned away, instead fidgeting with a blade of grass. Turtle glanced at his mother while Tsunami looked at her talons. Auklet continued bouncing around happily, the little breezes lifting her wings into the air as she flapped and swooped, her harness getting caught in her dark green talons. 
"Mother, mother, I want to go inside!" Auklet squealed, turning her big eyes to stare longinly at her mother. Turtle nodded and glanced again at Kinkajou, who by now was guiding Tamarin into the Academy, pale pink clouds bubbling back into her scales. The other RainWings and NightWings had headed inside too, leaving Moon and the Royal SeaWing family on the entrance cliff. Queen Coral sighed, tugged the cord and Auklet closer to her, and fiddled with the clip on her dragonet's harness, which fell to the ground. Auklet let out a whoop of excitement and clung to Tsunami's neck. She then untangled her talons and flapped away with Anemone, without saying goodbye to her mother. Queen Coral sighed as Turtle gave her a sympathetic look before walking over to Kinkajou and Tamarin.
But there was someone she really wanted to see...she searched the cliff for any pale yellow scales.
Suddenly there was a swoop of heat and eight SandWings landed on the large cliff ledge. Arid, Ostrich, Pronghorn, Desert (the replacement for Onyx), a couple new SandWings, and...Qibli. 
She'd never been so happy to see yellow scales. 
Moon bounced over and threw her talons over his warm scales. Qibli chuckled and wrapped his wings around the small NightWing, which made her feel like a fire was burning on her scales. "There's my favourite dragon," grinned Qibli, staring down at her as she nuzzled her face into his warm shoulder. "But I did write to you like, every day. Queen Thorn gave me a limit of parchment after a while, it drove her and Smolder crazy." 
"I know, but it does get kind of dull in the rainforest sometimes. I'm always worrying about Hope and Peacemaker..." Moon trailed off and she glanced at her smooth talons, running her claws over her teardrop markings. Qibli said nothing, but his barbed tail twitched on the ground.
"Hey, look, two new IceWings. They must be here to replace Winter and Icicle. And the rest of the new students. We must be so big to them. Let's go get our new timetables from Fatespeaker," Qibli said quickly, changing the subject as he guided her toward the entrance. Moon nodded as she allowed herself to be led inside.
The school looked pretty much the same as it usually did, except from the new massive chalkboard on the left cave wall. The names of the winglets were underlined, with the names of the dragons listed underneath. She saw there were four new winglets: the Marble Winglet, the Tourmaline Winglet, the Opal Winglet and the Spinel Winglet. Scanning the new winglets, she saw Auklet's name under the Marble Winglet, and couldn't help but smile, imagining the little SeaWing as she met her clawmates.
After they found Fatespeaker, who was helping Starflight sort some scrolls into new racks down the hall, they recived their new timetables.
How simple it had been the first day.
== Chapter 2 ==
The next morning, Moon found herself awoken by something that had golden scales and yellow spots parading up the edges. Kinkajou grinned widely at her as pink flowers blossomed on her ruff as she slithered back to her hammock and began to fiddle with a petal, before chucking a cantaloupe at Moon, which landed at her talons. "I went to the prey center and got you that, although I wasn't sure whether you wanted a mango or a banana or a coconut or a papaya or a-" Kinkajou continued her ramble as Moon took a small bite of cantaloupe, savouring the sweet taste as it rolled over her tongue.
However, as she went to take a second bite, three loud bongs reverberated through the stone hallway. "Sorry you overslept, that's why I brought you the cantaloupe. You looked sooooooooo peaceful I would never have forgiven myself for waking you up." Kinkajou said. "What do you have first class? I have history with the Spinel Winglet, which is amazing even though I really wish I could have art with Tamarin."
Moon dug in her moss bed for her timetable. "I have history too."
Kinkajou looked like her hatching day had come early. "Our first class together as Second Years! And the Spinel Winglet sounds amazing. I hear their SkyWing is really pretty."
Two bongs sounded this time. Kinkajou fluttered down from her hammock in an awkward manner, turning a bright lavender dappled with pink. "Come on! I want to meet the new winglet!" 
The young RainWing flapped ahead of Moon down the corridor, which was absolutely crowded with dragons. They were all, mercifully, wearing skyfire in pouches or necklaces or earrings. Most of the older RainWings were covered in happy, bright colours for their lessons to start, although there were a few younger dragonets with white and pale green strewn across their scales. There were a couple of new NightWings who waved to Moon, friendlier than most of them were. Two female dragonets, Starscatter and Fortune, shouted, "Hi Moon!" across the hall. 
The history corridor was slightly less crowded, as most students had gone inside. Moon lingered outside for a second before walking in. The Spinel Winglet were sure to be lovely. 
As she entered the first thing she saw was a strikingly beautiful SkyWing. She had dulled, auburn scales that looked almost red in the light from the window, sharp amber eyes, and was wearing a small pouch that Moon could only guess had a piece of skyfire in. She was curled on her mahogany desk, talking to a male MudWing and an IceWing. The IceWing was very small for his tribe, with multiple shades of lighter and darker blue brushing his scales. It looked like he even had some light coatings of...fur? They were very thin and small, but there. His horns went slightly up, and had speckles of darker and lighter blue. His eyes were dark blue, almost indigo, and his tail lay pathetically on the floor. 
"I though they'd be more of our winglet," Moon whispered to Kinkajou, who had bubbles of pink bubbling in her scales. 
"Don't worry, we have a class right after this with our whole winglet." The RainWing assured her friend, nudging her before flopping into a small seat. Moon began to walk, trying not to step on her clawmate and the SkyWing's tail. However, as she did so, she slipped and banged into one of the desks. Each desk had an inkwell on, and one of them went flying into the air, splattering ink everywhere, including the SkyWing's talons and face.
Moon wondered if anyone would notice if she sunk into the ground and never emerged again.
The SkyWing stared at her now black talons and neck, then gave Moon a look that looked like a mix between contempt and trying to smile. "I'm so sorry, it was an accident," Moon started, but the SkyWing put a very fixed, forced smile on her face.
"An accident. Yes, an accident. They happen. I'm Tawny, by the way. And this is Crawdad, and Sleet," the SkyWing said in a practiced voice, gesturing to the MudWing and then the odd-looking IceWing. 
"I'm Moonwatcher. Or Moon."
"I know. The only NightWing seer and mind reader for centuries. Must feel nice to be special, and you didn't even have to work for it." Tawny pursed her lips and flicked her tail. Moon flinched as she crawled onto her seat. A few moments later, Webs came ambling through the entrance, almost hidden behind his stack of scrolls. 
"Settle down, settle down," he said above the chatter of the class. Tawny wiped the rest of her ink-ridden talons on her desk, although Sleet kept his eyes on Moon. Crawdad settled his huge talons onto the desk, although he kept trailing the marks in the wood, while Kinkajou's scales exploded like a comet as they turned bright colours like indigo and pink.
"Now, for our first lesson of the new school year, we will be travelling to a time not too long after the Scorching, known commonly in history as the Animus Trials. Although it was only a few months long, it is a vital and important part of the history of Pyrrhia, and one of the main reasons animus dragons were so rare."
"What happened to them?" asked Moon, sitting up. Tawny looked at her pointedly while Sleet curiously glanced at her. Webs blinked at her, looking slightly offended. 
"I would prefer if you could raise a talon next time, Moonwatcher, but since you asked, they were killed."
"Why?" Moon asked, almost demanding. She tried to wrap her head around that idea. Dragons killed, for no reason. She didn't like dragons being killed, but killed for absolutely no reason? Why?
"Moonwatcher, again, please raise a talon, but, if you are that interested, they were killed due to their animus abilities. As this was only a few months after the Scorching, dragons were weary of everyone, and the dragons did not know much about these powers, which they believed to be dangerous, and worried that animus dragons would try and wipe out the tribes." Webs explained in the same monotone. The class fell silent as Kinkajou's scales turned white with blue-gray spots. 
Moon was in shock. Dragons, killed for being a bit different. For having powers they couldn't control and were hatched with. Young dragonets killed, for no reason. "But they can't all have been animi!"
"Correct. Many dragonets were suspected of it but not proven, though they were tortured and killed anyone. Please, do stop calling out though."
"But it wasn't their fault!"
More coming soon...